Really in the West Now!

We left Gillette WY Saturday about noon time headed west to Ten Sleep, WY about 130 miles further west toward Yellowstone.  Vick and Susan, some dear friends we met at the Escapee Rally recommended we visit this area which is in the prairie between the Big  Horn mountains and Yellowstone.  They described several places to visit that would be interesting and not convenient if we went directly to Yellowstone as we had planned.

The first spectacular site was the trip itself.  As soon as we left Gillette we could tell the road was rising toward the clouds overhead.  They were not coming down; we were going up.  We followed I-90 to Buffalo, then we took US 16.

Big Horn Mountains in the distance

On I-90 we could see the mountains in the distance getting closer and closer.  Those white spots near the tops came into better view and it was not warm looking.  Snow remained from last year.  At Buffalo I-90 turned from an E-W route to a more northerly route and we got off on US 16 headed west..  We went through town and immediately started doing some serious climbing.  Buffalo was was at 4,600 ft and we were headed for Powder River Pass at 9,666 ft!!

Lucy at Powder River Pass

Forty miles later and much mind blowing beautiful scenery we arrived at Power River Pass.  Lucy climbed those mountains pulling the Grey Ghost like it was Florida flatlands (well nearly)!
BJ was so absorbed with the beautiful scenery she forgot about her role as the backseat driver!  We stopped for some pictures at the pass, no snow was there.  We could see it at higher elevations surrounding us.

As beautiful as the climb up was, the ride down was even more so.  The western slope of the Big Horn Mountains is dramatically different then the eastern slope.  Much higher and steeper cliffs, nearly vertical drops from the top.

The road down the Big Horns

Meadowlark Lake created by dam built by CCC!

It was only about 20 miles down to Ten Sleep which is at same elevation as Buffalo, just on the other side of the mountains!!

Some of the steep cliffs on the western slope of Big Horns

We are at a nice campground in Ten Sleep.  We walked through town after we got setup in the campground.  It is less then a 10 min walk from the west end of town to the east end of town!! 

How did the town get its unusual name?  Stay tuned for the official explanation!!  Next!!


Always at home, no matter where we are!!

Wonderful, wide, wild WY!!

Devils Tower from the bottom - did not make it to the top!

One of the many overlooks that day!

We had a fabulous day going about 30miles from campground to Devils Tower. Most of the way was on gravel roads thru the mountains. Beautiful, scenic, steep (sometimes) mountains ALWAYS with beautiful scenery. At Warrens Peak @ 6800 ft we could see Devils Tower (about 5100 ft)  below us in the distance. Magnificent scenery, stunning landscape, wonderful weather all come together to make a great visit. Also, BJ just reminded me of the cattle we kept running into (not literally) along these gravel roads in the hills. This is what I guess they call open range.

Our camping spot in the National Forsest

One of the trails we hiked in the Black Hills

Cattle roam around at their will. We had number of them stare us down as we went by them as they stood on the shoulder of the road.
As I said we had a fabulous day and are looking forward to tomorrow. We had planned on staying only a few days, mainly to see Devils Tower, but ended up extending thru Saturday when we have to move on to Gillette to the RV rally we have been planning on since April!