Powder River Pass - Big Horn Mountains

On Wednesday, we waited to hear back from Winegard needlessly all day long.  When you call Winegard, you never get to talk to anyone.  You always have to wait for them to call or email you back.  We thought we should stay at the motorhome or in town where we had cell phone or internet service to confirm they had received all the necessary paperwork to process our warranty claim and ship the new satellite system out.  Unfortunately, the technical support person who was helping us left early on Wednesday but we didn't know that until most of the day was gone.  Wednesday was a frustrating day.

On Thursday morning, I finally got a confirmation email that they would be shipping out the new satellite system so that freed us up to do some other things.  We got our 10,000 steps in by walking to downtown Buffalo and back.

After some lunch, we decided to take a drive on Hwy 16 across the Big Horn Mountains and Powder River Pass.  As we traveled up to Powder River Pass, you could see more and more snow on the mountains.

And the temperature dropped from 71 degrees in Buffalo to 51 degrees at the peak.  Brrrr.

But it was beautiful.

Notice all the pine trees and snow on this side of the pass.

Right at the peak of Powder River Pass, the mountains looked more like big rock piles.

We had spotted several mule deer along the way but I wasn't quick enough to get their pictures.  Then off to Chuck's side, I saw what I thought were two big deer.  After stopping, Chuck realized they were elk instead of deer.  I was lucky and got this picture before they scampered off into the woods.

We went by Meadowlark Ski Resort (obviously closed for the season) and

 

Meadowlark Lake.

 

As we headed down the west side of Powder River Pass, the mountains changed from snow and pine trees to a lot more rock...

and canyon walls.

When we reached the town of Ten Sleeps, the temperature was back up to 76 degrees (25 degrees less that at the peak).   The population of Ten Sleeps is 260.  The town got its name because it took an Indian ten days (or "ten sleeps") to travel there from Fort Laramie.  After filling up with gas and getting a very good cup of coffee, we headed back across the pass to Buffalo.

We had a better view of the canyon going up to the pass on the way back...

 

...and could see Ten Sleeps Creek rolling along the base of the canyon.

The drive up from Ten Sleeps was beautiful.

We had noticed several signs for National Forest campgrounds and picnic areas on the drive across and decided to stop and investigate a National Forest picnic area on the way back.  This camper mistakenly thought there was a campground at the end of this road...

 

...and cut this curve too close almost getting stuck in a ditch.

 

(I don't think we will be driving the RV down this road!) 

The picnic area provided another beautiful view of Meadowlark Lake.

 

Next, we drove down a road to a National Forest Campground.  Look who greeted us!  A mule deer!

 

Most of the campsites were level and fairly large with privacy between them.

On the way out of the campground, the same mule deer told us good-bye!  :)

 

Just as we were about to pull out back on to Hwy 16, we saw this little creature that we think was a groundhog.

 

If anyone reading this blog, knows what it is, please post a comment and let us know because it didn't quite look like the ol' groundhog that lived in the barn at our old house and it didn't look like a prairie dog either.

 

 

Found out after original posting this is a Yellowbelly Marmot.  Thanks Jesse!

We continued back up to Powder River Pass...

...where we got out so I could take a few more pictures...

...and Chuck could check out the snow. 

 

After leaving the pass, we drove a little further and pulled off at the Loaf Mountain Overlook...

 

...where we could see Loaf Mountain...

 

Bighorn Peak...

 

...and Dalton Peak.

 

We pulled out of the overlook road and noticed some motorcycles pulled off on the side of the road.  When I looked back, I told Chuck..."there are some elk!"  I was wrong again.  They weren't elk, they were moose!

 

As we headed back down the mountain, we saw this sign that gives you an idea of some of the grades on Hwy 16.

Towards the bottom of the pass, the mountains were covered in places with these beautiful yellow flowers.

While we stopped for me to take pictures of the flowers, Chuck noticed these unusual cattle up on mountainside.

 

We have never seen bushy-tailed cattle. 

If anyone reading this blog, knows what kind of cattle these are, please post a comment and let us know.  We wondered if it was a beefalo?

We headed down the rest of the pass back to Buffalo.

What a nice afternoon!  We saw lots of beautiful scenery, two elk, three moose, two groundhogs (?), some unusual cattle and a lot of mule deer.  Good day!  :)