Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?

Day 18:
Today we drove through the Bighorn Mountain area and then into Yellowstone. It was our most picturesque driving day yet. We started by heading into the Bighorn Mountain area, that tantalizing close range where we could see snow from our six-thousand degree purgatory. The drive gave us beautiful views of the plains we had just left and hints of things to come. An added bonus to this drive was the fact that it was likely to be a windy one. My wife drives when we hit such conditions to stay in control of her motion sickness, so I get to do a lot of sightseeing and picture taking hanging out of car windows.

Half way through the mountains we stopped at Shell Falls. In addition to a some nice shots of the falls, I got a chance to talk to bicyclists wearing the same jerseys we saw making the arduous climb. It turns out they were from the Winnipeg area and they were had just started into their 1000-mile, twelve-day journey from Yellowstone to Winnipeg to benefit Habitat for Humanity. I've always wished I was able to do a ride like this, and I have nothing but respect for them. And they were really nice, like your stereotypical Canadians.

We also had a short chat with a woman with whom we were inadvertently traveling. It turns out that she and her husband were at Horse Thief and Dayton on the nights we spent there. They are on a three-month (!) ride from Florida that would take them to a motorcycle rally in Wyoming then through Sedona, California, up the West Coast to see her daughters in British Columbia and then back down through Wyoming to Texas and across the deep south back to Florida. I get tired just typing all that.

I just had some really bad espresso. It came from one of those drive-up kiosks so it should be no surprise. But desperate times call for desperate measures so I thought I'd give it a try. My first clue should have been when the gal at the windows asked me if "that's all, nothing in it?" followed by the fact that there were two plastic stirrers sticking out of the to-go cup looking suspiciously like straws. She drew it long so it was going to be weak, but I wasn't expecting them to use bad coffee. Lesson learned.

Yellowstone is big. Big like that Geo Metro -sized stuffed animal you win for getting that plastic ring on the red coke bottle. The ranger hosting the forest fire talk told us that it is over two MILLION acres. It took us over an hour to get from the east entrance to our hotel room on the south side of Lake Yellowstone. We have already mapped out two-hour drives (one way) to some of the more remote locations. It's a good thing we have two full days here.

The forest fire talk was fascinating. I didn't know that the forest service has a policy of allowing any naturally occurring fire to burn itself out unless there is danger to life or property. They instituted this policy in the late seventies after realizing that the previous hundred year's policy of aggressively putting out every fire was interfering natural renewal. He spoke of types of plants that only grew in the wake of a fire either because of the additional nutrients fires provide or because the heat of the fire enabled a certain process.

This will be the first of three nights in the park away from any broadband access. If I post to the blog it will be over dial-up (gasp) and I certainly won't be uploading any pictures.

p.s. I just connected at 21K. It's so slow. I think I'm going to die before anything happens

Highlights:
1. The wild flowers in bloom in the Bighorn National Forest.
2. Finally getting to a place where the ambient temperature won't melt gold. Our way out of Dayton on Highway 14 took us over a pass at 8300 feet.
3. The views of the mountains nestled in clouds those of clouds painting patterns on the scenery below

Quirks:
1. Painted cattle crossings. So who's dumber? The cattle or the people who are still using real cattle crossings?
2. A ski area in the Bighorn Forest. Sure, why not?
3. Cyclists on the windy, steep, narrow roads in the Bighorn Forest. They seem to be doing a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity.