This week, Beth of Wandering Dawgs invites us to travel on those back roads of the world in which we live. She writes in part, “To me, a back country road can be any road that’s off the beaten track. The road can be paved, gravel or dirt. It can be one that takes you through farmland, desert, forests, quaint small towns, or in the middle of nowhere. It may even be one with quirky roadside attractions or funny signs you see along the way.” You can read her entire challenge post here.

As one who spends time in one of our least populace states, I have found over the years many back country roads to explore. I opened this challenge response with this view of an abandoned house along a road near the ghost town of Sims, North Dakota.

As a traveler by avocation, I’ve found myself wandering many back roads like this winding country road through rural North Carolina. In fact, as I am writing this post, my wife and I are near Durango Colorado having just taken some roads through some beautiful country on our way from the Denver area. Highways 285, 212, and 160, are gorgeous, but they are hardly back roads.

I am sharing this post along with an apology to my blogging friends whose blogs I read regularly. We have a busy schedule this week and I am taking some early morning time to finish off this post. In a short time, we will be off to spend a day trip at Mesa Verde National Park.

We are going to be on the road for a total of 10 days or so wandering the western states looking for interesting places to visit and share with you. I sign off with thanks to Beth for the chance to share some of my back roads images and an invitation to you to click on any of the images for a visit to my Flickr page for a closer look at my gallery.

I had more images to share, but my Internet connection is not the best out here in the back country. There are more images for this challenge on my Flickr site. My regular posts are scheduled, and will publish on time, and we’ll be back home in time for next week’s photo challenge.

John Steiner