Day 10 - Labor Day weekend with Terri and Rick

Carolyn and Terri became friends in grade school in Michigan. Terri spends her summers in Sheridan, Wyoming where her husband (Rick) works year around.  Rick is an avid hunter and outdoors man, so Wyoming seems like the perfect place for him.  Of course, their other option is Michigan, which isn't a bad choice either, where Terri winters to be near family and to avoid the harsh winter snows of WY.   

Rick and I were planning to do some shooting in the Wyoming countryside but it was looking like we would have to put it on hold until our next trip to Sheridan due to Rick's recent knee replacement surgery.

But we got up on Saturday morning and Rick was ready to give it a try so we drove to a favorite location just a few miles from town. We were able to get off a few shots and see some great Wyoming countryside.  Kudos to Rick for heading out on the range with a painful knee.

On Sunday, Terri and Rick took us for a ride on the Bighorn Mountains Scenic Byway.  Again, Rick was game to go even though he knew his knee would not make it an easy day.  We had no idea what a great day was ahead of us but, holy cow, I could post dozens of photos here. 

After driving through the small town of Dayton, we started up the mountain.  The sights started to get better and better.  It was like driving thought the Needles Hwy in Custer State Park.  There was an overlook near the top of the first mountain range. We pulled in and found a group of a dozen or so hang gliders.  Of course, I grabbed my still and video cameras and jumped right in the middle of everything and watched several launches.  That has to be one heck of an adrenalin rush!!!  Here is video of a couple launches.

For as interesting as the hang gliding was, we had lots more to see and off we went. 

The first stop was Shell Falls.  Shell Falls is like a mini Grand Canyon.  You can only imagine the rush of water over the falls during the spring snow melt.





Carolyn and Terri





This is "special" country. It's a good thing we have digital cameras or we would be spending a ton of money on film and processing. Every turn of the road seems to bring a better view than the one before.  







Pretty cool country isn't it?  It's not very good for growing corn and soybeans but it fits grazing cattle quite well. Next on the list was a stop for lunch at Dirty Annie's. At first glance it seemed like a tourist trap, but it turned out to be full of locals who were enjoying their lunch. 

The burgers and milk shakes were great.

Remains of a covered wagon and sheep herders wagons were on the edge of the parking lot.  The covered wagon looked like an original to me.  Click to enlarge the pictures and look at the details.  There are ribs for the canvas top still visible. 

The sheep herders wagons have been updated with rubber tires but the interiors were equipped with wood stoves so they might have been originally used by shepards in the 1800's to follow the herds in the area. These sheep herders wagons are still manufactured today but are mostly used as RV's for short trips.



The next stop was to view the dinosaur prints at Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite which is just a short drive from Dirty Annie's.

Paleontologists believe the prints left at this tracksite were formed in the Middle Jurassic Period, somewhere between 160 and 180 million years ago. The prints were made in the Sundance Formation of rock, an ancient seabed (covered by the Sundance Sea). The dinosaur walked through slimy mud that was coated by algae. The algae helped hold the tracks together while the mud dried out and started to turn into limestone. Over time, the tracks filled with more dirt and mud, then it was all washed away, leaving the tracks behind. Scientists do not know what kind of dinosaur made the tracks.



The area pictured below is known as the "dance floor" since there are lots of tracks from a lot of critters. The area is probably 100 feet wide by 200 feet long...about the size of many city home lots.  When you first step onto the dance floor it is difficult to see the footprints.  Soon you discover the first one, then two, then three, then a pattern of footprints of a dinosaur that walked across the dance floor. 

Here's one

The steps are this far apart

See the steps?

This was another fun stop, but it's mid afternoon and we have to think about heading back to Sheridan. The choice was to go south and east or backtrack to see if we could find elk and moose.  It didn't take long to decide to go hunting for critters.  Actually, Terri was pretty intense about finding me a moose and she didn't disappoint. 

We were just west of Burgess Jct. when we saw cars on the edge of the road.  What folks were watching turned out to be a big bull moose laying close enough to the road to get some good pictures. We watched for awhile, but it was getting dark so we headed toward home.  Then, only a couple miles down the road, we saw two young moose. We stopped to get a couple quick pics then continued, but again, we saw brake lights. This time it was another big bull. Even though it was dusk, I jumped out of the car and took some video.  Terri's guide service turned out to be pretty darned good.

  

By the time we got back on the road it was almost dark. Over the next 40 or 50 miles everyone was on the lookout for deer and antelope that might decide to cross the road. We did see several but, fortunately, we didn't hit any of them.