Bighorn post

I never did make a post on my Bighorn Trip! I actually did a number of different things; after seeing my son and his family further west, I drove back across Idaho, stopping at Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls, which is a pretty cool scenic thing to do that doesn't take very long, and spent some time in the Bear Lake area on the Idaho/Utah border. We did do a couple of smaller hikes, including the Limber Pines trail in Utah and the Bloomington Lake hike in Idaho.

Then I drove to Worland and spent the night in a dive motel, before getting up early the next morning and doing some scenic canyon driving to get to the trailhead. On the way I saw some pretty cool stuff, including Fossil Butte National Monument.

I ended up not really having time to do both of the hikes that I wanted to do, but having a little bit too much time to do just one. So I dragged it out and took my time, but also ended up a little bit earlier than I hoped. Turns out that that was probably for the best. The ups and downs at high elevation really beat me up worse than normal. I guess I'm more out of shape than I was last time I did this.

Anyway, more scenic canyons on the way out to Buffalo, although I didn't take a lot of pictures until I got out of the mountains, looking back at them. And then I ended up doing one more scenic canyon in Spearfish, South Dakota before having to—sadly—say goodbye to the West and drive back East to where work keeps me chained down.

Anyway, here's some of the pictures I took.

Big Horn Mountains

After much belatedness, I'm finally about ready to go do my Wyoming hiking. First, there's a family reunion of sorts in Boise, then another family reunion of sorts at Bear Lake, and then to drop my daughter-in-law and my grandchildren back at my oldest son's house in Boise again... at which point I pick up my daughter's boyfriend, who'll be flying in, and drop off my wife at the airport. This whole process is the big variable right now; I don't know how long it will take, but ideally I'll be able to get to Worland WY from Boise (about a ten hour drive, and that's assuming no stopping near the Tetons for any exploration) before it's too dark on airport day, and then we can drive up to the West Tensleep Trailhead and start hiking the next morning. Of course, another alternative is that we stay close to the Teton area if it takes longer to get out of Boise, and I'll just have to drive a bit more on the next morning before we start hiking. That's not actually the worst thing in the world, as my itinerary for the first day isn't very intense. ~6 miles tops, to get from the Trailhead to the Lost Twin Lakes. And if we're really late getting out that morning, we don't even have to go that far; we could stop at Mirror Lake at ~ 3 miles. The second day I'm a little worried about. We'd backtrack out of the Lost Twin Lakes area, and then instead of going back to the car (although being nearly back at the car) we'd turn north up towards Lake Helen and Mistymoon Lake. To Helen is about 4.5 miles, and to Mistymoon is about 6. But not from Lost Twin Lakes, from the fork in the trail. I can't get to either of them without hiking a good 10 miles or even more the second day, which is probably a bit more than we're in the mood for. Maybe we'll just do it anyway, because we have the whole next day with nothing on the itinerary except exploration. Or maybe we do it anyway, and if we plop down our tents somewhere not quite at Helen Lake, then that's OK too because we've got all next day to play around. 

Then after that third day, we get back to the car and make for Rapid City. We'd come out through the slightly slower and more scenic Crazy Woman Canyon drive, because why not, and then if there's time I'd like to go back to Devil's Tower and the Sylvan Lake and Needles section of the Black Hills in Custer State Park. But if we don't have time, at least I've done those before once. 

The idea situation is that I can get to Worland or near Worland on the Sunday afternoon, but I'm concerned that I might have to make that drive on Monday instead. If so, I won't get back until the next Sunday evening, and I'd prefer to get back on Saturday evening and go to church like normal. But we'll see. Too many variables that I don't know yet, most specifically the times that I'd need to be at the airport. If I can hit the road from Boise by early afternoon, then I can do it all on Sunday. If not, I'll have to either cut a day from my itinerary or not get back until Sunday evening. 

My son is also apparently trying to hold me to an offhand comment I made that I'd like to head up to Stanley and see the Sawtooths in the summer of 2023. I would like to do that, but whether I really will or not was something that I hadn't taken too seriously until he obviously remembered that comment and was hoping to get involved with that trip as well. 

Anyway, I nabbed this from a GIS, but it's someone else's hike to the Lost Twin Lakes area. It's curious that this is what most of the pictures look like. Does nobody go to the second of the lost twin lakes?