12 Moose, 3 Waterfalls, 1 Medicine Wheel, and a Hail Storm Kind of Day in the Bighorns

Even though we were now in the month of July, we were happy to wake up to temperatures in the 50's. It was great camping at 8,200 feet of elevation in the Bighorn Mountains in July! This day's plan was to head west into new territory for us, with a couple hiking stops planned. We were only two miles from our campground when we had our first moose-sighting of the day. When the bull walked out of the bushes, we thought we had hit the jackpot. Then we saw it was actually two moose, because a cow was right behind him.

But then we saw that right behind the cow, her calf followed. What a way to start the day, with a sighting that included a three-moose-family!

Another mile down the road, and we stopped to see another moose!

The area just west of our campground would become one of our favorite places for spotting moose and wildflowers.

Then we spotted two more moose . . . and then an elk high above us. We found out that we were living in a very wild(life) neighborhood.

That was certainly a slow five miles! We needed to pick up speed if we were ever going to see the rest of the Bighorn mountains. We finally made it to the 9,430-foot pass where we could look way down at the hazy basin below us.

While we were stopped for the views, Denisa felt obliged to take more pictures of the wildflowers. They looked like a spring bouquet that was just delivered from the florist.

At this high elevation, the flowers were smaller and we saw some new alpine blooms. 

We also got advice from a local couple that has been hiking these mountains for the last forty years. They stopped at this viewpoint again because they "never get tired of these views." We didn't either. At 10:45 we finally made it to the trail head for our first hike. From looking at the flat land around the parking area, you would never know that we were hiking to Paradise Falls.

The hike headed downhill quickly, and we found ourselves in a canyon with rock walls stretching up in front of us.

The canyon followed a river bed, and we continued down-hill towards the rocky ledge of the waterfall.

Sometimes we had to hug the rock walls to keep our feet out of the icy water.

Mark finally made it to the rock ledge just above the waterfall.

That's when the fun began. Mark hiked further down beside Paradise Falls, and we exchanged picture-taking. From his vantage point, Mark could see the waterfall boiling off the mountain with Denisa standing just above it.

From her vantage point, Denisa could barely see Mark balancing on the rock ledge between the cascading pools of water.

Rocky spires surrounded this entire Paradise Valley. We have wandered into another of God's wonders!

We could see a little trail that continued down onto the floor of the valley. It took some rock scrambling around the boulders at the top of the waterfall, and then some sliding down a steep rock slide, but we finally made it to the grassy valley floor. From there we could see a ribbon of a waterfall that was hidden inside a canyon crevice.

The sun was shining right behind this hidden falls, but it highlighted the splashes of water as it trickled downward inside that crevice. We had found our second waterfall of the day!

This would seem like a nice destination, but what if there was something a little further down the valley? So we continued where even fewer people would hike. We followed the river to another waterfall. The space was too confined to get a good picture of the third waterfall, but Denisa did take a picture of Mark and the cascades above the fall. 

Even if we didn't get a good picture of the waterfall, if we hiked this much further, we will take more pictures.

We took a few more pictures on our way back out of the canyon. Paradise Falls was not the most impressive waterfall we have ever seen, but the valley that surrounds it was stunning.

This hike will definitely be on our list of top hikes for the year.

Denisa had to take more flower pictures when we found these lovely paint brushes along the trail back to the pickup. We're used to seeing orange paintbrushes, but the Bighorn Mountains grow them in a nice shade of pink.

A squirrel scolded us as we made our way out of the canyon, and then posed for a picture.

Our next stop down Highway 14A was to the trail head for the Medicine Wheel hike. A medicine wheel is a stone circle made by the Indians that lived in the Bighorn Mountains many years ago. This one has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. So we hiked to the ridge just below the summit of Medicine Wheel Mountain to see it for ourselves.

The hike goes up and then down and then up again on a road bed. To control the number of people that come to see this sacred Indian spot, it takes a 2.7-mile hike, even though it could easily be driven by any vehicle. As we headed up the mountain, the air was thin and we had snow beside the trail.

The sign at the trail head said that thousands of stone circles are scattered over the northern plains and Rocky Mountains. This one is probably the best known and most sacred. It was formed by laying rocks in a circle about eighty feet in diameter, with 28 spokes radiating from the center. A drawing on one of the sign posts showed it best.

When we made our climb, we were standing right beside the medicine wheel, but we were really too close to see it well. Denisa tried taking a picture from the bottom, with Mark standing behind the top of the wheel.

Mark took a picture from the top, with Denisa standing at the bottom of the wheel. We weren't allowed to climb higher or stray off the path for other views, so this was the best we could do to photograph the wheel. It's too bad there isn't a raised platform so that people that have walked that far could actually see the wheel better.

Hundreds of prayer cloths and bags had been tied to the cable that surrounds the medicine wheel. A ranger was on duty to be sure that no one entered the wheel or was disrespectful of this sacred Indian area.

We found more wildflowers on this hike at high elevation. Denisa took a picture of the monument plant. It grows for 20-80 years, and then will bloom only one time and then dies. Finding one blooming after so many years certainly seems monumental.

She also took pictures of other new-to-us plants that weren't as monumental. 

She's not sure why she takes so many pictures of flowers. But they give her such pleasure, and make for good entertainment on some long hikes.

Another highlight at the trail head was seeing a herd of elk on a high meadow above us. We couldn't see them with our eyes, but when someone pointed us in the right direction we found them with our binoculars. Between 30 and 40 elk were resting at an elevation close to 10,000 feet. No pictures because our little camera couldn't see them either. We still had plenty of daylight on these long summer days in the north. But our legs were tired and we were hungry. On the drive back to the campground we saw another moose!

The next moose we spotted was running across a field of wildflowers.

Even though she slowed as our pickup approached, she finally jumped the wooden fence as we stopped and watched.

It's a good thing that we stopped and there was little traffic on Highway 14A, because she didn't look both ways before crossing the road. We found that the five miles just west of our campground took a long time to drive both in the morning and in the evening because of all the moose sightings. We love it!

We got a rain shower at our motor home while we ate dinner, and then we headed to the lodge to check text messages and emails and publish a blog. That's when we heard a report from a group of ATVers that they got caught in a hail storm just two miles east. We jumped in the pickup to see it for ourselves. It seemed a little unbelievable when they told us they got five inches of hail. Even though it was thirty minutes after the hail storm by the time we arrived, the ground under the trees was still covered.

The highway was cleared, but the cold ice caused an eerie fog over the mountain. We later found out from a ranger that two different locations along Highway 14 got 6-10 inches of hail accumulation. That would be incredible any time, but especially in July!

While we were out driving, we decided to check for moose near the areas to the west of our campground. We didn't have the good camera with us, so of course we had the best moose-sightings of the day. A moose cow was grazing beside the highway.

Three more cows and a bull moose were laying just inside the fence. We took pictures with a cell phone, glad that they were so close.

We watched until the grazing cow decided it was time to join the rest of the herd on the other side of the wood fence. Those long moose legs had no problems jumping up . . .

and over that fence.

We spotted several more elk, and another moose before we got home several miles later. That was 12 moose between the different trips we made on Highway 14. What a good day of hiking and wildlife hunting we've had! Another great aspect of our day was that the temperature never got higher than the 60s--not bad for July! We finished our day with our second piece of pie from the Bear Lodge Restaurant. This was caramel nut apple pie, and it was delicious! We warmed it in our microwave and added a dip of ice cream. We love this five-night/five-pieces of pie challenge! We also loved our 12 moose, 3 waterfalls, 1 medicine wheel, and a hail storm kind of day in the Bighorn Mountains!