Our BIG(horn) Surprise!

Published on 27 September 2023 at 17:36

Wednesday, 9/20/2023

We fixed breakfast on our camp stove on the picnic table outside our Airbnb in the town of Shell, Wyoming, population 90. We had our devotions as we sat on the steps of the Shell General Store, waiting for it to open at 10 AM. We looked around the store and bought Woody a T-shirt with the logo, “Shell, Wyoming. Small on People, Big on Nature.”

As we headed east on Highway 14, we were absolutely surprised by the spectacular scenery of high, rocky buttes and deep ravines and canyons cut by the beautiful Shell River. We decided to pull over to see Shell Falls. We were stunned by the beauty of the falls and its setting. We had no idea we would be seeing such a beautiful, well developed park with boardwalks, bridges, sidewalks, stairs, and signs describing the natural features surrounding us.

I don’t remember ever learning about the Bighorn Mountains, but we loved them! Best thing - we were almost alone. Hardly any other tourists!

One notable sign said, “Possible Runaway Trucks next 12 Miles.” We drove up through Grant Pass at 9,033 feet. Bighorn National Forest has several campgrounds that we would like to go back to someday.

After winding through the stunning scenery, we drove north a few miles into Montana just so we could add that to the list of states visited on this trip. So far we have driven in 4 provinces and 25 states! The landscape in Montana had more rounded hills, green valleys, cattle, and hay and oat fields.

We stopped for gas in Buffalo, Wyoming. We had hoped to get ice cream, but we ended up fixing sandwiches to eat on the road instead. There was very little available in the town of Buffalo, and there were no services for over 60 miles between Buffalo and Gillette. This area was a high plateau with small, pointed hills and barren, dead grass.

In Gillette we bought a few groceries and found a Dairy Queen, but we couldn’t get out of that town too fast. Traffic was chaotic, and nothing impressed us positively. There were open pit coal mines outside of Gillette and long trains with loaded coal cars.

Past Gillette once again there was almost nothing. We drove another 60 miles and saw only one small town.

Just past the border of South Dakota we entered hilly countryside with beautiful, evergreen forests. We also saw bighorn sheep and antelope near the road. We were listening to the audiobook of The Last Battle, and both joined the Narnian cry, “Further up and further in!“

Although Horsethief Lake in the Black Hills was beautiful, and our campsite was right on the shores of the lake, we were disappointed with how crowded the sites were and the lack of modern bathrooms. The people in the tent next to us wanted to be part of our every conversation!

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