Leaving Big Horn

Monday night was my last night in Big Horn National Forest.  I decided to do it up right and cook myself a cowboy dinner.  But first, the sunset:

Yes, those colors exist in nature.

So preparing a hot meal whilst camping poses some challenges.  First, I had to get water, both for cooking and cleaning.  The campsite had a pump, but damn, if it wasn't a bitch to operate.

I had to put my whole weight into each stroke, and then only a bit of water came out.  And I only had gallon jugs to fill.  That meant I pumped hard with one hand, I had to hold the jug with the other right under the spigot, otherwise, I would miss the opening.   It about wore me out after two gallons.

Then I needed fire.  I bought some firewood in Sheridan, but it turned out to be quite green and was a total bitch to get to burn.  After continually inserting extra kindling that I purloined from the area around the campsite, and constantly blowing on the base of the fire to get some oxygen to it, after about an hour I finally got enough of a fire to cook on.  I cooked over flames.  If I had waited for hot coals, I would have been there all night, the wood was so green.

Then the steak and the corn on the cob came out of the cooler and onto the grill.  The cooking part was relatively easy since the campsite had fire pits with iron grates for grilling.  The end result was delicious, and definitely worth the effort:

I popped open a bottle of cheap wine to go with it.  I discovered that there is a bug that really likes wine.  Several drowned themselves in it, and the ones that didn't drown clearly got drunk and passed out on the table about the bottle.  The whole area was littered with little winged things that could hardly stand, much less fly.  They're clearly related to me.

 But we're not done.  After the meal comes the clean up.  I had to heat some more water on the fire, add a minimal amount of dish soap (gotta be kind to the environment!), and then clean up the plate, dishes, utensils, etc.  And then rinse with some more water (all of which I hand-pumped).  Oh, and it's pretty much pitch dark the whole time, despite the fire in the fire pit.  But I didn't really mind . There is something very zen about the whole process, start to finish, prepping, cooking, eating, cleaning.  It makes you realize how things are easier in the "real" world.  And it makes you enjoy every bite.

Got up the next morning and took Grigsby out for some tooling around in the mountains before heading down to the Big Horn Basin and on to Yellowstone.

Grigsby loves the snow.

We made a stop by the Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark, which is located right at the western edge of the Big Horn National Forest at an elevation of about 10,000 feet.  The road leading up to it was still closed because of snow drifts.

The Medicine Wheel itself is a large circle of stones, about 75 feet across, traversed by 28 lines. 

Really, it does look like a circle from overhead.

No one really knows how old it is, though estimates range from over 1,000 years old to just a few hundred.  And no one knows what its original purpose was, though some have hazarded guesses.  The site is considered sacred to a number of different Native American groups, and tied to the fence around the circle are offerings and momentos like strands of beads, strips of cloth, coins, small bags with who knows what inside, photos, etc.

What was particularly impressive and magical was the view from the site.  To the east are the forest and mountains of the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area:

 To the west lies the Big Horn Basin, about a mile straight down.

Overhead was an amazing blue sky, punctuated by clouds and a brilliant sun.  And below was a mostly barren, rocky earth (we were so high, even grass had to struggle) that was dotted with wildflowers of every color and kind imaginable.  I was struck by how beautiful and delicate they all were, growing in very inhospitable conditions.  I'll close with a bunch of pictures of them.  Enjoy.