This is the view out of my window… just some beautiful snow-capped mountains called the Grand Tetons.

A black bear that I saw in Grand Teton National Park… it had just swam through the river, and it’s cub was right behind it. I was about 30 yards away.

A coyote I came across in Yellowstone National Park… I was about 7 feet away from it when I took this picture.

Just some of the beautiful wild flowers that are in the back country of Wyoming… commonly referred to as “God’s country.”

Saturday… I woke up in time to see the clock strike 5:45 a.m. I had to be at the pasture at 6:45 a.m. to wrangle the 85 horses we have into the corals. I dosed back off to sleep until 6:30… I finally crawled out of bed and into the bathroom. I turned the water faucet on… nothing came out. Our water supply comes from a hose that’s hooked up to the back of our little shack… and is also shared with the girl’s trailer next door. The girls got to the showers before us… yet again. :)
I got dressed… wrangler jeans, two t-shirts, a button-up flannel, my coat, three pairs of socks, my burgundy-colored boots, and my black-felt cowboy hat. I walked over to the back pasture in time to meet the rest of the wranglers getting ready for another day.
It was a slow morning… we wrangled 85 horses into the corals in order to catch 6 of them for the 6 guests we had riding. I took three guests out up to Suicide trail. They were all from Tennessee… and all wearing TN Vols hats. It reminded me of home.
It was my half day, so after lunch I put a load of laundry in and then saddled Apache, my Appaloosa horse. He used to be a rodeo horse — his gallop is smooth and fast. I went out with three of the other staff to go trail blazing. We just went exploring through some of the woods, and then we found a trail that went straight up one of the back mountains. We followed it, and I discovered it was the back end of Clear Box trail. It was a beautiful ride. It was about 60-70 degrees all day with a breezy wind… and completely clear blue sky. It was a perfect day for riding. It was good to get out and do some “real” riding.

It’s June 7th… and it snowed all morning today. I’ll admit, it’s a little strange riding horses in June with snow coming down. Our “summer” season has started, and we just finished our first full week of having guests on the ranch. It went well, despite having several riders thrown from their horses. The very first ride I led with guests was this past Monday. Two other wranglers and I took 15 guests out on Beetle Kill Trail. I led the ride, and it went well up until near the end. We were coming down a steep and muddy slope, and one of the horses (Cracker) reared up and threw its rider off. The older lady (actually about 80 years old) wasn’t hurt too bad other than a lot of bruising and scrapes… but it was pretty crazy trying to take care of the whole situation. A lot of the other horses got spooked, and it was hard to remain calm while also taking care of 18 odd horses and riders. One of the other riders stayed with the older lady while one of the other wranglers rode quickly back to the ranch to get a car. I led the riders back to the ranch, while also leading another horse behind me… it was a long and eventful day. I felt “privileged” to have lost the first rider of the season.

Yesterday was another long morning. It poured rain all morning, and over the course of the morning on three different rides, three other riders were thrown/fell off their horses. It was a record for one day.

It’s my half day for the rest of today which is such a beautiful feeling. I’m going to drive into Jackson in a little while to get a few things and get off the ranch a little. There is so much more I could write about, but I don’t really know where to begin. My family came up this past weekend, and I was able to take them riding… we also went into Yellowstone for the day on Sunday. We saw a black bear and her cub on the edge of Grand Teton National Park on our way back. I could also write about our night out to this cowboy restaurant called Bar J Wranglers… and the ride I took up Rosie’s Ridge earlier this morning with some of the other wranglers (we galloped and trotted the majority of the way which was an incredible feeling). For lack of time, I’ll end here… and I will hopefully put more pictures up in the not-so-distant future.