What a Combination: Polo, Art, and Red Grade Road

This was our last day in our camping spot in Sheridan, Wyoming, and the plan was to explore the area south of town. We had a very mixed itinerary, with something for the athlete, the artist, and the outdoorsman; we saw polo, art, and the Red Grade Trail here in the mountains near Sheridan Wyoming. 

We found out that the tiny town of Bighorn, Wyoming, is known for polo. That sounds interesting, and we wanted to find out more. They have not one, but two polo clubs in Bighorn. According to the internet, the Flying H Polo Club hosts players and horses from all over the world in matches that start next month. This day the front gate was locked and we could only see the fancy barns and fields from a distance. But the second polo club--the Bighorn Equestrian Center--was open on a week-day morning. The trainers and riders were out exercising the polo ponies.

We had never watched anyone strike a little white ball with a 52-inch mallet (that has a head that is less than two-inches in diameter) while galloping on a horse. That takes an athlete with good coordination!

It was so much fun to see the horses and their riders at work--or were they at play?!?

The green playing field has a backdrop of the Bighorn Mountains, and it was a lovely place to watch a little polo. Even though it was fun watching practice, we're sad that we were too early to watch some games!

We drove through the tiny town of Bighorn, which has stolen the hearts of some of the rich and famous. Mansions on large acreages are sprouting up all around Bighorn, many of them with horse barns. We also spotted some fine feathered residents. This family of sandhill cranes were parading their two babies through the tall grass of one of the horse pastures.

One of the rich citizens of Bighorn is Forrest Mars, heir to the Mars candy fortune. This family is the M in M&Ms candy. They donated an ice skating rink in the town of Sheridan--the M&M's Center. Another rich Bighorn citizen is Bradford Brinton. Mr. Brinton had homes in Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, and other cities. But it was his Quarter Circle A ranch near Bighorn, Wyoming, that he claimed to love the most.

Mr. Brinton was a collector of Western art, and Mr. Mars paid for the museum building to showcase that art. We visited the Brinton Museum, which includes art in every medium from watercolors to oils to inks. They all are of cowboys or indians or animals found in the west. Of all the pieces, Denisa picked the ink drawings as her favorites. Edward Borein was one of Mr. Brinton's favorite artists, so we found several of his pen and ink pieces done in the early 1900's. This one was titled "Trail Head."

 It's just amazing that an artist can use different lengths and thicknesses of black ink lines to make the shading in these pictures. We zoomed in to see the detail.

Tours were available to go into the house where Bradford Brinton once lived. But we were content to walk the grounds. While it looks like it has been snowing, that's just a thick layer of cotton dropping from the surrounding cottonwood trees.

We talked to the gardener, who has a full-time job just dead-heading all the peonies this time of the year. They have rows and rows of peonies in every color available. It seems that Mr. Brinton was also a collector of plants.

They had gotten rain every day in the month of June, so the gardener hadn't spent any time watering the gardens. All the native Wyoming residents are telling us that this was an unusually snowy winter, and now an unusually rainy spring and summer. That's why it was so beautifully green this year, and the roses seem to like it. 

The gardener invited us to even walk through the vegetable garden, where they grow some of the food sold in the museum's bistro. Those bright red vegetable stems make a lovely picture in front of that mountain backdrop.

Just a few miles away from the museum was the beginning of Red Grade Road. One of our camping neighbors brought an ATV to explore the mountains surrounding this road. He assured us that our 4x4 pickup would be fine, so we headed up the very steep and narrow gravel Red Grade Road.

While it was steep, it got us to some lovely mountain meadows very quickly. The wildflowers on the mountain were at their peak!

We drove about four miles up Red Grade Road to the trail head for the Brink Trail. A new trail within the Red Grade Recreation Area, it was specifically made for mountain bikes. That's why the curves are banked. While we aren't slow hikers, we don't usually need banked curves to keep us on the trail when we are walking.

We were making this into a loop hike, and most of it was through the woods with a heavy canopy of leaves. It was during this darkened tree section that we scared up this ruffed grouse. Perhaps we should say that this grouse scared us. These large birds are generally pretty friendly, and she settled onto a nearby tree branch and let us take pictures.

Similar in size to a chicken, it would be hard for a bird this size to fly in this thick foliage. That's probably why it was easier to just smile for the camera and stay right where she was.

During these long hiking sections, Denisa can keep herself busy taking pictures of the unusual flowers blooming along the trail.

The butterflies were loving all the blooms, but they were too fast for pictures. Only this tattered moth would stay on one bloom long enough for a photo.

After a mile in the forest, we came out to find a field of dark purple flowers. While it was a beautiful sight to see a sea of purple  . .

we found that each little flower face was a thing of beauty as well.

After 3.5 miles of hiking, we made it to the high point of the hike. From here we got the best views over the valley.

As far as we could see, Wyoming was lush and green.

From our perch at the top of the Brink Trail, we could see that we have wandered into more of God's wonders.

If you look toward the upper left hand corner, you can see Mark on the edge of the cliff overlooking the valley. From there he can see a dirt parking lot far below. Our pickup was at that same level, but three miles behind us. This hike gained 928 feet in elevation, so we had a long ways to hike down.

While we hiked up on the Brinks Trail, we hiked back on the Bear Knuckles Trail to make this a loop. 

We found no bear on the Bear Knuckles trail, just more wildflowers. The locals are telling us that the extra moisture is making for the best and longest wildflower season they can remember. By the time we got back to the pickup, we had hiked 6.9 miles . . .

and Denisa finally got her butterfly picture.

That made for a full day of exploring for our last day near Sheridan. Who knew that you could watch polo, visit an art museum, and hike among the wildflowers on Red Grade Road near Sheridan, Wyoming--all in one day?