Summer in the High Country

Edition 35                      22″H X 15″W X 12″D                      $4,800

“This past summer, I took a pack trip with horses to the high country in the Bob Marshall Wilderness hoping to develop an idea for an elk sculpture.  Our spring/summer was an uncommonly wet period finding us crossing snow fields as we rode.  There was also evidence of a serious fire from several years ago on the steep hillsides leaving ghostly remnants of a once mature forest.  These fires serve nature’s cycle of spreading the wealth by eliminating the non-profitable under-growth creating lush hillsides rich in nutrients for grazing and browsing elk.  Especially when the feed is so plentiful, the big bulls will keep to the high country in small bands of bachelors well into late summer.  Then, crisp, frosty mornings will signal the changing of seasons sending the elk to lower valley to begin mating rituals.  I ended my trip with bragging stories of good fly fishing and with ideas to keep me busy all winter.”