Marty’s photo of the day #4811: I got to make use of my new wide-angle lens for this shot. Unfortunately, even a good lens can’t properly show depth when reproduced on a flat surface.
When my wife Deb, dog Nellie, and I were at the American Prairie last week, we tried to hike places and do things we hadn’t done the previous two times we were there, while mixing in a few old favorites too. On one day, we drove a steep two-track road partway up a mountain, intending to park the truck and repeat a previous year’s hike east on an overgrown rancher’s road and then cut to the top of the mountain, looking south over the main valley. Instead, we took the wrong overgrown rancher’s road and ended up climbing to the top of a different part of the same mountain but looking north. The view we were originally headed for was amazing, but not as spectacular as this surprise view of the Missouri River Breaks—its depth much deeper than it looks in this picture. After shooting this photo, we walked a little further and had a picnic at the edge of a cliff. I was so glad I brought along Nellie’s leash! We generally leave her off-leash, but I would have been a mess with her prancing around at the edge of a 200-foot drop!