End of Virginia trip, wildlife drama, and crazy intense hike

Back to the gorgeous mountains but missing those girlies. Happily they'll come this way the end of the summer along with their parents and Heather and Jay. Great fun will be had...

Some end of Virginia visit photos.I loved being there for summer time fun: the pool and adventure trip to the strawberry farm. A long way out but in the end worth it. Penny loved picking the berries and then loved eating them more. And Heather was able to stop over for a nice visit after all.

Love these girls so much.

Can you believe that baby did not come out after Mark opened the gate!

Back here we've had save wildlife drama. 6am lots of mama elk and babies headed into our woods. One mama stayed behind and went the opposite direction to our new neighbors house. Mark realized there was a baby behind their fence not able to get out. The drama ensued. Mama pacing, baby pacing, Mark jumping into the jeep and zooming over to open the gates. Still, baby could not figure out how to get out and went to hide in the bushes. Humans (us) having a fit too, builders arrive disrupting everything further, sending the mama up the hill. We hurried back over to the house, enlisted the builders help, scared the baby out of the bushes and she/he finally just crashed through the fence up the hill to the waiting mama. Ah, a satisfactory end.

The steers are in the common ground soon to be roaming all over the rest of Star Mt. They're enjoying making a mess around the newly stocked trout pond right now. Mark keeps catching them and they are quite fat. Hand feeding and lots of natural insects etc. are a winning combo apparently.

the start of the giant uphill climb

the group

Razor Edge Dome 11,500

Indian hunting barricade to force big horn sheep off the cliff

culturally scarred  trees by ancient Indians - who knew

atlati - predates bow and arrow

And then there was the all day archaeology hike with the extended studies program at the university. Oh, boy I would like to say it was great, inspiring, stimulating, informative. Hmmm, not so much. Let me just say it's a long time established program every summer and we've heard tremendous things, but this was a new one and I think our leader was inexperienced. Very strenuous hike to see - a pile of rocks. Not as advertised, nor was the hike accurately described. Ended up 5 miles, 2000' vertical and 11,500 ft. No wonder we had a tough time! Looked at a few things on the way back, but I think we'll sign up for the professors that we know next time...