8/6/11 - 405 Miles

Joe and I headed off on another daycation with the goal of making it to the Snowy Range Road in the Medicine Bow Mountain Range near the border of Wyoming and Colorado.  We were taking Nephi, Hanna and Joanna Williams along with us for what was our last daycation together before they moved back to Utah.  This road had only been open for about six weeks because of the excessive amounts of snow it received even during the spring.  So, we expected to see lots and lots of snow.  We saw snow, but not lots of it, but enough to make snowballs still during the month of August.

Nephi and Joanna enjoying the soft green grass before lunch.

The view by our picnic table.

Our day changed dramatically though when Joe got out of the car at the picnic area and passed out and fell on the ground.  Then he almost did the same thing sitting on the picnic bench.  I took his bllod sugar and the readings were incredibly too high.  After giving him some insulin and eating our lunch, the same thing almost happened again.  It was then that I decided that it was time to get to a hospital - some 40+ miles away in Laramie. 

I put the hazard lights on and off we went.  As soon as I had phone service, I called 911 and they sent a deputy and an ambulance our way where they eventually met us.  Joe was then transported to the hospital where they kept him for a little while after doing blood tests and putting fluid into him.  Fortunately, he didn't stay long and they had no reason for the passing out and the high blood sugar.  But after getting something to eat, we all headed back home.

I love this picture!  The moon was so gigantic that night.

Comfort and Joy

My very, very wonderful friend, Marla is so good to me.  Not only is she a friend who listens and understands what I'm gone through in the last few months, but she also supplies me with a really good big cookie on days when she knows it's been extremely stressful.

Hoodoos and Other Fascinating Rocks

We were driving down the road when suddenly off on our left was this strange formation
of rocks that look similar to pictures I've seen of the South Dakota badlands.
This picture does not the depth of this.

Joe overlooking the formations which also contain hoodoos.

This picture shows what hoodoos are...In the middle of the picture is a pile of rocks that
almost look like a mushroom.  Hoodoos are those rocks on top of a column that protects
it from wind and water erosion.  They may eventually fall off.

This interpretive sign was at the location.  Hard to believe that some of these rocks came all the way
from Idaho or Utah.

This was either someone's old abandoned home or an old schoolhouse.

Interesting Stops Coming Home From Cody

Then we made it to Meeteesee, Wyoming.  Meeteetse is an old western town located just 32 miles south of Cody.  Founded in the 1890's, the word Meeteetse is an old Shoshone Indian word for "meeting place." The town retains much of its original character with wooden boardwalks, wooden watering troughs, hitching rails and many old buildings from the turn of the century.

Forget Buffalo Bill, Butch Cassidy, Billy the Kid, and countless men and women of notoriety who helped define the mythology of the American West. Meeteetse had its own brand of mythmaker: Poker Nell, Bronco Nell, Laughing Smith, Swede Pete, Airplane Jerry, Greasy Bill, Checkbook Charlie, and Shorty the Crock to name a few.

By 1906, the town had seven saloons, one store, two banks, and two hotels. There were several other bars scattered over the area. At the forks of the Greybull and Wood Rivers was a popular bar called the "Bucket of Blood." The town had a reputation as a "wild and woolly" town until fairly recently. For the first time churches now outnumber saloons.

The Meeteetse area is rich in history with the expansive Pitchfork Ranch, famous as one the west's true cattle empires. It was the first cattle ranching operation of the Big Horn Basin, established in 1879 by Otto Franc. By 1900, thousands of cattle grazed along the Greybull River and Wood River Valleys. Although first discovered on the John Hogg Ranch, the Pitchfork is also well known for the fact the last known colony of an endangered species thought to be extinct, the Black Footed Ferret, was found on its grasslands.Noted outlaw Butch Cassidy lived in Meeteetse. In 1886, he signed a petition for the new bridge, and in 1894, he was arrested in front of the Cowboy Bar.

One section of the wooden boardwalk is covered with various brands from area ranches.

Smith Mine

This was the site of the worst mining disaster in Montana.

The story of the mine disaster is quite interesting when you read how many women were widowed and children made fatherless and all the other statistics.  This is a link to an article detailing more facts...http://www.bearcreekmt.com/disa.htm

The entire place is one total ghost town.

Unfortunately when Joe and I came by this place is was starting to become dark and we still needed to get back into Cody.  I found out later that there was an old cemetery located on the top of the hill that had been there for over 100 years.  Sure would have loved to have checked that one out!

We Made It To Montana

At the border of Montana.  The temperature was 50 degrees and windy, but we had a beautiful
rainbow to greet us.

Today In History...

August 17, 2004…Singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg announced that he was battling advanced prostate cancer. He died from the disease a little more than three years later.

I'm writing about this because it reminds me of a memory dealing with Les and I think it may be one that Corey doesn't know about his Dad and I.

After Les and I met in Louisiana, he came back to Georgia with me to meet my parents.  When we returned back to his home to pick up his things since he was going to move back to Georgia permanently.  We drove up to his house and out in the snow was his stereo and speakers and all of his record albums.  Apparently we had arrived about the time someone was stealing things from his home. 

Although the items had been left in the cold and the snow, they were all in good working order.  Among the record albums was one by Dan Fogelberg.  It became one of my favorites and many a night Les and I would put it on the stereo, turn down the lights, sit down on the couch and snuggle up with each other and listen to the album.

Some of our favorite Dan Fogelberg songs include:

It's amazing to me how music can stir so many memories such as these do.  Happy days, happy memories which make me still wonder what went wrong?

The Beartooth Mountains

The mountains and the snow kept getting closer until the road eventually took us on top of the mountain and we were above the snow.  The melted snow lakes and the amount of snow was unbelievable as well as the surrounding scenery.  Notice the rainbow forming in the background of the last picture.

So There We Were In Bear Country...

...in the mountains where there were lots and lots of signs that said be "Bear Aware".  Joe's kinda napping and dozing off on occasion, when suddenly I see this BIG BROWN thing coming down the road.  I think it's a bear!  After all, we are in bear country and in all the traveling we've done, I've never seen a bear in the wild.  So, here is my/our big chance.  I start taking pictures through the windshield, while yelling at Joe to "look, look" before it's gone.  Picture No. 1...





Picture No. 2...it's getting closer and closer.

And then the bear gets closer when I suddently realize it's a lone buffalo - a bison just strolling down the road like it's out for a Sunday stroll.  I totally stop the car, hoping it's a safe distance, when it walks past the car.  Joe could have reached out and touched it if he'd a mind too or the buffalo could have turned around and gored the car.  Try explaining that to my Allstate Insurance dude, huh? 

This thing was at least 10 feet tall and 20 feet long and could have popped his head inside the sunroof.  Well, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but that's what it looked like

We had to turn the car around and go back for another look since you don't see that kinda thing just every day. No, Dorothy we certainly aren't in Georgia anymore!

The Beartooth Highway

The Beartooth Highway is a 68-mile travel corridor where the road rises to 10, 947 feet at Beartooth Pass in Wyoming and has been awarded the National Scenic Byways "All-American Road" status.  I can see why!  This is one of the most incredible stretches of road that I've ever had the privilege to drive on and experience sheer unbelievable beauty. 

Heading From Cody, Wyoming Into Montana

Heading north out of Cody to Montana

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Heading west on the Chief Joseph Scenie Byway.   Summer 1877 brought tragedy to the Nez Perce (or, in their language, Ni-Mii-puu).  Many of their tribe had been removed from homelands to a reservation. Now the U.S. Army was ordered to put the remaining Nez Perce there. These bands objected because they had not sold their land to the U.S. government nor signed a treaty. Nez Perce leaders decided to lead their people in search of a new home. The trek of more than 800 people and 2,000 horses was to be peaceful. But warriors killed Idaho settlers as revenge for earlier murders, which caused the Army to chase the Nez Perce.  Their trek became a flight marked by skirmishes and battles, the last of which stopped them more than 1,000 miles away from their homeland and less than 40 miles from safety in Canada. 

Led by Chief Joseph more than 800 men, women and children composing five Indian bands refused to be placed on a reservation. In a running battle that covered 1,300 miles, the Nez Perce successfully, but fatefully, outfought and outran U.S. troops commanded by General Oliver D. Howard. 

The Nez Perce plan was to seek help from their Crow allies in eastern Montana. Unfortunately the Crow refused to aid the Nez Perce forcing them to continue their flight north toward Canada. Only about 40 miles from the safety of the Canadian border and just north of the Bear Paw Mountains, the Nez Perce paused to rest and regroup before making their final trek to safety.

Unbeknownst to the Nez Perce, Colonel Nelson A. Miles, with 400 men from the Tongue River Cantonment near what is today Miles City, Montana, had been dispatched to intercept them. Coming from the east, the Indian scouts, who were deployed to the south to scout for General Howard, did not learn of the threat until it was too late. Thus began the five day Battle of the Bear Paws – the last battle the Nez Perce were to fight and the end of their dream of remaining free.

The view just went on and on and on forever.

Looking down from Dead Indian Summit.

At an elevation of 8,060 feet, Dead Indian Summit Overlook, a paved turnout at the high point of the Byway, provides a spectacular panorama of the Absaroka and Beartooth mountains. The 220-degree view from this point is among the most dramatic in the West.  Various legends claim the origin of this famous Wyoming placename. Most versions of the legends agree that a skirmish between early prospectors or the U.S. Army and a party of Bannock Indians occurred here in 1878. One of the Bannocks died and was left at the summit.   A totally different version says one of the mountain peaks off in the distance looks like the profile of a Native American.

Panoramic views of the Absaroka Mountains and the mouth of Sunlight Basin.

Looking back up at Dead Indian's Summit.