July 2023 – TooBusyForWork

Crazy Woman Canyon and moving to Sheridan and civilization

We took one last trip in the RZR on Friday from our camp on Grouse Mountain. We went to a trailhead for Crazy Woman Canyon and drove Rt 33 until just past the Forest Service boundary. The ride is well worth the hype.

The main road is suitable for passenger cars, and there were a number of them along the way

I do apologize for the sun reflections. I didn’t know it was this bad until I processed the pictures. But the bluffs quickly came to overshadow us. We met another couple in a side by side as we were unloading. They had just arrived, so we went over the routes with them and asked if they were interested in joining us. It is much safer with more than one rig, and our driving styles were pretty similar.

When we got to the bottom of the canyon, the walls closed in tightly. Sadly none of those pictures came out at all, so you will just have to go yourself! We climbed up out of the canyon after a while, and the views got much broader.

We found a new flower along the way. I think this is bee balm, and it had just started blooming.

The rocks here are very ancient limestone, and they fracture regularly. It was interesting to see the result of a rockfall in open country. The rocks are big, with the rectangular one closest to the cliff perhaps 20’ tall.

Once we finished the main road we just took off randomly along the trails. They got significantly rougher, but we also left the people in passenger cars behind. We only had one unexpected dead end needing back tracking. That was when a trail crossed a water way that was an unknown depth and moving pretty fast. Discretion being the better part of valor, we turned around there.

There are a number of cabins the Forest Service now rents out. This is the Muddy Guard Cabin just off the trail head. I don’t know what it looks like inside, but the outside was in good shape.

We came back to the motorhome, cleaned up (a UTV ride gets you dirty!), then headed to Peter D’s Campground in Sheridan where we had reservations. It is a small place, family owned, and spotless. It is a bit older though, and our passenger side slide was maybe 4’ from our neighbor’s driver’s side slide! It was pretty inexpensive at $40/night, cash. We started the inevitable laundry, and on Saturday we drove out US 14, the northern route through the Bighorns.

This is a much more abrupt climb into the mountains with 8% grades and tight turns, but it is a spectacular drive. We have done it a number of times. Like Crazy Woman Canyon, the rock here is mostly ancient limestone, and it fractures with water over time. Here it overlies a thin layer of shale. When the shale gets wet, the heavier limestone slips and fantastic landslides result. This is one of the biggest – Fallen City. I hope you can get a feel of the scale – those blocks are HUGE!

We were hoping to see moose in the area, and I was so excited when I saw this!

But a closer examination showed a nice mule instead. Sigh.

We were lucky enough to see two marmots cuddling on a rock. Their faces were adorable, and they didn’t seem to worried about us.

Sunday I got my latest Hunter’s Star quilt top finished. As you can see, tops are called “flimsies” for a reason! It also needs a good pressing, but I won’t get to that until we get home, and I am ready to quilt it. It is 40×52, a nice size for a baby girl quilt. I will put it in my stash for the next one that comes along. I like having a couple of baby quilts ready.

Tomorrow we are riding the RZR to the Owen Creek Campground area. There are lots of trails around there, and we just might find a campsite there. On Saturday we did find a few non-reservation places we could fit, so we will check those out too. If we can find a place, we will claim it and take the motorhome tomorrow. If not, we will come back to Peter D’s and plan on boondocking somewhere beginning Tuesday.

Still in the Bighorns

We have had a great time here, but we plan on leaving tomorrow. Here are the highlights.

Monday we had our son, his wife, and their three kids out for dinner. They are camped in Circle Park campground a few miles down the road. I made green chili enchiladas in the Dutch oven, and I made a peach dump cobbler in the convection oven. Pretty tasty if I say so myself. There was a classic mountain “maybe gonna rain, maybe not” view with virga not making it to the ground. But my oh my the rainbows! Here are the best of the ones I got.

How often do you a perfect double rainbow?

On Tuesday we took a RZR trip. Our first goal was the Sheep Mountain Lookout. We trailed to a nearby trail head, unloaded the RZR, and headed up a moderate gravel road suitable for SUVs or pickups. Most of the traffic was various side by sides and ATVs though. It was the most traffic we had encountered on this trip by far.

Some of the interesting things along this road were the numerous small springs and seeps. They seemingly occurred every few hundred yards. Some were big enough to really show flowing water, but some just kind of trickled their water out.

The Road goes through an old burn scar for quite a bit of the way. I am guessing it was 20-40 years ago, assuming the trees here grow slowly in this climate.

Once we got to the top, it was incredible views, even with a bit of haze.

The cabin has bunk beds that I could see, and the toilet was just down the hill a bit to the right of this picture.

The old lookout is now a FS rental cabin

After wandering around some and breathing the 10,000+’ air, we headed back down the hill for lunch. Pretty nice spot!

We then took some alternate roads to our trailhead, meeting up with two other small RZRs that we had encountered at the lookout, and they kindly let us join their group. Good thing too! We eventually got to a rock ledge we didn’t feel comfortable doing on our own, but it was fine with someone else around. We are VERY conservative when on our own! Yes, we have an InReach for emergency communication, but my goal is never to have to use it. Here’s a video one of the rigs took.

Hey, it was bigger than it looked for our little rig! See the wheel grabbing air?

On the way back we decided to drive to the Powder River. I was expecting a bigger river, but I guess we are close to the headwaters. Along the way we saw one of the only large animals – a mule deer. One of the disadvantages of a UTV is the noise; makes it hard to see many animals.

Trust me, that really is a mule deer with growing antlers

Wednesday we stayed at the campsite much of the day, but we did have a fabulous lunch at the South Fork Outfitters restaurant – green chili hamburger for me and green chili cheeseburger for Kevin. It was fabulous!

We had a real mess with the rig on Tuesday too. The slide topper over our bedroom slide broke, and one end was banging loose. Kevin spent some time stabilizing it and firming how to get it off. We dropped by to see the kids at their campsite, and they planned on helping us get it down today. It got so windy today that Kevin and I finally figured out a way to get it off before the fabric ripped up. Now we have yet another thing to get fixed when we get to Alabama in September. Sigh. Motorhomes really are a money out, but we still love the lifestyle.

We had planned on taking a RZR ride today too, but pretty strong winds blew up along with a bit of rain. We decided to wait until tomorrow. Gives us time for a nice meal tonight!

I do love the Bighorns!

We arrived at the Grouse Mountain Dispersed Camping area in the Bighorn National Forest on Thursday, 20 July. The area is just a few miles from Buffalo, WY and just off US 16. This is the view outside our front door. As you can see, we don’t have close neighbors.

On Friday we decided to take a short UTV ride down the road we are camped on, FR 402. Nice ride! Most of the other campers were near the gate into a second grazing area, but there was one guy who really wanted his privacy.

As we reached the end of the road and the NF, we could see De Smet lake. You will have to expand the picture probably, but it is there. Decent dry camping available, and we have stayed there a couple of times.

Looking another direction we could see the town of Buffalo. You can probably see US 16 the most clearly, but the town is there, I promise.

Decent road surface returning to the motorhome

We expected more people to arrive on Friday night, but it is still spacious. You can get a feel for the crowded conditions LOL!

We took it easy on Saturday, driving down US 16 to the town of Tensleep. US 16 takes this big curve around the Cloud Peak Wilderness headed south before it turns back west. The scenery was lovely, and we looked at a few trailheads and side roads along the way. Not many pictures though! We got back to some excitement. A bunch of cowboys/girls were moving cattle just past the gate I mentioned earlier. The last time we were here, we saw a bunch of cattle being brought to summer pastures in big semi trucks. This was just moving the cattle from one pasture to another.

Also on Saturday I finished the last of the 12 Hunter’s Star blocks I need for my next quilt. Now all I have to do is sew the blocks together and put on a couple of borders. I hope to do that before the FMCA convention so I can show off the flimsy.

Sunday we took a RZR ride down towards the Hunter Creek area. There were some nice spots for views and a few very rough rocky roads. We didn’t have a real destination in mind, just a casual “let’s see what’s there” view. The views from Hunter Mesa were stunning any direction you looked.

Amd of course there were flowers. I have actually been quite restrained about posting flower pictures; I probably have taken 100 or more!

This was one of the easier sections of the rocky trail. On the really rough sections, I just held on tight!

Tomorrow we are having my son and his family out for dinner and hanging out. Peach cobbler in the convection oven in the morning, and green chili chicken enchiladas in the Dutch Oven for the main course. Yum! Of course I have to clean up the motorhome before they get here!

Vedauwoo and surroundings followed by Douglas and Casper

We ended up staying at Vedauwoo for 10 days, leaving on Monday, 17 July. Fabulous place. Here are some of the highlights.

There is water in some of the creeks. Plus we saw a moose! Largest mammal we saw. Hundreds of pronghorns though.

I can not express how beautiful the wildflowers were. I actually became numb to them because they were so abundant and beautiful. It had been a wet summer, and the flowers showed it.

One day we took a short trip to the Ames Monument. It marks the highest point on the Union Pacific Rail line. The line was eventually moved a few miles south, but the monument stands pretty much isolated on a hill of land.

The weekend got rather crazy at Vedauwoo. All the designated sites were filled, and there was a small amount of illegal camping. If anyone knows who this particular Iowa asshole is, please let me know. Notice the “No Camping” sign right in front of his pickup.

We didn’t stay at Vedauwoo the entire time. We took a trip into Fort Collins for a Trader Joe run, and we took a trip into Cheyenne when I found this lovely Bernina 930 for sale! Good price, and it is spotless. I have wanted one of these for a while, but I am cheap. I just kept looking for a good deal, and I eventually found one. The machine has a heel tap feature which takes a complete half stitch, either up or down, plus it always stops with a full stitch up. So far so good, as you can see on my sample.

We also ended up in Laramie a few times, once for groceries and once to dump at the Old Territorial Prison. Nice clean dump station with a recommended $10 fee. Kevin also got an oil and air filter change for the RZR. There are a bunch of shops in the area!

On Monday, 17 July, we left Vedauwoo for Douglas, WY. We needed to do laundry and generally clean up after 10 days boondocking before we went to the Bighorns for another 7-10 days. We are staying at the Fairgrounds. Standard parking lot fairgrounds spot, but only $30 FHU.

Anyone who knows me knows we like finding historic places, and while we were in Douglas, we visited Ft. Fetterman. Not much original really there, but the visitor center had been restored with a nice little museum. I really enjoyed the video they had. The views across the Northern Platte River were amazing. Ft. Fetterman was the last of the Indian forts along the North Platte, and it was situated on a high bluff. You can’t see the river from the bluff anymore because the North Platte was known for wandering. The views are still amazing though.

We visited Casper twice. Once was for dinner and to pick up medication refills; the second was to visit Ft. Caspar. The two spellings are not typos, or at least they aren’t for me. The town was named after the fort, but there was a misspelling in the original documents. Caspar Collins, son of the person Ft. Collins, CO was named for, was killed while stationed here. In those days it was “North Platte Station.” This fort was reconstructed by the WPA based on drawings Lt. Collins made. It has a really nice museum plus the reconstructed fort components.

One of the interesting things we discovered by visiting the history museums is the intersection of Wyoming, oil and gas development, and the audio book Kevin and I are listening to while driving the motorhome. The book is “Killers of the Flower Moon” about the horrific murders of numerous Osage Indians in Oklahoma in order to inherit their rich oil lease payments. The companies are the same, and the scandals mesh together quite well. Since both of us are Oklahoma born, we were sadly not surprised this portion of Oklahoma history wasn’t taught in schools. Neither was the Tulsa Race Riot, and even more people died there due to greed, envy, and racism.

Senior officer quarters were quite luxurious.

Even the enlisted quarters weren’t bad, though they slept two to a bed. Might have been warmer that way during those long Wyoming winters on that very exposed bluff!

The sutler was the fort store with food, clothing, and miscellaneous supplies that made life a bit more bearable for the soldiers.

One of the primary purposes of the fort was to protect an important bridge across the North Platte used by settlers and prospectors flooding west. The bridge was over 1000’ long, a real feat for frontier builders. It made them a fortune though! Prices were flexible – higher in high water, lower when there were other crossings possible.

One of the alternatives was a ferry established by Brigham Young when the Mormons were on their way to the Salt Lake valley. They had a reconstructed ferry with a sample wagon too.

We leave Douglas tomorrow for a boondock site outside of Buffalo along Highway 16. We have a few places in mind, but we will look at them before we decide where to settle. My oldest son and his family are going to be tent camping in the area, and I am looking forward to seeing all of them.

From Utah to Wyoming

We left Bear Lake on 6 July. We spent the night at Red Desert Rose Campground in Rawlins, WY. Nice enough place, a bit careworn, but they were trying to have grass between most of the sites, and the pull throughs were HUGE so no unhitching. We left fairly early on 7 July to head to a Boondockers Welcome site just into Colorado between Laramie and Wyoming. It didn’t work out. First, the road in was 8 miles of awful washboard (12 miles total from the highway), and secondly, we could not get level no matter what! We tried 3 different locations in his field with every block we owned, and nothing worked. We finally gave up, took the awful road back to the highway, and headed to the Vedauwoo area of the Medicine Bow National Forest only a few miles back west.

I was a bit skeptical we could find a spot on a Friday afternoon, but we scored a truly primo spot! We stayed here before on our way to Arizona in June, but this time we aren’t rushed for time. They have a system I think is the future of dispersed NF and BLM land – identified sites, very well separated and private, and free. We were lucky and got site 4. This is the view out our door.

The scale is hard to imagine. Look carefully at the bottom of the “nose” for a human for scale.

Another photo for scale. Those tiny white dots were climbers.

This cubist delight is just to the right of our site. It is huge too.

On Saturday we decided to take out the UTV. It rained on Friday night, and the area has had a lot of rain on other days. The meadows are amazingly green, and the roads were amazingly muddy.

We had planned a circular trip leaving and arriving from our campsite, based on the official Motor Vehicle Use Guide. However a couple of hours in, our published “open” road was marked by a “No motor vehicles” sign. It was obvious a lot of people had ignored the sign and continued, but we didn’t feel comfortable with that. We then just turned back and rode some other dead end trails, just to see the sights. Of course we saw more rocks! I do love rocks.

This was one sight that puzzled me. It was an open pasture, fairly but not completely flat with a number of low embedded rocks in the surface. There were a number of these pipes, some capped and some not, seemingly randomly arranged over maybe 1/2 an acre. Mining? Old foundation? I couldn’t see any other artifacts, just the pipes.

And of course we have seen flowers. The white ones were smaller than a dime and close to the ground. Indian Paintbrush is the state flower of Wyoming, and it bloomed in profusion along with the other standard flowers we have seen. The yellows were not as common. They are Alpi e Sunflowers, and like other sunflowers, rotate during the day to follow the sun.

Today we decided to take the truck along the Snowy Ridge Scenic Byway. It was a good decision. Beautiful country south east of Laramie. We hit snow line at about 9000’. We topped out just under 10,400’. Hard to breathe when there isn’t any air!

There were lots of interesting sights along the road, but this observation point was particularly interesting.

The views were incredible. This was generally southwest and the next picture was more south. I am pretty sure those snow covered peaks in the second photo are in Rocky Mountain National Park, one of my favorite places.

Note the “watermelon snow.” The pink color is from a bacteria that thrives on the snow and glaciers. And yes, the skies really were that blue!

Looking from the observation point to our parking spot

There were dozens of alpine lakes along the way. Some were ephemeral and dry up in dry years, but some are large. This is one of the large ones right next to the road. It was busy with anglers and hikers.

We ate a late lunch in Walden, CO at River Rock Cafe. Very good food, and great home made peach cobbler. We came back to the motorhome a bit tired, rested, and then enjoyed the late afternoon sitting outside and watching the climbers on the rocks behind our campsite.

Tomorrow, more UTV trails.

Moochdocking at Bear Lake

We left Salt Lake City around 11:00, but I totally underestimated the amount of time driving US 89 through Logan Canyon would take! The posted speed ranged from 20-50, and I generally had to go 5 mph less due to tight curves in the road. I also had to pull over at all the turnouts because of the line of traffic behind me! It is around 30 miles, but it took me well over an hour. I am sure it is a beautiful road, but I was concentrating so much on the pavement that I had to rely on Kevin to confirm that!

I have a friend I used to work with that has a “cabin” (really a very nice home) at Bear Lake. While his address is in Utah, Bear Lake extends into Idaho, and is really a very large natural freshwater lake. It is known for its blue color from dissolved limestone. Jim K has been volunteering an RV spot at his place if we ever came by, and this year we took him up on it. It is a respite from the crazy holiday weekend crowds. The site comes with 50 amp electric and water/sewer. And get this – he isn’t even here! He is on an Alaskan cruise with his wife, but his daughter and three grandkids are staying here. Pretty nice of him to let us stay. The house (I just can’t call it a cabin) is on a hill with a fabulous view of Bear Lake. We watched the town fireworks from his lovely deck.

Bear Lake is a huge tourist spot, and this Independence Day holiday is even crazier than it is the rest of the summer. Tourism group estimated around 100,000 people are around the lake. Luckily it is a really, really big lake! We are near Garden City, UT, and it is a classic lake tourist location. There are a lot of burger joints, tshirt shops, boat rentals, UTV rentals, and, the local specialty, raspberry shake specialty shops. A bit busy for our tastes, but I didn’t expect anything else. The temps are in the low 80s during the day and low 60s at night, so perfect weather. Since we are above 6000’, the intense sun makes the daytime seem even warmer.

We got here yesterday, and we did a quick tour of the town. Today we were planning on a 20 mile trip to Peter Sinks, a geological wonder with extremely cold temperatures year around. It rained last night, and we didn’t get very far on the trip due to slippery mud and very rutted trails. It was labeled as “moderate” difficulty, but it was more than we felt comfortable tackling by ourselves. We were driving far too tipped over for comfort! It wasn’t a wasted trip though since I got more flower pictures.

We got back to the motorhome, cleaned up, and went on the Bear Lake Scenic Drive around the lake. The lake is about 18 miles long and generally 4-6 miles wide, so it really is large for an inland lake. Did I mention it was really, really busy?

The biggest Marina on the Utah half of the lake was a zoo

We started driving on the west side of the lake, headed north. The North BEACH state Park looked like for for 2-3 miles! People parked on the beach with their sun shades and lots of toys. Obviously they were having a good time.

As we continued on the east side of the lake, the shores were very grass and shallow for long distances. Anyone launching a boat here was using a tractor to push the boat trailer into the water quick a ways. Maybe the picture below can give you a good scale.

Zoom on this to see the scale with the tiny boaters

We could barely see the town of Garden City across the lake from the east. See that little dab of white?

I also asked Kevin to drive us to the big overlook at the top of the mountain. There is a visitor center there with picnic tables and informational signs. You might be able to zoom in on a boat or two, but it depends a lot on your screen resolution. I have to reduce the photo size for the blog, so I apologize for the clarity of the picture.

From the top of the mountain visitor center

Tomorrow we have decided to go to some museums in the area instead of doing more riding. We will have opportunity for riding later in the summer, but we won’t be able to see these specific museums again unless we come back to the area.

Last days at Koosharem

We took another RZR trip on Friday before the weekend crowds were going to descend on the area. This time we went east to Fish Lake. We went over the mountain immediately to the east of our campsite via OHV trails, but then we stayed on paved roads quite a while. While we were still on the dirt retails we saw three nice bucks. Sorry for the bad photo; they were a distance away, and then they ran away. The photo also shows a very clear contrast to the hill vegetation, the rich grasses in the irrigated area, and the very dry valley without irrigation.

One of the interesting things about Fish Lake is that it was part of the old mule trail between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, the Old Spanish Trail. One branch went along Fish Lake with its plentiful water and grazing. The markers are accompanied by the silhouettes below of packed mules. Kevin and I are considering finding some resources about this Trail and following it on a summer trip some time. We could go out on the northern route and come back on the southern route, or vice versa.

Spanish Trail marker at the far southern end of Fish Lake

There were some interesting rock outcroppings as we went on the east side of the lake.

The west side of the lake is where all the development is. There are Forest Service campgrounds and private resorts, boat launches, and marinas that were already busy by 10:00 am. This is a picture from the more northern edge. We will eventually be on the hills across the lake.

We moved along the edge of the Fremont River valley, and it was beautiful as you can see. Much of this was pavement, and we could drive at 35-40 mph. Quite different from the 10-15 mph we normally drive on dirt and rock trails!

There are three separate identified photospots along the west side. The trail is a good dirt road that stays between 9500-10,000’ much of the way. The views are just tremendous. The light colored patch across the shore is actually a really big FS campground, to give a sense of scale.

East side of Fish Lake from the viewpoints

Amd since I love flowers, here are some that were new to me on this trip.

The viewpoints were gorgeous – almost 10,000’

On the way back, the sun decided to make the link cactus blossoms just glow in the sun. Obviously what I saw earlier in the week was just the beginning of the bloom, because near the campground, coming off the mountain, the brilliant color was very much in evidence.

On Saturday we stayed at the camper mostly. We did a huge re-sort and clean both inside and in the storage bays. Kevin even gave the poor TZR a bath! I think both the motorhome and RZR weigh significantly less without all the dust! I did a bunch of sewing too. I now have 90 blocks, all 4” square (finished size). However I am totally ready to stop the curved piecing work and go back to a Hunter’s Star I cut out. Much easier.

We left the campground on Sunday morning, driving to the Salt Lake City KOA. As we went to our site, we saw a guy washing RVs, and we were able to get him to do ours too! The motorhome is so pretty! The red and gold just glow when it is clean. We also managed to get to REI and get me a couple more SPF 50 shirts that I can wear when riding or when I just want to sit outside without a lot of sunshine. Tomorrow morning we are heading to a friend’s house next to Bear Lake in northern Utah. He is letting us mooch-dock at his house during the craziness that is the 4th. We will hopefully get to do some riding there too.