I went on a road trip looking for turkeys on Saturday. The first four pictures are just south of New Castle near a State Wildlife Management Area (WMA). They list turkeys as being hunted there and the state shows it as part of their range, but I didn't' see any turkeys. The big valley is mostly private land with the land between the road and valley being WMA and the surrounding mountains are BLM and NF. More than likely if there are turkeys there they would travel to the state land also. The NWTF was listed along with others as partners with the State in developing the area, so I would guess there are turkeys there on occasion at the least. I'll definitely give it a closer look. When I left there and got on I-70 to drive toward Rifle, I could have swore there was a flock of turkeys in a field just above New Castle on a small plateau. I was driving too fast to stop on the shoulder, but when I came back through I did not see the same spots in the field. I hope they were turkeys.

I drove on to Rifle and stopped at Timberline Outdoors and bought a couple Primos Videos (Elk and Turkey) . I've been having the shakes not watching any new videos lately. I then drove to Rifle Gap Lake which can be seen in the next two photos. I stopped into the State Park office there and met a guy from Mississippi that has lived near Grand Junction for three years. He was trying to find out about the fishing. He said he wasn't much of a hunter but loved to fish. If the guys in Avon think I have an accent, they ought to here someone from southern MS talk. I enjoyed talking to the guy. He had actually lived in Mt Carmel, IL for a couple years a while back.

I then drove north of the lake on a county road which can be seen in the last four photos. There were a few fields that looked like they could have turkeys in them, but there aren't many trees for them to roost in like I had hoped. I did see several Mule Deer and a few cow Elk, but no turkeys. I also saw a Golden Eagle, just off the side of the road, feeding on a deer that had probably been hit by a vehicle. I tried to stop and get a picture but it flew off when I made the sudden stop. The magpies swarmed the carcass when the Eagle flew off. This country was nice, but I probably won't find many turkeys there, so I'll try other areas.

I did see one of the worst sights I've ever seen while driving down I-70. I spotted a mule deer doe in the median that was standing with here head low, so I figured she had just been hit. When I got up to her, everything behind her ribcage had been ripped open and was hanging out of her. I wish I could have stopped and put her down quickly, rather than her standing there dieing like that. When I came back through a couple hours later, she was laying there dead.

Other than the doe on the interstate and driving out a tank of gas, it was a pretty good trip. I got to see some beautiful country and bought two new videos and one map.