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Why the Bighorn Basin? Last year I read The Daily Coyote. It’s set in Ten Sleep/Worland, the photographs are gorgeous and it’s (relatively) close to Yellowstone. A small bit of research showed up that it’s full of fascinating Stuff.
We left Yellowstone via the gorgeous Lamar Valley and ate breakfast in Cook City, Montana (population, about 150, elevation 7,572 feet). Very alpine. Our original intention had been to go via the Beartooth Highway for lunch in Red Lodge[1], Montana. However, by the Saturday in Park City I’d realized that Red Lodge is exactly the same animal as Park City (up-market ski resort) and thus not worth the detour. Also, the Beartooth is allegedly the kind of road where they don’t believe in barriers between you and the huge drop.
Instead of we went back into Wyoming along the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway. This was probably a good move – it’s an excellent road and, indeed, very scenic. The highest point is Dead Indian Pass at 8,600 feet. We bypassed the tourist trap that is Cody, Wyoming and drove to the sleepy burg (in a good way!) of Greybull (pop. 1800). This was the one place we hadn’t booked accommodation ahead – my web research had told me that the town has an abundance of reasonably-priced motels so we drove around and chose the one we liked the look of best to use as our base for the next couple days. The Greybull Motel was another win. The owners are super friendly and helpful and sent us in the direction of the best huevos rancheros I’ve ever had.
I hadn’t realized that as soon as you come down from the Absaroka mountains, the badlands start. They are same geological formation as the Black Hills in South Dakota, but without the tourists. Win! Photographic emergencies were frequent throughout. The land is extremely marginal – they irrigate to keep horses and cows in the wetter bits, but it’s really desert (the cacti are so small you can’t see them from the car). It’s also unbelievably beautiful, though I may not have felt that way if we’d been there in the winter. If that part of Wyoming had been settled by Mediterranean peoples instead of Mormons and Germans, there’d probably have been more goats. It seems perfectly suited to keeping goats, and not a lot else.[2]
The other thing even I was unprepared for was the sheer emptiness of Wyoming. Yes, I knew that the population of the entire state is 500,000 people. Yes, I’m from the sticks myself, but I’m from the populated part of the prairies where the land is close to 100% under cultivation and towns aren’t very far apart. The Bighorn Basin is one of the more populous parts of Wyoming and there’s nobody there. You’ll be driving along for an hour and the map says a town is coming up and then you get there and the sign says “population 10”. (Emblem, WY[3]. I kid you not).
We didn’t even see 1/10 of the nifty things there are to do and see in the Greybull area. Helpfully, the local high school has produced an “off the beaten track” guide with really good directions and GPS co-ordinates to find local places of interest, and includes some that aren’t mentioned in my (very comprehensive) Moon guidebook! It’s the best free local attractions publication I’ve ever seen.
The bulk of our time in the area was spent driving around to look at interesting geological formations. At one waterfall there were hummingbird feeders and dozens of the little guys. I’ve never seen hummingbirds before, so I found that really exciting. You could be forgiven for thinking it’s just a big bug when they’re flying, but when they sit still for a minute, they’re adorable bright green tiny birds!
We did also get to one of the sites where you can see actual fossilised dinosaur footprints! It was amazing - there was nobody there, and you can actually go walk on the surface & touch them (which would never happen anywhere else!).
The things we missed which I *really* wanted to do, as opposed to things we missed that would have been a bit nifty were Medicine Lodge Petroglyph Site and Sacred Treasure Medicine Wheel in the Bighorn Mountains (the latter at 9,500 feet and a 3-mile round trip hike from the parking lot).
We meant to spend another day there, but I was burning out fast due to not having taken a proper rest day (and the loss of my iPhone and the subsequent day spent searching for it. We retraced our steps comprehensively, so I think it got dropped and a bird of prey or a coyote took it, because there just aren’t any people out there to have picked it up). Thankfully, it was only two hours drive south to Thermopolis, home of the largest hot springs in the world. I booked us into the Best Western as it has water from the springs piped into its own pool, and I spent a wonderful afternoon alternately reading by the pool or soaking in the warm water. Some people are put off by the smell of sulphur but after having spent all that time in Yellowstone, we were used to it. The guidebook pointed us to a really good local restaurant (where we ate both lunch and dinner!). In the evening it was cool enough, and the elevation was low enough, to walk the mile or so to the restaurant, where we were surprised by elk taking their evening stroll right through the middle of town.
I was somewhat heartbroken in the morning that I wasn’t up to visiting the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis. Dinosaur sites in Wyoming are a dime a dozen, but at this one you can pay extra to be taken round the actual excavation site and observe people digging.
However, we did have a long drive ahead of us to get to Cheyenne, and we wouldn’t have had time to have our Adventure along the way if we had made it to the Dinosaur Center.
Next up: Oregon Trail sites and Cheyenne.
[1] My family went skiing in Red Lodge when I was 13 and I couldn’t wrap my head around reports that it’s now *nice*.
[2] At that point in time the World Domination Plan was to buy some of the land that’s for sale in Wyoming and start an angora goat farm.
[3] Originally Germania, WY and changed in the anti-German frenzy of WWI.
Why the Bighorn Basin? Last year I read The Daily Coyote. It’s set in Ten Sleep/Worland, the photographs are gorgeous and it’s (relatively) close to Yellowstone. A small bit of research showed up that it’s full of fascinating Stuff.
We left Yellowstone via the gorgeous Lamar Valley and ate breakfast in Cook City, Montana (population, about 150, elevation 7,572 feet). Very alpine. Our original intention had been to go via the Beartooth Highway for lunch in Red Lodge[1], Montana. However, by the Saturday in Park City I’d realized that Red Lodge is exactly the same animal as Park City (up-market ski resort) and thus not worth the detour. Also, the Beartooth is allegedly the kind of road where they don’t believe in barriers between you and the huge drop.
Instead of we went back into Wyoming along the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway. This was probably a good move – it’s an excellent road and, indeed, very scenic. The highest point is Dead Indian Pass at 8,600 feet. We bypassed the tourist trap that is Cody, Wyoming and drove to the sleepy burg (in a good way!) of Greybull (pop. 1800). This was the one place we hadn’t booked accommodation ahead – my web research had told me that the town has an abundance of reasonably-priced motels so we drove around and chose the one we liked the look of best to use as our base for the next couple days. The Greybull Motel was another win. The owners are super friendly and helpful and sent us in the direction of the best huevos rancheros I’ve ever had.
I hadn’t realized that as soon as you come down from the Absaroka mountains, the badlands start. They are same geological formation as the Black Hills in South Dakota, but without the tourists. Win! Photographic emergencies were frequent throughout. The land is extremely marginal – they irrigate to keep horses and cows in the wetter bits, but it’s really desert (the cacti are so small you can’t see them from the car). It’s also unbelievably beautiful, though I may not have felt that way if we’d been there in the winter. If that part of Wyoming had been settled by Mediterranean peoples instead of Mormons and Germans, there’d probably have been more goats. It seems perfectly suited to keeping goats, and not a lot else.[2]
The other thing even I was unprepared for was the sheer emptiness of Wyoming. Yes, I knew that the population of the entire state is 500,000 people. Yes, I’m from the sticks myself, but I’m from the populated part of the prairies where the land is close to 100% under cultivation and towns aren’t very far apart. The Bighorn Basin is one of the more populous parts of Wyoming and there’s nobody there. You’ll be driving along for an hour and the map says a town is coming up and then you get there and the sign says “population 10”. (Emblem, WY[3]. I kid you not).
We didn’t even see 1/10 of the nifty things there are to do and see in the Greybull area. Helpfully, the local high school has produced an “off the beaten track” guide with really good directions and GPS co-ordinates to find local places of interest, and includes some that aren’t mentioned in my (very comprehensive) Moon guidebook! It’s the best free local attractions publication I’ve ever seen.
The bulk of our time in the area was spent driving around to look at interesting geological formations. At one waterfall there were hummingbird feeders and dozens of the little guys. I’ve never seen hummingbirds before, so I found that really exciting. You could be forgiven for thinking it’s just a big bug when they’re flying, but when they sit still for a minute, they’re adorable bright green tiny birds!
We did also get to one of the sites where you can see actual fossilised dinosaur footprints! It was amazing - there was nobody there, and you can actually go walk on the surface & touch them (which would never happen anywhere else!).
The things we missed which I *really* wanted to do, as opposed to things we missed that would have been a bit nifty were Medicine Lodge Petroglyph Site and Sacred Treasure Medicine Wheel in the Bighorn Mountains (the latter at 9,500 feet and a 3-mile round trip hike from the parking lot).
We meant to spend another day there, but I was burning out fast due to not having taken a proper rest day (and the loss of my iPhone and the subsequent day spent searching for it. We retraced our steps comprehensively, so I think it got dropped and a bird of prey or a coyote took it, because there just aren’t any people out there to have picked it up). Thankfully, it was only two hours drive south to Thermopolis, home of the largest hot springs in the world. I booked us into the Best Western as it has water from the springs piped into its own pool, and I spent a wonderful afternoon alternately reading by the pool or soaking in the warm water. Some people are put off by the smell of sulphur but after having spent all that time in Yellowstone, we were used to it. The guidebook pointed us to a really good local restaurant (where we ate both lunch and dinner!). In the evening it was cool enough, and the elevation was low enough, to walk the mile or so to the restaurant, where we were surprised by elk taking their evening stroll right through the middle of town.
I was somewhat heartbroken in the morning that I wasn’t up to visiting the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis. Dinosaur sites in Wyoming are a dime a dozen, but at this one you can pay extra to be taken round the actual excavation site and observe people digging.
However, we did have a long drive ahead of us to get to Cheyenne, and we wouldn’t have had time to have our Adventure along the way if we had made it to the Dinosaur Center.
Next up: Oregon Trail sites and Cheyenne.
[1] My family went skiing in Red Lodge when I was 13 and I couldn’t wrap my head around reports that it’s now *nice*.
[2] At that point in time the World Domination Plan was to buy some of the land that’s for sale in Wyoming and start an angora goat farm.
[3] Originally Germania, WY and changed in the anti-German frenzy of WWI.
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no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 05:27 am (UTC)Hrm. Feeling this strange inclination toward visiting Wyoming now...
no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 07:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-22 11:59 am (UTC)Sadly, I don't think we'll be getting o/s again in the next few foreseeable years, at least... :(