Weekend at the Ranch

My brothers and I have some property up in Duchesne (dew-shane) county that we call The Ranch, short for Back of Beyond Ranch, a reference you’ll understand if you’ve read Edward Abbey’s book "The Monkey Wrench Gang”.  I went up there this weekend, and got some much needed relaxation.  I went up Friday afternoon, and spent until about noon Saturday there all alone.  Just me, a few rodents and a ton of insects, but we pretty much left each other alone.  I took a ton of pictures (surprise), some of which you’ll see below, others will show up in time lapse videos (more surprise).  I also got about halfway through another Edward Abbey book, “The Fool’s Progress”.  Man, does he like to talk about his penis.  It is somewhat germane to the story, and seems to be few and far between once you get past the first chapter.  I’ll most likely finish it, since I started it, but unlike “The Monkey Wrench Gang” and “Desert Solitaire”, it’s not a book I’m bound to re-read every few years.  (Yeah, Writer, I know I’m stealing your thunder by talking about books, but you have had posts about cars too.)

Noon Saturday my older brother and his wife show up.  Younger brother and family were busy with the kitchen remodel so they didn’t come up.  The three of us sat around and talked, had dinner, basically just relaxed and had some great conversations and laughed a lot.  We were going to stay up late looking at the stars, but since it was still cloudy out we called it a night around ten. 

Sunday we got up, had a leisurely breakfast, sat around some more and then decided to clean the windows of the cabin.  Then my brother and I went up to check out the south forty to see what new damage the local (or vacationing) ATV users did to the property.  As surprising as this may seem, instead of taking the RR tie laying across their new road as a sign that maybe, just maybe, they should leave things alone, they simply drove around it.  Fer Rude!  There is a huge dead tree right on the edge of the trees that we plan to cut down and put in a strategic spot (which we have already identified) that will make it really inconvenient for these inconsiderate ATV maniacs.  After that we came back, packed up and headed home.  Since there is major construction going on in the west bound lanes of I-80, we decided to take Guardsman Pass home instead.  Probably didn’t save us any time, since it is 50% dirt road, but we got to see some nice scenery instead of sitting in traffic on the interstate for an hour.

Sunset behind the trees at the campsite.

Took this picture of the flower, didn’t even realize there was an ant walking across it.

Rossi Draw at dusk.

Looking out over the Uintah Mountains, at dusk also.

A bloomin’ cactus.

3 miles of this kind of road from the highway to our cabin.

Lost dog signs are not uncommon, but I’m not sure how useful they are 4 miles up a dirt road, at a point that gives access to only two different people’s property.  Now, they may be counting on one of those schmucks on ATV’s that end up this way despite all the No Trespassing signs, locked gates and RR ties blocking their newly made roads to notice both the note and the wandering dog, but I wouldn’t.

Looking out over the property from the upper (hill wise) south end.

Me and my Subaru, cruising up the newly formed, unwanted, ATV road that those aforementioned schmucks keep using despite the RR tie we put down to block it.

A rain storm came in as we were checking out the ATV damage.  You can see it on it’s way, and if you click on the picture you get a good look at the rain falling and spreading along the ground.

Here, if you click on the picture, you can see the rain falling, but because of the low humidity, it is evaporating before it gets to the ground.

I just liked this picture of the clouds and the field below.

Another picture of the virga, or rain that evaporates before hitting the ground.  This is also the view from right outside our cabin.

Halfway up the road to Guardsman Pass I need a pit stop, and saw this.  I guess it is fitting, since it was, in a sense, on a men’s room wall.