First Day of Caching in Buffalo 7/8/2010

This morning we headed out with a bunch of caches, some in Buffalo and the rest in the Bighorn Mountains. First cache was behind a gas station in a tree, second was at a residence in a hole in a tree, and the next was at the WY Soldiers and Sailors Home. Next we did a virtual cache regarding Fort McKinney and the site where it once stood. There will be more on the fort in the next couple of days.

The Big Horn Mountains are a mountain range in northern Wyoming and southern Montana in the United States, forming a northwest-trending spur from the Rocky Mountains extending approximately 200 miles northward on the Great Plains. They are separated from the Absaroka Range, which lie on the main branch of the Rockies in western Wyoming, by the Bighorn Basin.
The Big Horns were uplifted during the Laramide orogeny beginning approximately 70 million years ago. They consist of over 9,000 feet of sedimentary rock strata laid down before mountain-building began: the predominantly marine and near-shore sedimentary layers range from the Cambrian through the Lower Cretaceous, and are often rich in fossils. There is an unconformity where Silurian strata were exposed to erosion and are missing. Following the uplift, large volumes of sediments, rich in early Tertiary paleontological resources, were deposited in the adjoining basins. Though many cirques, U-shaped valleys and glacial lakes can be found in the mountain range, the only remaining active glacier is the Cloud Peak Glacier, which is on the east slope of Cloud Peak.
The highest peaks within the Big Horns are located in Wyoming in the 1.1 million acre Bighorn National Forest. Two peaks rise to over 13,000 feet Cloud Peak 13,167 ft, and Black Tooth Mountain 13,005 ft. There are a dozen more that rise to over 12,000 feet. From the east the mountains present a vertical relief of over 8,000 feet, rising abruptly from the plains. Overall, the Big Horns are more rounded than their sister mountain ranges to the west.
The range is the location of the headwaters of the Little Bighorn, Tongue, and Powder rivers.
Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area consists of approximately 120,000 acres within the Bighorn Mountains. It includes Bighorn Lake, a reservoir damming the Bighorn River.
The Big Horns are home to one of the elite ultra marathons in the nation. The Bighorn Trail Run is held every June.
The Big Horns are a popular destination for hiking, backpacking, fly fishing and horse back riding. Trails wind through most of the national forest. The Cloud Peak Wilderness has a network of hiking trails to remote areas and alpine lakes. Higher trails are often covered with snow except from July through August. After Labor Day, there is a good chance of high country snow storms at any time.



We then started our drive into the Bighorn Mountains by way of RT 16 or the Cloud Peak Skyway. The 64-mile paved drive, known as the Cloud Peak Skyway, travels through the southern section of the Big Horn National Forest on US Route 16 from Buffalo over Powder River Pass, down the awe-inspiring Ten Sleep Canyon and on to the communities of Ten Sleep and Worland. An ideal route for travelers heading west to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks or on their way east to Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills, and the Badlands of South Dakota, the Skyway offers travelers the least grade across the Big Horns and an opportunity to enjoy the unique beauty of these mountains, as well as breathtaking views of rangeland, open parks, and alpine forests. The Skyway provides great views of the Cloud Peak Wilderness, Big Horn National Forest , the Big Horn Mountains and the only view of Cloud Peak, the highest peak in the Big Horn Mountains. Numerous turnouts provide travelers with the opportunity to stop and appreciate the views. The drive in the canyon is spectacular, featuring limestone and dolomite cliffs. A parking area at the top of the 9,666-ft. pass allows you to stretch your legs and enjoy the view of the Big Horn Mountains. However, the true identity of the byway can be seen in its multiple-use ethic of the landscape, with sheep grazing, fire management, wildlife, recreation, and wilderness. Our first cache was down an embankment on the Clear Creek Trail near Clear Creek which is a lovely picturesque mountain stream wandering through the rocks and hills and up and over some huge boulders. We drove further into the mountains and stopped at a rest area where you really could get a great view of the snow capped mountains and they also had 6 informational boards about the Bighorns. Then we continued up to School House Park Rd, a dirt road up into a seldom used park where they had corrals for horses for riding the trails through the mountains. Once we got up to the top of the road the view was amazing as you looked across the meadows of wild flowers at the snow capped Bighorns. It really was amazing and so beautiful. We walked across the meadow and found our cache and walked back to the car.

We continued up the mountain and as we passed a YMCA camp we looked down and saw a moose standing in a small pond either drinking or eating (see pictures). Then we drove to Tie Hack Rd and drove down the dirt road to our next cache. We got to the coords, stopped, got out and walked over to the top of a hill and it was another amazing view. This time it was high above Tie Hack Reservoir overlooking it and the surrounding hills (see pictures).

Further up the mountains and a left onto the Loaf Mountain overlook. We parked got out and a repeat of another spectacular view of the Cloud Peak Wilderness. The Cloud Peak Wilderness is located in north central Wyoming in the United States. Entirely within Bighorn National Forest, the wilderness was established in 1984 in an effort to preserve the wildest section of the Bighorn Mountains. The wilderness has the highest peaks in the Bighorn Mountains including Cloud Peak and Black Tooth Mountain, as well as Cloud Peak Glacier, the only remaining active glacier in the Bighorn Mountains. The Cloud Peak Wilderness is 189,039 acres.
U.S. Wilderness Areas do not allow motorized or mechanized vehicles, including bicycles. Although camping and fishing are allowed with proper permit, no roads or buildings are constructed and there is also no logging or mining, in compliance with the 1964 Wilderness Act. Wilderness areas within National Forests and Bureau of Land Management areas also allow hunting in season. The mountains you see in the pictures are Loaf Mountain at 11,722', Big Horn peak at 12.324' and Darton Peak at 12,275'. We walked back into the woods, found our cache and went back to the car.

That was as far as we went along the Skyway so we headed back down to a cache along the road on the way down at a Yak farm and our last cache was along the Clear Creek Trail back in Buffalo. On the way back down into Buffalo we drove along another dirt road called Sourdough Rd and happened to see another moose along with what appeared to be a rather big younger moose. There was also many rock outcroppings that were dated from anywhere 500-600 million years old to 2.3 billion years old. Then it was back to the coach for the afternoon. Well that's about all for today from Buffalo so until tomorrow we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad Dori & Dick