Utah Cattle Drive

I idolize cowboys. When I was in 6^th grade, we had this reading assignment where we had to read 1000 pages of any one genre of books. Reading material was a little scarce at the time, so I read my dad's entire collection of Louis L'Amour westerns. I've never been the same. My favorite movie is, you guessed it, The Cowboys, and yes, John Wayne is in it. I wanted to be a rancher when I grew up. 

So you will understand how excited I was when we heard cattle mooing and dogs barking while we were hiking up Hobble Creek Canyon with the kids. We had stopped to let them climb a fallen tree, when I noticed the dog being very interested in the trail back down. Then I heard it too. I looked at Mark and shouted “a cattle drive! They're bringing the cows out of the mountains!” I threw the baby in the backpack and jog-bounced my way down the trail as fast as I could.

Hello Beef

I rounded a corner and then slid to a stop because the cows weren't on the road heading out of the mountains, they were on the trail heading back into the mountains. And holy crap, my 5-year old and 8-year old were running right towards them. “Get off the trail,” I screamed at them, “get behind a tree.” They listened to me the first time for once, and started moving back, while I jog-bounced my way to them, trying to pull the camera out at the same time. I know, I'm a great mom.

Hello Horsie

There were cows and cow dogs and cow horses everywhere – and, yes, cowboys on the cow horses.

They all did their best to keep the cows away from us, but I think the cows were spooked by all the munchkins. They wouldn't come near us.

The cowboy with the cowboy mustache told me they were pushing the cows to their last fall grazing spot, before taking them out of the mountains for the winter. Then he told me to have a good day, and I think he tipped his hat at me, but that may be my imagination in retrospect.

I should have asked him for his autograph. I mean, they're a dying breed!

 

I told my kids they'd better remember that for the rest of their lives. From the looks on their faces, I'm pretty sure they will.