Wild, wild west

One of my favorite parts of our trip was the variety of wild life we saw. Some how, on our first day out, Liz decided that we should have lists. So we had:

• lists of the times we left each morning
• lists for how much we paid for gas
• a list of all the license plates we saw
• lists of the DVDs that were currently in the disc changer (IMPORTANT to know!)
• lists of things we wondered but didn't know the answer to
• lists of the wild life we saw

Here is our list of wild life, and of course, we tried to capture many of them in photos. Not all the photos are clear, but I think you'll get the idea.


Deer - wrong turn off a scenic detour in Mosier, OR
Robin - Mosier, OR
Hawk - Columbia River Valley
Crow - Columbia River Valley
Squirrels - Mosier Rest Area
Bald Eagle - Wasco County
Ducks and Very Large (domestic?) goose - Arlington City Park, Arlington, OR
VERY large bird, possibly a eagle or falcon - Hwy 84, milemarker 185
Black, Blue and White Jay-type bird with really long tail - Park City Utah thru Wyoming
Small prarie dogs - rest area in Momma Sage, WY
Antelope* - Wyoming
Hawks - Wyoming
Snakes - On the road, Nebraska
Zebra- Cow** (actual note from Liz) - "Similar to zebra-mussels but much, much larger and less sharp"
Wild Buffalo - Custer State Park, SD
Baby Wild Buffalo - Custer State Park, SD
Wild Turkey-lurkey - Custer State Park, SD
Pheasant - nearly road kill - Northern Wyoming
Prairie Dogs - Prairie Dog Town, Greyclif, MT

*ANTELOPE - apparently, what we saw might or might not have been considered Antelope. A certain someone, who will remain nameless, insisted that what we saw could not have been antelope, because there are not antelope in North America. Of course, we argued the lyrics to "Home, Home on the range. Where the deer and antelope play...." That certain someone then read to us from a wiki page the following:

Confusingly, the pronghorn antelope of North America is not an antelope, and no antelope species are native to the Americas. The pronghorn is not a member of the family Bovidae, but the family Antilocapridae. True antelope have horns which are unbranched and never shed, while Pronghorns have branching horns, shed annually.

Disappointing, I know... but what they said, the pronghorn, we're pretty sure, that's what we saw.

**Zebra-cow - That same un-named person finished the phone call with a sarcastic "let me know if you see any ZEBRA." So the next day, as we drove through the plains of Nebraska, we passed a open grid cattle truck. I looked over and saw through the slats, of course, cows. And then I saw a nose, virtually pressed up against the grate watching us pass, and I swear - it was a Zebra.... ok... well I only thought that for about 3 seconds, just long enough to shout "It's a Zebra!" and then come to my senses and spend the next 5 minutes in uproarious laughter. It was of course a cow nose I saw, not a Zebra.... or was it? Or maybe, we had just spent a few too many hours on the road.....