Monday 8/18: New Territory

This has been a spectacular day! I believed that the best way to get to Yellowstone was to revisit The Black Hills, and I was right. But I had no idea what was between the two parks. I guess I imagined the usual old mountains. Nothing usual at all, but amazing!

We stayed Sunday night in the little town of Sheriden. Loved driving through it today. It is obviously a very old and prosperous little town. There were so many beautiful old-fashioned buildings. Their town is thriving, helped along by tourists, but not a tourist trap. It's just a charming old town.

Have I mentioned the sky? I had forgotten how blue and clear the sky can be. And the sun is so bright…so much brighter than at home. I now believe the Nova program on the dimming of the sun. The air is dry and fresh and cool. I wore long sleeves today and was very comfortable.

Yesterday, while describing the countryside, I forgot to mention all the now-grass-covered cinder-cones. We passed by one that had been excavated by the highway department, and it was a mass of red cinders. That explains why many of the roads we are driving on are red.

As we drove into the Big Horn Mountains, I was blown away by the largeness of the landscape. The sky is huge. The mountains and rolling hills are immense. The size of "our world" is so much larger than at home. In fact, in some strange way, the size of everything is somewhat seductive. Our earth is bigger than we know. One thing isn't large: the rivers are what we would call creeks!

As we drove through these magnificent mountains, in between were not valleys, but high plains of rolling, grassy hills. A lot of the hills are free range grazing, and we were warned that cattle might be on the road.

The roads are touted as being very busy. We were warned that cattle might be on the road, deer might be on the road, and one road warned that it was a Bear Usage Area. I half expected to see a bear in his vacation togs, perhaps carrying a camera. We never saw any of those animals on the road I hasten to add.

The day has added to our list of animal sightings. We saw Pica, Chipmunks, Marmots, Deer, Elk, Buffalo, and the ubiquitous cattle! We loved sighting the hawks. Sometimes they fly purposefully, probably hunting, all level flight looking like they are watching the ground. But sometimes they must fly simply for pleasure. They look like they are dancing in the air. Hawk dancing—a beautiful sight.

We drove a long distance on a very primitive road, and then walked for a couple of miles to see an Indian Medicine Wheel. This was a circle made of stones, all on the ground. In the middle was a stone cairn, which was made of stones enclosing a shallow pit. Radiating out from the center cairn were 28 spokes. Then there were 6 circular cairns on the outside. The whole thing had been fenced with wooden posts and wire. Hanging from the wire were numberless offerings that had been left. Many Indians consider this a spiritual place and they come for observances and to leave offerings. There was everything from bandanas and ribbons to horsehair, medicine pouches, dried corn, and even in one place several Buddhist prayer flags. They believe this wheel was built in 1200 AD. I found it interesting that in yet another culture stone circles were considered sacred or powerful. The trail up to this wheel (which was about as high in the mountains as you can go) was bordered on both sides by many wildflowers, bushes, and trees. What a beautiful rock garden nature can design. As we were descending, we heard some very large animal in the valley bellowing and bellowing. I don't know exactly what this large (and I believe male) animal was telling the world, but he was quite determined about it!

Then there was the drive down all these mountains. Miles of 10% grade and sharp curves, it was a drive in 2nd gear, with our speed held at about 45 or 50. Don called it a roller coaster, and we now have steeper roads than we remember from the Lake District in England. In fact, we had several of those descents throughout the day. Fortunately, neither of us is really scared by these kinds of roads, but we did pay attention to our driving!

Driving through western Wyoming wasn't anything very special. It was agriculture: potatoes, some corn, wheat.

From Cody we went up the Chief Joseph Byway to Dead Indian Pass and into a incredible valley know as Sunshine Basin because only the sunshine can get into this area with ease. Deep canyons, soaring mountains, and broad plateaus were a feast for the mind and the eye. Then along the Beartooth Plateau up to over 9000 feet and large alpine meadows. Finally into Yellowstone's Northeast Entrance sometime after 6.

What a spectacular day. Don is the best travel agent ever!