The Flickr Watfordcity Image Generatr

Plains prickly pear cactus are quite common in western North Dakota, a fact I learned quickly out in the grasslands when I first moved here in 2014 after nearly placing my knee upon a small one hidden in the grass. These hardy cacti survive the long subzero winters quite well and range well north into Canada. I found this clump blooming this past June (6-26-2024) at the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Early autumn in the north unit of TRNP was already brown and trees were mostly stripped of leaves by several windy days. In just over a month, all of this maze of canyons and bluffs would be highlighted with snow, long before the official arrival of winter. (10-12-2024)

A view from Forest Service Road #852 looking down into the Little Missouri badlands and the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park yesterday as winter weather arrived in western North Dakota. Low clouds, wind and a skin-stinging mixture of rain, snow and sleet set the mood for the day before completely changing to a wet snow as the temperatures hovered just below the freezing mark. (11-16-2024)

Been in a creative rut this year and neither gear nor software is going to solve that, obviously. Please do not adjust your set... Please stand by... lol ;)

I found this laying across Forest Service Road #852 a few days ago (9-3-2024) after a brief jaunt along the northern border of the north unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The smoke from Canada was becoming bad on this day and the light was less than spectacular, so I didn't roam much farther than here after I completed some errands in Watford City. In fact, I have not been able to shoot anything since my July images in Casper, for I was too busy with work and finding a new apartment after a fire in another unit of the building in which I lived (zero damage to my unit, thankfully!).

This bullsnake was stretched across half of the scoria-gravel road and probably in the neighborhood of five feet in length. They are rather common here and sometimes confused with the prairie rattlers that also reside in this region (generally southwest of the Missouri River, especially in and around the badlands). They will often "rattle" their tails by keeping them on the ground in the surrounding vegetation and flatten their heads while adopting a rattlesnake-like posture to scare away perceived threats. This one was probably not happy I was near at hand taking images and disappeared quite rapidly when I made the short walk to the car to change lenses. They can and will bite but only as a last defense. I'll pass on that risk of infection, though, and stick with shooting these from a safe distance!

This is more of a snapshot than anything overly photogenic, thus I've only posted this to a handful of the North Dakota groups. Something to share until I regain some creativity and inspiration. :)