My first day back on the road was a stormy start with heavy skies for most of the morning. As I headed out of the Greater Yellowstone area and onto the prairies of Northern Wyoming it was back to blue and some serious heat with it. Hotel for the night was courtesy of the Old Ten Sleep Highway, now replaced with shiny blacktop leaving it forgotten and empty as it wound it's way off into the hills.
As day 2 broke, I repeated an earlier success by following my nose down an intriguing road called Castle Gardens to find a compact, whiter version of Arches National Park - wind and water eroded sandstone arrayed in a maze of precariously balanced stones and columns.
I rounded the morning off with a scramble up a shattered mound of 3 billion year old granite gneiss at the top of the Powder River Pass. At 9,666 feet above sea level there's not a lot of obvious life, but I found myself sharing the views with Pika, tons of butterflies and some interesting looking spiders....
Interesting 'though all in the same country, how each state seems so varied and to each have a distinct feel about them.
ReplyDeleteCastle Gardens looks like set for The Lone Ranger - Hi-yo Silver!