N. Colorado-Wyoming

We enjoyed our stay at Dumont Lake so much we extended it to do a couple of hikes and also to take a day to go into Steamboat Springs to soak in the hot springs. Turns out after the hikes we really needed the hot springs .. (the place was just perfect). Our first hike was uneventful and we actually took the wrong trail .. headed to the Continental Divide ... nice scenery but nothing worth putting on the site.

But our next hike was far more challenging .. a 7 mile round trip to Rabbit Ears .. you can see the number or trees that have been killed by the pine beetle infestation .. this was mild compared to some areas.

The beauty of the wildflowers was great through this whole area. We had seen this plant numerous times but never in bloom .. we think it's False Solomon's Seal (at least that's what it looks like in the book??).

The white flowers are Yarrow (very common) and the blue ones are Mountain Blue Bells (how original).

A picture of of us near the top at Rabbit Ears ... great views the whole way. I've got to tell you we met a 78 year old lady on this hike who was a pro (Tibet, Nepal, Bolivia, New Zealand, etc) ... lots of interesting stories .. we hiked back down with her.

Then we went up to the Medicine Bow Mountains in Southern Wyoming. We heard there was some great camping and hiking. We are obviousy at some altitude here. This is called the Snowy Mountains.

Sorry, the restrooms are closed due to snow .... you've got to be kidding me!
The area had record snowfall in April and May and roads were not opened until well after Memorial Day.

Three of the four campgrounds up here were closed due to pine beetle problems .. either because of danger of trees falling or workers cutting down trees in the campgrounds for safety reasons. The one campground open was only 1/2 open due to beetles and 4 or 5 campsites were still stacked up with snow! Too bad but we'll be back!

So we headed on up to Lander, Wyoming for a short stay and traveled up into Sinks Canyon .. named for the Po Po Agie river disappearing (sinking) into the side of a canyon cave and reappearing 1/4 mile downstream in what they call The Rise. This is The Rise, which is nice lake with huge trout (fed by the tourists - no fishing). The sand gets swept downstream in the spring.

From Lander we traveled over the Ten Sleep, WY area up into the Bighorn Mountains ... remember we came from typical scrub brush up into this, a very nice change.

View of the Bighorns from the edge of the campground. We saw no wildlife here but did see elk on the highway and had a mule deer with fawn walk through our site.

In the trees at Sitting Bull Campground, great afternoon shade. The solar panel would start getting full sun by 9 AM but it started getting full shade by 3. Perfect weather ... highs around 70 with no wind and lows in the high 30's (lowest was 34). On Monday (August 22nd) we take off to Idaho to visit our friends in Island Park. Who knows from there .. we're talking about going on up to East Glacier and Waterton Lakes (in Canada) before holing up somewhere for Labor Day weekend.