Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area - Lovell, WY

 Greetings!

We are now in Great Falls, Montana and have wifi.  So let me tell you about our time in Bighorn Canyon.  We were there for 5 nights.  Several of the days were kind of lazy, as Dave was having a muscle issue and was resting it.   He is all better now.  

First off, this was the view from our campsite.  Not bad to look at when being lazy.

Got in early on our arrival day,  set up and went to a brewery in Powell, WY.  It was WYOld West Brewery.  Dave had Revenge of the Rodeo Clown.  I had their homemade root beer.  Turns out that Powell, WY was the town that Dave’s colleague Chris Wirth’s parents grew up in and he has several family members that still live there.  Dave wondered if he went in the street and yelled “I know Chris Wirth”, if someone would say “I do too”.  However, when we went on the empty street, he did it in his inside voice, so there was no response.

One evening at the Marina by the campground (walking distance) they had live music.  It was a beautiful night out and the music was good.  

Later in the week we went to the Bighorn Canyon overlook.  We saw Bighorn sheep and a golden eagle flying overhead.  The canyon was deep and beautiful.  We saw a few boats in the river, they looked so small.  It is very hard to capture the magnitude of the scenery.

We then went to Barry’s Landing which was a boat launch, but again wonderful views.

 Another stop was the site of an old ranch.  The ranch is no longer there, but there was equipment, some type of storage building and a school house.  The interesting thing about the school house was it had 3 students, 2 from one family.  The Mom convinced the county to use a building on their property for the school house.   There also was a stream because you need a water source to live by.  They did have info on the sign that they did well despite the hot summers and very cold winters.  Something I can’t really fathom considering they had none of the creature comforts we have to “battle” weather.

School House

Out building

Equipment and view

Stream

                                                       

Another interesting stop was Two Eagles Interpretive Trail.  It was a site where transient native americans had been.  There were circles of rocks that were used to hold down the tipis and when they moved on they just roll the rocks away, so they are still in a circle.  If there was two rings (inner and outer) it meant there was an insulating layer to the tipi as well.  There were more than 140 tipi circles found at this site that represented nearly 1,200 years of use by the ancestors of various tribes.  There is still a reservation in the Big Canyon area, Crow Reservation.   We also saw 3 wild horses when we were walking the path.  When you see all of these things and learn about the “early” days, you sure feel spoiled.  

Our one hike at Bighorn Canyon was the Canyon Mouth Trail, about 2 miles round trip.  Nice views of the canyon and the water went different ways.  Nice shorter hike for Dave to see how his muscle was healing.  

One interesting thing we saw here I haven’t seen before is trucks pulling campers AND boats.  This was a big boating place and we saw three or four people come in with their truck, camper and boat all in a line hitched together like train cars.  I guess cause it is Wyoming and Montana and wide open space, but all together a couple of them had to be over 60’.

Enjoy a couple more panoramic views.