Coop's Corner: Wyoming - Riding from West of Cody

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Wyoming - Riding from West of Cody

It was around 5 in the afternoon when I arrived at my reserved campsite at the Rex Hale National Forest Campground on Friday afternoon. I'd stopped for something to eat in Cody on my way through town and then also stopped at the Buffalo Bill Reservoir Dam. It was a warm sunny afternoon and I thought I was being smart setting up my popup shelter but almost immediately after I'd finished, a thunderstorm whipped its way through leaving barely enough time to get the cover off of the frame before the strongest winds came. I should have known better. That was the last time the unit was setup on my trip.

Overview of the rides taken from Rex Hale (just outside of Yellowstone's East Entrance) over the few days that I was camped there.

Saturday morning's weather was perfect and there was no good reason not to do my much anticipated Chief Joseph / Beartooth Highway ride.

The Saturday ride in more detail....mostly staying on pavement except for a side trip on the way back down from the Beartooth.

People in the center of the photo....with their toboggan sleds.

Dad and daughter just completed a run...

On the beaten path....

Off the beaten path....

Sunday was determined to be "Yellowstone Day". As mentioned before, Yellowstone wasn't really even a goal and in my trip planning, more of a "we''ll wait and see" kind of thing. My time in the park was definitely a highlight and I enjoyed every bit of that Sunday in our first National Park. My one and only disappointment, no bears.

In the East Entrance...Fisherman's Bridge...Canyon Village....Lake Village....West Thumb....Old Faithful.....and back to Rex Hale.

Most of my Yellowstone photos were already posted but I'll re-post a few here.

Monday I went back through Cody, ate breakfast at the famous Irma Hotel and on to the east, ALT Hwy 14 towards Powell to the Heart Mountain Internment Camp. That was my morning and in the afternoon, I followed the South Fork of the Shoshone River until I ran out of road.

After a quick lunch in Cody, it was out to the SW and up the South Fork of the Shoshone River.

Once back in Cody, I decided to visit the Buffalo Bill Center with its various museums under one roof. My ticket bought admission for 2 days and it was a good thing, I stayed until closing time that afternoon and went back the next day. If I ever return to Cody, I'll visit again.

The young Bill and a speaking hologram of an older and wiser Bill.

Map made up of tiles in the large rotunda, looked at from high above.

Places close to home that the traveling Buffalo Bill Cody show performed.

Clouds......Martha would appreciate these.

It had been a full day and I was tired....

At the Buffalo Bill Museum complex once again on Tuesday, lots of looking, not so many photos. I concentrated on The Plains Indians, Cody Firearms and Whitney Western Art Museum sections. Photos were restricted in the art museum and I took none.

I'm a fan of the show (and even more so the books!) and couldn't help myself. Both Peg and I really enjoy Johnson's books and both agree that the books' Henry is richer than the one portrayed in the Longmire TV series.

Still...firearms used by the actors in the series...

I've always been a sucker for the Hawken guns.....had no idea there had been a 60 caliber.

My last evening meal in Cody and once back in camp, finished up my last local IPA.

So that was it on Tuesday evening, 784 miles on the KLR, almost all of it pavement. Wednesday, a short drive to Riverton, Lander, the motel refresher and then early Thursday morning, my drive up Hwy 26 to Dubois.

6 comments:

redlegsridesAugust 16, 2017 at 2:06 PM
Good set of pics and routes...

A .60 caliber round, that'll get your attention!
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TrobairitzAugust 16, 2017 at 2:25 PM
Nice post Doug. 784 miles on the little KLR is quite a go. Good thing the seat looks comfy.
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motormikeAugust 16, 2017 at 5:34 PM
.... a lot of history visited....
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Others say....

"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)