For those of my readers that have zero experience with a Christmas storm in the Wind River Canyon, let me explain what a different, and unique weather pattern we really have in this "bottom of the freezer" here in Wyoming.   

     There are only a dozen or so homes in this isolated canyon in Wyoming; as I like to tell people, "We live on an island; we're surrounded by the Wind River Indian Reservation."  Just to pick up our mail is a twenty-five mile plus round trip; getting to our closest "Wally World" to shop is an over eighty-mile trip!  Because of something called compression, the wind can get frightening at times here in Wind River Canyon; hurricane force is not uncommon when a nasty storm comes rolling through.  Which can make winter driving a real nightmare, and too many people have lost their lives. 

     Snowstorms throw the white flakes in waves that resemble the ocean, here in the canyon; you can watch these "waves" silhouetted against the tall, unclimbed cliffs, as they rush to follow each other through from north to south.  Or the snow can come down the way it did on Christmas this year, with little wind to drive the snow drifts too high.

     The small town that is twenty miles south of our cabin, Shoshoni (pop. 649) got snow on Christmas day the way all of the Mountain West did.  It started in the middle of the night, and snowed all day Christmas Day....and it was beautiful, and made driving impossible except for the brave-nuts.  By the morning after Christmas, Shoshoni had a couple of inches of snow on the ground; here by our cabin in Wind River Canyon, we had two feet of new snow! 

     This kind of disparity of snow is quite common in the winter months; as a friend put it years ago, "You live IN the mountains."  We always have more snow here than any of the surrounding communities, and we once had a snowdrift over nine feet tall and seventy feet long!  Try shoveling that snow drift.  Yet, picnics in January in short sleeves are memorable family events.  So, we have Broad-tailed Hummingbird, female, Wind River Canyon, WYBroad-tailed Hummingbird, the First Nesting female ever in Wind River Canyon, Summer 2014. a little snow blower, shovels, and guys that have heavy equipment to dig us out when the need presents itself.  

     I guess my end-of-the-year point is really this; the Wind River Canyon is an isolated, unique ecosystem.  Which is why so many birds and animals nest and breed in this wild place, and more species we've never seen before keep showing up here----this is one of the best, last places to breed, as so many of the other good places have been keenly, over developed.  I hope there will always be "Wild Places" for the wild animals; but to be totally honest, after reading the latest Audubon study, our great-grandchildren could be looking at some of everybody's favorite birds and wildlife only in my photographs.