Road Trip 2009: Gillette to Cody

Today was my day, until it was Jim’s Day.

We left Gillette and headed toward the Bighorn Mountains Scenic Byway. I made this crossing with my family when I was in my teens and I have been in love with the Bighorns ever since. We stopped in Gillette because we thought there was little chance of finding any lodging within a reasonable driving distance. As we headed out the next town was Spotted Horse and as you can see it didn’t have a lot to offer travelers. Staying in Gillette was a good call.

I don’t remember ever seeing so many Pronghorn Antelopes. They were a constant along the road heading toward the Bighorns. Individuals and groups up to twelve or more were seen at every turn.

Horses on the road are one reason we are taking back roads. We stopped at a tiny town with a Post Office to mail Kyle’s postcards and the Postmistress said that a herd of horses had passed through about an hour and a half earlier. We continued and watched for the horse herd and soon found them in front of us taking up the entire road and shoulders. I started taking pictures and the head wrangler created a path for us through the herd. Once through I asked Jim to pull to the side of the road and I jumped out and took pictures as the herd passed us. We then had to make our way back through the herd. I could have traveled with them for hours taking pictures.

We passed at least two ranches where it was branding day. All the calves were separated out and going through the process of being claimed by the appropriate rancher and branded appropriately.

These are things you just don’t encounter on the interstate! I kept telling Jim I was getting my open space “fix”.

One thing that is special about the Bighorns is that as you approach from the east these are the first “real” mountains you see. Snow capped and rising from the prairies they are spectacular. The drive up is full of hair pin curves with each turn providing a better view of the ranch and farmlands below. Since it is early in the year we could see the snowfields above us. Half way up the east side we came to a pullover with lots of cars. We had only seen a few cars all morning so we pulled over to check it out and found a group of hang gliders and more arriving every minute. We took the opportunity to make lunch and watch as they took off one at a time. It was spectacular to watch them soar over the plains and play with the updrafts.

At the higher elevations we found lots of snow and the lake still mostly covered with snow.

Exiting the Big Horns through the canyon (above)

Heading down the west side of the Bighorns the landscape changed dramatically. The scenery changes to wonderful geological formations with some going back to the pre Cambrian era; more than 297 million years old.
I have never taken a drive with so many facets and each so spectacular. I got my open space “fix” and got a total high just soaking in the views, air and reliving childhood memories bigger and better than the original.

Now heading toward Cody across wide open plains with nothing but openness surrounding us, we saw a sign for “Dinosaur track way”. I would have continued on but Jim got excited. I didn’t understand that this is one of less than ten such sites in the world and as it turns out this was just discovered in the last ‘90’s on BLM land. We made a U-turn and headed out on the 5 mile dirt road to the site.

This adds a new meaning to “off the beaten path” but after traveling the 5 miles we found a nicely developed, fairly new visitor area with parking, restrooms, picnic areas and a boardwalk out to the area where you can see the Dinosaur tracks. At the end of the boardwalk you can walk down onto the area and actually touch the tracks that were made 167 million years ago by a meat eating dinosaur that eventually evolved into birds.

We thought this might be the last we would see of Abby as she chased her rabbit into a culvert

Jim with his hand in the footprint on a dinasaur

For Jim this side trip was better than Lake Perch. This was his trip highlight so far. To make it fun for all Abby scared up a rabbit and had the thrill of chasing it until it went into a culvert where she followed, but eventually decided to back out.

Continuing to Cody we found a nice classic motel and Jim found a wonderful Italian Restaurant. We are right across the street from the Sierra Trading Outlet store with a huge Memorial Day Sale sign in the window. We’ll check that out along with the Cody museum in the morning, but that is for another posting.