Artist Paint Pots Nature Trail

Pelican Creek at Yellowstone

 

"Where the Buffalo Roam" An American Song

 

"Home on the Range," the state song of Kansas since 1947, was composed by violinist Daniel Kelley with text by otolaryngologist Dr. Brewster Higley.  The poem was published in the Kansas newspaper Kirwin Chief in 1876. However, within a few years of publication, "Home on the Range" gained immense popularity throughout the United States and both composer and writer became practically anonymous as settlers claimed the song as their own.

My Western Home
by Dr. Brewster Higley

Oh, give me a home where the Buffalo roam
Where the Deer and the Antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the sky is not cloudy all day.

Chorus:
A home! A home!
Where the Deer and the Antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the sky is not clouded all day.

Oh! give me a land where the bright diamond sand
Throws its light from the glittering streams,
Where glideth along the graceful white swan,
Like the maid in her heavenly dreams.

Chorus

Oh! give me a gale of the Solomon vale,
Where the life streams with buoyancy flow;
On the banks of the Beaver, where seldom if ever,
Any poisonous herbage doth grow.

Chorus

How often at night, when the heavens were bright,
With the light of the twinkling stars
Have I stood here amazed, and asked as I gazed,
If their glory exceed that of ours.

Chorus

I love the wild flowers in this bright land of ours,
I love the wild curlew's shrill scream;
The bluffs and white rocks, and antelope flocks
That graze on the mountains so green.

Chorus

The air is so pure and the breezes so fine,
The zephyrs so balmy and light,
That I would not exchange my home here to range
Forever in azures so bright.

Lamar Valley "A River Runs Through It"

 

Wapiti Valley

These Children Singing in Stone

by E E Cummings, 1939

these children singing in stone a

silence of stone these

little children wound with stone

flowers opening for

ever these silently lit

tie children are petals

their song is a flower of

always their flowers

of stone are

silently singing

a song more silent

than silence these always

children forever

singing wreathed with singing

blossoms children of

stone with blossoming

eyes

know if a

lit tie

tree listens

forever to always children singing forever

a song made

of silent as stone silence of

song

Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway

Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway winds through the Shoshone National Forest, Cody, Wyoming.  We drove thru Wapiti Valley to the East entrance of Yellowstone National Park.  Passed a lot of unusual rock formations.

Rock Creek Vista Point

 

North Absaroka Wilderness Area

Chief Joseph Scenic Highway Gallery 2

Dead Indian Hill Pass

Chief Joseph Scenic Highway Gallery

Shoshone National Forest

  The Chief Joseph Scenic Highway runs through the Shoshone National Forest. 

The scenic drive offers spectacular scenery! The National Forest was set aside in 1891 as part of the Yellowstone Timberland Reserve, making the Shoshone the first national forest in the United States. It consists of some 2.4 million acres  from the Montana state line south to Lander, Wyoming, and includes portions of the Absaroka, Wind River, and Beartooth Mountains.

The Lonely Tree at Devil's Canyon

I always like taking pictures of lone trees against vast backgrounds and wide open spaces.  It's leaves and broken branches show the harsh weather conditions it had to endure.  I named this the "Lonely Tree" among the rocks and prairie bush.

Devil's Canyon Overlook