My rock hounding trip for Sunday April 18th, 2010 turned into a sightseeing ATV Trip.

 
I had my trip mapped out.  The GPS unit was all loaded with turns, waypoints and the location of the mining prospects I wanted to explore.  The only problem…I was going a little too fast to actually see the road where I needed to turn to get there.  I was on my ATV speeding along on Birch Creek Road in the Owyhee’s at 12-15 mph.  I had to keep one eye on the road, one eye on the scenery and one eye peeled for the turn.  Something had to give as I discovered I only have two eyes.  

I missed the turn, thinking the road on my maps didn’t exist anymore, so decided to head south into the Pixley Basin.  For the most part I had the entire area all to myself.  I saw only one truck on the road the entire time I was riding.   With blue bird skies and warm temperatures I decided to do a slow sightseeing cruise as I headed southwest into the lonely Owyhee’s.  I hiked up a few short cow paths that looked interesting.  It seems like everywhere I looked there were cool rocks.  This whole area of the Owyhee’s is just geologically interesting.  

It was getting late in the afternoon by the time I got about 15 miles into mountains so I decided to take a short ride off the main road and up a peak that overlooked "Black Butte".  I took a long series of pictures and started back to my truck.
 

Click for a very large version of this picture.

I had a nice quiet (so to speak) ATV ride on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.  Thankfully I didn’t encounter any rattle snakes BUT.  On the way home I did get to see a mountain lion cross the road in front of me.  I wish I had whipped out my camera and tried to get a picture but that animal was too fast and headed into some tall sage brush.  I stopped on the gravel road (Poison Creek Cutoff) to see if I could find the tracks of this big cat.  No luck.

Even though my plans changed, it was an enjoyable day slowly re-exploring a place I have been a few times in the past.

Link to a few more pictures from the ATV trip into the wilds of Southern Idaho: http://picasaweb.google.com/tim.bondy/ATVTripIntoPixleyBasin?feat=directlink

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Tim Bondy
The Bondyweb.Com author