Jul 04 2008
RV Adventure, Day 22: Bridge Bay Yellowstone to (almost) Sheridan Wyoming
Sure enough the next morning it was plenty cool in the trailer - my forgetfulness that led to me forgetting to set the furnace thermostat led to a frosty morning as it the temperature had dropped significantly overnight.
After getting the trailer warmed up everyone else eventually crawled out of bed and we did the usual morning routine.
Todays plan had us heading east out of Yellowstone with an intended destination of Sheridan Wyoming. Ahead of us lied not only the descent out of Yellowstone along the much maligned state highway 14, but the (as we would discover) marathon climb to the summit of the Bighorn mountain granite pass, and then down the other side again - a full day was ahead.
After saying farewell to the friends we had made the night before we departed, but not until after a long (and annoying) wait ensued at the RV dump station in order to empty our holding tanks and pickup a full tank of fresh water.
Once on the road the miles flew past. The horror stories that I had heard of the descent out of Yellowstone on 14 seemed like a non issue really, given prudent and careful driving.
We stopped in Cody Wyoming for what turned out to be either a really late lunch, or an early dinner. Cody itself was an amazing little town that we could have easily spent a day exploring - it had that characteristic (almost stereotyped) “wild wild west” town look and feel to the point of looking like a movie-set at times, except it was a real town. Unfortunately with plenty of miles ahead we had to suffice with a quick drive through town, and our lunch stop at the local Pizza Hut.
It wasn’t long after hitting the road again that we reached Greybull WY where the warning signs of the mountainous roads ahead began. After another aborted attempt to find someone to address our trucks ongoing issues (a long story in itself) we eventually decided we needed to make a run for it and get up, over, and down the mountain range before darkness set it. So, off we went.
The Bighorns turned out to be one of the most challenging mountain ranges we experienced on this whole trip. After passing Greybull the roads took a precipitious upward pitch, and it seemed to go on forever. I’d estimate that the roads were easily anywhere from a consistent 8% grade to upwards of 10% in brief stretches, and since there were only relatively short distances between switchback turns it was near impossible to maintain any momentum.
The truck, despite being signifigantly down in horsepower due to the boost issue huffed and puffed it’s way to the top without a great deal of fanfare. At the summit I snapped a picture of our GPS unit reading just short of 9,100 feet of elevation. Wow!
A short distance after the summit we stopped at a gravel pull out and the kids were amazed to see snow, and plenty of it. We stopped to get out and stretch after the long climb and the kids took turns trying to climb the long trail of snow that led up the granite walls, and then we all had a snowball fight. In the middle of July. In shorts. Great fun!
The summit reached, the reality of going down the other side was upon us - the roads down were just as steep, and now the added challenge of keeping our truck and trailer under control from a speed perspective was my primary concern. Thankfully the truck once again did a great job but it was slow going - second gear was marginally too high at some points to maintain our speed without the need for brakes (which would quickly overheat and become useless if not used sparingly) so at times we had to crawl along at about 15 MPH in first gear, switching back to second in areas where some speed was OK.
Unfortunately we were behind schedule and darkness was falling, and with that, the number of deer on the side of the road, and increasingly darting across the road was becoming concerning. At about 4000 feet (2000 feet above the city of Sheridan below) we pulled off into a rest area / scenic lookout so that I could check the trailer brakes for temperature. It turned out that the rest area was occupied by plenty of people sitting in lawn chairs along the guard-rail. It suddenly dawned on us that they were waiting for the 4th of July fireworks.
We quickly made friends with a few people and subsequently did the same thing, pulling out our lawn chairs and taking in the show (from three different cities, none the less) ourselves. It was a great evening.
After the show, with continued concern about proceeding down the rest of the mountain with the deer everywhere, we decided to simply camp-out overnight at the outlook - it was cool and comfortable, and with virtually no traffic to be seen, it was silent with the exception of the crickets.