Thursday, July 30

More Montana and Wyoming

We decide to head for Red Lodge this morning after saying goodbye to everyone. It is 64 degrees at 8 AM and is supposed to get to 90!  Good we are heading for the mountains!

Sandy told us about an eating place in Red Lodge called Regis Café, so we decide we’ll stop there for a late breakfast. 

We arrive around 9AM and the place is very busy.  They are big into local and organic foods.  Greg has a fresh basil omelet which also has potatoes, peppers, zucchini, onion and cheese.   I have a similar dish with banana bread.  Very tasty!  Their raspberry jam was to die for!

We pass a few flocks of white pelicans on the Shoshone River.

Stop to read about the Smith Mine Disaster where 74 miners died in a methane explosion in 1943.

Many many motorcycles everywhere the past few days.  The big rally at Sturgis is coming up next week and apparently lots of folks are touring before the rally.  Greg says it seems most riders are 60+.  Many three wheelers as well.

We take the Beartooth Scenic Highway back to where it had been closed, going over some beautiful mountains, passes, lakes, etc.  Absolutely gorgeous! Bear Tooth Pass, the highest point, is 10,947’. 

We later stop at Clay Butte Fire Tower and climb up to a no-longer-used tower.  Nice views and the volunteers managing it are an interesting couple from Minnesota.

The geology is amazing as we read about 500 million year old sea beds, upheavals, faults, folds, glaciers, etc. that formed this land. We are but a tiny speck in the history that unfolds daily.

We have to go back down the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway towards Cody – not a whole lot of roads to choose from around here!  Then we head west again toward the Bighorn Mountains.  We pass irrigated farmland with sunflowers and other crops,  pastureland with horses, cattle and sheep.  A few jack-up rigs too.

We reach Bighorn Canyon National Recreational Area and after stopping at a Visitor’s Center, decide to head to a campground there.  The Bighorn River parallels the road and there are trees by the river, but most of the land is rocky, almost desert-like.  We go through the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range and decide we will go back out after we find a campsite and look for mustangs.

We stop at Devil’s Canyon outlook on the way north. 

Wow!  Incredible carved canyons! 

There are a few deer and lots of rabbits as we continue on.  We discover there was a recent fire in the canyon leading down to the campground.  Not a huge area, but you can still smell the smoke and see charred trees.  The damaged area ends just before the campground begins.  Not a lot of sites, many are tent only, but not many people either.  There are about 4 sites being used out of maybe 20.  

We find a site and then head back out the road where someone told us horses sometimes like to hang out in the evenings.  More deer and rabbits and we come around a bend and see something dash across the road from brush into brush.  It moved so fast we aren’t sure what it was but think it may have been a mountain lion! Definitely looked large and feline.  Greg stops and we wait a while to see if it will re-appear, but it is gone.

We turn back for the campground and see several of the wild mustangs sauntering through the brush/grass having dinner. 

The wild horses here can be traced back to the stock brought to America by the Spanish.  We watch them graze for a while and they cross the road in front of us and continue on.  One black stallion, a mare and a young horse.

Back to the campsite and a beautiful full moon rises.  We have worst for dinner and it has cooled off nicely, though we don’t need blankets till morning!