Adventures at Silver City

Another day to spend quality time together presented itself on Saturday... the teenager went to do some work. So we snuck off to spend time together.

My strong silent mysterious wanted to go hunt for arrowheads in Owyhee's and I needed to keep hiking to prepare for our Wyoming Trek this month... so off we went, with Taylor in tow.

(Rudy can't walk very far and Morgan has such a sensitive tummy, she gets heat stroke pretty easy if she spends too much time in the sun... I promise we weren't playing favorites or being cruel).

The view as we drop off into the valley headed towards the hills is so pretty... one of my favorite views (not a good picture though... speedy gonzalas wouldn't stop for me to get a good shot, so all my photos are on the move).
Taylor quickly found a spot to get comfy... she doesn't do self portraits very well yet, but she is still a work in progress.

She was cracking me up standing in the back...

And laying down in the front... ha ha ha

The weather was perfect...

The scenery was beautiful...

The roads began to get rough and curvy...

And road hazard's... beware

The cows would run and try to hide from us as we drove by... it was really funny, can you see him behind the sage brush...

We have had so much rain here, I think the creek derailed and now runs right thru the road...

Then the road winded up the mountain... I didn't get pictures of the ravine when it got really steep, it was not for the squeamish. Let's just say it was a white knuckle ride for me.

But still very beautiful!

Trees... who knew in the Owyhee's??

I love it!

Finally we arrived in Silver City... perched on the side of the hills, a ghost town in the winter, but for the Fourth of July weekend it was hopping!

The old catholic church sits high on a rocky point in the city...

The buildings are privately owned now and in various stages...

The Daly Barn...

And I LOVED the masonic building over Jordan Creek...

There are several cemeteries in the hills over looking the town populated by 2,500 in the height of it's days during the 1860's to 1900's. They are quickly becoming overgrown, but the ones you can still find trails to get to, are so beautiful.

The old iron work is so pretty...

There were many infant deaths and youth that died before the age of 8...

From on top of the world... (well that's what it felt like at the time really only 6200')

In town they had a horse shoe tournament for the holiday weekend...

The view coming back down the hill over looking the valley...

We found a gulch on the way home that my strong silent mysterious man wanted to walk and hunt for arrowheads. So he got out with Taylor and had me take the truck down the trail to meet up with him, so he didn't have to walk back.

So we picked a spot where the mountain met the gulch on the horizon to meet up... I was a tiny bit nervous just because of the vastness... but in my efforts to be a little tougher, more rugged, and less squeamish so that my percentages for more dates with my man increase... I agreed.

As I reached the designated spot, the horizon changed and the ridge we picked out did not ever meet the gulch, it just went on and on and on.... so I just picked a place to pull over.

I got out of the truck and decided I would try and muster up the courage to walk across the sage brush to get to the gulch and walk back up the gulch to meet my man and Taylor.

The only thing going through my mind was RATTLESNAKES!!

It made courage mustering very difficult... but I kept trying, standing right next to the tailgate of the truck, deep breaths... I took one more step and a loud brustle moved from the bush about a foot from where I stood... I SCREAMED from the top of my lungs, as it hopped out from behind the bush... and then I SCREAMED again! My heart was racing as I watched the biggest jack rabbit EVER bound away!!

Now I have to do something, if Jim hears this scream echoing over the mountains... what would he think? That didn't help... I could NOT muster up the courage to walk across the sage covered dessert alone.

Jim finally found me, he never heard my scream... and we continued down the gultch treasure hunting.

On the way back home, we took Taylor to D&B... her favorite farm store, cause they have good treats and if you don't pee on the merchandise you can get one on your way out.

Only partial chips of obsidian...

An old broken dish, and some rusty spikes.

But a really good time was had by all!

.

Later we went to a 4th BBQ at some friends, but I forgot to take any pictures.