Sitting at the edge of the flat portion of land near the shipping containers (where we camp), I’m overlooking the steep drop-off of the land in front of me. Two ridges that decay as they progress a few hundred yards in front of me form the relatively small valley below. A rocky divot cuts down…
Tag: Wyoming
Wyoming Spring Creek-Space, the final frontier…
Space. Vast chasms of it, unbroken by tree or building or person as it sprawls outward limitlessly into the pale blue horizon. In an open prairie like this, space seems to take on the illusion of weight, a sort of ubiquitous presence that you can almost glean in creases of river beds and stretching green…
Wyoming Spring Creek: A Morning on the Preserve
I’m sitting on top of a small ridge overlooking a drainage into the Laramie Valley. In front of me stretches the expanse of the valley, broken only by a line of windmills and the Medicine Bow Range to the East. They appear to be close, but distance here is deceptive; it would take two days…
Wyoming Spring Creek – Stories Told Through Senses
The vast, mostly uninterrupted space of the Wyoming prairie is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It is easy to get lost in the view of the land stretching for miles and miles until it touches the sky. The sun rose to my left as I sat looking at a cliff on Saturday morning, and…
Wyoming Spring Creek – The Windscape
There are cows on the plains and people in Rock River behind them. They live in the wind and with the things it brings them: violent storms, harsh winters, ugly turbines, and a persistent dryness that has forced life – cow, human, and otherwise – to adapt. The Laramie Valley clears desert status by just…
Wyoming Spring Creek Week 1: What do you see?
A canvas of tan and green extends for miles over open fields and hills, and communities of repetitive green plants are interrupted by rocks that are more colorful. The ground is dry and sparse, and most of the grasses do not grow large. At first, the Spring Creek Reserve seems incredibly unspectacular to an untrained…
Wyoming Spring Creek – Western Expanse
A good friend told me once that going to the west makes you feel like you want to run away. I didn’t fully understand what he meant until I got to Spring Creek and saw it for myself. Wyoming can almost be described in the same light as the ocean. The vast expansiveness goes on…
Wyoming Spring Creek Field Study Introduction: Maclaine Oskin
Hello! My name is Maclaine Oskin and I am a rising sophomore hoping to pursue an environmental science and urban studies double major throughout my undergrad here at the University of Pittsburgh. After graduation I am interested in exploring the implications of urbanization on the environment, as well as the integration and amalgamation of natural…
Wyoming Spring Creek Introduction – Julia Huczko
Hi! My name is Julia Huczko and I am a rising Junior at the University of Pittsburgh. I am majoring in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and hope to obtain a certificate in GIS. After graduation, I plan to pursue my PhD in Ecology and work in field research. Currently, I have been studying Forest Ecology…
Wyoming Spring Creek Introduction
Hello, I’m Zach Burke, and I will be entering my last semester this fall as an Ecology and Evolution major with a minor in religious studies. Most of my interests are related to the Ecology field; I enjoy spending my time hiking, birding, and fly-fishing. Some of my other favorite activities are photography, basketball, reading…