Pasture trails

There are no roads in pastures.

I take that back...there are a few roads, but most of the roads you make yourself. Pasture roads aren't paved and seldom are maintained unless you have an oil or gas well, and then the oil or gas company usually builds a road and maintains it. This is not a maintained road, but it is a pasture road...or trail.

When you drive in a pasture, over time, your vehicle leaves ruts. Especially when it rains. When the ruts get too deep, you just scoot over and make a new trail. And when that new trail has ruts that are too deep, you slide over again--if you can. Sometimes you can't because of cliffs or fence rows and such.

That's what folks did on the Sante Fe Trail too--when the ruts were too rough or too deep or too muddy, they'd just slide over and start over. In fact, if you go somewhere to specifically look at the ruts from the Sante Fe Trail...it looks just like this--except the ruts a little narrower and closer together.

Notice those curvy squiggles in the ruts on the far right side above? Those aren't tire ruts...those are cattle ruts, or a cattle trail.While cattle tend to walk in a straight line one behind another, they will also jog around an obstacle too. Who knows what the obstacle was here, it could have been a fresh cow patty, or a snake, or a mud hole. You never know when you're dealing with cattle.

I can tell you, it takes an entirely different set of skills to drive in a pasture. You most certainly don't want to get off the current trail and slip into one of the older trails...especially if you are driving a car and not a pickup. But, it's an adventure. Try it sometime.