No doubt about it, we did not want to leave this place.
Every one of us was perfectly content where we were, and I admit to crazy thoughts swirling about in my mind such as, "What if we just stayed right here...Operation Sunshine complete?" We really could do that, and who knows what the future may hold? But at this point, my husband reminded me, we aim to get me out of harsh winter zone, and SW Montana would not qualify. So we reluctantly packed up and moved on...back through Yellowstone Park's Lamar Valley..
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| All those little black dots--they're bison! |
...and out the silver gate to Wyoming's Chief Joseph Scenic Byway.
We twisted and turned and climbed and climbed.....and climbed....and climbed through northern Wyoming. Lovely, lovely country. Very peaceful and quiet. There's not a lot of traffic, other than free-range cattle. Like Montana, it's also very dry. If it's not irrigated, it's brown.
We've taken our Little House on wheels through some crazy places. On this particular day, in addition to one last jaunt through Yellowstone's windy ups and downs and climbs, we also took it up Dead Indian Summit, elevation 8060 ft. Upon its completion, we continued on toward and through Bighorn National Forest's Windy Mountain, elevation 10,042. Next was Granite Pass, elevation 9033 ft.
Each time we thought the landscape was about to level off, we headed up into another pass, it seemed.
Our Little House and its steady driver did great. The only protest our Little House put up was the climb up and through Granite Pass, when it began to lurch slightly. We did not like that at all, especially when we saw another motor home stopped in the middle of the road. At least that one was really old, helping us to have more faith in our Little House! And let's face it--we have the Ultimate Pilot. This particular climb had long stretches going upward, rather than so many switchbacks as our other climbs had. The high elevation and strenuous climb was a little tough for the air-fuel ratio to adapt. Nothing serious, and we made it ok. I have no pictures of that crazy climb. The few pictures I took on this day were mostly on-the-fly. We didn't do a lot of stopping this day, as we had a lot of ground to cover. Lots of red rock formations; it reminded me of Arizona. I found it funny that after a strenuous climb through wilderness, we were greeted with utility poles and fences and camps and even a restaurant lodge at the top and through the pass. What seemed like "no man's land" was actually inhabited after all. The wildflowers were spectacular--purple, blue, yellow, pink, and white were exploding along the rolling, grassy hills. Beautiful.
A certain driver was growing very weary of mountain driving. It was a long day of driving, but we were rewarded with an overnight at a great little KOA outside of Sheridan, WY. We had a nice, long swim, showers, did laundry catch-up, and had pizza delivered from Powder River Pizza Pub. Glamping, for sure.
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