Seven Months On The Road - What? It's Done Already?

 The Green River, a tributary of the Colorado River, flows through the Flaming Gorge. The Flaming Gorge was given it's name due to the spectacular red sandstone cliffs that surround this part of the river. In 1964, the Flaming Gorge Dam was finished and created a reservoir that is about 90 miles long. Located in both Wyoming and Utah, the gorge is a major recreation area for fisherpeople, rafters and hikers. There happens to be a scenic drive that surrounds the reservoir (lucky for me).

Westward Ho!

Greetings from Nebraska, land of corn fields and endless flatness......NOT!!! Northwestern Nebraska was surprising in how hilly it was. Instead of the cornfields, we had acres and acres of grassland. I think this area must be every steer's idea of heaven and there were a lot of them living the dream.

I did make once last foray back into Wyoming to see Fort Laramie. Fort Laramie started out life as a trading post, but in 1849, the Army bought the post and renamed it Fort Laramie. This was the time when hordes of people were heading west, through Indian country and the Fort was where all of the trails (California, Oregon and Mormon) converged. We had gold seekers, homesteaders and people fleeing from religious persecution all coming through the Fort. There were also many treaties between the Indians and the U.S. Government signed and subsequently broken. Interesting fact: Northern Plains Indians (Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho) rarely attacked wagon trains. All those westerns I watched as a kid were, dare I say, lies. 

Built as the Commanding Officer's quarters, this building became a duplex for company-grade officers.

Calvary barracks 1874

There was a room which had copies of many of the treaties signed between the U.S. government and the native peoples.  Several of them had a clause in the treaty called the 'Bad Men Clause'

If bad men among the whites, or among other people subject to the authority of the United States, shall commit any wrong upon the person or property of the Indians, the United States will, upon proof made to the agent and forwarded to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington city procced at once to cause the offender to be arrested and punished according to the laws of the United States, and also reimburse the injured person for the loss sustained.

This was signed in 1868.  The first claim filed was in 1970.  

As all of these emigrants came across the endless prairie, one of the first landmarks they came across was Chimney Rock. It became a symbol that these travelers were now 1/3 of the way on their journey westward.

The next landmark, 25 miles west was Scott's Bluff, named after Hiram Scott. Hiram was with a bunch of his pals when he became sick. His buddies decided to go on without him and a year later, when his bones were found, Hiram got this large land mass named after him. There was a road built up to the top of the bluff and Miko and I found our way up there. After we got past all of the signs warning us to watch out for rattlesnakes, we followed a couple of small trails around the top of the bluff. Signs told us that as we looked west, we would be able to see the Rockies and if we looked east, we could see Chimney Rock. It was a little bit hazy, so we had to use our imaginations. 

Scotts Bluff was right out the front window of the RV

View from the top

This was a surveyor's post that was hammered into the rock in 1933.  

They say that the top of it was level with the rock and this is how much the rock has eroded in the last 90 some years

One of the stops I had to make was to the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. I wasn't too keen on the idea, I mean I had just been to the Fossil Butte National Monument in Wyoming. How many fossils can a poor girl see? Turns out that Agate Fossil Beds was quite a bit different. Fossil Butte was from an earlier time era, therefore most of the fossils were of fish or perhaps small mammals. Agate was from the Miocene era which was only about 19 million years ago. Much larger mammals roamed the earth during this time period. There were pony-sized rhinoceros creatures and a carnivore called a beardog, among others.

One of the interesting fossils were not of specific animal but of a burrow. There were Palaeocaster which was a dry land beaver. They built these corkscrew burrows which eventually filled with sand and were preserved. 

A rather amazing discovery was a bone bed. Hundreds of bones of different species were all in this bone bed. Scientists speculate that there was a small shallow watering hole. The animals would come to drink and then start eating the vegetation around the pond. As they ate more, they had to go farther and farther away from the pond until eventually they had grown too weak to make the trip to eat and get back to the water. Essentially, they think all these animals died of starvation.

While all this was interesting, the best part of the place was the James H. Cook exhibit. Cook was a rancher who in the 1870s thru the early 1900s befriended the Upper Plains Indians. They gave him many gifts over the years along with the stories about the gift. There was a war club that had been in a specific battle with Army soldiers and the story about how the club's owner had hand to hand combat with an officer and his saber. The war club won the battle. 

This is a hairbrush created from a porcupine's tail.

Picture Stones

On leaving Big Horn Canyon, I headed south. It was starting to get cold, in fact I heard that the Black Hills had gotten a little snow. I drove into the Wind River Indian Reservation and my socks were totally blown off. Wind River Canyon has got to be one of the most beautiful canyons in the United States and to think I found it by accident. A curvy road between two massive walls of rock with a river flowing right down the center of the canyon. I am really sorry that there was no time to take pictures- I really was awed. There were even three tunnels. I pulled over before the first tunnel to scope it out, since they were such narrow tunnels, it would have been heart-stopping to meet another vehicle in the dark.

I safely proceeded thru the tunnels and continued on to the Wind River Casino where I spent the night. Can you imagine my delight when I found out that Tuesday was senior night and you got a free meal in the restaurant? I joined my other gray-hairs, sat down and had a totally bland stewed chicken breast, mashed potatoes, roll and a carrot medley that had been boiled to an inch of their lives. I guess it is good to see what my future might look like.at

Leaving the casino, I headed to Kemmerer in the southwestern corner of Wyoming. Somebody told met that there was always snow in Kemmerer and it was a long way up to get there. They were not kidding – I think that I spent maybe over an hour just heading up the mountain, parts of which were pretty steep. At one point, I had shifted down to second and was going about 25 miles per hour. That is all my RV could give me, poor thing. When I got to the top, I stopped at a rest stop to give myself and my RV a chance to rest. At this point, there were tremendous cross winds. It was a long hard day.

The attractions in Kemmerer was two-fold. First up was a JC Penney store – the very first one. Kemmerer is where it all started. The store is still in business, it still has some of the original store fixtures from 1902. 

They call it the Mother Store

Fossil Butte National Monument is right by Kemmerer. Back in the olden days (fifty-two million years ago), a shallow lake covered this area. A thick growth of algae coated the bottom and when a creature died, it sank to the bottom, was covered by algae and because of this it never had a chance to decay or be eaten by creatures. They estimate that there are over a billion (yes, I said billion) well preserved fossils here. Millions of fossils have already been excavated. We have plant fossils, mammal fossils, birds, insects, spiders and over 20 kinds of fish. Again, I was amazed at much detail you could see in the fossils.

Check out the size of that Palm frond

Look at the detail

There was a scenic drive which I started off on but realized when I got to the sign that said 17% grade that my car, mighty though it is, would not be able to continue.  We turned around.

The fossils are all found in that light colored rock up at the top.  That used to be the bottom of the lake.

This was one of my Junior Ranger tasks - Move over Picasso!!

This is somebody's back yard near the RV park.  Evidently fences don't mean much here.  There was one buck and 23 does and youngsters.  Mr. Pronghorn kept trying to get all his girls rounded up, but they weren't listening to him much.

And another back yard.  

Camping In Wyoming; Hiking In Montana

Colleen and Pete live on the east side of the Big Horn Mountains. I needed to get to the west side. There are several ways to get across the mountains. One of them is what the locals call the 'Oh My God Hill'. There are many long miles of 10% grade,with switchback curves and cliffs which is definitely not something you want to do in a big RV. I have heard some of the locals say that it is even scary to do in a car. My choice was to go around the southern end of the Big Horn mountains but even then I had to go down some hefty hills and hairpin turns. The scenery was pretty impressive, what I could see out of the corner of my eye. I am actually pretty proud of myself for getting over the mountain

I got to Big Horn Canyon National Recreation Area. Big Horn Canyon is between the Pryor Mountains on the west and the Big Horn Mountains on the east. Part of the Recreation Area is in Wyoming and part of it is in Montana.  The walls of the canyon rise over a thousand feet above the Big Horn River. Most people come here to play on the 71 mile long lake created by the Yellowtail Dam. I had come for the hiking and the rocks.

The Pryor Mountains are home to the first National Wild Horse Range which was established in 1968. There are about 90-120 wild horses that are managed by the Bureau of Land Management. I saw a small herd but they were just sort of hanging out. Not very exciting.

I stayed in the campground in the park and my views were outstanding. The first night I was there, the winds were so ferocious that you could hardly stand upright. I had never felt the RV shake so much. Miko and I drove out to do some hiking from the campground. Big Horn Canyon is one of the few national sites that allow dogs on the trails. While Miko seem to enjoy being out and about, I think the rocks were a little hard on her feet. This is one rocky place.

View out the front of the RV

Looking another direction in the campground

Here is the campground - not too busy at all - see my rig on the right side

One evening, I took the Mouth of the Canyon trail that left from the campground. All of sudden, as I approached the edge of the canyon, two golden eagles flew up right in front of me. They had been perched on a ledge right below the trail. They were no more than twenty feet away from me. These eagles are huge, their wing span in bigger than a human's wing span and they were so close. I have never seen golden eagles before - what a way to see them. One of them even came back and flew over me again, either mad at me for disturbing them or checking out if Miko and I might be possible meals. 

Following are pictures of the canyon from various hikes. Where ever you looked, there was something different to see. Too bad that it was so cloudy out.  

On the Sullivan's Knob hike looking back at my poor lonely little car

You always have to close with a sunset

The Devil Is In The Details

I spent five days in the Black Hills. I took some incredible pictures, it is one of those beautiful spots that Mother Earth gives us. Unfortunately, I had some technical difficulties where my photos were not transferring to the blog. Being the Germanic, everything must be in the proper order of my brain, I have not been posting any blog updates as I tried to work through this technical issues. Unfortunately, I have yet to resolve those issues, so I will have to skip the Black Hills and move on. Hopefully, I will be able to come back to blog about this because of course I have some incredible photos.

I moved on to Devil's Tower, Wyoming. Tony and I had visited it sometime in the nineties, but the memory is weak. I don't remember it having the impact on me then that it did as I drove up to it this time. I strongly felt the need to go watch the movie 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' immediately. There was a campground down the road that actually showed that movie every night at 8:00 pm. My campsite was incredible, right out my front window I had a view of the tower. It was a powerful sight. The tower rises about 850 feet from it's base. About 4,000 people climb it every year. During my Junior Ranger quest here, I learned all about modern day climbing techniques.

The Kiowa people say:

“Eight children were there at play, seven sisters and their brother. Suddenly the boy was struck dumb; he trembled and began to run upon his hands and feet. His fingers became claws, and his body was covered with fur. Directly there was a bear where the boy had been. The sisters were terrified; they ran and the bear after them they came to a stump of a great tree, and the tree spoke to them. It bade them climb upon it, and as they did so it began to rise into the air. The bear came to kill them, but they were just beyond its reach. It reared against the tree and scored the bark all around with its claws. The seven sisters were borne into the sky, and they became the star of the Pleiades.”

Looking Up

LookingDown

This campground was primitive, meaning that there were no hookups of any kind – no water, no electricity. There is a marked difference between these type of campgrounds and the traditional RV park. To me, it seems like people are just more open and friendly. In the RV parks, generally everybody just stays inside their RV, watch TV and they do not interact with their surroundings at all. Devil's Tower campground was not very big, if you were walking around the campground, it might take you about 10-15 minutes. I found I could never make the loop in less than an hour. There were always people reaching out and wanting to chat. Once it took me two hours. What was also interesting was the number of solo women travelers. When I started traveling, maybe five years ago, I was sort of an anomaly. Not anymore. Women are out and getting it done. 

One of my neighbors.  I'm seeing many more of these roof tents.  

The little black structure contained his shower and toilet. Oh, and his trailer had his Harley.

My next stop was Buffalo Wyoming, a small town about a half hour south of Sheridan. I had a friend there that I wanted to visit with. Colleen and her husband Pete had recently left North Dakota, bought a ranch and retired out in the wilds of Wyoming. Bonus, they had a couple of Icelandic horses – Bokki and Skeesa. 

Google was directing me to their place and told me to turn down this tiny little gravel road. I had to cross several cow guards and the road was uneven and narrow. I was a little worried about the road so I went extremely slow. By the time I found their place, my RV had overheated and was red-lining. Those of you who remember my travels last January will remember that I had an overheating problem and had to replace the radiator and several other things. This could not be happening to me again. At least this time, I had a safe place to be, Colleen and Pete were so gracious. Pete knew several trusted mechanics in the area and I was not all on my own. 

Turns out that back in January, when Crain Buick did some massive repairs on my RV, they forgot to put my fan shroud back on. My engine would not overheat when I am going fast down the freeway, but on a 95 degree day when I am putzing along some little gravel road, a fan shroud is a necessity. I called Crain Buick in Arkansas and told them what had happened. Can you believe they said, 'send us the bill, we will send you a check'. They made a mistake and a whole nine months later, they are taking care of it. How incredibly ethical is that? 

So, instead of the one night I was planning on spending in Buffalo, I ended up staying five nights. I was fed, I was driven around, I got to ride Icelandic horses – how great is that? I even got to do a factory tour of a woolen mill which was fascinating. There were tons of pronghorn antelopes and mule deer everyday to watch. It was absolutely lovely and a very pleasant place to stay. A very special thanks to Colleen and Pete for putting up with Miko and me. 

Bokki, Colleen and Skeesa

Miko learning how to be a ranch dog from her Springer friend Tessie

Wool before it has been cleaned - rather nasty looking stuff.  

It has to go through five different vats of water before it becomes white and fluffy.

You ain't nobody without a cowboy hat - Garrett and Pete

The Occidental Hotel bar - I think everybody in town was there

The herd and the view

Wide Open Spaces