Our CO2 monitor went off three times during the night. We have found that these sensors are a common problem in the RV industry, as we had the same false alarms in our motor home. You had to take those alarms seriously, but we hadn't even had our propane on. These faulty alarms almost make the possibility of CO2 poisoning more prevalent because you start to ignore it after so many false alarms. Enough of that rant, but after being awake from so many alarms, we were a little cranky when the clock alarm went off at 6:00 a.m. That's prime time for moose hunting, and we didn't want to disappoint the moose that were waiting for us. We spotted the first one just a mile down the road.
She was literally "on the road." Those long legs would tangle with any vehicles driving too fast through this stretch of the Big Horn Mountains.
We found some moose in basically the same spots as yesterday. We drove 5 miles west of Bear Lodge on Highway 14A, one of the best moose viewing areas.
Aside from the opportunity to find so much wildlife, it was also a beautiful landscape. We have wandered into more of God's wonders!
Besides moose, Mark also spotted a herd of elk grazing higher on the mountain among the white trunks of the aspen.
We counted 138 elk in the open meadows. Who knows how many more were hidden from our view in the forest?!?
The pictures weren't great, but we zoomed in with our binoculars and camera to get a more detailed view. While we thought they were all elk cows and calves, we finally spotted two different bulls with their massive antlers among the herd.
We had already spotted 15 moose on this morning drive, when we saw that our camping neighbor's vehicle was pulled into another spot near a field of willows. We stopped to talk to them and spotted ten more moose with them.
As we drove further down 14A, we saw something unusual--a moose cow and calf striding quickly through an open grassy area.
They stopped occasionally to look behind them.
Then we saw the big bull moose that was following them. It's not yet rut season, but this younger male still had his eyes on a potential mate.
Older males have larger racks that will be handy for impressing the females and fighting off other males.
After a fun morning on our usual five-mile drive down Highway 14A, we decided to try a little drive south on Highway 14. We spotted only a few more moose, and decided to turn around when we saw something we'd never seen before in these mountains--thousands of domestic sheep!
It felt like the green meadow was getting fuller and fuller, and then we realized that a steady line of sheep were still coming out of the forest in a single file line.
As far back as we could see, they were scampering out of the woods. We could hear the bleats of the running sheep, the tinkling of the bells attached to some of their necks, and the thundering of thousands of hooves.
It was an incredible scene to see and hear as the sheep streamed in to fill the expanse of the sage brush meadow. The ranger had said that ranchers leased this land from mid-July through September, and we were assuming they were all cattle ranchers. Now we know that thousands of sheep also graze these mountains each summer.
We spotted some sheep wearing bells and a few of the "black sheep of the family." We thought we would find a sheep dog chasing that long line of sheep out of the forest. But we sat and waited until the last sheep came out of the woods, and nothing was chasing them. We guessed they had spent the night in the warmth and protection of the woods, and their alarm clock had gone off to get to the meadow at 8:00 this morning.
As we drove back to the trailer for breakfast, Denisa tallied up our morning wildlife count:31 moose
14 deer
138 elk
and 2,000 sheep (+/- 1,000)
It was raining as we fixed breakfast inside the trailer at 9:30. But we were hoping it would clear as we headed out to hike Black Mountain Fire Lookout Trail. The directions to the hike said, "3 miles on gravel road, then continue on road 222 to the trailhead." We soon found that road 222 was terrible, even for a four-wheel-drive pickup. After 0.2 miles driving over big rocks and through water, we parked and walked the last 0.7 mile to the trailhead.
Once past the trailhead, the actual trail was a short but steep route through the forest.
We found some nice viewpoints out of the forest to see that we were making some good elevation gain for views over the valleys below.
The last half mile was a scramble through the rocks and along rock ledges.
As we got higher, the rocks got bigger and steeper. We had some serious rock scrambling in that last half mile.
When we got tired, we could always find lots of rocks to sit on and take in the beautiful view around us. We have wandered into another of God's wonders!
We finally scrambled all the way to the top of Black Mountain, where the fire lookout was perched.
Built by the CCC, this was the residence of the fire spotters in the 1920s and 1930s. It was all boarded up now, but we could just imagine the young men that fashioned these walls out of the local stone to make a house.
While being a fire spotter was a lonely job, it certainly offered a lovely office view.
We lingered at the top, still watching the clouds gather and wondering if we were going to get wet before we got back to the pickup.
This would be a terrible place to be if it started lightning and raining.
While the fire spotters had a house at the tip of the mountain, they had to run downhill to get to the bathroom. Denisa was pointing at a tiny structure below--the roof of the outhouse.
Sometimes going down a steep rocky trail is harder than going up. So we took our time getting down to that tiny wooden structure. Denisa has a collection of outhouses in beautiful locations, and this will be a handsome addition to her collection.
Bonus! It was a two-holer!
Another bonus: It had a patch of raspberries surrounding it.
While we have been blessed with huckleberries, blueberries, salmonberries, blackberries, and thimbleberries on this trip, these were the first raspberries for us this summer.
Let's talk about the "elephant in the room." In the course of our summer's travels, you might have noticed that Denisa's hair was getting longer and longer. She decided months ago that she wanted to see if she could grow it long enough to wear it in a pony tail. The pictures today prove that it was long enough, even though it's not a great ponytail.
Even though it was cloudy all day, we were still dry when we got back to the pickup. We saw only two other people on this 4.2-mile trail with 1,099 feet in elevation gain. This area of Wyoming was not only full of wildlife, but was largely undiscovered by tourists! After our hike, we headed to Bear Lodge for some wifi time, and our second piece of pie. On the menu today was caramel pecan apple pie. Yes, it was as good as it looked.
After our appetizer, we went back to the trailer to fix dinner. It was raining most of the afternoon, so should we go out for more moose hunting this evening? Of course we should!
The rain kept most of the moose hunkered down in the forest, but we did see these two cows walking out of the woods.
We watched as they approached the wood rail fence next to the highway. With little effort, they jumped up . . .
and over those fences.
While they might do a good job of keeping the cattle off the highway, those fences were no match for the deer and moose. It's up to the drivers to be mindful of wildlife on the road.
The duet made it across the highway, and jumped right over the second fence just as easily.
They were headed to that valley of tender willow plants. If you look carefully, you can see another set of ears on the right side of the picture. These stands of willows are prime grazing areas for moose.
We went back to the same pull-out spot where we turned around this morning after five miles. We found the same three bull moose grazing in this area every morning and evening.
Another favorite moose hunting spot was down a gravel road.
Sure enough, we were rewarded with another moose cow sighting.
We were also rewarded with some yellow aspen leaf sightings. It looked like fall would come early to the Bighorn Mountains, as we were still in the month of August.
It stopped raining, and we got out to do some binocular scanning at another favorite pull out. The rain lowered our numbers this evening, but the final count was
18 moose
21 deer
While we watched, another moose cow came out of the willows. Her silhouette against the cloudy sunset was the last picture from another very fun day of hiking and looking for moose in the Bighorns.
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