Bighorn mountains and the Cloud Peaks Wilderness

After our whirlwind tour of a few of the highlights of South Dakota and parts of Wyoming, we were ready to stay put for a few days. We found the most amazing field of wildflowers with a great view of the Bighorn Mountains and have set up camp there.

This picture took hours just to setup and then the deer had to come around. Ok just kidding it wandered about 50 feet from the van while we were inside avoiding mosquitoes.

We are very close to Ten Sleep and a lot of great climbing, but since my elbow was bothering me from Veedawou, we decided to wait for a while to take on any more climbing. So, we've been hanging out in the wildflowers, going for hikes, watching the wildlife wander in and out of camp and making some great food. We've made homemade chocolate-chip cookies, bagels, pizza, and calzones in the solar oven. A new favorite food is felafels which were a resounding success.

According to the locals, the wildflowers are especially good this year due to the high snow pack. Someone from the forest service told us that at one point their snowpack was 1000% of normal. This also means that many of the hikes that you could normally do this time of year are still snowed in. We've still been able to find plenty of hikes to keep us busy though. Even over the 4th of July weekend, we were quite surprised to find that the trails weren't too busy, there were definitely people around, but nothing compared to what we are used to from easily accessible hikes in the Wasatch and the Uintas. We did two hikes, one was into the Cloud Peaks Wilderness to a bunch of lakes via the Circle Park trailhead, and another along a jeep road near that took us next to the 7 brothers lakes. We were unable to reach the lakes due to high runoff and a dicey stream crossing. Mojo was very energetic and enjoyed swimming after leopard frogs and trout which he was unable to catch.

While we have gone on a few great hikes, we've also done our share of lazing about in the flowers around camp just being amazed by the beauty all around us.

We're planning on heading over the mountains to Ten Sleep tomorrow and give this climbing thing a try again.

Looking for fish

Leopard Frog

Rainy Lake

Cooperative Marmot

Camp

Old graves in the Wilderness

Cloud Peaks Wilderness

South Dakota and Wyoming

Final Day at Vedauwoo

Mike and some friends from Boulder joined us for our last weekend in Vedauwoo. It was great having friends to camp and hang out with. Due to some lingering climbing injuries, we weren't able to climb much though and we opted to take the very long way to Ten Sleep, WY. We left Vedauwoo on Monday morning and headed to Saratoga, WY on the promise that it had free hotsprings and would be on the way to Fremont Canyon. An unexpected bonus was that the Snowy Range (yes that's the name of the mountain range) along route 130 provide many beautiful vistas. It was a good thing that we got something out of that part of the drive because Saratoga was in the same shape as many towns along rivers this year. With a snowpack exceeding 200% in many areas rivers are overflowing their banks and causing much damage. Saratoga was in the same predicament and because of the high water levels the hot springs were closed. We pushed on towards Fremont Canyon. Though we weren't planning to climb I've always wanted to see the canyon because of its unique location. The North Platte river flows through the canyon and creates such steep walls that routes must be rappelled into which makes for a committing day of climbing. It was a beautiful canyon and one I'd like to come back to and climb.

Fremont Canyon

Casper Wyoming was far enough for the day so we camped there and talked about where to go next. We weren't quite ready to head north to Ten Sleep and the Bighorn mountains so we looked east to South Dakota. The Black Hills have always been on my list of places to visit but it seems that they are always quite far away. With our location in Wyoming it seemed like a good time to visit. We headed east from Casper and camped just west of Wind Cave National Park. We had seen the cave on a map and were interested in checking it out. It was very much worth $9 for a tour of the cave. Timp Cave in Utah has much more impressive stalactite and stalagmite formations, but what wind cave lacked in formations it made up in sheer volume. We walked for a good hour on the tour and hit only the tiniest portion of the cave. According to estimates only 5% has even been explored. The best part was that the 50 degree temps in the cave were a welcome reprieve from the 90+ degree day outside.

Cassie observing cave Boxwork

Once the tour was completed we headed towards Mt Rushmore. One the way we passed the statue of Crazy Horse being carved out of a mountainside. According to the signs all of Mt. Rushmore could fit inside the head of Crazy Horse. There was an entrance fee to see it so we kept driving. At Mt. Rushmore we found that the National Monument was run be concessionairs who get around letting us in with our National Parks Pass by calling it a "parking fee" instead of an "entrance fee". Totally bogus and not at all worth the $11 just to park. So, we did a u-turn and snapped a bunch of pictures out the window. We left frustrated and definitely not feeling any national pride, but rather disgust at capitalism. Such is life. We saw a mountain goat outside the monument. He was super cute.

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John Gill is a very famous climber who put bouldering on the map. Before him no one considered boulders worthy of climbing. He was doing harder moves years before any started doing them on ropes, and established key test pieces all over the country. Two such classic lines are located in Custer State Park at Sylvan Lake. We decided to pay the exhorbitant $15 weekly fee which isn't so bad for a week, but pretty attrocious for a day use. We went swimming in the lake to cool off and I grabbed a crash pad and did two of the classics in a couple of tries. Both were quite high but with good holds at the top. The first was Free Ariel a V4 and then there was Middle Yellow Wall also a V4. Both were excellent lines and we left the lake feeling refreshed and in good spirits.

Middle Yellow Wall - Sylvan Lake

We drove through the Needles area of Custer State Park to finish the day off and were blown away by the crazy granite formations and even saw a huge buffalo as a bonus. That night we camped in forest service land west of Custer, WY and were swarmed by more flies than I've ever seen in my life and it was incredibly hot in the van. It was not the most pleasant camping we've done. Our next destination was back to Wyoming to see Devils Tower and get to the Bighorn Mountains near Buffalo and Ten Sleep.

Cathedral Spires - The Needles - Custer State Park

Devils Tower was an impressive formation and was easily visible from many miles away. There was no mistaking it on the grassy rolling hills. Luckily our Parks Pass proved useful here and we were able to enter and park without a fee. We hiked around the formation and checked out the visitor center. Some climbers were climbing the easiest route to the top even though there is a voluntary climbing closure in June out of respect for Native American religious practices. We were impressed with the west side of the tower because of the very difficult and continuous look to the routes.

As with many single destination places once you've seen it there isn't a whole lot else to do, so we headed west towards the Bighorns. About 30 miles away we saw snow covered peaks in the distance and were excited to think about camping in the mountains again. Luckily we found a forest service road off of Rt. 16 a few miles west of Buffalo, WY. The road proved to be a gem with a single campsite on a flat meadow surrounded by millions of the most beautiful yellow and purple wildflowers and a view of the Bighorn peaks. It rained hard after supper and the sun found tiny pockets to shine through. It was a gorgeous evening.

BigHorns and Wildflowers

BigHorns

Colorado Front Range and Vedauwoo

Trail Ridge Boulder V4

After leaving Barb's we wanted to do a little bouldering in Rocky Mountain NP before heading to the front range. We first tried to go to Lumpy Ridge but after hiking for a mile or so, learned that the areas we wanted to go to were closed for raptor nesting. We then went back into the park where we found a nice roadside boulder that Matt found some good problems on.  After we were good and tired from bouldering, we headed to the front range to see more friends. Our first stop was Rachel's (a friend of mine from Colorado College). We had a great time catching up over dinner and hanging out with Rachel and Brett and meeting her twin boys. After that it was into Denver to meet up with Matt's friend Jessica and her husband James. They have done a lot of travelling themselves as part of their multimedia business. It was great to talk with them and share stories of their travels and adventures. Then it was up to Boulder to see our friend Mike. We stayed with Mike over the weekend and even though he is perpetually injured and was unable to climb, he still took us on a great hike up Estes Dome and climbing in boulder canyon.

Flatirons

Mike Paul and Matt atop Estes Dome in RMNP

We felt very fortunate to have so many great friends and family to see along they way. The week was our first break from the van and it was quite nice to take real showers, sleep in real beds, and cook food in a real kitchen. Most of all though it was great to sit down with friends and meet new friends, talk and tell stories. No matter what the setting was, it was seeing friends that made it a great time.

Vedauwoo - The Nautilis

After spending the weekend in Boulder, we headed north to Veedawoo Wyoming. Land of off-width cracks and very coarse granite. Our trad climbing resume is fairly short so we expected to get humbled and were not disappointed. Most of the climbs that looked really good were significantly harder than what we wanted to do, so Matt decided to stick to bouldering. The bouldering is reasonably good, though would be hard to compare to other areas as the granite is extremely coarse and has huge crystals in it. There are literally thousands of boulders, but due to the nature of the rock most are lacking in holds and are unclimbable. As John Gill (the father of bouldering in america) said "You can't see a hold anywhere so it's a matter of spending 30 minutes just trying to get off the ground, I've never been very much in love with the place". We would have to share his sentiment, but in recent years some decent boulders have been found.

Cassie bouldering

Captain's Chair V0 w/ kneebar :)

freakin huge crystals!

Cassie opted for a good crack climb that the book claimed was easy to protect and wasn't disappointed. The climb was able to be sewn up with gear and made for a very enjoyable crack climb. There is an impressive amount of rock around and with all the wildflowers in full bloom it's really quite a magical setting. Also, due to the erosion many potholes form in the rock and are full of water. One we found high up on a rock formation had tiny fairy shrimp in it. Quite amazing given its location and the brutal winters the eggs must endure.

Cassie rappelling on Kim 5.6 at Poland Hill

Granite Pothole

Mike, Linda, and Julius will arrive and climb with us through the weekend. Hopefully the weather will hold out. We keep getting rainstorms in the afternoon even though the weather gave a 0% chance. On Monday we will be leaving Vedauwoo to head north, check out an area called Fremont Canyon and possibly swing by Devil's Tower on the way to Ten Sleep Wyoming.

Mojo napping (as usual)

granite flowers