Dry Fork Ridge, Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming (6-12-18)

Day 4 of Lupe’s 2018 Dingo Vacation to the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming & Beyond!

This was it, about as close as the G6 was going to get.  SPHP parked near the intersection of USFS Roads No. 168 & 149.  Lupe had a long trek, a good 5 or 6 miles down Dry Fork canyon ahead of her.  At least the view was encouraging.  What could be seen of Dry Fork Ridge (8,480 ft.) looked climbable.

How hard it might be to find the true summit once Lupe got up on the huge ridge was another matter.  The top of the mountain appeared to be densely forested.  The Carolina Dog might be in for quite an ordeal before she could claim a successful ascent of Sheridan County, Wyoming’s most prominent peak.

Lupe wasn’t worried in the least.  She eagerly set off down USFS Road No. 149 (Lower Dry Fork Road) under blue skies, a 15 to 20 mph NW breeze in her face.  (9:39 AM, 51°F)

A miles long mostly downhill trek was certainly an unusual start for a peakbagging quest.  Loop cheerily trotted ahead of SPHP making rapid progress. USFS Road No. 149 wasn’t steep, but she was losing elevation at a steady clip.

The journey was scarcely underway when Lupe detected something on the breeze.  Suddenly she dashed off into the tall grass SW of the road.

The bleached bones of a large animal, likely a cow, rested on a patch of dirt and dead grass.  Apparently the skeleton had been here a while.  The American Dingo was quite impressed by this find.  She sniffed carefully, conducting a thorough investigation before agreeing to press on.

The upper part of the canyon Lupe was entering was all open meadow.  However, it didn’t take long to get down to a first stand of tall aspens.  The day was bright, sunny, and warming up fast.  Some shade would have been nice.  Sadly, the aspens weren’t close enough to the road to provide any.

Apparently, Dry Fork canyon wasn’t as dry as advertised.  A mile from the start, Lupe came to a creek – a welcome sight.  Loop hopped right in to cool her paws off and help herself to a drink.

USFS Road No. 149 forded the creek twice in rapid succession.  For a while, Lupe continued to come upon occasional side streams, but less and less frequently the farther she went.  None of the fords were deep, usually only inches, and never more than a foot.  However, some of the banks were quite muddy.  Now and then SPHP had to search for better spots to cross than the road provided.

USFS Road No. 149 went on and on.  The wind died down.  The day grew warm.  Unfortunately, the road didn’t follow Dry Fork Creek, or any of the others.  The streams all plunged into a deeper part of the canyon, while No. 149 remained on substantially higher ground to the NE.

Back at the start, the road had lost elevation steadily.  Now Lupe came to long flat sections, and even some fairly substantial uphill ones.  She was still losing net elevation, but only sporadically in chunks.

Lupe came to lots of sagebrush on the long road trek before eventually reaching sections of pine forest, too.  The pines provided shady relief from the blazing sun.  Looper and SPHP took occasional short breaks among the trees.

At last, Lupe emerged from a longer stretch of forest.  Ahead, a trickling creek crossed the road.  Well down a slope to the W was a building.  That had to be the Cow Camp by Miller Creek shown on the topo map.  To the Carolina Dog’s immense disappointment, not a single cow was in sight.

The long road hike was finally over.  USFS Road No. 149 ended here.  No worries.  The map showed a Trail No. 428 winding NNE from the Cow Camp up to West Pass, the American Dingo’s next objective en route to Dry Fork Ridge.

No. 428 wasn’t hard to find.  Lupe went right to it.

Time to start climbing!  West Pass was 650 feet higher.  Close to where Lupe first found it, Trail No. 428 angled N.  The Carolina Dog crossed a marshy hillside full of small streams.  Beyond the wet area, the trail curved E heading up into a bowl-shaped region.

Trail No. 428 was overgrown and initially hard to follow.  Things were easier once SPHP finally realized the route was marked with red, pink or orange flags and ribbons.  In any case, there was never any doubt where Trail No. 428 was headed.  Lupe soon saw the edge of the big saddle up on the ridgeline to the NNE where West Pass had to be.

Trail No. 428 got steeper, but also easier to discern, as Lupe climbed the last section leading to West Pass.  Few trees grew on the hillside.  Before she even reached West Pass, Loopster enjoyed some pretty nice views.

Upon reaching West Pass, Lupe and SPHP were ready for a break.  Small trees provided a little shade.  It was breezy up here.  Lupe appreciated a shirt SPHP placed over her to block the wind.

The true summit of Dry Fork Ridge (8,480 ft.) is more than 1,000 feet higher than West Pass, and was 1.75 miles NW of where Loop took her break.  Before Lupe could even start this next climb, she would have to travel NW across West Pass.

Trail No. 428 goes over West Pass, but heading NE to lower ground, not up onto Dry Fork Ridge.  So from here on, Loop wasn’t going to have any official trails to follow.

Crossing West Pass would be easy.  The huge saddle was all grassland.  It looked like Lupe could explore anywhere she wanted to on the way to the forest on the far side.

Crossing West Pass, Lupe encountered small streams and boggy areas that hadn’t been apparent from a distance.  Most of the wetlands were easily avoided.  Loop arrived at the edge of the forest on the NW side of West Pass to find a profusion of yellow wildflowers.  She had already gained a surprising amount of elevation.

The steepest part of the climb up onto Dry Fork Ridge now began.  At first Lupe was traveling through a tall and relatively dense pine forest.  Although there was no official trail, the American Dingo discovered and followed many game trails for short distances.  Loop encountered very few rock outcroppings, all of which were quite small.

Up and up!  Finally the forest began to thin.  The pines were smaller now.  Lupe began coming to steep open lanes of narrow meadows.  The sunny meadows were full of wildflowers.  Looper roamed anywhere she wanted to, but SPHP stayed close to the shade of the trees.

On the upper slope nearing the ridgeline, purple wildflowers began to dominate.  What a gorgeous place and spectacular display this was!

The terrain began to level out.  Lupe reached the ridgeline.  She had gained the big majority of the elevation she needed to, but still had as much as 300 feet left to go.  The topo map showed that the rest of the climb would be gradual.

The true summit of Dry Fork Ridge was still a mile or more W of here.  The big fear was that Loop would encounter a lot of dense forest making the summit difficult to reach or impossible to identify.

Encouragingly, the search for the summit was at least going to start out well.  Lupe had reached the ridgeline at a point where a fair amount of open ground existed.  A nice lane of open territory led WSW toward higher ground.  Perfect!  After pausing for a quick look at the views, Lupe and SPHP followed the promising lane higher.

The lane along the top of the ridge stayed open for 0.25 mile.  The forest was closing in when Lupe came upon an old road.  The map showed this as a spur off a 4WD road N of Dry Fork Ridge.  Lupe followed it WSW for a little way, though the map showed it would soon end.

The road didn’t end, but was heading too far SW.  The American Dingo needed to be going W or NW.  Reluctantly, SPHP led Loop off the road.  She journeyed WNW through dense forest gaining elevation slowly.

High Point 8464 was supposed to be around here somewhere.  Sure enough, the terrain leveled out.  Quite a large area was about the same elevation.  Not really expecting to ever see it again, SPHP built a small cairn out of white stones at what seemed to be the highest point.

Still 0.5 mile to go!  Plentiful deadfall timber to the NW made the dense forest intimidating.  How was Looper ever going to find the true summit of Dry Fork Ridge in this mess?  The answer came much sooner than SPHP expected.

A 100 yard march W from the little cairn at High Point 8464 brought Lupe to the edge of the forest!  A remnant of a dirt road, probably the same road she had been so recently following, headed NW into a long, wide meadow, precisely the direction Lupe needed to go.

Hah!  Totally unexpected, but what a lucky break!  This meadow would almost certainly get Lupe very close to the true summit.

Lupe romped her way through the big meadow.  The old road faded completely away, but that didn’t matter at all.  Looper could see higher mountains with patches of snow in the distance to the W.  To the NE, a couple of openings in the forest granted views clear out to the prairies beyond the Bighorns.

The highest ground was along the NE edge of the meadow.  SPHP headed NW staying fairly close to the trees, while Loop roamed at will.  The meadow was even longer than it appeared at first.  Well before Lupe reached the end of it, she discovered a road going NE into the forest.

A quick reconnaissance revealed that this short road led to another long meadow on the other side of the highest terrain.  Excellent!  The forested high ground was boxed in by meadows on both sides.  After following this second big meadow a little farther NW, Lupe re-entered the forest.

The forest was pretty flat, but continuing NW Lupe was still gaining at least some elevation.  After going a little way, the highest ground seemed to be concentrated along an increasingly well defined line.  Lupe came to a succession of minor high points that at first blush appeared to be true summit candidates.  Each time, though, continuing a bit farther NW led to a slightly higher spot.

The Carolina Dog discovered an outcropping of white rock towering 3 or 4 feet higher than anything else she’d been to so far.  Maybe this was the summit?  Seemed promising, even likely.

To rule out any other summit possibilities, Lupe kept going NW.  50 feet farther, she discovered the start of an escarpment, a line of similar white rocks trending NW.  The escarpment was only a few feet high, but it did seem like Loop had gained a bit of elevation.  This escarpment was likely even higher than the last spot.

Loop followed the escarpment another 10 or 20 feet before getting up on top.  Looking back to the SE, a small cairn sat near the very start, almost completely hidden by the forest.

The true summit of Dry Fork Ridge (8,480 ft.)!  Lupe had made it!

The long trek to Dry Fork Ridge had paid off!  Time for another break.  A better, longer one than before.  Lupe concurred.  However, not much could be seen from the little summit cairn buried among the trees.  Since the edge of the second big meadow was only 10 feet E of the cairn, Lupe and SPHP went there to rest and celebrate her peakbagging success.

From the break spot, Lupe could see a lot of the second big meadow, but Dry Fork Ridge provided only one distant view from this close to the true summit.  Far to the NE Loop could see the prairie beyond the Bighorn Range.  Nice, but not dazzling.

One item of interest was close by.  An old tree stump sat 15 feet from the forest’s edge.  The stump was all knobby with root stubs, none of which were very long.  This stump seemed like a decent landmark.  It rested only 25 feet NE of the summit cairn.  There sure wasn’t anything else notable around to help flag the cairn’s position.  In a stroke of brilliance, SPHP decided to call this highlight of Dry Fork Ridge the “Iconic Stump”.

Lupe was so thrilled with the Iconic Stump she dozed off as SPHP told her about it.  Hmm.

More than half an hour went by before the initial excitement of the Iconic Stump wore off and the Carolina Dog regained consciousness.  Looper had recovered to the point where she was capable of posing for photos near the Iconic Stump.  No doubt fantastic news for the hordes intent on repeating her Dry Fork Ridge peakbagging feat one day.

Lupe had one more task left to do up on Dry Fork Ridge before heading back.  To make certain the cairn actually was at the true summit, she journeyed 400 or 500 feet farther NW along the top of the escarpment.  The drop off along the SW edge grew from only a few feet back by the cairn to cliffs close to 20 feet high.

Even so, the cairn clearly was the high point.  The whole escarpment was gradually losing elevation as Lupe went NW.  That trend was accelerating, too.  This was far enough.  Loop halted on open ground where she could see a long way N.  A deer caught her attention.  The distant prairie stretching to the horizon in Montana held SPHP’s.

Nearly an hour after arriving, Lupe returned to the hidden summit cairn for the last time.  SPHP took a final look around thinking a registry might be present, but found nothing.

Time to start the long journey back.  Loop and SPHP began by following the line of slightly lower high points SE until they faded away.  Lupe had a great time sniffing and racing through the forest.  She reached the first big meadow farther NW than where she had originally left it on the way to the summit.

Lupe passed by the short road she had taken to the second meadow.  She explored the length of the first meadow again while SPHP enjoyed the big views.  The American Dingo even returned briefly to the little cairn at High Point 8464.

At the top of the flowery, forested slope leading back down to West Pass, Lupe and SPHP paused.  Still a long way to go, but it was going to be a gorgeous evening.  A good time all the way.

Before starting the descent in earnest, Lupe scanned the horizon from Dry Fork Ridge a final time.  She probably wouldn’t ever be here again.  A melancholy thought; a recurring one in remote places far from home.

This was it.  Time to bid farewell to Dry Fork Ridge.  Lupe and SPHP were glad she had come.  Dry Fork Ridge had been a great day. 

Pleasant hours of beauty, solitude, and companionship still ahead.  West Pass, Trail No. 428, USFS Road No. 149 – one last chance to experience them all.  Big sigh.  Puppy, ho!  Onward!

Purple wildflowers danced softly on the perfumed breeze as happy Lupe started down the steep slope. (End – 8:40 PM, 47°F)

Directions: From Burgess Junction (intersection of Highways No. 14 & 14A) in the northern Bighorns take USFS Road No. 15 about 5 miles to a R turn onto USFS Road No 168.  Follow No. 168 approximately 5 miles.  USFS Road No. 149 is on the L.

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