Lonely

Scenery

Crumbly

Like the sand pile on the side of the road during the first rain storm after a Minnesota winter, but on a much grander scale.

Leaky

Farty

This place is called Dragon's Mouth Spring.  I think a much more accurate name would be Dragon's Fart Spring, because this area definitely smells like it.

Comradery

Bully

Steamy

Steaming pool of mud in the bowels of Yellowstone.  Smells like a million farts.

Hardy

Lewis River Canyon was the site of major wildfires back in the summer of 1988.  Twenty-nine years later and the re-growth is still spotty, especially on the distant hills.  When I saw all the downed trees, I thought something had happened in the last year or two, not 3 decades ago.

Duplicity

Pastoral and urban at the same time.  Wild bison and wild humans.

Buggy

This bugger is called a Mormon Cricket.  (But it's not really a cricket; it's a katydid.) We didn't know what it was when we saw it.  It's a monster compared to the Minnesota variety  - the body is about 3 inches long.

That is not a stinger on the back.  This happens to be a female and she rams that wicked looking thing in the ground to deposit her eggs.

Supposedly they got their name because they devastated crops planted by Mormon settlers in 1848.  They still wreak havoc quite regularly in the American west.

Expansively

Just outside of Grand Teton National Park.

Dotty

That red dot in the sky is the sun.  Very smoky evening in Bend, Oregon.

Golfy

Meadow Lakes Golf Course in Prineville, Oregon.  It was actually much more smoky, but I brightened up the image.  See original below.

Curly

Example of what not to do to an airplane.

Floaty

I have no idea who this person is, but she looks like she's having a lot of fun.  As seen at the Bend Whitewater Park in Bend, Oregon.

Bushy

My new favorite bush is Sagebrush.  Pretty color, hearty in arid conditions and has an interesting smell.

Dividedly

After leaving the Mascall Overlook, we headed down this highway and into the heart of the beast.  The temp jumped to 100 degrees F as we entered the highway crevice that pierced two massive walls of rock.

Sunny

It was 95 degrees and deathly quiet at the Mascall Overlook.  No critters moving. No insects buzzing.  No birds chirping.  Just the sound of heat radiating.  This is as far away from my mental picture of Oregon as I could get.

Solitary

It's hard to see in the small image I use for my blog, but there is one home in the middle of the mountains.

Splashy

Payette River in Lowman, Idaho.

Relaxingly

Kirkham Hot Springs on the south fork of the Payette River in Lowman, Idaho.

Greenery

As seen at the Indian Riffles Overlook in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area.

Pointy

Squiggly

The roads were quite squiggly through the mountains.

Colorfully

Painted Canyon Overlook in Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Cranky

Seriously?

Did I say you could take my picture?

Spicy

Gummy