One doesn’t need to travel far on Highway 83 north of Bismarck to see a pair of these behemoths scooping overburden away from the two coal seams supplying Coal Creek Station. While I have crawled around this mine with my camera before, I don’t recall being on the draglines. I’ve climbed around on draglines at other mines, and it’s a blast, but these are even bigger yet!

Photography is about being at the right place at the right time, and that’s how this photo came into being. The sun was just setting as I came up good ol’ 83 in my truck. I’d been eyeballing everything on either side of the road the entire time, looking for photo opportunities, and this one was not about to escape! I found an approach on which to park, sauntered over to the fence line, and here we are. I have a bunch of different angles and zooms, of course…but this one highlights the sun’s rays streaming from behind the clouds the best.