Curtis Canyon and Golf

Our early drive to Curtis Canyon took place as planned at around 9:30 yesterday. The location is just east of the National Elk Refuge and the drive took us past a very large, flat area of farmland where we spotted these antelope:

They were far away and all bedded down so they were difficult to see. Josie counted 41 of them and represented the largest herd of antelope we have seen anywhere. More on those later.

It was a winding dirt road the whole way to the end of the canyon. There were Trailheads indicated on a map that was on a forest service bulletin board and we took a picture of this map to try and show the many trails that can be accessed in this wilderness area:

Our location was at the red square at the top, left center. If you look closely, you can see the black dotted lines all over the map that represent the trails. All of the red squares are the different starting points for these trails. You could spend months here and never walk all the trails in this wilderness area.

The drive was through some beautiful country and at one point we could see the sleeping Indian mountain up close:

The views should have been spectacular from the top of this mountain we were on, but, as can be seen, the smokey haze from all the neighboring wildfires still blocked the views of the Tetons:

On a clear day, that photo would be a beautiful view of the mountain range. You can barely make out the outline of the Tetons in the photo.

Coming back down the road, and very close to the area we saw the antelope, Josie wanted to stop to get a shot of these beautiful lupines that were in full bloom:

The antelope were on their feet and walking away from us as we passed the area on the way out:

It was another fun drive through an area we hadn't seen before.

I played golf in the afternoon and Josie did some laundry and other tasks around the fifth wheel. My golf match with Duane was again at the course in Driggs, ID, and it was forgettable for both of us. We each hit a long, straight drive off the first tee and it was downhill from there. We both scored the worst round of the year for us and cannot explain why both of us just couldn't get any consistency. I lost 3 balls in the water, and Duane lost a similar number. It was an ugly round. We will try to get one more round in before the end of our season here.

Plans for today have taken a little turn since we both are bothered by back pains from yesterday. The hike is out for today, but we may find an alternative activity to enjoy the day...