Day 65 - On Top Of The World

Trip Start May 19, 2008
1
67
161
Trip End Nov 08, 2008


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
shadow
Where I stayed
Prune Creek Campground, Bighorn National Forest
(Dayton hotels)

Flag of United States  , Wyoming,
Tuesday, July 22, 2008

We left the site around 9.30 am and headed east towards Cody, named after "Buffalo Bill" Cody. On the way we passed "Buffalo Bill State Park", "Buffalo Bill Reservoir" and "Buffalo Bill Dam". They're obviously very proud of him in these parts. Once in Cody we stopped at Wal-Mart for our groceries and in the process discovered that you can only buy alcohol from liquor stores in the State of Wyoming. So after another brief stop at "Whisky River" we headed north-east to Powell where we sought out the local library to use the internet. Opposite the library is the town hall and rather worryingly displayed outside was a sign informing the public that they have a nuclear fallout shelter with a capacity of 65. God help the other 5223 residents!

After passing through several small towns and crossing the lower end of the Bighorn Lake we put Chip through his toughest climb to date to traverse the Bighorn Mountains. We stopped at what we thought was half-way to give him a rest and have our lunch. What an incredible road. It was false horizon after false horizon. We kept saying to each other "This one must be the summit", and then we would get over it to be faced by yet another hill. Eventually (and we're sure the scale on our map is a bit dodgy) we reached the summit at 9430 ft and the views were incredible, we could see for miles. The descent down the other side was much gentler than the ascent on the way up (just our luck to be doing it the wrong way!) and not far down we arrived at our camp-site for the night, Prune Creek Campground in the Bighorn National Forest. A really pleasant site but absolutely riddled with mosquitoes. Just as we climbed into bed the most incredible storm began. We seemed to be right in the centre of it as the lightning was almost continuous, like a light bulb flickering, and the sky was really, really black all around us from the storm clouds and the rain.

Miles travelled: 132

Total miles travelled: 4859

Days on road: 45

States visited: 9

National Parks visited: 8
Slideshow Print this entry