The Delaware Water Gap, where the Delaware River punches through the Appalachains. This side PA, far side NJ. The Water Gap was made famous by painters of the Hudson River School, then later by geologists.Though hypotheses abound, geologists aren't sure how the river sawed through the mountains. Anyway, I got Squatter stuck in the sand and had to flag down a passing truck with a winch to pull me out.
Jeb Butler

The guy with the winch -- Michael -- was a paraplegic, so in order to describe the shape of my tow hooks I took this picture then carried the camera to him. The yellow loop is part of his "choker strap," used as an intermediary between the winch cable and my truck. I guess since Michael couldn't walk over rough terrain he had outfitted his truck to carry him over it.
Jeb Butler

Chap in front of a covered bridge in New Hampshire.
Jeb Butler

Chap retrieves to the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River.
Jeb Butler

Note how the rocks appear sunken. I think the sand froze and expanded around them. New Hampshire.
Jeb Butler

The New Hampshire countryside.
Jeb Butler

Hilary, Chap and Lily in the ladies' house. Capitol Hill, Washington DC.
Jeb Butler

Chap on the unfinished railroad embankment where Thomas's Georgians fought hand-to-hand with hard-charging Yankee troops in the Battle of the Second Manassas. Accompanies Squatter's Log entry for Nov. 14.
Jeb Butler

Heading into Galveston, TX. This was Chap's first visit to the ocean; he was almost as excited as he had been in the Wyoming snow. Chap has now marked his territory all the way from Montana to the Gulf of Mexico, a large range for such a small dog.
Jeb Butler

Chap after our outing in the French Quarter, New Orleans. See November 1 entry in Squatter's Log.
Jeb Butler

Here at Cedar Bluff Resevoir in Kansas Chap and I went for a swim. See Oct. 26 weblog entry.
Jeb Butler

Windmills in Kansas. There are those who say windmills are useless as power generators and are spread across the plains only to appease unrealistic environmentalists. I don't know. All I'm saying is they're big -- that's Squatter parked at the windmill's toe. The thing is 295 feet high.
Jeb Butler

This dates back to May and accompanies the Oct. 26 entry of Squatter's Log. Here Christy and Chelsea rode out from their family's farmhouse to pass the time with me one Kansas morning.
Jeb Butler

A fine place for a haircut. Eastern Texas. Inside a sign proclaimed, "we try to uphold Christian standards." Patrons could be thrown out, the sign specified, for profanity or drunkenness. Though it may surprise some I did not leave the establishment until my hair was trimmed, and then on amicable terms.
Jeb Butler

Fossils in a sandstone fencepost in Kansas.
Jeb Butler

The proprietor and founder of The Intergalactic Food company, just south of Taos, NM. She makes a damn good burrito. In her hand is "UFO Defense Tactics," a book I bought in Canada's Yukon Territory. I gave it to her because with the restaurant's wide target demographic I thought she could use it.
Jeb Butler

Outside the tourist sector of Taos, NM, just beyond the Catholic church. Too bad the builder left no phone number.
Jeb Butler

With Dad, Ben and Mr. Snyder I passed through Centennial, WY in 1996. According to this sign the population never fluctuates.
Jeb Butler

Goshen Rim in SE Wyoming. There were reputed to be birds east of the rim. There weren't.
Jeb Butler

Chap looks for birds.
Jeb Butler

Chap and I chillin' like villians. Eastern Wyoming.
Jeb Butler

It is snowing in the Bighorns. Chap wants to climb out and play.
Jeb Butler

The sign reads "Dry Weather Road." It was a wet day. Past this sign the unpaved road ran on what I called "Hell Shale" before I discovered its proper name. It's bentonite, consisting of volcanic ash mixed with clay. When wet it is a gooey, adhesive slime that sticks to your boots with the tenacity of half-dried carpenter's glue. Even in 4wd I couldn't keep Squatter on the road. I had to commit sacrilege and turn around.
Jeb Butler

That's a good lookin' dawg.
Jeb Butler

I love the Wyoming highway department (although it can't spell "Ordovician").
Jeb Butler

In the eastern Bighorn Mtn.s, a roadcut on the road to Sheridan reveals this thrust fault and accompanying syncline. The strata on the left got pushed to the right until they buckled downward under the pressure -- forming a syncline -- and then rode up over the strata on the right, forming a thrust fault.
Jeb Butler

That chunk of snow in Chap's mouth is actually his tennis ball.
Jeb Butler

Chap fetches his tennis ball in the Wind River -- I did not want him wet, but when I showed Chap the ball he looked out over the river and whined until I tossed it in.
Jeb Butler

Yellowstone NP steams in the autumn air.
Jeb Butler

This is Crowheart Butte in central WY. Centuries ago, the Crow Indians led by Chief Big Robber clashed with the Shoshone and Bannock Indians under Chief Washashakie over the surrounding hunting grounds. Chief Washashakie challenged Chief Big Robber to a man-to-man fight atop the butte to settle the issue (maybe he was outnumbered). Chief Washashakie proclaimed that the winner of the fight would eat the loser's heart. Washashakie won. Asked years later if he actually ate the other man's heart, he replied, "A man does foolish things when he is young."
Jeb Butler

One of the nation's premier law schools, just beyond the cattle guard.
Jeb Butler

Coming south through Yellowstone after Dad flew out of Bozeman, Chap sees and smells his first bison in Yellowstone NP.
Jeb Butler

Tracks of a ruffled grouse. We didn't find this one.
Jeb Butler

Dad, Chap and I after ruffled grouse hunting. We were tired. Chap wouldn't even open his eyes for the picture. See Oct. 12 log entry.
Jeb Butler

Chap and I hunting ruffled grouse in the Madison Range. The "Spanish Peaks" in the background. Dad takes photo.
Jeb Butler

Here is the top of Mt. Moran as mentioned in Oct. 1 log entry. Photo taken through binoculars. The diabase dike is on the left side of the peak toward the top, and the sandstone cap is barely visible as a light patch under the topmost snow deposit.
Jeb Butler

I thought about breaking in to make an aquaintance, but the chicken ought not sneak into the wolf coop.
Jeb Butler

Two elk in Yellowstone NP (photo taken through binoculars).
Jeb Butler

An American bison (buffalo) in Yellowstone NP.
Jeb Butler

I will KISS anyone who recognizes this allusion. No joke. Jackson, WY.
Jeb Butler

Metamorphic rocks along trail to Taggart Lake in Teton NP. Look at that deformation, ladies and gents, ain't it beautiful?
Jeb Butler

A collection of McPhee's work entitled "Annals of the Former World" pictured in front of Jenny Lake. At the bottom of the lake, 260 feet below the surface, are tree stumps. Situation described in Oct. 1 entry to Squatter's Log.
Jeb Butler

This is Mount Moran, seen from across Jackson Lake in Teton NP. See Squatter's Log Oct. 1 entry.
Jeb Butler

Here the earth is rifting along the Teton Fault, and hot springs are the result - water seeps into the earth where it is heated and picks up chemicals, then it reemerges on the surface. Here, the hot springs have picked up sulfur and popped out in the Hoback River, northwestern WY. The sulfur facilitates the growth of certain algae, which show up as white in this picture.
Jeb Butler

The view from Kebler Pass Rd. coming west out of Crested Butte, CO.
Jeb Butler

Sunset in the basin and range, Nevada.
Jeb Butler

Most of my WFR class. Scott, who for purposes of this weblog lives in the September 22 and 24 entries, is sitting on the bench.
Jeb Butler

An angular uncomformity in eastern Nevada, just north of I-80 on the west side of the NV tunnel. (That's almost all of the cardinal directions in one sentence!) Here the lower sediments - the brown ones - were deposited and then tilted to about 45 degrees to form mountains hundreds of millions of years ago. Erosion flattened those mountains, and then the gray sediments were deposited on top - the gray was then horizontal. Next, more crustal folding - probably in the Mesozoic, the age of dinosaurs - pushed them up to their current angle and shoved the underlying brown strata up to the near vertical. (Basin and range faulting has not affected this particular area too much, according to McPhee.)
Jeb Butler

This is Camp Snowcone, where the Canadians and I lived at Burning Man.
Jeb Butler

This is Robin, who went by the playa name "Captain Canuck." Here he dances to the 80's tune "The Final Countdown." Meet him in the Sept. 2 entry in Squatter's Log. He's great.
Jeb Butler