Nothin' like a good protest

Bison Roundup - a taste of the Wild West

I wasn't sure I'd be the one to cover it this year, but was glad to be at the Antelope Island Bison Roundup one more time. It's always fun to see the training -- and warnings -- the riders get, to see them head out, to be at the Mulberry Grove when the bison pass, to watch the finely tuned ballet as 300 riders drive 700 bison to corrals for testing and immunizations. Like so many I spoke with said, it's a rare chance to see the action of the Wild West so close to home. I was glad for yet another chance.

It was worth it

We didn't know when we got up at 5 a.m. and drove for an hour and hiked with flashlights for half-a-mile more that we would run into 20 people already set up for the sunrise at Mesa Arch in Canyonlands.

And we didn't know that it would be a space so small that only the early few would get the prime shots as the sun would light the underside of the arch and the canyons and rock formations in the valley below.

Or that people from Norway and Japan, India and Texas would be vying for the shots past rows of photographers who'd set up tripods already an hour before and that by sunrise there would be more than dozens, there would be hundreds.

But we had our muffins and orange juice and could last all the way until the others had gotten their shots.

And it was worth it.

2017 Solar Eclipse

It was all about the sun that day, starting with first light over the mountains as we headed north from Utah to Idaho.

Despite what we'd feared after hearing months of build-up preceding the Great American Eclipse, traffic was clear along the back roads through Preston, Star Valley and Swan Valley.

Entrepreneurs were everywhere, but takers seemed light. 

Before the action started, we could look at sunspots visible through my brother-in-law's telescope.

The sun was too much -- even when partially covered by the moon -- for my lens to make sense of. Covering it with my eclipse glasses didn't help, but looking at shadows did.

I heard in some places it was really quiet during totality. We couldn't help exclaim -- and loudly -- at the beautiful aura that was visible when the moon fully blocked the sun. Different exposures show different things -- what was closest to what our eyes saw is the third one.

It was the drive home when we learned that, yes, people really did turn out for the celestial show. What should have been a four-hour drive took nine.

But it was worth it. To see something we hadn't seen in 60 years of living.

And again the sun made an impression at the end of the day.