Western Wyoming

For the past two months I have been traveling to Cody Wyoming to handle claims. In June I found an apartment and last Saturday I moved to Cody. I really love my new apartment. It is located a couple of blocks from downtown. It is an older building from the 1950's, but it has been well maintained. It is a lot nicer than my Gillette apartment that was built in the 1980's. I am on the ground level so even with the hot weather last week my apartment stayed fairly cool. Right now I have windows open on both sides of my apartment and there is a cool breeze blowing through. Believe it or not this apartment has screens on the windows. They don't even rattle when the wind blows.

I am looking forward to the family coming out next week to visit. Last night I took a bike ride out of town. I started at about 8:40 pm, yes a little late, and rode seven miles to the Buffalo Bill Reservoir Dam. The ride follows the "old" road to Yellowstone down along the Shoshone River. As you near the dam the walls of the canyon begin to close in. The ride goes under rock outcroppings and through part of an old tunnel. At the end the canyon walls are hundreds of feet high and the river is deep green. If anyone comes up be sure to bring a bike. On the way home I got a flat tire from a long nail. After patching it I broke my bike pump and then damaged the valve stem from rolling the bike when the tire was flat. I eventually ended up at Wal-Mart buying a new tube. It felt very odd to walk into the store in my cycling clothes.

Now for some pictures. The first week of June I met Jeff and Caroline and the rest of the family in Island Park. Kristin, the McCanns and I went to Yellowstone and hiked a trail near Great Fountain Geyser. It is a great trail because it allows one to get up close to some hot springs. The stream we followed is scalding hot. Owen was a great hiker. He was even good about not touching the hot water. I think this is an area the buffalo frequent. There are signs of them everywhere, see the tree rubs below.

This is the view looking downstream. Even on a warm day steam is rising.

We then went up the road and biked to Lonestar Geyser. The trail follows the old road to West Thumb. It travels among trees along the Firehole River. We waited around for about 40 minutes to watch it erupt.

Here is the family eating breakfast. It is always super tasty up at the cabin.

There was a lot of traffic on the bridge. Jon only dropped Marcella in twice.

On Saturday Mom, Dad, the McCanns and I rode some trails in Harriman State Park. It was pretty fun until the trail narrowed. The wider trails near the river were closed for bird nesting and the others are not built for a bike trailer. I felt bad for Jeff and Caroline having to pull the trailer, but we still managed to enjoy the ride.

Just a view of the lake and river. It was beautiful and there were hardly and bugs.

On the drive from Worland to Meeteese there is a little scenic pull off with a mile long trail. This is a fascinating part of the desert where layers of rock and mud have worn away leaving pillars of earth.

Just a cool ant hill.

Goff Creek is in the Shoshone National forest. The trail follows the creek for a couple of miles before climbing a mile or so up the mountain. The trail is shady and cool. Many of the wildflower pictures in a previous post came from this trail. By the way, good job mom at naming all the flowers. I will take your word that they are correct. Most of the mountain views look south.

Just inside the National Forest is Sweetwater Creek. There is an old resort about three miles up the road which has been abandoned for a few years. The road is in poor condition in places so the Forest Service shut it down; see the picture of the bridge. Sulfur used to be mined near the creek. I don't know why it is called Sweetwater when it really stinks when one gets near the old mine. The road first crosses the North Fork of the Shoshone (pictured below).

Small Snake

I followed a small side canyon for a half hour or so. Kind of reminds me of the terrain in Southern Utah. I would not want to be here during a rainstorm.

It is kind of hard to see from the picture below, but there is a vertical wall of rock about 15 feet thick which has been cut in half by the seasonal stream.

Broken Bridge

Sulphur Mine

Part of the old resort.

Even closer to Wapiti is Signal Mountain. This starts out as a very steep hike. It climbs up out of the canyon in the first mile then follows the ridge about as far as anyone would like to go. It affords great views of Wapiti and the Buffalo Bill Reservoir.

Wapiti valley. If you look closely you can see the new estate development. It is two fields above the red barn. Look for the ponds in the middle of the picture then go left. The development is 130 homes on about 500 acres. One acre for only $180,000. Like much of the resort land in the west they are feeling the pressure of new development.

While on this hike it came to mind that I have not taken a picture of myself in quite a while. I decided to do a shot. I didn't really like it so I did another with a different expression. Then another and another and another. I really could not get one that I liked so I will just post them all. I think it is funny how many pictures I ended up with.

More views to the south.

Moving day. I was certainly glad when moving was over. I hope I won't have to do it again for a few years.

Crazy Creek. On July 3rd I hiked up Crazy Creek Trail to Copeland Lake. It was a fun trip, but there were tons of mosquitoes. I did not bring a tent and was kept awake most of the night by pesky mosquitoes. I won't go camping in July anymore without a tent.

There are some deer feeding in this meadow.

This is Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone. I stopped here and waded in. Boy was it cold.

----------------------------------
Pebble Creek Hike.

Grizzly near the East Entrance.