Bill & Jan's Excellent Adventure: The Bighorns, kind of a long post

What a fantastic time we had exploring the Bighorn Mountains out of Buffalo, WY! As I said we just wanted to poke around the setting of CJ Box's books about Joe Pickett, and explore we did, 2- 250 mile days almost entirely on dirt and gravel, and it was worth it.

On our first day we wanted to just make a big loop, and what was made apparent to us after 50 miles or so, Wyoming is big. We realized that our planned loop was going to be way too big, so we shortened it a little bit. We went from Buffalo over to Ten Sleep, a spot much mentioned in the books, then took mostly dirt roads back up north and around to Sheridan and down to Buffalo.

The terrain is constantly changing, from rolling grasslands to rocky mountains to pine covered hills and valleys. It was terrific.

The Bighorns in the distance

At the top of Powder River Pass 9666'

Rocky relief

We cut around and enjoyed lunch in a little spot in Ten Sleep. Lots of farming and ranching. Cattle and sheep were abundant, and isn't it amazing what irrigation can do?

Beautiful valley

Our thoroughfare

Just add water!

We saw a sign for Medicine Lodge Archeological Site, and decided to make a little detour. It was a picturesque spot that has been inhabited for 12,000 years. Many pictographs and petroglyphs dot the sandstone walls.

They had a very interesting display depicting time in the form of distance. The far end represents 12,000 years ago when humans lived here all the way up to present with signs showing significant events along the way. It shows modern man is just a speck in the continuum. This is also why I'm skeptical of man caused climate change. In fact if there hadn't been almost continuous climate change over the years a lot of America would still be either under water or covered with ice! I digress.

The far end is 12,000 years, I'm standing at the birth of Jesus Christ

And of course for humans to have lived here there had to be a water supply and it's a crystal clear babbling stream.

Clear as a bell

Beautiful spot, yeah I think that picnic table was used by the ancients

So off we went after walking a short nature hike. The road wound around up and over the hills.

Nice ride

Our road in the distance

We eventually joined paved roads again and all of a sudden we both yelled at the same time.....STOP! Now we have seen many, many animals in our traveling time, but there are two we haven't seen much of or at all. The one we have never seen in the wild is the mountain lion, and the other with very few sightings is bull moose. Well here are 3 huge bull moose all together!

3 baby, count em

Big guys

Lunch time

After that very cool sighting we are almost back to Sheridan when we catch sight of a helicopter with a water bucket going down towards a lake to fill up. Pretty neat. We watched him fill up a couple times and fly up on the mountainside to what looked like a very recent fire.

Almost there

Full!

There's the fire

So that finished our day. Fabulous.

The next day we chilled out and saved the Hole in the Wall for the last day. What a deal getting there, all in all 90 miles from the campground and half of it on dirt, sort of.

Our route

This makes the interstate portion a little better:-)

The beginning of our off pavement

Hills along the way

Road deteriorating

Now we had read that the Hole in the Wall is on private property and you had to hike the last 2.5 miles into it. We left at 8 am hoping to beat the daytime heat, but it kept getting warmer. The last 10 miles had 7 gates we had to open and close along the way, and by then the road was more a path.

The road??

We have company

Lots of company

Someone's dream home in the middle of nowhere?

In fact, as we head west on our trips Jan and I compete to see who will see the first antelope, and we were well into North Dakota before we saw even one, since then we have seen hundreds and hundreds, with all the farming around, good food is plentiful!

So finally we make it to the Hole in the Wall, by now it is 95 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. We've got a really good view from the parking area, so should we do the hike? It starts straight down, through a small stream, and right back up the other side all in the first half mile or so?

The Hole in the Wall

Parked thinking about the hike, or a Dodge Ram commercial?

So we learned our lesson as we went against common sense, when we decided we would at least hike part of the way to get a closer view of the Hole in the Wall. They used to drive cattle right down the crease in the wall. So down we went, straight down, through thistles and raspberry bushes, through the stream, and right back up the other side, and up and up until we got a view, knowing very well that we had made a mistake, AND realizing we had to go back the same way. Too frigging hot!

As close as we got, picture cattle and horses going down the crease in the wall

A beautiful spot

We managed to get back, but Jan was really in distress, overheated and red as a beet. We cooled off in the AC of the truck, yes we were drinking tons of water. Realized it was a stupid thing to do in the absolute middle of nowhere, no one around, and of course no cell phone coverage. Won't do that again!

So we worked our way back, still had 80-100 miles of dirt to go. Found a spot for our picnic lunch that wasn't too shabby.