Western Wild

Dave Showalter's Conservation Photography Weblog

The Archives

July 2011




  • Colorado Mountains, Photography

    Back In The Game!

    July 29, 2011 | Permalink | 4 Comments

    The Sawtooth and Mount Evans, 14,264 feet. Mount Evans Wilderness Area, Colorado

    Under normal circumstances a two-mile backpack would be laughable. After starting the summer with yet another meniscus surgery, it feels like I’m a new backapacker and hiker, seeing the world all over again. Marla insisted on carrying almost everything last weekend and I used trekking poles to get up and down the easy trail to Squaretop Lakes. We had a remarkable, warm, starry night up there; all crammed in a little tent (another story for another time). Marla and Abby climbed Squaretop Mountain the next morning and I hiked to the upper lake. I didn’t make that many photos and spent part of the time laying on my belly, watching an ermin bounding across the tundra while listening to the chirping pikas and marmots. It’s going to be a busy August, trying to make up for a month and a half of PT; but it’ll be worth it. Thanks to my wife for your love and patience ~ it feels great to be back in the game. (more…)

  • Colorado, Energy, Sagebrush Sea

    Two Sides Of The Roan

    July 25, 2011 | Permalink | 2 Comments

    Natural gas field on the Roan plateau surface. The private lands on the west side of the plateau are fragmented by heavy natural gas drilling.

    I flew a LightHawk mission earlier this month to photograph the disparate halves of the Roan Plateau in northwest Colorado. From I-70 near Rifle, you can see the Roan Cliffs, but not the surface, so the aerial perspective is the only way to see what’s happening on top. The plateau surface is sagebrush and aspen forest, with deep canyons and several significant drainages that feed the Colorado River below. The Roan is renowned for large elk and mule deer herds and endangered Colorado River cutthroat trout. And while the eastern half is still wild BLM land, the west side is private land with heavy industrial-scale drilling, the single-use landscape that is so common in the West these days. (more…)

  • Sagebrush Sea, Wyoming

    Red Desert Moonrise

    July 20, 2011 | Permalink | Post a Comment

    Moonrise over the Red Desert in the Honeycomb Buttes area, Oregon Buttes Wilderness Study Area, Wyoming

    Last week I traveled to Colorado’s Roan Plateau, then on to Pinedale, Wyoming to document areas threatened by natural gas development. It’s rewarding work that sometimes feels like I’m grinding my teeth all the time. Needing a break, I spent the last night in the northern Red Desert; just me and and the pronghorn… coyotes, sage grouse, sage thrashers, Brewer’s sparrows, badgers, ground squirrels, Swainson’s hawks – you get the idea. One of the highlights was watching the full moon rise as sunset painted the desert in golden cinammon light.

  • Politics, Sagebrush Sea, Wyoming

    Wyoming Wolves – Shoot On Sight!

    July 11, 2011 | Permalink | Post a Comment

    This gray wolf could be shot on sight if new legislation is enacted. Upper Green River Basin, Wyoming Canis lupus

    Wyoming’s new shoot on sight proposal takes the species straight from endangered status to Medeival wildlife management. Look, I’m no wolf-hugger, but I’m for a pragmatic approach to species management that’s grounded in science. I understand that wolves kill, sometimes overkill, and they need to be managed; but they’re also an apex predator in a complex, yet still functioning Western ecosystem, and shirking our responsibilities after recovering the species accomplishes what? The wolf in the image above could be easily shot for the crime of being a wolf – he happened to be in the area because big numbers of migrating elk – 1,000 or so – were moving north from winter feeding grounds. A lone wolf, doing what he is hard-wired to do. For a little while I thought we had come a long way in managing this most misunderstood species. I couldn’t have been more wrong, nor more disappointed in Secretary Salazar. What will it cost to recover the species again after we give the wolf-haters a few years of open season?

  • Wyoming Mountains

    Wyoming’s (very) Snowy Range

    July 5, 2011 | Permalink | 2 Comments

    We just made a trip over the 4th to the Snowy Range in Wyoming’s Medicine Bow National Forest.The Snowies remain one of my favorite places from my early years in the West and my very first backpacking trip with Marla. This little range packs a lot of beauty and diversity into a small package.

    old main, snowy range

    Lake Marie Ice Reflection : Prints Available

     Old Main and the face of the Snowy range reflected in Lake Marie ice, early July.


    snowy range, lake marie

    Ice Patterns II : Prints Available

     Snow fingers and ice carress a Snowy range reflection in a small patch of open water on Lake Marie.

    (more…)

  • Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR

    Happy 4th of July!

    July 1, 2011 | Permalink | Post a Comment

    We’re taking a break… and you should too.

    Black-tailed prairie dogs, Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR, Colorado. Cynomys ludovicianus

    Happy 4th of July! Have a beautiful time.