babyfood1217
Observer
Wrapping up day 3 in the Bighorn Range of Wyoming
Well, the drive from Devils Tower to the Bighorns started out amazing. Beautiful landscape and perfect weather. Before getting to Buffalo, WY the scrub desert appeared pretty hard and it just made you daydream about wandering through it, with nothing in sight.
Leaving Buffalo, we realized it was getting pretty late in the day. The Bighorns weren't to far away, but we both started to get a little anxious. We had our USA truckers atlas, which wasn't that detailed, and cell/web reception was shoddy at best. We felt comfortable going into the mountains and camping wilderness style, but doing it in the dark was not going to be fun.
But it happened. The tiny entrance town into the Bighorns was pretty much asleep when we rolled through. It wasn't that late, but it was getting dark... fast. To top it off, the first handfull of miles were at a grade that my loaded 4runner with trailer did NOT appreciated. 3rd gear, 25-35 mph, white knuckled grip on the wheel with the hopes we would make it. What a rush... sort of.
Getting through the first grade took quite a while, and luckily, oh-so luckily, Michelle started noticing signs for a NFS campground. Woohoo! But where was it? Further into the mountains of course. We actually drove past it at first, but after realizing it, we turned around, in a corner, in the dark, and made it back. Took a tiny fire road down along a creekbed and half expecting to be greeted by death, the lights played upon a campground check-in post! We made!
After having our camp neighbors (who were impaired, likely stoned, and probably swingers) give us welcome firewood, we got the tent setup, soup in the pot, and some cheap whiskey in our bellies. What a day.
Day 4 - Bighorn Mountains, WY to Yellowstone, WY
And what a night! We had no idea what sort of temperature drop we were in for that night, but the frost all around us when we awoke drove home WHY we had slept so poorly...
But once the sun pulled over the beyond peaks and starting thawing everything, gosh what a site it was...
In our backyard was this amazing creek. How great would it be to just a pack a bag and follow it, not knowing where it would lead you...
And what did you call it? Hamming it up?
(Yes, I understand I could've made this work by adjusting my f-stop, but my fingers were numb)
"Look out Michelle, a bear!!!"
The sun came on hard as we struck camp, and it was a sign of a great day on great roads through a great state.
Well, the drive from Devils Tower to the Bighorns started out amazing. Beautiful landscape and perfect weather. Before getting to Buffalo, WY the scrub desert appeared pretty hard and it just made you daydream about wandering through it, with nothing in sight.
Leaving Buffalo, we realized it was getting pretty late in the day. The Bighorns weren't to far away, but we both started to get a little anxious. We had our USA truckers atlas, which wasn't that detailed, and cell/web reception was shoddy at best. We felt comfortable going into the mountains and camping wilderness style, but doing it in the dark was not going to be fun.
But it happened. The tiny entrance town into the Bighorns was pretty much asleep when we rolled through. It wasn't that late, but it was getting dark... fast. To top it off, the first handfull of miles were at a grade that my loaded 4runner with trailer did NOT appreciated. 3rd gear, 25-35 mph, white knuckled grip on the wheel with the hopes we would make it. What a rush... sort of.
Getting through the first grade took quite a while, and luckily, oh-so luckily, Michelle started noticing signs for a NFS campground. Woohoo! But where was it? Further into the mountains of course. We actually drove past it at first, but after realizing it, we turned around, in a corner, in the dark, and made it back. Took a tiny fire road down along a creekbed and half expecting to be greeted by death, the lights played upon a campground check-in post! We made!
After having our camp neighbors (who were impaired, likely stoned, and probably swingers) give us welcome firewood, we got the tent setup, soup in the pot, and some cheap whiskey in our bellies. What a day.
Day 4 - Bighorn Mountains, WY to Yellowstone, WY
And what a night! We had no idea what sort of temperature drop we were in for that night, but the frost all around us when we awoke drove home WHY we had slept so poorly...
But once the sun pulled over the beyond peaks and starting thawing everything, gosh what a site it was...
In our backyard was this amazing creek. How great would it be to just a pack a bag and follow it, not knowing where it would lead you...
And what did you call it? Hamming it up?
(Yes, I understand I could've made this work by adjusting my f-stop, but my fingers were numb)"Look out Michelle, a bear!!!"
The sun came on hard as we struck camp, and it was a sign of a great day on great roads through a great state.
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