Day 37: Riverton to Rock Spring

Friday
My tactical error from yesterday became obvious today as we drove to Rock Spring. Instead of taking four days (two nights at Thermopolis, one night at Lander and one night at Rock Spring), We (that is mostly me) had decided to take it in two hops, each of about 140 miles, one night in Riverton and one in Rock Springs. Well we have arrived safely in Rock Springs, but:

1. Sally is shattered
2. In order not to get too tired I rushed us through the countryside, not stopping as often as would be nice, so;
3. We missed out seeing the Worlds Largest Hot Springs at Thermopolis
4. We also did not realise that we were crossing the path of the Oregon Trail, and so did not plan in stopping to see the remains along the roadside.
5. We shall probably stay an extra night at Rock Springs, which although it is quite pleasant is an industrial environment.

O.K., so my little sob story is told, and I am the poorer for having made poor decisions.
On a brighter note, we stopped at Lander, a small western town, for a cuppa. Interestingly the main street was quite wide and we found a note in a shop window which said that the street had been planned to be wide enough to be enable a sixteen horse/mule wagon to turn around, well on looking at it I reckoned I might just be able to turn our rig round in the the same length. The importance of the heavy wagon was that lander was an iron ore mining town.
We chose a coffee shop, called Old town Coffee. We walked in and ordered from the lady behind the counter, the place was almost empty, just some young guy lounging with his laptop, in fact I wondered if he was a college student (no he would be in college), or out of work (could be, but don't judge by appearances), anyway we ordered an Earl Grey for Sally and House Coffee for me, though I was slightly taken aback when I realised that the house coffee (which was actually drip coffee)was  more expensive than the clever cups like cappuccino and such like. Well I must say that I think that this was one of the best cups of coffee I have had in America, Sally also said the Earl grey was excellent, how about that! So I asked the make of coffee, which opened up for us a coffee workshop!!
The young guy lounging at the counter was actually the owner, (see what I mean about judging by appearances).
When I questioned the waitress about the type of coffee I was drinking he intervened and explained in great detail, with great enthusiasm that this coffee was not a Robusta Bean (pah! low quality, bitter) but Kenya Miiri coffee, grown in the shade, at an elevation of 1850ft, and that it was a brand called Heart. This and the way it was roasted and brewed gave it the flavour which I had so much enjoyed. He then went on to explain that coffee should be ground between two surfaces, like millstones used for flour, not cut as most of the cheaper electric grinders are. That this coffee is medium roasted, so as not to be too bitter. He told me that coffee should be made the way it was here in a filter, using a non metallic drip system. I was very impressed with this and bought some of the coffee  (though he tried to give it to me!!) and will try it and see if it tastes as good when I make it. I think what Sally and I both loved (apart from the drinks) was his enthusiasm for the product he was involved with (selling is too harsh a word).
On our way down from Lander we did see some more wonderful scenery, in particular a place called Red Canyon (for obvious reasons). Although there is an awful lot of flat grassland/desert as well, but we saw a lot more pronghorns, though we did not try too hard to photograph them as I felt that we would be creating something of a road hazard if we kept slamming on the anchors to take pics. We stopped in by the Beaver River as Sally spotted a lovely Beaver Lodge and dam, though we did not see the beaver.

Setting up at Sweetwater Event Center was quite interesting. I had called ahead to see if there was any availabilty, the lady said yes there was. We turned up. There is one other trailer on site. There are at least 800 full hook up sites on the campground! Yes there was enough space for us. But even more amazing, we could not find a site which was (a) level front to back, so we had to unhitch, (b) level side to side, (c) long enough to leave the chevy hitched on anyway. Not that we are picky......

Day 36: Heading South

Thursday
We had planned to stop a couple of nights in Thermopolis, but, having decided that we would not swim in the hot springs, I made a tactical error and we continued to Riverton for the night. Stayed in a nice campground, but it was overrun with full timers, most of whom seemed to work with Pickup trucks that required leaving at 5 minute intervals from 6.00 a.m.
However it was a lovely run from Cody to Riverton, over the rolling Wyoming hills. We stopped at Meeteetse for a cup of tea/coffee at a chocolate shop, this entailed being forced to sample a 54% cocoa dark chocolate Brownie. Here we did see a bear, even if it was made from resin and had lost one arm (tastefully hidden in the photograph)
We drove through Thermopolis and had our lunch at the entrance to the wonderful Wind River Canyon. As we drove through we noticed that there were signs showing the succession of rock strata. At the North end the rocks are young, of Permian Age, some 225 million years old (myo), but because the strata have been tilted as we moved south, even though we were going uphill through the canyon  we were going down through the rock stata and they were becoming older and older as the rock layers beneath were being exposed. This tilting also had the effect of making it appear we were driving downhill and the river water was therefore flowing uphill, quite strange. There were convenient sings by the side of the road to show we were passing through Pennsylvanian, Ordovician, Cambrian strata and finally old Precambrian pink granite which was 2900 myo. Then after a couple of small tunnels we were through the canyon and then Lake Boysen appeared in front of us. From there is was a short drive to Riverton.
We did see quite a few Pronghorn, but they are quite shy and when we did get up close they kept turning their backside towards us. The other problem was that by the time we had picked them out from the sage brush, checked for traffic behind, slowed down and stopped without proving that Newtons laws of Motion would ensure that most objects in the van would tend maintain their velocity and end up piled up on the front dashboard and foot well, then we were well past the pronghorn, who would still turn their backside towards us and sashay off up the hill.

Day 35: Lunar Eclipse

Wednesday
Sally had noticed that a lunar eclipse was due on Wednesday, so I figured "ah Wednesday night, 4.55a.m, well that's really Thursday morning". Went to bed, strangely enough we were woken at about 4.15 by some critter making a noise, we couldn't decide if it was a fox or a raccoon? Anyway, got out of bed to have a look, thought that as it was a full moon there would be plenty of light, but no, it was dark, thought it might me cloudy, no could see stars. Oh, Oh, realized that Wednesday 4.55 a.m. meant now! So got up got out camera tried to take pics, absolutely rubbish, just could not either get it quite focused, or steady enough for a clear photo. This was the best of the bunch.

Had a quiet morning then went back to finish off the Buffalo Bill Wild West Center Museum, which was quite interesting, though reinforced further that the Indians really have been badly treated (have to read between the lines there as the museum does not happen to mention that aspect much)

Day 34: The Great Great Grandaddy of all Scenic Routes

Tuesday
We have been trying to recover our energy over the last few days so that we could 'do' one of the great scenic drives, actually two scenic drives which run into each other. The First is the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway and the second is State Highway 212, known as the Bear Tooth Highway which is an All American Road and includes the Bear Tooth Pass. From our campground that would be a drive of nearly 200 miles, though the actual scenic routes are about about 45 miles each.
The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm with very little wind. We arrived at the Chief Joseph road quite quickly and then cruised as gently as possible over the winding roads. It is very difficult to describe the variety of views that we had, but at every turn (and there were a lot of them) a new vista would open up, a sense of expectancy of the next view as we approached each crest in the road. At times we could look down on countryside as though we were in a plane rather than a car,

As we passed over the Bear Tooth Pass we were looking down on other mountain tops, quite strange really.
We tried to stop at every vantage point, but there were so many that one became almost immune to them.

We finally pulled into Red Lodge on the far end of the highways, found a cafe and had a drink before driving back to our trailer. As usual we find that our photographs do not in any way do justice to the scenery, but they are an aide memoir for us to remember a wonderful day.
N.B.On driving through the Chief Joseph Byway we found a bit more of the Nez Perce Puzzle, probably our last contact with them. The tribe, now about 600 people, had been eluding the army chasing them from the west by passing through Yellowstone, however an army from the East was closing in on them, so they used the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River to pass between the two armies and escaped to the north, eluding capture yet again.

Day 33: Buffalo Bill's Center of the Wild West

Monday
Today we visited Buffalo Bill's Center of the Wild West in Cody. We had a very enjoyable half day there, managing to see some raptors, the Buffalo Bill Exhibit and half the Plains Indian Exhibit. It was very interesting and we pan to return on Wednesday to see the rest of it.

Day 32: Quiet Day in Cody

Sunday
We have taken a relaxing day today, lazy morning, driven into Cody to find water and stopped for lunch at the Wyoming Ribs and Chop Place, very nice. A short walk on the main street, not particularly inspiring. Drove back through the Shoshone River Gorge, which is very impressive, the dam for the reservoir is at the head of it and they also made a couple of road tunnels along side, some lovely views, then the lake as you exit the tunnel, with its long view up the valley to Yellowstone.

This evening I made the classic mistake of observing that the sunset looked like it would probably be quite forgettable, only to find 15 minutes later that the sky was lit up with pinks. oranges and golds, quite beautiful.
Beautiful though the view towards the sunset is to the eye, the distances are too big for clear photography, just can't get clear definition of mountains twenty miles away, even if they are big.

Day31: Cody and the Wild Wild West

Saturday
We are now bound for Cody, which is just to the East of Yellowstone Park, . We wimped out of travelling over the Bighorn Mountain passes as the range suggested that there were icy patches on the road. The Bighorn Mountain campgrounds had all closed or shut off their facilities, so that means we must backtrack to Billings then strike South to Cody, which is actually shorter and quicker than going over the mountains, but not so spectacular.
We took advantage of passing though Billings by stopping at Walmart for a new tyre on the trailer. The road South from there was actually very pretty as well as straight and flat, so good progress was made. We had worked out that the campground at Buffalo Bill State Park still had seven sites with electricity, so we headed for there, slightly dubious about getting a space as it was Saturday, however on arrival  we found a beautiful spot looking over the reservoir, with electrics, but no water, as that had been switched off for the winter. this meant that we pick up  water from a gas station every time we go into Cody. The only other draw back of this site (and the campground) is that it is windy, all the time, very windy, rocking the trailer windy, so we feel like we are in a railway carriage as it goes along. Still its a great view and you can't have everything can you?

Day 30: Battle of the Little Big Horn

Friday
We spent most of the day visiting the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The first stop was the Visitor Center, where we watched a video about the battle. As usual with battles there was considerable confusion and one had to interpret the real truth from several versions of the truth as told by witnesses.

View of the Battlefield from our campground

Like the Nez Perce to the West, the Sioux Indians had been given the shirty end of the stick when it came to sharing with the white man, having been told they could keep about a third of the Dakota area, including the famous Black Hills (although they were really the Black Hills Of the Lakota Indians, not Dakota as in the song), however when gold was discovered in the Black Hills the treaty was 'renegotiated' except the Indians did not sign up to it. The Sioux spent time in hunting grounds outside their reservation, which gave the army reason to round them up and put them on the reservation. Custer led a regiment to enforce the treaty. He appears to have been quite arrogant in his underestimation of the Sioux fighting capability as he seemed to make every military mistake in the book. He split his forces, he sent a smaller force in offence against a larger force. He gave up high ground. He was attempting to capture women and children to hold as hostage. He separated his force from the main body, such that they could not even communicate. The two forces ended up about 4 miles apart, with the Indians holding the ridge between them.
A small force led by Reno moved down the Little Big Horn valley and fired indiscriminately into the Sioux Village, whilst Custer took his larger force along the ridge to cut off the retreat of the tribe. However the Indians fought back and forced Reno to retreat, rather turn and flee up the valley side where they were surrounded on a hill top unable to do anything except defend the hill top and wait for reinforcements.
Because this force was pinned down the bulk of the Indians were able to pursue Custers companies, Where again he split his forces hoping to overwhelm the Indians, who surrounded each group and destroyed them, killing some two hundred soldiers, including of course Custer himself. Then noticing that army reinforcements were about to arive the Sioux, keeping Reno pinned down, broke camp and disappeared over the hill to the Big Horn Mountains.
This was the only battle the Sioux Indians won. Its effect was to bring an even bigger army down on them and make sure they knew that they were the underdogs and I guess its been that way ever since.
It did make for a very interesting day and added some more to our understanding of the history of North America and the relationship between the emigrants and the indigenous people.

Day 29: Parachuting into the Battle of the Little Big Horn

Thursday
Yet again we have bid a fond farewell to Roy and Anne, as they have now gone into Yellowstone Park. Meanwhile we have driven 200 miles East along I90 and landed at the 7th Ranch RV in Garryowen, just outside the Battle of Little Big Horn NP.The weather has been rainy again, though we have managed to miss most of the showers. Tomorrow we have a date with Custer!

Day 28: Dillon to Bozeman

Wednesday
We have changed our plans, to try and beat the weather (I am sure a dangerous concept in this part of the country) Sally and I are going to drive 335 miles East along I90 as quickly  as possible and parachute into Big Horn, then work our way back South West to Cody and Salt Lake City. So today we drove to Bozeman, to where Roy and Anne went to yesterday, only to find that they are still there as Roy is overhauling his brakes, so yet again we have to say goodbye to them!
Our route across to Bozeman took us up the Beaver Head Valley (also a tributary of the Jefferson R), across to the south of the Tobacco Root mountains into the Madison River Valley, with it's amazing views of the area south of Ennis, then up and over to the Gallatin River Valley - all three tributaries of the Missouri in one day. A day which is rich in both the beautiful mountain scenery and the American History to be found along the way.
Beaver Head
Just north of Dillon is The Beaver Head, which is a large rock which to the Shoshone Indians looks like a beaver head. It is a very special place to them, a meeting place and a place which is in a rich environment, being by the Beaver Head river, where it widens into a lake, plenty  of game, berries and water. It is such an important feature that the whole area is named after it, mountains, river and valley.
To Lewis and Clark is was a gateway to the West, they had paddled up the Missouri and its tributary the Jefferson for two years, they now needed to cross the Continental Divide and drive on to the West Coast, however they did not know the way! Their guide, Sacajawea, was originally a Shoshone Indian who had been kidnapped and sold to a Canadian, before joining the expedition, gave instructions to find the Beaver Head Rock, as there they wold find help. On finding the place Sacajawea recognised the chief as her long lost brother, so that would have been quite a party! The Shoshone sold them horses and gave directions on how to find the Nez Perce by traveling across the Lolo Pass (see last Friday's Blog). So it was a pivotal point in their journey.
As a place it is a fabulous wetland habitat teeming with bird life. In the couple of minutes we were there we saw Sandhill cranes, white pelicans, canada geese, many types of ducks and a bald eagle cruising above the lake. Botanists have studied this area, consider it to have remained unchanged for a long time and have recovered many fossils from the last thirty million years from the mud and surface sedimentary rocks.
A fascinating place.
Virginia City
Leaving Beaver Head we turned North east out of the valley and swung round the southern end of the Tobacco Root Mountains. This road winds along the ruby Valley between two mountain ranges becoming narrower and narrower, eventually forcing the road up over a pass which provides magnificent views along the Madison Valley (middle fork of the Missouri tributaries). Almost at the head of the valley garnets and then gold were discovered in the 1863, so once again we were travelling through Gold Rush Country, although it started with individual miners after a time the gold recovery was on an industrial scale, with large steam driven dredges ripping up the valley floor for many miles in their search for gold, leaving the whole area looking like a land fill site.
The towns that sprung up have largely died, several of them have been preverved by the state and are now tourist attractions. Nevada City was the first we traveled through and then Virginia City. Virginia city became the territorial capital (before Montana was a state) in 1865, when it wrested it from Bannack (the ghost town near Dillon), until 1875, when Helena became the State Capital.
Here is what Wikipaedia says about it (note that there are many hyperlinks to follow here, though the font colour makes them difficult to see):
"In May 1863, a group of prospectors were headed towards the Yellowstone River and instead came upon a party of the Crow tribe and were forced to return to Bannack. On May 26, 1863, Bill Fairweather and Henry Edgar discovered Gold near Alder Creek.^[6] The prospectors could not keep the site a secret and were followed on their return to the gold bearing site. A mining district was set up in order to formulate rules about individual gold claims. On June 16, 1863 under the name of "Verina" the township was formed a mile south of the gold fields. The name was meant to honor Varina Howell Davis, first and only First Lady of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Verina, although in Union territory, was founded by men whose loyalties were thoroughly Confederate. Upon registration of the name, a Connecticut judge, G. G. Bissell, objected to their choice and recorded it as Virginia City. ^[7]

Within weeks Virginia City was a boomtown of thousands of prospectors and fortune seekers in the midst of a gold rush. The remote region of the Idaho Territory was without law enforcement or justice system with the exception of miners' courts. In late 1863, the great wealth in the region, lack of a justice system and the insecure means of travel gave rise to serious criminal activity, especially robbery and murder along the trails and roads of the region. Road agents as they became known were ultimately responsible for up to 100 deaths in the region in 1863 and 1864. This resulted in the formation of the Vigilance committee of Alder Gulch and the infamous Montana Vigilantes. Up to 15 road agents were hanged by the vigilantes in December 1863 and January 1864, including the sheriff of Bannack, Montana and alleged leader of the road agent gang, Henry Plummer.^[8]

The Montana Territory was organized out of the existing Idaho Territory by Act of Congress and signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on May 26, 1864.^[9] Although Bannack was the first territorial capital, the territorial legislature moved the capital to Virginia City on February 7, 1865.^[10] It remained the capital until April 19, 1875 when it moved to Helena, Montana.^[11] Thomas Dimsdale began publication of Montana's first newspaper, the Montana Post in Virginia City on August 27, 1864.^[12] Montana's first public school was established in Virginia City in March 1866."

One can only imagine the life there (though that may be enhanced somewhat by what we see in the movies), but what little we saw as we rode through was amazing. We stopped here for a cup of tea and an ice cream and had a look at some of the buildings, which look so typically western, with their wooden sidewalks. We looked in the Hangman's Office - a place owned by the water company where they hanged people.
Another fascinating place!