Wednesday, July 9 (continued)
At dusk I walk down the driveway of our campsite and gaze across the meadow at the shallow pond. The water is almost gone, replaced with fresh grass.
This is our last night at our camp off Iron Springs Road in Ashley National Forest, Utah.
Dusk is the time of day when animals are active. I wait for deer to appear. Eventually I walk back to the campsite where Bridget and Spike wait for me at the doorstep of the Best Little Trailer.
“Go back inside, guys. Nothing going on out here.”
About twenty minutes later I step outside again to put something in the Perfect Tow Vehicle. I glance in the direction of the pond and see dark spots — moving.
The deer have come!
I grab my camera out of the BLT, shut the screen door behind me — “Be right back, guys!” — and trot down the driveway. I wonder if my camera can pick up anything at this distance and in this poor light.
Wow! I count about 20-25 deer. They’re running, jumping, and chasing each other in what looks like play or maybe courtship or males . . . acting male. I can’t tell because they are very far away. I snap several photos with the zoom fully extended.
I’m happy with the results.
Recently I wrote that I avoid super-editing to enhance photos. Instead I try to present photos that are a close representation of reality. I broke away from that with these photos.
I pulled out all the stops when editing in order to make the photos visible because they came out very dark.
Remember, I don’t have a big ol’ honkin’ camera with a foot-long lens. I have a Sony Cyber-shot with 30X optical zoom. I’m surprised I got anything at all. The results are fuzzy, but I don’t care. I like the ethereal look!
After about ten minutes, the excitement is over and the deer walk through the sagebrush toward the forest.
This next photo is my favorite shot of this group.
Well, that was a memorable goodbye!
WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG WITH AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!
(Added the day after this post was published.) Readers in the comments section of this blog tell me what I saw in the meadow were not deer, but ELK! This is a discovery of mammoth proportions because up until this day, elk did not exist! How very exciting! Mythical creatures appear at the campsite of RVSue and her canine crew! Gosh, from now on I’m keeping an eye out for unicorns and leprechauns. . . .
(I wrote about the elusive elk in “Rattlesnakes and Unicorns” while camped in the Black Hills of South Dakota in late June of 2012.)
Thursday, July 10
Off to a new camp! The crew and I are up early and by eight o’clock we’re packed up, hitched up, and on our way. By 9:30 we’re set up in our new camp, only about ten miles further north on Highway 191. This camp will be our base to explore the southern rim of Flaming Gorge.
I noticed this area of boondocks on my recent trips to obtain internet signal.
The forest road cuts across a slope with the sites on the high side. I drive up the road and pass a few RVs with no vehicles and no people. It’s quite common for people to leave their rigs in the forest during the week.
I’m thrilled to find a vacant site overlooking another large and pretty meadow.
The crew and I get out to analyze the site. Hmm . . . Only one thing wrong with it. I have to be careful not to drive over the wildflowers!
The site is in a field sprinkled with blue, white, and yellow wildflowers. I notice the tracks of an RV here previously and carefully back the BLT onto the same tracks.
From our camp I can see vehicles on Highway 191 going to the Gorge to the north or Vernal to the south.
Once unhitched, I move the PTV so the solar panel will be in the sun. The BLT remains in the shade.
Shortly after noon the sky darkens and we have a good, steady rain.
Later, after the rain, I’m inside sitting at my laptop with Bridget and Spike napping beside me on the bed. I look up and see we have a visitor standing about twenty feet from the window!
Although aware of my presence, the deer continues to graze at a safe distance. A few minutes of me snapping photos from my doorway and the deer decides enough is enough.
What a lovely welcome to our new camp. I like it here!
A few miles up the road there are several, very nice campgrounds.
Some have paved sites with picnic tables and fire rings and water spigots and rest rooms and boat ramps nearby. Our campsite has none of that.
But it does have one helluva front yard!
rvsue
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My kind of neighbor!
