Wildlife Facts and Western Beauty

If you've ever driven through a mountainous area, you've probably seen those truck escape ramps built on steep downgrades, to be used in case of brake failure.  They usually go straight up the side of the mountain and are covered in a deep bed of gravel or sand, to help slow you down or rocket off the mountain, whichever comes first.

Well, in Utah and other big game states, they have wildlife escape ramps. These are designed to give animals like deer, elk and wombats (presumably) a safe place to escape the highway if they find themselves on the wrong side of the fence. This lowers the chance of hitting one of these creatures with your car and totally ruining your day. And your underpants.

We saw these in southern Utah on I-15 at a rest area.  I thought it was a pretty good idea to put them so close the the vending machines.  Do you have any idea how fidgety and paranoid an elk can get once they're hepped up on Snickers™??

Jas doing an impersonation of a hepped up elk.
It's not pretty, people.

The Tumbleweeds have been out west a lot lately and I love it.  The sky is bigger, there are less people and even the dirt is pretty.  In Wyoming we have yellow, pink, orange and even purple dirt.

There's just something about the western half of the United States that draws me in. The land itself is a force to be reckoned with; it makes its presence known all around in the form of canyons, mountains, rock formations and outcroppings, and rushing rivers.  Not buildings.

I love the scenery out here so much I'm going to shut up and leave you with the views out of my office window this week in Wyoming and Utah.