Just what are back country roads? Could they be roads that are new to you and fun to explore? Could they be taking a wrong turn and ending up on a road that’s barely suitable for driving? For Wandering Dogs, Beth and her husband, it’s getting your tires dirty and seeing the beautiful countryside. So this week she’s challenged us to take that road less traveled.

For me, it means adventure and new roads, paved or not. I’ve mentioned my photo outings with my friend Greg, who passed away, in other posts. He, Marlene and I would set out in the morning and return in time for dinner–maybe! We didn’t know where he was taking us and sometimes neither did he. He had a passion for turning down side roads, especially when it said “Dead End!” These are from some of those trips.

Sometimes it’s the need to get away for an hour or two. Early on during lockdown last year, I was getting antsy. When Richard noticed me scratching at the front door, screaming “Let me out!” (A slight exaggeration, but true feeling!), he said let’s go for a ride. We didn’t go far; just up Highway 80, looking for small towns. One of these towns was Dutch Flat, and it was small.

  • The garage that housed the hearse.
  • The old hearse.

Another of our escapes had us looking for the Sugar Pine Reservoir. The was one of those times when taking the wrong turn could get you into trouble. The GPS showed us a way back, but it didn’t say how narrow and twisty a dirt road it was. It took us 4 hours to do what should have taken at most 1 hour!

  • We should have taken this as a sign of what was to come!
  • This was the only time I could get out of the car to take a picture!

Photo buddy Jean likes to get in the car and go with sort of an idea of where to head. For this outing we headed out to the Eastern Sierras in search of Fall colors, but Jean smelled water, and off we went. We found a stream and a lake and I don’t remember the name.

  • We found water and pelicans in the stream.
  • The Lake
  • We did find some color.

So these are some of my road less traveled excursions. Yes, there were more, but I’ll save them for another time.

25 thoughts on “Lens Artists Challenge #158: Along Back Country Roads”

  1. Thanks for taking us along on some of your back road adventures! Beautiful scenery and fun things to see along the way. I love the skeleton and the dinosaur! Thanks for participating in the challenge.

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  3. Wandering roads is always fun – until you get stuck who knows where, mired in the mud! That happened to me once, sans camera, but with a big, burly friend. I still remember looking out at the mountains and the muddy road, thinking it could be a beautiful place to die. Then Frank figured it out, and bounced the Camaro, and bounced and bounced it. Off we finally went. It is still a memorable day. I wished at the time I had a camera to record such sites, from the mountains, road, and Frank bouncing the car. Your country roads are similar to what I saw – hence the fond, but distant, memories. Nice work, Anne!

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  4. Those back roads can be an enjoyable journey, or sometimes they don’t turn out as expected. We also had one of those GPS-driven trips through a very bad section of roadway that took us much longer to navigate than expected.
    Still and all, taking the less traveled roads can truly be an adventure, and when one is prudent, they lead to memorable journeys. As you’ve shown here, they led you to some beautiful photographs.

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    1. Thanks Anne! I found out that there are more dinosaurs in that section, but can I find it again? Someday, I’ll take the time to map it out for a photo outing. I like your postings on the Olympics, but I’m not getting notification of them even though I follow your blog. Are these on a separate blog?

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      1. All my posts are always on the Horse Addict blog. I find that I have lost some bloggers I follow and wonder why I am not seeing any posts from them. Then when I go to their blog site I notice I am no longer following them. I have complained about this to WordPress a few times but it still seems to happen. I can’t think of any other reason why the Olympic posts are not appearing for you. Anyway…. that is all I can offer for an explanation.

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  6. I really enjoyed seeing all the sights along your back roads – the dinosaur, the skeleton riding the bicycle (!), the waterfall, the pelicans – all well worth getting off the beaten track to find!

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  8. Lovely travels all Anne – a wonderful tour of some places I bet you couldn’t find again and I surely couldn’t!! Know what you mean about being careful tho – same thing happened to us out west. Lucky we were able to turn around, no way we’d have gotten thru!

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  9. Anne Leueen. I don’t get notification of any of your blogs. I find them in the reader. I checked and I’m still following you. WP won’t even work any more on my laptop! I think they have issues.

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  10. Beautiful images of your back country road. Yuba river shot is great! I love the lake and these pelicans especially, what a nice surprise. 🙂

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