June 7, Sunday: Bighorn Mountains to Bighorn Canyon Recreation Area

Woke to beautiful clear skies with the sun just rising over the mountain and coming through the trees at my campsite.  No moose, this morning, but did have a deer.  Although I wanted to just sit outside and enjoy the great forest campsite, I left early so that I would have a better chance of seeing the mountain views in good weather - it was forecast to cloud up again later in the day.  (Sort of like South Carolina's weather:  hot and humid, chance of showers, except their hot is low 80s and no humidity.)  I also wanted to get where I could phone Jack and assure him that a bear or Big Foot didn't get me last night.

I drove west on the Bighorn Scenic Highway (north part of the Bighorns) and took the cutoff for the Medicine Wheel Passage.  The views were gorgeous and the weather was clear.

When I stopped at a turnoff to take a photo, this was by the side of the road.  Must be a dinosaur, right?

Yup, lots of snow!

The dirt road off the Passage to the Medicine Wheel was one lane wide with sheer dropoffs on one side and snaked up the side of Medicine Mountain.  I parked in the parking lot and walked uphill the 11/2 miles to the Medicine Wheel, including a couple of stretches that were snow-covered.  At 8,000 feet, I could have used a little more oxygen for this walk!

The Medicine Wheel is an ancient Indian circle of rocks with interior spokes.  The experts nor the Indians of today do not know the purpose of the wheel, more of which are found throughout North America, but they speculate it may have been a calendar.  Supposedly, two of the rock formations line up perfectly with ones in Mexico and Canada.  It is used today for ceremonial purposes and they have put up a wooden fence around it that is covered in bits of cloth, often with a piece of jewely.

Path to Medicine Wheel on the mountain in the distance, beyond the snow

Part of the path was snow covered

Spokes of the wheel

Rocks inside the Wheel and some items from a recent ceremony

I walked back along the same path and drove back down the mountain in 2nd gear the whole way.  I backtracked 20 minutes to the cutoff and resumed my drive on the Bighorn Scenic Highway west, stopping frequently to take photos.

View from the Medicine Wheel

Near the end of the scenic portion of the highway, I came to Shell Creek Falls and Shell Creek Canyon. This waterfall is somewhat unique as it is not a result of erosion, but occurs at a major fault in the rocks.  Took a half hour walk around the Falls, and took a lot of photos.  Shell Creek Canyon was beautiful, but had no turnouts so I could not take photos there.

How do these trees grow out of sheer rock?

I returned to the RV and finally headed north into Greybull where I stopped to pick up a few groceries and household (RV) items.

In Lovell, I picked up the one way in and out road up to Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.  I stopped at Devil's Canyon (part of the Bighorn Canyon) for fantastic views and photos.

I continued north to the end of the road where I got a campsite overlooking the river where the canyon walls were not very high, but were a dramatic blood red.  I was the only one in the campground....The weather was beautiful and I enjoyed my dinner outside watching the river...