Bighorns & Cody

We left South Dakota in our rear view mirror and  headed into Wyoming.  We went through Gillette Wyoming home to one of the largest coal mines in the world.  Between coal, methane gas and oil this region of the US produces one sixth of our energy needs, that's pretty amazing.  Our real destination showed up a little later as we were travelling up I-90.  Here they are, the Bighorn Mountains.

The road up was quite a trip.  It gains about five thousand feet and comes complete with hairpin turns and steep grades.  This is where we were just starting up.

The trip up was well worth it when we reached the top.  After climbing over the pass you drop down into a huge basin that encompasses a large part of the Bighorn range.  We chose a site in the Bighorn National Forest at one of the Forest Service campgrounds called Tie Flume.  It sits at about 8400 feet and is beautiful.  Here is the view out the back window of the Dancer.

This is a little closer view of the stream running behind our campsite.

Marcia and I took a hike up the stream and found quite a bit of snow remaining in places.

Marcia encounter this crazy mountain man while walking along the stream.

This area was a real treasure.  What made it even better was the fact that since trash services had not begun yet and the water was not turned on it was free.  Now that is my kind of campground, beautiful and free.  Here is a photo as we approached our site from along the stream.

Here is another shot showing the Dancer in our site.

Sadly the next morning we had to leave and continue our journey.  There is an old saying that goes what goes up must come down.  Yep the road down was just as steep and winding as the one going up.

We headed on west to Cody, Wyoming.  It is a nice town at the base of the Rocky Mountains  named after Buffalo Bill Cody.  It is the home of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, www.bbhc.org, which I would deem a must see attraction for anyone travelling in this area.

We had this beautiful rainbow to send us on our way as we left Cody headed towards Yellowstone.