Sylvia and I spent about a week in Pinedale, Wyoming, with our daughter Isabel . Isabel took us on what I came to call a “death march” every day…meaning that it was more exercise than we’re used to, particularly in the mile-high elevation of Pinedale. But I loved it.

We saw an osprey in his or her nest near Half Moon Lake. The big fish hawk rose up and circled, making skirling chirps.

My favorite hike near Pinedale leads to the so-called “Sacred Rim,” a cliff at an elevation of nearly two miles with a sheer drop of perhaps a mile. Sitting on the edge of the cliff, I began getting some serious worries about being unwillingly sucked down by the great volume of empty space, and I moved back.

Pinedale was having a lot of growth a few years ago, due to the boom in natural gas drilling. That’s died down a bit, leaving, for instance, this blank real-estate developer’s sign. It looks like installation art, an abstract painting.

There’s a guy right outside the city limits who keeps a large number of abandoned vehicles in his yard. I like this one thirties-style car of his.

One day we went canoeing at the deserted Willow Lake near Pinedale, and picnicked on a tiny spit of sand halfway down the lake.

As usual, I was happy to look at the gnarly shapes of roots, water, rocks, clouds, and trees. It opens up my head to be so continuously away from the clamor of civilization.

We got back in the canoe soon after we noticed that there were grizzly-bear footprints on the beach.

Coming into Wyoming, we spotted some UFOs in the sky over the Wind River Mountains.

One of our trip goals was Pinedale, in the northwest corner of the state, where our daughter Isabel lives with her husband.

One of the major landmarks in Pinedale is the giant fish mounted above the local supermarket/variety store.

Isabel has recently opened a physical storefront for her online business, Isabel Jewelry. Dig the special gnarly pine logs that they found for the porch. The place used to be a pub.

She has some cases of jewelry on display, and a work area in back. It was great to see her in her store, with a lot of unique new pieces. One of Isabel’s new rings is hammered to look like a piece of wood.

Isbael’s strange-looking dog Rivers keeps her company at work. It’s possible that he was brought by the UFOs.

The commercial ebook version of The Ware Tetralogy is now available for purchase. This version will soon be for sale on other sites well.

The Prime Books paperback is still available in stores and from online booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Powell’s Books, and others.

We drove through an Indian reservation into Idaho and headed east on the two-lane Route 20. By and large we managed to stay off the interstates throughout the trip. The little roads are mostly empty, and you can drive 75 mph pretty easily.

When I’m in these back-country regions, I often think it might be fun to live there. And I wonder about the concept of overpopulation. In a sense, there seems to be very much room still left in the U.S.

We ended up spending the night in Arco, Idaho, whose claim to fame is that at one point they drew their electrical power from an early atomic reactor nearby. Our landlady was somewhat obsessively tidy, and the motel was shipshape. The diner next door served “broasted chicken,” which we eventually learned is a trademarked process of pressure-frying.

The next morning, rather than getting right back into speeding, we went down some back roads in search of a natural bridge near Arco. I love the emptiness of the little roads, the quiet, the utter lack of people. A refreshing change from my life in the SF Bay Area anthill.

I liked this big hillside a lot, it seemed like the flank of a huge, friendly animal.

Eventually we made it to Idaho Falls, which has a fairly cute old-town section. One of the restaurants had a window in the shape of a wagon wheel, which was totally cool, like an art installation, and note the square pattern of logs around the wagon wheel window.

Some of the stores were empty, drained by big boxes like Wal-Mart on the edges of the town. I wonder if Wal-Mart will ever go away. Perhaps at some point, computerized marketing will give small retailers the same price breaks as the big boxes get. And perhaps people will lose their taste for big box shopping.

At the edge of town was an Idaho-shaped clock, something you don’t see every day.

Our daughter Isabel had alerted us to be on the look-out for potato barns, and soon they cropped up. They’re largely underground, the way potatoes like it, with a peaked roof that’s covered in dirt for insulation and to keep the light out.

We stopped by the Craters of the Moon National Monument, which is this immense lava flow. The reason there’s a level region across the bottom of Idaho with Route 20 in it is that, over the millennia, a series of volcanoes flattened it out.

Looking at the lava wasn’t as much fun as driving through the gold and green fields with the piney mountains.

Harvesters at work. I love the agricultural geometry of the scattered bales.

And so onwards towards Wyoming.