Saturday, September 17, 2017

Lazy Saturday morning and we decided to do some exploring in the afternoon. See if you recognize the following pictures.

Do you know? This is Mattie Ross’s ranch in the beginning of True Grit and the end when John Wayne jumped the fence. And by the way, to the director’s objection, John Wayne actually the jump, not his stunt double. Both the stunt double and Glen Campbell have acknowledged this fact. Pretty good for “a one-eyed fat man”! The house and barns and fence are on private property, right up next to the road. We were on a county road which turned into a forest road, where beautiful ranches dotted the land.

I was desperately looking for elk and moose. When we headed back, I saw movement on a hilltop. We stopped and got the binoculars – deer, several. And lots of mountain bluebirds.

 

We met some elk hunters who had a flat tire. We tried to help, but we didn’t have the right tools for a Dodge truck to take the tire off. They had called there car service and before we left, a Dodge truck came along. As Tony was talking to them, I was sitting in the truck just watching deer – mule deer – deer, deer, deer – no elk.

 

As we headed home, we passed the Double RL Ranch – miles and miles of fence post and multiple entrances with the brand on it – guess whose ranch it is? Ralph Lauren and his brother, Ricky. This is the family vacation home – 17,000 acres, still an operating ranch. There are 5 teepees that you can see from the road – these are used as guest houses, set up sort of like yurts. There was a pullout that had a great view and we pulled in to take a look. There were a couple of guys with cameras on tripods and an obnoxious man who was talking to everyone very loud. But he did tell us one thing when we drove up – there were elk down in the open valley. BIG elk. Bull elks – bugling. First time in the wild I’ve ever heard an elk bugle except for Cataloochee – and that’s kind of cheating, since they were brought there and are in a particular valley. We could see with our naked eyes at least 6 or 7, maybe a few more. And I had the little binoculars with me – I could tell they had BIG racks. We will go back with the good binoculars and the spotting scope.

Right in the middle of the first picture you can see one elk and in the second one in the far opening, you can see 2 or 3 white spots – those are elk. Another check on the bucket list – well, actually 2. Seeing/hearing elk in the wild and seeing Mattie’s ranch.

Last couple of pictures are of our camp site and view.