Tag Archives: writing

Exploring the Oglala National Grasslands

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I took some time off last week. Some of that time was spent just hanging around the house with family, but late in the week, I took a quick overnight photography trip out to the Nebraska Panhandle. I stopped a few times on the way there and back, but my primary destination was the Oglala National Grasslands.

Some of the prairie and badlands formations in the Oglala National Grasslands north of Crawford, Nebraska

Nebraska isn’t known for huge expanses of public land (it’s 97% private land) but much of what we do have is pretty spectacular. The Oglala National Grasslands is, in my humble opinion, one of those spectacular options, but it gets very low visitation. I arrived in the late afternoon and left the following morning and didn’t see a single person or vehicle the whole time. I suppose it doesn’t fit the criteria most people have for hiking or camping destinations (trees and water). For me, though, it’s got pretty much everything I look for (prairie and interesting landscape formations).

Botanists say the prairie in the far northwest corner of Nebraska is mixed-grass prairie, but many reasonable people would look at it and call it shortgrass prairie. Either way is fine with me. It’s pretty short. The area has been in a drought for quite a while, but it has gotten some really good rain in the last month or so. I’ve been thinking about a trip out there for a while, so when I saw that it had gotten precipitation I decided to make it happen.

Fuzzy-tongue penstemon (Penstemon eriantherus) with badlands in the background.
Sandstone and mudstone formations near Toadstool Geologic Park.

This was a solo trip with photography as the primary objective. You might think that’s a common thing for me, but most of the time, I’m trying to squeeze photography time in around other activities. This time, I was by myself with no set itinerary, so I could go where and when I wanted, based on light, wind, and what I felt like. On the way out west, I stopped twice to walk around public areas and take advantage of the diffused light caused by the wildfire smoke plumes coming out of Canada.

I arrived at the Oglala Grasslands in the late afternoon and spent about 4 hours wandering around before dark. During the first hour or two, the light was too bright (I drove out of the smoke plume about an hour before arriving) for much photography, but as the sun sank lower, I was shooting more and more. For the sake of simplicity, I slept overnight in the car (tested our new Subaru Outback for car camping). I was up again before sunrise and spent another couple hours wandering with my camera before the sun got too intense and I headed back east toward home.

Mariposa lily (Calochortus gunnisonii)
Scarlet globemallow (Sphaeralcea coccinea)
A dry stream channel
More dry stream channel
A gumbo lily (Oenothera caespitosa) in the same dry stream channel.
Alkali milkvetch (Astragalus racemosus)
Mudstone formations as the light was fading.
Western wallflower (Erysimum capitatum) at sunset.
Big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) and mixed-grass prairie in the early morning.
Scarlet gaura (Gaura coccinea).
Miner’s candle (Cryptantha sp.) on a mudstone slope.
Fuzzy-tongue penstemon on mudstone slopes.

During the trip, I spent more hours walking with my camera than driving, but it was close. That’s ok. The driving was also nice – I saw great scenery through the Sandhills and I got through several audiobooks. I arrived home exhausted but refreshed. That’s a weird combination, but not an unpleasant one.

If you’ve not spent much time in the Nebraska Panhandle, I highly recommend it. The Pine Ridge, Wildcat Hills, and Ogalala National Grasslands are all fantastic landscapes to explore. You can find cabins and hotels close to swimming pools and museums, if that’s your bag, but you can also sleep on the ground (or in your Subaru Outback) in happy isolation.

This is starting to sound like either a Subaru ad or a Nebraska Tourism Board brochure. I don’t mean it to be either. It’s just a promotion (unpaid and unsolicited) for the amazing western landscapes of the Nebraska panhandle.

Fuzzy-tongue penstemon showing why it’s called that.
Gumbo lily.

If I’ve caught your interest, late May is a terrific time to visit the panhandle. Temperatures are still cool and I didn’t have any problems with mosquitos. It can get dry and crispy in that part of the world, but those conditions usually increase as the summer goes on, so visiting early gives you a good chance for great wildflowers.

This year, the early drought meant the abundance of flowers wasn’t as good as I’ve seen in other years, but there was still plenty of color and action to enjoy. Apart from wildflowers and the insects hanging around on them, I saw pronghorn, white-tailed jackrabbits, lots of grassland birds, lizards, box turtles, and much more during my trip out and back.

Many tourism sites and activities in the panhandle open around Memorial Day. That means there are more things to do after the holiday, but also more people. Even post-Memorial Day, though, I felt alone in the prairie during my trip.

Silvery lupine and mixed-grass prairie.
Death camas (Zigadenus venenosus) and crab spider.

As always, the prairie rejuvenated me. I hope, wherever you are, you’ve got some prairie you can explore as well.

On Writing

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Writing is a difficult task, even for those of us who do a lot of it. One of the most important components of good writing is preparation. It’s vitally important to have a plan before starting. An outline, for example, that lays out the main points, arranged in a logical order, can help ensure your writing will be organized, cogent, and easy to follow.

This 3-year-old photo of a damsel bug (Nabidae) on foxtail barley (Hordeum jubatum) has become one of my favorites.

Without an outline or similar preparation, it’s easy to go off on tangents. Have you ever noticed that the word “tangent” is very similar to the word “tangy”? This past Christmas, I gave my dad a gift that involved him reading a humorous script I wrote (I’m a writer, you see). When he got to the word “tangy”, he read it like, “tan-jee” and got the laughter he was hoping to get. From now on, I think everyone in our family will be pronouncing it that same way. I invite you to join us.

As I’ve gotten better at writing, I think I’ve also become better at evaluating the writing of others. I can usually tell, for example, when someone is writing without having first taken the time to think about what they want to write. Or, as another example, when they’ve tried to come up with ideas, failed, and decided to just wing it. It’s pretty obvious, actually, when that happens.

Frogs don’t really have beards. Once, though, I was photographing a frog at the edge of a lake and the way it was sitting in some frothy bubbles made it look like it had a beard. Gosh, that was funny.

Doesn’t it look like this frog has a bubble beard? Hilarious.

For example, a writer who is just winging it will often lose track of their story and put thoughts completely out of order. In especially egregious cases, they might forget to remove paragraphs they wrote before fully settling on a topic and then fail to catch the error during a rushed proofreading attempt, possibly because they’re on deadline, perhaps self-imposed, and place speed above quality.

I just looked up the words “tangent” and “tangy” and it turns out they aren’t actually closely related at all. Tangent is derived from Latin and tangy probably comes from an old Proto-Germanic (whatever THAT is) term that means “to bite.” That doesn’t seem right, does it? Languages are weird.

As a proficient, experienced, and skilled writer, I also know my limitations. Some days, prepared or not, I can tell my brain just isn’t up to the task of writing. Most of the time, I’m fortunate to have the freedom to wait until my muse comes, as they say. Other times, though, I just try to distract my readers with nice photographs and hope for the best.

Windmills are sure great photo subjects, huh? Especially on a foggy day with Sandhills prairie in the background. Also, if you look closely, there are two birds on the windmill. The higher one is a meadowlark but I can’t tell what the other one is.

Did you know muses are women? Or anyway, they started out as mythological goddesses. It’s nice of them to have stuck around this long and to help those of us who sometimes struggle to think of something to write. I’m good at writing.

Welp, I think that’s the end.

Actually, there’s one more thing. I’m very fortunate (and grateful!) that I continue to get new subscribers to this blog. I often think about those new subscribers and how important it is for me to make a positive early impression on them.

I think about that a lot.