This morning started with an invasion. While I was busy getting the van ready for the road, Eliot and I were oblivious to the fact that we were being surrounded by a turkey and his/her gang. However, when Eliot noticed the intruders inspecting our campsite and table, he sprang into action and ran them off. None of the turkeys seemed particularly upset so I guess they’ve had run-ins with campground dogs before.
The ring leader and some of his gang
We began the day by heading west on Hwy 16. This involved going over the Big Horn Mountains into the valley on the other side. The pass through the mountains is at almost 10,000 feet. We were already at 4,500 feet but it was still going to be a big climb.
The trip did not go quickly. I had hoped that third gear would suffice for most of the climb. But second gear was called into use quite frequently. So we crept along at about 50 km/hr. Sometimes less. Before the summit, I decided Helmut needed a little break so we stopped to look at the view.
We eventually reached the summit.
I had never been at this high an elevation before (except in an airplane). We were well above 8,000 feet for some time and I began to notice that I was short of breath and getting a bit headachy. Just did feel quite right. It wasn’t very pleasant and I was glad to roll down the other side of the pass to more moderate elevations.
The western slopes of the Big Horn Mountains are much craggier than the eastern side.
A bit mini-Grand Canyon in appearance.
Needless to say we came down a lot faster than we went up and that was pretty much it for big hills for the day. The eastern side of the Big Horn’s is a vast valley that’s very desert like. Not much vegetation and things growing only where they are irrigated.
Onward through the towns of Ten Sleep, Worland and Greybull. In Greybull there is an airport that appears to have once had an aviation museum. The reason I say ‘used to’ is a very old sign advertising a museum of war planes and a lot of old planes that appear to have been abandoned. From the road I saw this one. I wonder what the history of it is. If you look closely you can see “Royal Canadian Air Force” printed on the side.
Tonight we’re camped at Buffalo Bill State Park (he was big in these parts apparently) and tomorrow it’s on to Yellowstone National Park which is about 40 miles down the road.
As far as I know the aviation firefighting museum is still a go. The main tenant at Greybull is a large aerial firefighting company that uses surplus aircraft. The museum part of the company is simply a leaflet you get at the company office describing the various hulks, wrecks, and near death aircraft scattered around the place. You can wander anywhere you want but the receptionist does make a point of reminding people that there are poisonous snakes about. That plane near the entrance was indeed once an RCAF C-119 "Flying Boxcar" but the paint jon it has now is only a shabby recreation of what it once had. Oddly, the company used several of this model with a homemade modification that involved bolting a small jet engine to the top of the fuselage. There are an incredible number of old aircraft scattered about the airport. Fascinating place.
ReplyDeleteRick ... parked right beside the one I took a picture of was one with the jet engine on top of the fuselage. It was a fascinating place but it was Sunday and no one appeared to be around. I'm sure there ARE rattlesnakes there.
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