The Wyoming Bighorn Mountains are located between Montana and Wyoming east of the Rockies and Yellowstone and extend for 200 miles. Cloud Peak is the tallest mountain at 13,175 feet.
Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming
The mountains began to form approximately 70 million years ago from uplifted rock. Even though there has been extensive mining exploration in the Bighorn Mountains, no significant valuable minerals have been discovered.
Fortunately, this has kept settlement and development of the area down so there are lots of wide open spaces. Just stunning.
Most of the area is U.S. National Forest and Bureau of Land Management, so there are few back roads and private homes. We drove fire roads until the snow was too deep to go any further. Thank goodness we keep a shovel and chains in the truck for getting stuck. It took us an hour to get unstuck. If we had been driving our jeep, it wouldn’t have been an issue but the back end of the truck is much lighter. Good thing Michael grew up in Colorado and had lots of experience with snowstorms.
We brushed up on our 4 wheel drive skills and visited the car wash afterwards.
The scenery and lack of other people was worth it.
Along the way there were some wildflowers.
Not surprising is the abundant wildlife including black bear, mule deer, elk, and mountain lion. We saw quite a few moose in the Bighorn Mountains. It was late May, yet we were in a snow storm.
Sheridan, Wyoming Bighorn Mountains
Located at the base of the Bighorn Mountains at an elevation of 3,742 feet, Sheridan is in northern Wyoming, just south of Montana. Around 19,000 people live here. Downtown is fun with plenty of shops, bars and restaurants with artwork displayed on the streets. Yet, within blocks of downtown there are bison and elk.
The Brinton Museum
The Brinton Museum has a wonderful collection of American Indian and Western art located in the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains.
An exhibit by Billy Ray Reid from Texas.
Indian apparel exhibit.
Leather work exhibit which included saddles.
The leather work exhibit was impressive.
The Forest E. Mars, Jr. building houses the museum and restaurant.
We had a delicious lunch and shared a glass of wine enjoying views of the mountains. Also on the property are nature trails, historic buildings and a greenhouse. Admission was free and definitely worth the visit. Our good friend Lorraine works there. Bradford Brinton purchased the 620 acre ranch in 1923. We will return to The Brinton when in the area.
Eatons’ Ranch
They have the oldest dude ranch in the United States dating back to 1879 in Medora, North Dakota.
Each year, there is the annual Eatons’ horse drive. They have over 220 horses. Most of them winter in pastures many miles away.
In May, the horses are rounded up and herded through Sheridan to the 7,000 plus acre ranch where they spend the summer. It is a spectacular sight.
We had a delicious lunch at the Kendrick Golf course where our friend Carl works. It is a beautiful links style course with spectacular views of the mountains. Wish we had the time to have played it.
Peter D’s RV Park
We had 50-amp electric, good water pressure, and sewer. WIFI was fast enough to stream. We stayed here before. Even though the highway was close, Peter D’s sits below it so we could hardly hear it. The downside is that all sites are pull through and we had no views, other than the RV’s next to and behind us. You can’t have it all all the time.
Their dog park was huge, which Jake really enjoyed.
We had a couple of spectacular sunsets.
