Big Horn Mountains, back to Hardin

The Village Inn Restaurant near the Mustang Motel provided a good breakfast in the morning, and I rode out of town on US 16 taking a big loop to the north to get to Buffalo, WY rather than I-90, which would have been a more direct route. Just outside Gillette is an enormous open pit mine, which did nothing to change my opinion of the city. This is mostly flat, ranch land with a few hills and creeks, and an elevation of 4000 feet. At several places I saw antelope or elk grazing in the same fields as the cattle.

In Buffalo I gassed up and rode around town a bit before I found a place that had sunscreen. The old downtown has become a tourist area with crafts shops - pottery, jewelry, quilting - as well as a large outdoor store. US 16 is a well-paved road with gentle curves, wide shoulders, and many passing lanes. Even in the middle of tourist season there wasn't much traffic, and I soon rode over the Powder River Pass at 9600 feet and down towards Ten Sleep. In 1974 I rode my R75/5 on US 16 going the other way, and I made a rough camp along the Ten Sleep Creek - just rode down a path to a level area near the creek and set up my tent. In the morning I filled my canteen from the creek. On the the west side of the pass US 16 is more interesting - more rock formations and tighter curves.

Going up to Powder River  Pass

Rugged terrain on the other side

I rode through Ten Sleep, which is an actual town now with a gas station and cafe, and then I rode into Worland and turned north along the Big Horn River to Greybull, where I gassed up and had a good lunch at Lisa's Restaurant before heading east on US 14 towards Sheridan. Highway 14 is a more interesting road than 16 with tighter curves and more striking scenery. Again there wasn't much traffic and there were many passing lanes. I stopped several times to take pictures, including a stop at Shell Falls.

Shell Rock Falls

Looking west

There are markers along the road in the mountains that indicate what geologic periods the rock formations date to. One  of the granite formations  along 16 was from the pre-Cambrian period - 3 billion years ago. Soon I rode over Granite Pass at 9000 feet and then began a long descent, but not  before seeing a couple of moose feeding alonside the road.

Moose feeding - the male ran off into the woods

US 16 runs into I-90 and I followed that  to Hardin and the Super 8 where I'm spending the night. The weather today was just about perfect even though showers had been predicted. It did cloud up in the late afternoon, but by then I was at the motel. Before checking in I checked out the Big Horn County Museum just on the edge of town. It is an interesting place with a lot of local history and items from the late 1800's to the early 20th century.

Today I saw more and more motorcycles on the road and at the stops - Harley's headed to Sturgis and BMWs headed towards Billings. There are a dozen bikes in the motel parking lot, almost all BMWs.