27th
June 2016
Across the plains
of Wyoming to the exciting Bear Tooth Pass
I took my time
packing up this morning, and also took the opportunity to refill my propane
bottle, although I don’t think the guy did a very good job as it still seems
very light – Only time will tell. The plan today was to drive across Wyoming,
much of which I had seen on previous visits, partly because my ex employer has
a big bentonite mill out here, and I have visited it aon a number of occasions,
including on my Elise trip in 2012. And
last night I had finally realized that my rear tyres were not going to last as
long as I had hoped, with one of them showing severe wear on the inside edge,
to the point where I was somewhat concerned about how long it would last – I
needed to look for tyres.
I was already
well over 6000 ft asl when I set off, and heading into the Big Horn National
Forest we climbed through forests up to over 8000 ft, with some great views
over the still snowcapped peaks of the Cloud Peak Wilderness, with one reaching
up over 12,000 ft. Not only is the
scenery pretty good, but at this time of year the wildflowers provide a riot of
colour in the open areas and beside the road.We drove over the Powder River
Pass at 9666 feet, and then down through the winding Tensleep Canyon with its
impressive rock outcrops above. At one
stage I saw a dead
The little town
of Ten Sleep is a bit of a run down cowboy-style place, yet fully in sync with
the surrounding countryside out here in country Wyoming. From there it was out to Worland and then
north through Manderson towards Greybull.
One minute you are driving across rolling plains, and the next
I went to the
mill of my ex-company as there is a geologist there I know well, and had stayed
with for a couple of days in 2012.
Unfortunately he was on leave, and there didn’t seem to be any other
people I knew left there, so after a couple of photos, I left and continued
west to Cody. It is about an hour’s
drive from Greybull to Cody, across fairly boring Wyoming plains, and once in
Cody I went looking for tyres. I found a
place (Bear Co Tyres !) that could get 2 of the BF Goodrich tyres I needed
shipped in by noon tomorrow, and although the cost was a bit higher than I
would pay in a bigger city, I now really had no choice due to the condition of
the one tyre. Once I had the tyre situation
sorted, I decided to go and drive the Bear Tooth Pass, or at least half of it,
enabling me to complete the rest of it tomorrow and be back in Cody by noon.
Cody is the home
of Buffalo Bill, and the town is awash with tourists, cowboy themes, rodeos
every evening during the summer, plus restaurants every 20 feet. It was seething with coaches and tour groups,
partly because of its cowboy heritage, but also because of its proximity to
Yellowstone – Many people fly into Cody and do their tours from there. I headed NW out of town along the Chief
Joseph Scenic Byway, who was one of the Nez Perce chiefs who lived in this
region. The road quickly leaves the
rolling planes behind and you climb slowly upwards into some absolutely
breathtaking
You quickly find
yourself stopping repeatedly on the side of the road just to take in the views,
and get a few photos. In several
instances I had to do U turns and go back to see the view again because it was
just that good. At this stage there was
a white pick up truck doing almost the same as me, and eventually we stopped in
the same place and introduced ourselves.
Steve, and his dog Zoe, were heading to Portland Oregon for some work,
and he had never been here before and didn’t know about the Bear Tooth
Pass. When I told him, and said I was
looking for a camps site, he asked if he could tag along, so we set off at the
start of the Pass.
There were
supposedly a number of camp sites in the forests, but as we explored them we
found them all firmly closed with gates across the access roads. Since it was now almost July I was somewhat
surprised, but we eventually found one that had a campground host in place, and
she explained that these sites are never open until early to mid July because
there is often still a lot of snow up
here. Apparently now they are still
closed because, despite there not being so much snow last winter, there are
still a lot of blown down trees that still need to be cleared to make the sites
safe for the public.
But she was able
to suggest that just up the road, next to the Little Bear Lake, there was a
dirt road up onto a hill where it would be OK for us to camp, as long as we
were careful of bears ! We found the
trail, and when we got up there found several more tents already there – They
turned out to be Yellowstone employees who were just trying to escape the
crowds in the Park for a couple of days they had off ! Steve and I went a little further along the
track and ended up in the most perfect spot,
But pics are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/6301339166587274785?authkey=Gv1sRgCLnmiPbDx9OZEA
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