July…something 🙂

WOW! It is beautiful countryside and look where we slept the other night! Devil’s Tower looming over us!

Bighorn National Forest- a squiggly road in and up- climbed over 4000 ft in elevation in about 30 minutes! Beautiful mountain meadows, craggy outcrops, snow on the north side of hills, cattle being rounded up and a shepherd with about 2000 sheep.

 

 

Simply spectacular! Very few people around and basic but lovely campgrounds that are self-registering- $8/night with the Senior access pass!

 
High Elevation observations- I forgot to use the high elevation version of the brownies we baked the other night, and so they have very large air bubbles in them. Water boils SO quickly up here, but things take longer to cook, as the boil temp is lower up here. The ice cream pushed the lid off the top- I took one big serving off the top just to reclose the container- slow churned without the churning! Pizza- well the dough bought frozen at 4000 ft started puffing up as soon as it thawed, then in the oven it puffed up again, more like very light forcaccia bread with pizza toppings! And the un-opened bag of chips, as you can see, is more like a helium balloon. And the one big question is- what is this doing to our bodies??

 
We thought about driving Beartooth Scenic Highway in the northeast corner of Yellowstone, between no reserve/first come first serve campgrounds and fellow campers telling us that even we could get into traffic jams! We’ll save all of Yellowstone for the off season.

Hiked up to Medicine Wheel this morning- this place has been here over 10,000 years! Very moving to think about all the native peoples that have come to this place.

 

 

 

 

 

Then on to Bighorn Canyon- usually sweltering hot, but today cool and super windy- steady at 20 knots gusts much higher. The third biggest canyon in the US after Grand and Letchworth, however we have no idea how they measure them!