Crazy Woman Canyon Road

I have just moved my number 1 mountain range to the Cloud Peak Wilderness area of the Big Horn Mountains.  Today we road back up into the mountains via the Cloud Peak Scenic Byway (Route 16 right out of Buffalo) and steadily climbed until we found the road called Crazy Woman Canyon Road.  The other day while at Fort Phil Kearny the staff member asked if we had traveled this road yet, 'It's absolutely beautiful, breathtaking - you have to do it!"  And so we did.  But had to turn around after we traveled on a very bumpy, gravelly road, one lane where we had to hug the side and hope that the other car could get by.  We had to turn around when an area ahead of us did not look like our little car should have been on it - so - carefully, Dave turned it around and we headed back.  But what we did see was very pretty.

No smoke in the mountains! Yay!!

Gloria beauty

Narrow single road through canyon

Crazy Woman Creek along side of road

Point where we turned around - got too steep and very rocky

What's with the name of the canyon?  Couple of different legends - the one I like is:  A woman witnessed her family being killed and scalped in front of her, went insane and wandered in the canyon for the rest of her life.  They say that you can hear her wailing if you listen close enough.  The other legend is an Indian woman was left alone in her tipi while the rest of the band left, she went insane from the loneliness.  Regardless - it is a beautiful area.  The canyon was a favorite hiding place for Native Americans who often hid in the canyon to elude their enemy.

We think either elk scat or moose scat

Had to wait for this guy to move - too narrow to pass

Horse trailers parked, did not see them

Camp sights every now and then

We saw signs of scratching on trees and assuming it is from bears.  Did see scat - not sure if it was elk or moose poop.  Stopped at a bridge and marveled at the weight restrictions.  I read a blog of someone who brought their motor home down this road - wondered if they went very, very fast over this bridge!  And how did they do it?  Even though it was not said, a 4 wheel drive, off-road vehicle was needed to do this road, not our dinky little car.  Dave had trouble getting traction to get the car going once he turned around and we headed back up the canyon.

Did not look like it could support a big truck

Marveled at this bridge - the weight restrictions

We think this RV was from Sweden or Norway

Animals All Around Us

Yesterday's high temperature was 93, a tidge warm, but manageable.  There were warnings out for last night and today of high winds, gusting to 50 miles an hour.  And they were spot on.  But, we also saw 'smoke' warnings for today.  Never had seen this before.  Since the winds were out of the north to northwest, the smoke from all the wildfires in Idaho, Montana, and Washington was supposed to filter down through this area.  We had already noticed how bad the visibility was yesterday when we visited Fort Phil Kearny and could only imagine it getting worse.  Buckle up!

Smoky - can't see the Big Horn Mountains

The winds came in, were high, but not damaging.  But thankfully the winds were from the north only and the smoke did not come by us.  The Big Horn Mountains right to the west of Buffalo were capturing all the smoke, thankfully for us it did not drift to us.  What a mess.

Pronghorn antelope - every where you look in fields, they are there.  Lots of them.

Pronghorn Antelope

Another couple of things here at the campground.....the wildlife is incredible.  We are in "Deer Park" campground, and all day, all night the deer are out grazing.  Fun to watch Mom and 2 babies eating.  Grace and Buddy are having a good time too watching them.

Then there are the bunnies.  Lots of them.  One bunny sits right by a tree behind us, sits there for most of the day.  Until a little while ago our neighbor's small little yapper dog got out and chased the bunny into the bushes.  Haven't seen the bunny since.

And the turkeys.  Lots of them.  Wild turkeys.  Just meandering through.  Saw about 30 the other day, 4 adults with lots and lots of babies.  Then right before dinner today 5 adults came sauntering by.

3 adult turkeys walking by

Then last night's activity - bizarre!  About 4am I was awakened by Buddy and Grace pacing on the dash and jumping to the passenger seat, jumping back to the dash.  I could hear scratching on the door outside.  Looked out the passenger window and saw so many bats flying around, unbelievable.  The scratching was they were trying to tuck up inside the large canopy awning over the door and could not get a grip since it is fiberglass.  I think they were looking for a place to hide from the wind - it was that bad.

And the birds.  I did not know that woodpeckers eat off the ground.  Only thought they fed while hanging onto trees.  Lots of woodpeckers here, in trees, making their cawing sounds, feeding on the grass, lots of them.  Hopping on the picnic tables, flying around.  Weird.

Visit to Fort Phil Kearny

We learn something every time we go to one of these forts.  And, I have to say, with the history of this Army fort and the nearby battles between the Native American Indians and the military, I am ashamed and embarrassed of what this country's directive was those years ago.  As I read in one of the displays at the fort - "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" - and the Army went all out to annihilate the Natives.  No wonder the Indians retaliated to the broken treaties, the lies, the blatant disregard to peace negotiations by the Army.

Relief map of Fort Phil Kearny, Wagon Box Fight, Fetterman Fight

Long story short - in 1866 the Army built a fort here in Buffalo called Fort Phil Kearny.  It's main purpose was to protect the miners who were traveling along the Bozeman Trail (runs right along here which was a short cut from Fort Laramie near Scotts Bluff, Nebraska to the gold fields in Virginia City, Montana) and to keep the Indians occupied so they would not bother the construction of the railroad being built in southern Wyoming.  However, with every fort and movement of people comes those settlers who would remain behind and these settlers were on Indian land, and, the Indians were very upset about this.

Many battles happened around here

Skirmishes happened, massacres took place (atrocities done by both Army and Indians), settlers were murdered, whole Indian villages were wiped out by the Army - it goes on and on.  An ah-hah happened while visiting this fort - Jim Bridger was there and warned Colonel Carrington of the Indians intentions, was disregarded and the result was the Fetterman Fight.

And we learn about Jim Bridger here also

Fort Phil Kearny only lasted 2 years, being abandoned in 1868.  The moment the Army left the Indians burned down the fort.  When we visited the fort yesterday, there were no buildings to see, only plots on the ground and markings as to what was where.  Well documented but sad just the same.  Within 50 miles of this fort are many skirmishes and battles between the Army and the Native Americans. And it was this fort and it's broken treaties that the Indians combined forces and developed attack strategies, perfecting them so that in 10 years time, Custer and his group would fall victim to the Indians' well developed strategy for warfare.

Flag on top of Signal Hill to keep fort informed of movement
outside of fort 

Was a very large fort!. Flagpole was 140 feet tall!

A Visit Around Buffalo

Monday and Tuesday was spent just doing inside stuff, we had rain off and on and the temperature was pretty cold - dropped down to 41 at night - but during the day was a cool low 60s.  Quite a change for the mid 90s we experienced on Saturday and Sunday. I was able to get some sewing done and Dave did some projects around the RV.

With the rain and low temperatures, the Cloud Peak Wilderness area west of Buffalo, the same area we traveled over Sunday, got snow.  We were surprised yesterday morning when we drove into town to grab a breakfast to see lots of snow on the mountain tops.  By the end of the day it had all melted but I can imagine the waterfalls that grew due to the runoff.

Powder Horn Summit

We wanted to visit a museum in town, was given a thumbs up that it was a good one, and the reviews were good so off we went after a horrible breakfast.  Yep, how can you mess up breakfast?  When we walked into the restaurant we were shocked - smoking!  We were ready to turn around when the waitress said that the back room is no smoking, so we took a seat back there.  And waited over 35 minutes for our food, which was not the best.  Why did this place have such a great rating?  We found out it is the ONLY place to get breakfast in town.  Duh.  Never go there again.

Got to the museum, not allowed to take pictures, took the walking tour which was one man's collection of artifacts he had gathered over his lifetime, we remarked afterward that it was a waste of our time.  He was a local pharmacist in town and befriended the Crow Indians and they visited him all the time, often gave him gifts such as arrowheads, beaded wear, headdresses, rifles, ceremonial instruments, quite a collection.  And the man also had a number of antiquities from the early days of Wyoming and Buffalo.  We thought that a good curator would bring the museum up to what we have seen elsewhere, did see a number of misspelled words, many displays the writing was so small or place too high or the lighting was bad, that you could not read what you were looking at. Got back to the campground in time to watch the next set of folks come in for the night. We make it a game - 'uh-oh - incoming' and then try to figure out what make/model of RV, what state they are from, etc.

Bit of history for this area

Snow is melting - looking down Main Street about 3 hours later

We are laying low today, while touring the museum I miss-stepped down a ramp and I think I twisted my ankle.  Not swollen but had shooting pains along the inside of my ankle.  This is the same foot/ankle that I had surgery on, so I want to not walk much today to get it better.

Drive Over Cloud Peak Scenic Byway

We needed to get out and get our mountain fix so we drove along US Route 16 (Cloud Peak Scenic Byway) up into the Big Horn Mountains and down to Ten Sleep on the other side.  We had visited Ten Sleep before on June 28, can't believe it has been 7 weeks since we were here - seems so much longer ago.  We did get to visit Ten Sleep's Pioneer Museum today which we did not do last time.

Smoke from Idaho wild fires

As we started out heading west out of Buffalo, we first stopped at ACE hardware to get some pieces parts for a project Dave wants to tackle.  While in there there were Forest Service Fire Fighters in line ahead of him and the cashier joked to them to take their smoke and get out of here.  They said the smoke is from Idaho, not here in the Big Horns.  And smoky it is!  We were shocked that we could not see the mountains at all.  Our goal for the this trip was to scout out potential hiking trails in the mountains to do later in the week.

Meadowlark Lake

A lake, mountain and boat - I loved it!

Absolutely gorgeous views even though the smoke obstructed a lot of the long distance.  Dave said he was affected by the smoke in the air, I only smelled the pine scent and sage.  Zig zag up into the mountains and came to Meadowlark Lake.  How very pretty.  I remember back a couple of months ago when I went to a local stylist to get my hair done, she said she often drives up to Meadowlark for picnics and just taking in the scenery.  Now I can see why - just stunning.  We think we will come back here with a picnic lunch and do hiking right along the lake.  We were at 9,666 feet elevation, the temperature was in the low 50s and very welcome.

Twisty turn road - notice smoke?

Lots of activities - ATV, biking, motocross biking

Gorgeous (Ten Sleep Creek)

Stopped along the way to read signage, just take in the views.  Got into Ten Sleep and toured the museum.  Had a nice conversation with the staff member about mountain lions.  She said that on her ranch (sheep is what they do) 3 mountain lions came into their back yard and killed 9 sheep that day and over a couple week's time a total of 43 sheep were slaughtered.  It was a momma lion teaching her 2 babies how to hunt.  She said that they have trouble with mountain lions and wolves, bears are rarely seen.

Powder Horn Canyon

Did not see any

Traveled back over the mountains and was wowed still by the views.  And would not want to bring the RV over the pass - very steep coming back into Buffalo.

At Powder Horn Summit, 9,666 feet.  Snow fences - snow gets 10 feet deep

Heading east to Buffalo over pass - 8% grade down - steep

Chain/cable runaway ramp - never seen this before

Hello hawk!

Need to be aware of mountain lion if we hike in mountains

Seen better days - old barn in Ten Sleep

Along Ten Sleep Creek