Monday, August 28, 2017

Muddy Creek, Crazy Woman Canyon, and the Petrified Forest


 We've had a fun two days with our friend, Tom Bentley, as he showed us some of the scenic, but lesser known, areas around Buffalo, Wyoming.  On Sunday we started out near the Muddy Creek reservoir, where we stopped so I could take a photo of some horses.



 Well, the next thing we knew, one of the horses had put his head right into our window, thinking Doug had a treat for him.


Then we drove on through Crazy Woman Canyon as we made our way into the Big Horn Mountains. According to legend, sometime back in the 1800s Indians raided a small homestead in or near the canyon.  The husband was killed, but the woman pretended to be crazy, and her life was spared. The Indians were either frightened by her, or simply didn't want to deal with her.



Before we left the canyon, Tom built this small stone cairn on a perfect little rock shelf.

At the top of the Big Horn mountains (around 10,000 ft. altitude), we came across this beautiful outdoor chapel, called St. Christopher's of the Big Horn.


 And then we drove down Ten Sleep Canyon on the western side of the range...


...and passed a rock climber.  

Here's a photo of an old weathered building still standing on the outskirts of Ten Sleep, so named by the Indians because it took ten "sleeps" to travel there.



Today we stayed closer to our campground and took a short hike around the petrified forest.  Yes, I know there aren't many trees to be seen in these photos, but there are some magnificent examples of petrified trees.  Here is a metasequoia.  I'm especially interested in this because Doug and I have a metasequoia growing in our woods in Maryland.


 Here are a few more scenes from our walk this morning, including Doug playing with his drone.



And here is one of the huge murals painted on the side of a building in the historic town of Buffalo.


Thank you, Tom, for being our chauffeur and guide these past few days!

Tomorrow Doug and I move on to Grand Teton National Park...














8 comments:

  1. So enjoying your descriptions of this area. might have to go there some day. It's nice that in each place you have had a guide. I can relate to Crazy Woman.........

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    1. Well, we haven't had a guide in each place, but we have in the last two. We really love Wyoming!

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  2. Womderful trip through country I'd not visited (but for the petrified forest). I really look forward to photos of the Tetons. Purple mountains majesty for sure.

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    1. Thanks, Bonnie! We're her in the Tetons now. More coming up soon...

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  3. Once again, impressive scenery. You must show me your metasequoia! I love the crazy woman story and the horse sticking his head in. How did you get it to leave? I wonder if people DO give them treats--otherwise, why did it come over to the car. That must have been quite a scene when you realized what it was planning to do. :-)

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    1. Hi Cathy,
      Yes, I'll show you our metasequoia when we get home. We had to actually start driving away to get the horse out of the window! I guess it's used to getting treats. He tried to eat Doug's hat.

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  4. So entertaining, Edie! I have forgotten to tell Tommy about your postings. He will particularly like this one. I'm most interested in the botanical mention: how in the world did you identify this stump, or was it tagged? And did you know before you came that you had one at home in your woods?

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    1. Thank you, Kathleen! There was a sign identifying it as a petrified stump of a metasequoia, which excited me because we have one in our woods.

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