Wild Horses

We, Charles and I, were very blessed to be able to share trips and vacations with my parents. One such trip, my folks and my Aunt Sue came out to Montana to stay with us near Red Lodge. They wanted to see the Custer's Last Stand site and all of that....so Aunt Sue, Mom, Dad and I headed out one hot, dusty August day...(Charles stayed at home working on a paper for his Masters.)

After touring the site, the museum and the military cemetery...we had a picniclunch and Mom and Aunt Sue started talking about how someone (drat that someone) had told them about the wild horses of the region.

Did I know where these wild horses ran?

No.

(And it was getting very hot, and Dad and I wanted to head home....an hour's drive away.)

Could I find out where the wild horses were?

I couldn't hardly ever tell my Mom no...so I headed into the local post office to ask..and was shown small roads leading into a high plateau where I was assured that *sometimes* the horses could be seen.

Armed with this dubious information....we headed out. Only to find the "road" we were traveling on was a small, pitted dirt road headed through an almost uninhabited region of the huge reservation and state land. (One ran into the other.) My aunt, very protective of her car...didn't want to drive fast. 15 mph was a good speed...I looked at the directions...we weren't getting home anytime soon.

I checked the cell to call Charles to tell him of this "adventure." No signal. Great.

About an hour of slow driving in...a rain storm hit....a deluge of water, turning everything to mud. We had to slow down even further....but, with Montana weather, it was sunny again in 15 minutes.

Finally...finally we saw some horses up on a hill.

Now...I noticed that there was a fence...and the horses seemed pretty used to people...but Mom and Aunt Sue were ecstatic.

Wild Horses!

Get out of the car and go look closer...oh they must be wild horses!

On a high Montana plateau outside of the Beartooth Mountains. How exciting.

Take pictures...lots of pictures!

I leaned over to Dad and said quietly..."I think they're just tame horses. Probably for that ranch we passed a while ago"

"Not today," Dad replied. "Not today. Today...they're are the wildest horses in Montana."