Slightly out of order once again... a visit to Drottningholm Palace, Sweden, 2011...

Although we visited Drottningholm on our second full day in Stockholm, I wanted to coordinate these images with a post to my photography blog so I'm including them here. I'll pick up with images of our first day in Stockholm in a future post. So hang on to your hat... here's a nearly five hour visit trimmed to 7 collages containing 32 images to give you a taste of the official residence, since 1981, of the Swedish Royal family and the lovely grounds/park associated with the palace. The first palace on this site burned down to the ground in the 1600s. Construction on the present structure, designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder, was commissioned by the dowager Queen Hedvig Eleonora and began in 1662.

Our day began with a boat ride, the common way for tourists to reach Drottningholm. The first image of the Swedish flag flying over the stern of our boat sets the tone for the day... a nice, sunny day with a stiff breeze most of the time! The statue of Apollo di Belvedere is in a courtyard surrounded by four buildings which today house the Theatre Shop and private residences, the gilded gate in the lower left is the entrance to the formal gardens behind the palace and in the lower right is a view of one end of the palace as we approached by boat.

Here you see a view of the front of the palace as we passed by before the boat docked, a close-up of the crest of the royal family as it adorns the gated entrance to the formal gardens, one of many statues gracing the gardens, and colorful flowers typical of many of the plantings seen throughout our day.

Continuing into the gardens and looking back, one sees the rear of the palace; facing forward down the grand promenade is a view of the length of the garden... the same view the royals have from inside the palace; a side lane lined with trees gives a view of a different part of the palace at the end and the cascade fountains serving as a backdrop for the Water Parterre in the formal gardens.

Color overload! Images include the "Confidence" which was used as a private dining room for the royal family when they did not want staff to overhear their conversations (top right and top middle close-up of the tower); the Chinese Pavilion, one of the worlds best preserved rococo structures, was originally built as a prefab house and birthday gift for Queen Lovisa Ulrika from King Adolf Fredrik in 1753 and was rebuilt in the form seen here from 1763-1769 (bottom right, and the two lower images in the middle on both rows); information about the bottom left building is taken from the brochure on Drottningholm: The Guards' Tent was built in 1781 for the dragoons of Gustav III, C.F. Adelcrantz designed the building - built of timber, clad with iron sheeting and then painted to resemble a tent in a Turkish army camp. I'm not sure what the building in the upper left is but thought it was quite pretty and the reflections in the globe light are of the Chinese Pavilion and the Confidence.

Before leaving the buildings to wander through the beautiful gardens, one last image of the Guards' Tent showing a bit of the detail... all wood! The other images show you what a beautiful park this is with statues, flowers, greenery and water features. Stockholm residents and tourists alike find it a lovely place for a picnic.

A few more images showing the lovely gardens and some of the winged inhabitants including a Black-headed Gull (brown head during breeding season), Geese feeding on the lawn (not sure what kind of geese they are) and a Black-headed Gull and a Mallard female sharing a pond. The other image is just very peaceful... you aren't missing any birds here!

As we were heading back toward the palace to visit the inside areas open to the public (no photographs allowed and I got busted trying to take one through the window looking out into the gardens), these old wooden posts lining one of the waterways caught my eye. Wandering past the Royal Stables which now houses the Royal Guard, I managed a photo of these lovely old cannons without any tourists in the way. The last two images close out our day... one of the many statues on the grounds of Drottningholm and a last view of the front of the palace as we pulled away.

Photographs were not allowed in the interior of one of the most interesting old buildings I've ever seen... the Royal Theatre. If you go to Drottningholm, don't miss the opportunity to see this building, completed in 1766 and still in service today, preserved in its entirety as it was then. The theater closed in 1792 with the death of Gustaf III and remained closed until it was rediscovered in the 1920s. From May to August every year, a festival of 18th century opera is presented here. In 1991, the Drottningholm Court Theatre was proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage.

If you have the time to comment, please let me know what you think of the idea of combining this blog with my photography blog which has been suggested by one reader. It would save me cross-referencing and allow for bigger images since the format of my photography blog is different from this one and I haven't a clue how to adjust the code for this template to allow larger images.

Göteborg to Stockholm... a Day of Travel in Sweden, 2011.

At this rate, I'll be on my next trip before I finish posting about my recent family trip to Sweden and Iceland. BUT, I think I'm getting the hang of decision making about what images to include in collages to give a taste of our travels. There is simply no way I can possibly share everything we saw and did without overloading everyone with images and stories! But I simply had to share a few more images from our day of travel (already reported briefly in a previous post) between Göteborg and Stockholm. The previous post was made while still traveling and using an iPad for posting to my blog... not the easiest thing I've ever done!

Exterior of two churches: Habo Kyrka in Habo, Sweden on the left and Gränna Kyrka in Gränna, Sweden on the right. Habo Kyrka is famous for its painted interior which is considered to be the finest in all of Sweden. The present Gränna Kyrka, rebuilt in 1895, is on the same site as the 12th century church that was destroyed by fire in 1889.

The painted interior of Habo, Kyrka is mind boggling to see... the church, cathedral style, was built entirely of wood in the early 1700s. From Wikipedia: The interior of the church was painted [from] 1741-1743 by two artists from Jönköping, Johan Kinnerius and Johan Christian Peterson. The paintings represent Martin Luther's summary of Christian Doctrine. No single image could possibly do justice so I suggest you go there and see this church (kyrka) for yourself! Clockwise from top, left: the part of the pulpit where the minister would stand, the portion of the pulpit above where the minister stood, the high altar, and a detail of one of the many painted areas of the church.

A few miscellaneous images including a view of the beautiful countryside near Habo Kyrka, watering cans hanging in the cemetery near a water spigot, delicious lunch at Gyllene Uttern Hotel (the first motor hotel in Sweden and a lovely spot to stop along the way), and the robot lawnmower we saw cutting the grass (really well!) at Gränna Kyrka.

You might like to view a slide show of images of my family vacation which includes additional images not posted to this blog.

More on Göteborg, Sweden from June, 2011

If you have been following along on my journey, you will have noticed that posts have been very slow to appear! (and that this one is out of order) In addition to having difficulties with internet access while I was away, I took over 3500 photos in the 2-1/2 weeks that I toured Sweden and Iceland... a bit of overkill that NEVER would have happened back in the days when I had to pay for prints! So it's been taking me quite awhile to go through the images and pick just a few to share.

The collage (created with Picnik) has two images from our visit to the Göteborgs Stadsmuseum (Gothenburg City Museum) which houses viking and emigration history as well as special exhibitions: in the top left, copper coins used for currency during a time in Sweden when silver was extremely scarce and pottery and tile samples diagonally opposite in the bottom right corner, Skansen Kronen tower (sits on a HIGH hill overlooking Göteborg), a view of the city from Skansen Kronen park (on the left under the tower) and just one of the many church spires soaring over Göteborg on the right. Under the copper coins, a close-up of the Poseidon statue, a famous fountain at the top of the main street, Avenyn, in Göteborg, a colorful police car and one of the many coffee shops we saw in Göteborg.

At present, Starbucks has no coffee shops in Göteborg. Apparently, that will change when a Starbucks coffee shop opens in Göteborg's Central Station in the winter of 2012... I have to wonder how many of the marvelous coffee shops everywhere in the city will remain after/if Starbucks builds a large presence there.

This collage represents quite a lot of trial and error, research looking for templates (FAIL) and a painful learning curve encountered in putting this together in Photoshop CS5. My goal was to be able to create a collage that wasn't locked in to the templates offered by Picnik. I'm somewhat satisfied with this but, if I had it to do over, would try to figure out a better way! Meantime, I will post this as is and MAY replace it some day if I ever figure out a simpler, cleaner way to do it. Clockwise from top left, a view of Göteborg from the deck near the top of the building where my cousin Örjan works, architectural detail of the roof of his building as seen from this same deck, detail of one of the painted inlays typical of the elaborate exterior decorations seen on many buildings in Sweden, atypical street scene (no people in it during early afternoon), detail of statues decorating a balcony... they seem to be saying oh my aching head... or how long do we have to support this balcony above us!

I'll close this post with a shot of the seaport from which our grandparents (and their first two children, my Aunt Ada and Uncle Holger) set sail for America in the early 1900s... Grandad came first to get settled and earn money to pay the way for Grandma and their children to follow him several years later. After their family was reunited in Sheridan, Wyoming, four more children were born. My mother was the fifth.

From Göteborg to Stockholm... A day of ups and downs...

Our second full day in Sweden found us traveling from Göteborg to Stockholm with a few stops along the way. One was to see the church in Habo which is an old, wooden building famous for the extensive painted interior of the church. It is in the countryside near Habo, not in the town itself. The setting is beautiful and we spent quite awhile there exploring the cemetery and the church interior.

Up until our last stop to get gas about 30 minutes outside of Stockholm, we were doing fine. But the trouble started at the Statoil station when we used the windshield washing pump instead of the gas pump to fuel the car. Our inability to read Swedish plus exhaustion after a long day driving plus an idiot employee who told us to use the orange button to begin fueling at pump 18 when he should have known it was not a gas pump added up to a very expensive and time consuming delay before we finally arrived, hungry and exhausted and quite a bit poorer at our hotel.

A few photos from the day begin below.

First, the bell tower at Habo Church...

One of the many detailed interior paintings from which you might see why this church is considered to be the finest example of a painted interior in all of Sweden. At some point during our travels, we were told how common it was in the "old days" for wooden churches to be extensively painted.

After my return, I promise to post a few more images from the better parts of our day. In the meantime, here is what our view looked like as we were towed to a service station to have the washer fluid drained from our tank and replaced by gas after the mishap described above.

Our tow truck driver, moving our car into the garage bay where it was raised on a lift so they could drain the tank. They were very thorough, flushing the tank twice with gasoline before giving us 20 liters of gas, for which the repair shop owner did not charge us, figuring perhaps that we'd suffered enough already!

Playing tourist in Göteborg, Sweden on a rainy day in June, 2011...

After breakfast on our second day, we met up with Örjan and Lisa who showed us a bit of Göteborg. We started with a visit to Örjan's office building which is situated on a high hill that offers great views of Göteborg. The older part of the building was the home of the "Göteborg Navigations Skola" where sailing was taught in the "old days" (an expression we heard used a lot on this trip).

Since it was a cold, rainy day, we opted for spending time indoors since we couldn't possibly see all of Göteborg in one day! Örjan's office building partially surrounds a historical hill where there was a very old town cemetery and where they used to execute people in the 1600s.  We passed by the old city hall, a chocolate/candy store and proceeded on foot to a museum with lots of viking and emigration history as well as a design exhibition that included a jewelry display by their daughter Matilda.  The museum cost 40 SEK, but covered 5 museums in Göteborg for a full year.

View from outside terrace at Örjan's office building showing the interesting architecture and a few church towers above the rooftops of the town.

View of entry to the old part of Örjan's office building showing the name of the sailing school that was originally housed in the building.

Some more of the interesting features of the old part of Örjan's office building.

Rainy weather does provide some lovely opportunities for colorful images of exterior features of lovely old buildings.

Tourist train that would have saved us a bit of walking had we opted for using it... Lisa and Örjan provided us with great guidance on our tour of the city and allowed us to stop whenever, wherever we wanted to take photos which wouldn't have been possible riding this cute train.

If you've read this far, thanks so much. It has taken me 3 to 4 times as long as usual to put this post together. Perhaps if I get ore familiar with the iPad, I'll be able to put things together more quickly. One source of frustration is that I cannot use "Picnik" to put together collages which would allow me to pack more into less space. I'm only half finished with our tourist day in Göteborg so probably will leave the bulk of posting about our travels until my return home where I have access to more familiar methods of posting and editing images!

Family visit in Gothenburg - or Göteborg... Swedish style!

It has taken awhile to get to anywhere the Internet is reliable enough to post anything. Will see how it goes. We arrived in Göteborg on Saturday but my checked bag didn't make it until Sunday. Fortunately, I planned for that possibility and we just continued on with only minor worries about the luggage. Cousin Örjan met us at the airport and led us to our hotel, saving us the worry of finding our way while jet lagged!

For this post, I'll just include a few family photos and leave the tourist report until another day. Our cousin Örjan is doubly related to us through his great-grandfather and our grandfather who were brothers and his great-grandmother and our grandmother who were half-sisters, making him our second cousin, once removed. (his father Sture is our second cousin; we will be visiting him later on our journey)

Our first evening in Göteborg was spent dining with Örjan and his wife Lisa and planning our next day while keeping in mind that it might be a rainy day. No pictures from our first night in town...

A few family photos are included below from our second day and evening when we were squired around town by Örjan and Lisa and then treated to a marvelous meal at their home where we met the rest of their immediate family.

Left to right: sister Valerie, cousin Lisa, cousin Örjan, brother-in-law Tom, brother Lukas and yours truly...

Cousin Örjan.

Örjan and Lisa's son Ludwig.

Örjan and Lisa's daughter Matilda putting the finishing touches on dessert.

Left to right: Ludwig, Örjan, Lisa, Svante, Matilda and Sixten at their home on the evening of June 19, 2011. We were wined and dined and treated to a marvelous meal of traditional Swedish dishes including moose that was absolutely delicious! I wish that I hadn't been so jet-lagged or I'd give you more details about the meal. In addition to delicious food and lovely wines, we had wonderful conversations and learned more about our Swedish family.

Nothing to do with our travels... Just a test...

Sitting in Rock Bottom in Bethesda the night before leaving on our trip... Thought I'd give posting a try just to make sure I have everything I need on my iPad. (for our itinerary and notes on the trip, please see the previous post)

The image below is another experiment in HDR processing and is from a bracket set of images taken at Wollam Gardens in Jeffersonton, Virginia. After merging the images with Nik software, the vintage effect was applied. I rather like how the foliage frames the 1935 vintage tractor which is still in use on the 11 acre property.

My next post here will either be en route to Sweden or after our arrival on Saturday, June 18th. (the house is not empty while I'm away in case anyone is concerned about that)

Upcoming trip to Sweden... with side trip and a stop in Iceland!

Just a quick post (HA!... my posts always take longer than I intend) to share an upcoming journey itinerary. I'll not worry about my house/home while I'm away because someone will be in residence there to keep an eye on things. :-)

At a family reunion in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada 25 years ago, I met Swedish second cousins Sture and Inger Johansson and their son Örjan. Sture and I are doubly related through our Swedish grandparents because our grandfathers were brothers and our grandmothers were half-sisters. When we met in 1986, I promised to come visit them in Sweden and now I am finally going to do just that.

This trip will be a family trip with my brother, his partner and my sister who is the serious genealogist in the family. We will be staying first in Göteborg to visit with Örjan, his wife and their four children who live in a nearby suburb.

We will also visit with Sture and his wife Inger while staying up north in Lycksele. Sture and Inger live on the property that has been in my Swedish family since 1640. Family records for that area of Sweden were lost in a fire in 1640 when the church in Umeå where they were stored burned. So we don't know anything about our family prior to that year.

Part of our visit with Sture and Inger will be in the mountains close to the Norwegian border where they have a cabin near Tärnaby. After our stay there, we will cross the border into Norway and drive south through the mountains before crossing back into Sweden.

In between visiting with family, we will spend time in Stockholm, the High Coast, Umeå and Österund. On our return trip, my brother, his partner and myself will be stopping in Iceland for a few days. My sister will be returning to the US from Österund through Stockholm after our overnight in Österund.

Our itinerary and a map of our route follow... if things go according to plan, I will be posting a few photos and stories along the way. However, I do not know how well the plan will work since I will be attempting to blog via iPad on a wireless connection whenever possible and will not have my computer with me! (trying to travel light)

Letters represented on the map above correspond to locations indicated on the itinerary below in parens (A, B, C, etc); we are not staying in Norway at the junctions indicated by letters G and H on the map. (large view of map)

1. June 17th for Göteborg, Sweden via Icelandair; arrive in Göteborg at 3:00 PM June 18 local time
2. June 18-19 in Göteborg (A); drive to Stockholm on the 20th
3. June 20-22 in Stockholm (B); drive to Härnösand on the 23rd
4. June 23 in Härnösand (C; High Coast region); drive to Umeå on the 24th
5. June 24- in Umeå (D); drive to Lycksele on the 25th
6. June 25 -26 in Lycksele (E); drive to Tärnaby on the 27th
7. June 27-28 near Tärnaby (F) at Sture and Inger’s cabin; drive to Östersund on the 29th
8. June 29 in Östersund (I) overnight; drive to Stockholm on the 30th (Val flies home from Östersund on June 30)
9. June 30-July 1- Brother Lukas, partner Tom and myself in Stockholm (B) two more nights
10. July 2- flight to Reykjavik where we stay July 2-4.
11. July 5- depart Reykjavik for home

More about the Horseshoe Crabs and other creatures... 2011

In the previous post, I included a picture of a crab pileup and quite a bit of information about the Horseshoe Crabs... this first image in today's post is of a breeding pair who are working their way to shore (although here, the waves seem to be carrying them out) so the female can lay the eggs (she's the front, larger one) and the male can then fertilize them. The female pulls him along behind her so he can do his part after she finishes laying the eggs.

This is a young Horseshoe Crab before it has developed the front claws which allow us to know whether it is male or female. Males have front claws shaped roughly like boxing gloves, the better to grip onto the rear of the female's shell as seen in the previous image. When a Horseshoe Crab gets turned upside down, it uses its long, spiny tail to flip itself upright. We assisted this one in righting itself at which point it headed for the water. When upside down, the crab is extremely vulnerable to predators. Also, its gills will dry out quite rapidly which means it will certainly die unless it rights itself and returns to the bay.

This is the same young crab, heading for the water after we turned it back upright to assist it. You can certainly see why they are referred to as living fossils... and they have been around since prehistoric time.

Sanderlings on the beach... a possible caption for this is "you go this way and I'll go the other way" as they search for crab eggs and/or the tiny creatures deposited as the waves recede from the shore.

I think this is an immature Herring Gull but am not certain. I'll have to do more research but it's almost 1:00 AM and time for bed so I want to wrap up this post soon!

The oddly shaped "rock" in the center of this image isn't a rock at all... it is a Sea Cucumber! It was spotted by one of our group and we weren't at all certain what it was. Our naturalist guide told us a bit about these strange creatures, most of which I've forgotten already. The one thing that stuck in my mind is that when it feels threatened, it will puff itself up and expel its stomach. A predator will then eat the stomach instead of the Sea Cucumber and the "cuke" will go merrily on its way and simply grow a new stomach.

Horseshoe Crabs and the birds that depend on them...

Although the first image is crabs, crabs and more crabs, the rest of this post (scroll down) will be birds who love to dine on their eggs. If I haven't missed the cutoff, I'll be posting this to World Bird Wednesday shortly. (am posting here instead of my other blog because this blog is where I post when the images tell more of a story than I want to tell on my photo blog... am WAY behind returning visits from last week but will be catching up before the weekend)

My cousin Jane, friends and myself went to Slaughter Beach, Delaware (and a few nearby spots) to view the annual mass breeding of the Horseshoe Crabs. They breed and come to shore, riding high tide in to the beach, in great numbers to deposit and fertilize vast numbers of protein rich eggs over a two week period (+/- a few days) every May. One of the best places to view this spectacle is Slaughter Beach on the Delaware Bay.

Blue Ridge Workshops provided a photography instructor and a naturalist guide for our "day at the beach" and some of us even got to try out HUGE lenses on our Nikon cameras. I failed miserably to get the hang of using a 600mm prime lens fitted with a 2x converter and think my Sigma 120-400mm zoom is much easier to use! (also would need someone to carry the rig for me if I were to use such a huge and heavy lens assembly) Too bad I forgot to pack the 1.4x converter for my Sigma lens.

And now for a few of the birds who dine on the eggs laid by the crabs...

Sanderlings with a few Ruddy Turnstones mixed in (look closely and you might spot the Turnstones)

The foreground Sanderling has a crab egg in its mouth. (larger view)

Laughing Gull, aptly named if you've ever heard them! Note Horseshoe Crabs on the beach too.

Willet with tail of Horseshoe Crab visible, sticking out of the water on the left.

A few Ruddy Turnstones with some blurry gulls on the water behind them.

The last part of the photography adventure...

Alright, I'm trying again to finish up the adventure I had the other day with my cousin Jane and our friend Susie. It seems that Google's blog service is having a bit of difficulty today because it keeps posting "Could not contact Blogger.com. Saving and publishing may fail. Retrying..." and then occasionally posts "Draft autosaved at..." So this last collage of images from our adventure may or may not show up today if I fail at publishing!

The two scenic images were both taken from the same spot... the James Rumsey Monument in Shepherdstown, WV. The "Opera House" is in downtown and is not an opera house at all but was built as a movie theater in the early 1900's and was in continuous operation as one until 1956. The Yellow Brick Bank building was, at one time, a bank but now houses a lovely restaurant.

More of the photography adventure...

I was going to add this to the previous post until I realized how much I'd already written about Del, his pottery and our visit there. So this post will be about the rest (or more) of the adventure... depending! ;-)

Our first stop of the day (upper left in the collage above) was at the "Scenic Overlook" on I-270 not far from Washington, DC where I took LOTS of photos and found that most of them did not please me (this one did). The lovely old church on the right had a corner-stone dated 1856; some of the graves in the cemetery were those of soldiers who died in our Civil War. The lower left is obviously a close-up of the gorgeous stained glass window and on the right, skipping to the end of the day, is a sunset taken in Boonsboro, MD.

We stopped for lunch in Shepherdstown, WV and wandered the town a bit both before and after lunch. The collage above includes an image (upper left) of the tower of McMurran Hall, part of Shepherdstown University... the clock in the tower is mainained, wound twice weekly and strikes the hour as it has since 1841 although in 1841 it was not in its present location. It was originally intended for the tower at Trinity Church but was moved to McMurran Hall in 1860. (information from the Historic Shepherdstown Walking Tour guide) Additional images are of a lovely old home and the main street, an old, stone Lutheran Church tower and a quirky coffee shop "bumper sticker" hanging on the wall of the Lost Dog coffee shop in Shepherdstown. This bumper sticker caught my eye for two reasons... it made me laugh and then I noticed that it was from a coffee shop in Sheridan, WY where we lived until 1955 when we moved to Billings, MT.

Rambling to Foxcross Pottery in Sharpsburg, MD with stops along the way...

Del of Foxcross pottery is a favorite potter of mine whose pieces I have been buying for over 30 years... his studio and home are both on the same property where he lives with his wife and works in his studio most every day. My cousin Jane and I had been discussing going off somewhere to have fun together while taking pictures for awhile now since photography is a passion for both of us.

Since it had been quite awhile since we had visited Del in Sharpsburg, MD, we thought making a day of it and heading up that way (slightly less than a 90 minute drive from my house if one doesn't stop at all en route) qualified for a fun adventure, especially since we decided to go up by one route and return by another... traveling a few back country roads and having lunch in Shepherdstown, WV either before or after visiting with Del at his pottery studio. Our friend Susie concurred and happily joined us.

The collage above (view large; right click link to select view in another window to avoid leaving this page... html tag target=blank isn't working for me any more) is a collection of images from our visit... Although I've visited Del many times, I learned a few things that I hadn't known before... the collection of old tools hanging on the wall are some that Del found on their property when they were clearing the land to build their home and the artifacts on the shelf (some bullets, uniform buttons and other items) are Civil War artifacts. Del used some of the old tools when building their home! Del is pictured above an old teapot that sits on a wood stove in front of the shelf holding the artifacts. To his right is the sign outside his studio. The stained glass window decorates their kitchen/dining area, the wooden shelf with several pottery pieces showcase 'pots' from potters who inspired Del when he was starting out and the rest of the pottery (the bowl with gourds and pine cone and in the lower right collage image) is all Del's work.

I will be adding to this post when I find the time to put together a couple more collages showing representative images of the rest of the adventure my cousin Jane, our friend Susie and I had the other day. In the meantime, there is a fairly brief slide show of the images I hope to organize better when I find the time. Who knew retirement would keep me so busy!

Catching up... again... this time from our Montana trip in June, 2010

I'm more behind than ever and before memory fails me completely... thought I'd try to catch up a bit and post some images and experiences from our June trip to Red Lodge, Montana where (as some of you may recall) we have a lovely home that is available for a vacation rental when we are not using it.

One of the best experiences from our visit this year was when I got together with a high school classmate for an adventure in the nearby Pryor Mountains where a herd of wild mustangs has roamed freely for many years. The Pryor Mountains span the southern Montana - northern Wyoming border not far from Red Lodge so making a day trip to search out the horses was easily arranged.

Cathy picked me up around 9 AM and we packed our lunch (provided by me) and my camera gear into her car and headed for Lovell, Wyoming where the Wild Mustang Center is located. After a quick stop at the Wild Mustang Center to pick up a detailed map of the area and to find out where the horses could be seen, off we went in search of horses. We found five (four adults and a young foal) right where the ranger at the Mustang Center told us they would be. All the images I posted from our adventure are viewable as a slide show... I've also included a few of my favorites below to whet your appetite for additional viewing.

Typical, wild, wonderful Wyoming scenery in the area around the Pryor Mountains. The red color is a result of iron in the soil.

The horses were some distance away when we first spotted them and we'd been advised not to approach too closely as they can be unpredictable. Here, they appear to be having a conference about something and the foal is almost completely hidden from view (look on the left side behind the front horse).

This was taken after the horses had moved from where we first saw them to a much more accessible location... and they seemed totally bored with our being there! This is the mother of the young foal that was with this group (see the next image for the foal).

The young foal was never far from its mother's side.

Although we never really tired of taking pictures of the horses, we did decide to go to the Canyon Overlook of the Bighorn River where this image was taken. There are a few more as well as a map of the Canyon Overlook area in the slide show which only has 16 images so it takes less than a minute to view it.