Day 3 of Lupe’s 2018 Dingo Vacation to the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming & Beyond!
The night’s dense fog vanished during the wee hours, and the stars had been out. A chilly morning now, but sunlight filtering through the pines held hope that it would be warming up. Lupe sniffed her way along the bank of the North Tongue River at the Burgess Picnic Ground. The river was running high, full from bank to bank.
Oh, it was going to be a truly epic day! As soon as breakfast was done, SPHP had promised Loop was going to return to the Elysian Fields of Puppy Happiness! She had been there once before, nearly 5 years ago. Visions of bright, sunny meadows fragrant with the scent of a million blossoms, warm breezes, puffy white clouds, and a cool, clear running stream filled Lupe’s head. From a rocky hilltop, she had seen enormous green fields full of beautiful black cows.
Paradise! If only SPHP would hurry up!
At last SPHP was ready! After a quick drive W to a R turn onto USFS Road No. 15, the road curved E going up a slope. At the top of the slope was a big pullout on the R. SPHP parked the G6. The Carolina Dog hopped out. From a big rock she could see the Elysian Fields off to the W, not even 0.25 mile away. Oh, joy! (9:39 AM, 44°F)
Lupe wasted no time. Down the slope, across the road, and she was back in the fabled Elysian Fields of Puppy Happiness!
Lupe was thrilled, of course! She raced through the green fields, full of joyous energy, stopping to sniff and explore wherever interesting scents beckoned. She eventually returned to SPHP, who was walking across the fields, with a few questions.
What happened here, SPHP?
Hmm? What do you mean Loop?
Well, it’s all beautiful, but not like I remember it. The sky is clouding up! Where are the puffy white clouds floating in the blue? The W wind is 15 mph and kinda cold. Where are the warm, gentle breezes? The flowers are still here, but there aren’t nearly as many, and they aren’t blooming in such grand profusion. Why aren’t the Elysian Fields of Puppy Happiness as glorious as they used to be?
Oh, I see! Easily explained, Looper. It’s June now, not July like when you were here before. Another month, and the Elysian Fields will return to their former glory. You can count on it! We’re just a bit early. Summer comes late and doesn’t last long up here in the mountains. Paradise isn’t fully in season just yet.
Paradise has seasons?
Yes, indeed! And summer, when it’s all at it’s height of splendor, is the shortest season of all. There’s a reason why most of your Dingo Vacations occur in July and August, you know.
Does that mean winter comes to the Elysian Fields of Puppy Happiness?
Oh, yes. Longer, colder, crueler, and with more snow and ice than you’ve ever experienced!
Well, who knew? They never put that in the brochures, do they?
Oh, come on! You’ve never even seen a brochure about this place. They don’t exist. Silly Dingo!
Lupe was right. It was kind of cool, cloudy and windy. Be that as it may, it wasn’t a bad day to be out in the mountains. The Elysian Fields of Puppy Happiness were still a great place to be, even if not at their height of glory. After crossing the first big field, Lupe carried on, following a trail W along the N bank of the North Tongue River.
The American Dingo soon forgot any complaints. She kept dashing off to explore this and that.
A small tributary of the North Tongue River flows down from the PK Cow Camp. Approaching this stream, SPHP glanced up toward one of the last bluffs to see Lupe frozen at attention. She was staring at the field beyond the creek. Something over there was staring back, too!
A bull moose! Loop and the moose stared each other down. Neither flinched. American Dingoes are great starers! Finally, the moose had had enough. He turned slowly around, then trotted up into the trees S of the PK Cow Camp.
Well, shucks. The plan had been to cross the creek, then head across the field where the moose was to get to the hill beyond it. The moose had disappeared into the same forest Lupe needed to go through.
A bull moose had to be given a wide berth. Instead of crossing the creek, Lupe and SPHP followed it NW up to the PK Cow Camp. Lupe crossed the creek at the road to the buildings. No one seemed to be around. The Carolina Dog trotted on past a couple of cabins to a fence that went SW.
Lupe entered the forest following the fence up to a saddle N of the hill she intended to climb. The moose was nowhere in sight. The rocky hill Loop was going to climb was somewhere close by to the SE. Traveling through dense forest, Lupe went looking for it. She soon came to the first big rocks.
Traveling along the base of the rocks, the Carolina Dog found a spot where it was relatively easy to scramble to the top. Yes! This was the same hill she had climbed before back in 2013. The top of the formation was much larger than SPHP remembered. It was nearly all solid rock, so there were only a few trees.
Loopster went over to the edge where she could look down upon those enormous green fields full of beautiful black cows again. The green fields were still there, but apparently cows were like flowers. They weren’t in season yet, either. Lupe saw none. Zero. Zippo. An annoying 20 mph W wind added insult to injury.
This was as far as Lupe had gone in July, 2013. On that magical day these rocks had been a wonderful place to relax and watch the grazing herds down by the North Tongue River. Not now. Lupe despised the cold wind. She had no reason to stay, anyway, without a single cow to gaze down upon. SPHP concurred.
So this is it, SPHP? We’re going back? Disappointing compared to our first trip here, but I sure won’t mind escaping this blasted breeze!
We’re going, but not back, Looper. See those high hills to the W far across the open range? That’s where we’re headed.
Way over there?! Across that wind-swept plain? Why on earth would we do that?
That’s where the Garden of the Gods is.
Sounds lovely, but what is it? Won’t the Gods kick us out, anyway?
Don’t really know. I’d never heard of it before, either. It’s not shown on any of the maps we’ve ever had, but then one day I noticed it marked on the topo map on Peakbagger.com. Garden of the Gods sounds wonderful doesn’t it? Full of life and incredible beauty! We’re going to go find out what’s really there! As far as the Gods go, if they tell us to leave, we will.
Intriguing, but are you sure the garden isn’t out of season? Perhaps we’re too early?
Probably true, Looper. If nothing else, though, we’ll find out what the Gods have planted this year. It’s not too early in the season for that. The garden ought to have at least sprouted by now. Are you in?
Oh, I suppose. Aren’t I always?
Yes, you are! Well, nearly always. That’s part of what makes Carolina Dogs such excellent explorers and adventurers, I guess.
Seems I’ve got a reputation to uphold. If we must, we must. Come on! Let’s go!
Lupe and SPHP left the windy, rocky hill. Loop headed back through the dense forest to the fence she had followed before and went under it. A bit of open ground led to another forested area a short distance to the NW. Apparently a second rocky high point was hidden among the trees here, too.
There was no reason to climb this next hill. Lupe did want to travel through the woods as much as possible, though, to avoid the wind, which made a lot of sense. The forest didn’t extend very far, however. Loop was soon faced with a windy trek across the grasslands. At least the American Dingo was encouraged by the sight of more woodlands ahead. She went straight for the closest grove.
The first grove of pines Lupe came to was muddy. Lupe sniffed around excitedly. The mud was full of hoof prints and animal tracks! This was a popular spot, but Loop didn’t find any animals around at the moment. After a brief exploration, she head on toward a larger forest nearby.
Lupe wanted to explore the larger forest, too, but upon arriving at the edge, it was discovered that the land sloped down rather sharply where the forest was. Not wanting to lose elevation, SPHP insisted on staying out on the windy open grassland, but promised Loop she could explore this forest on the way back.
Climbing a big hill, Lupe passed by a fenced-in area. A sign said “Aspen Clearcut to Facilitate Regrowth 1991”. That was 27 years ago! Except for one rather pathetic, spindly stand of aspens, the ground inside the fence was covered with sagebrush.
Humans get such strange ideas, SPHP! Like cutting every single tree down makes them grow better.
No doubt it seemed to make sense at the time, Loop. Not everything turns out to be a brilliant success.
Well, I certainly hope the Gods have a greener thumb than whoever did this!
Passing through an opening in another fence nearby, Lupe continued up the hill. Huge coils of barbed wire and mesh fencing sat unused next to the opening. When the terrain leveled out to some degree, Loop traveled along open high ground S of the forest.
Nearing the W end of the forest, Lupe and SPHP went a little way down into it. Time for a respite from the wind! The remaining distance to the Garden of the Gods appeared to all be open ground. Wrapped in a jacket to warm up a bit, Lupe enjoyed peering deeper into the forest. However, it was soon time to press on.
Less than 2 miles to the Garden of the Gods (9,163 ft.)! Looper climbed steadily, if not steeply, straight into the teeth of the wind. The sky to the S and SW was all cloudy, and had a somewhat threatening appearance. It wasn’t at all certain how far Lupe was going to get before the weather might force a retreat. Patches of blue sky kept appearing just N of the Garden of the Gods, encouraging her to keep going.
A huge bare ridge was just to the N, but Loop did not get up onto it. She traversed the slope S of the ridge heading W. She finally got past the last of a surprising number of barbed wire fences. At one point she passed a tan water trough. A trench held long, exposed lengths of black plastic pipe. The incessant wind held a steady 20 mph. Rain looked possible. Fog sailed by mountains not far to the S.
It did not rain. Blue sky kept reappearing over the Garden of the Gods. Lupe made steady progress. She reached the top of High Point 8867, a bare hill only 0.5 mile ENE of the Garden of the Gods. A shallow open saddle led to the final uphill stretch.
While crossing the saddle, the sun disappeared. Clouds surged up from the S. Lupe got pelted by snow pellets, but the shower didn’t last long. Weak sunlight returned. Loop made her way up to rock formations that had been visible from miles away.
This was it! Lupe had reached the Garden of the Gods (9,163 ft.) region shown on the map. Time to do some exploring. The rock formations in the area were the first thing Lupe noticed. They were quite striking and made a favorable first impression.
A gap in the rocks led to an amphitheater surrounded on 3 sides by 30 to 50 foot high cliffs. The cliffs were not continuous. Several gaps existed between individual vertical rock walls. The amphitheater was sort of a natural 3-sided Stonehenge, but on a huge scale.
The amphitheater was at the exact spot marked on the map as being the Garden of the Gods. Lupe and SPHP took a quick look. Disappointingly, the vegetation didn’t look like anything terribly different or amazing.
Well, Lupe could make a closer examination in a bit. First SPHP wanted to reach the highest ground in the general area, which wasn’t far away.
Just E of the amphitheater, Lupe climbed a short, steep, narrow, forested passage going N. She managed to get up on top of some of the rocks for a look around. She had a great view to the S from here.
Lupe hadn’t made it to the highest terrain yet. It turned out there were two tiers of rocks forming relatively level plateaus. Loop had only made it up onto the lower tier.
The upper tier was only 12 feet higher at most, but the rock wall was nearly vertical. Lupe searched the terrain SW & W of the upper tier looking for a way up. She discovered a hidden circle of stones, an old campfire ring.
On this side, the upper tier was only 3 or 4 feet higher. A ramp a few feet from the campfire ring led directly to the top. Lupe had reached High Point 9163, which SPHP later designated as Garden of the Gods (9,163 ft.) on Peakbagger.com. It’s not the same exact spot marked on the map as being the Garden of the Gods, but it’s close.
The upper tier was a spacious circular area 150 feet in diameter. It was strewn with small stones, and ringed by trees.
The trees blocked the views in most directions, but there was a great view from the S edge. Lupe could see Cloud Peak (13,167 ft.) many miles away.
A couple of short breaks had been taken on the way here, but Lupe and SPHP were both ready for a longer one. Huddled together against the wind, Lupe and SPHP sat in weak sunlight and intermittent light snow showers at the S edge. The snow melted on contact, never amounting to much.
Nearly an hour passed. While it seemed almost certain this upper tier was the top of High Point 9163, the ground to the W was hidden by the trees. In case there actually was some higher spot, Lupe and SPHP left the upper tier to go take a look.
Exploring SW first, Lupe didn’t have to go far to reach the N edge of the Garden of the Gods amphitheater.
Going W and NW brought Loop to the edge of a 20 foot high platform of stone. Although she could see higher territory off to the W, clearly none of the ground in the immediate vicinity was as high as the upper tier. No doubt about it now. The upper tier was the top of High Point 9163.
Now that that was settled, it was time for a more thorough exploration of the Garden of the Gods amphitheater. Lupe went back to the campfire ring. After climbing around on some nearby rocks, she went back down the narrow passage. Safely off High Point 9163, she headed for the gap in the rock formations SPHP by now considered the official entrance to the Garden of the Gods. Looper trotted through the gap.
The Garden of the Gods! Not a soul here. No God appeared to prevent the American Dingo from wandering at will.
So what do you think, SPHP?
Of the Garden of the Gods?
Yes.
Appears to me that the Gods aren’t that much into horticulture. The rocks are interesting, and the views aren’t bad, but this “garden” doesn’t look much different than lots of other places we’ve been to. What do you think, Looper?
I think the Elysian Fields of Puppy Happiness are way better than this. I also think this never ending wind is cold and annoying. Can we find some place to hide? Maybe have something to eat?
A big wall of rock was close by and made a decent windbreak. SPHP wrapped a jacket around Loop to help her warm up. She gobbled up a bowl of Taste of the Wild in nothing flat, had a water chaser, then shot SPHP a glance that clearly said she couldn’t believe SPHP had made her come so far through the despicable wind for so little. The Gods didn’t know diddle about gardening.
Oh, maybe we’re being too harsh on the Gods, Looper? I bet if we look around, we’ll see plenty of beautiful plants starting to flourish. It’s just early in the season, like we were talking about before. Even if we don’t, there’s another possibility.
What’s that?
We are right where the map says Garden of the Gods, but it’s possible it refers to a larger area, or even a different spot nearby. E of here the map shows many springs on the slope S of High Point 8867. We saw that slope from above and went right by it. It’s quite possible that the Garden of the Gods is actually over there.
That might make sense, SPHP. A slope that continually trickles water over a wide area would easily support a beautiful garden. That slope was all totally exposed to the wind, though, wasn’t it? This is bad enough! Maybe we could just finish sniffing around here, and call it good?
As you like, Loop. Ready?
On closer inspection, the Gods had indeed planted some beautiful things, many not yet at their height of glory.
Oh, the Garden of the Gods is beautiful, SPHP! And it’s going to get even better as the days go by just like the Elysian Fields of Puppy Happiness! Maybe we should go see what the big slope with all the springs has to show us after all?
Depends. Like you said, that slope is totally exposed to the wind. Since you’ve been such a good sport, and we’ve seen at least some of the Garden of the Gods here at the amphitheater, would you like to do something else?
Like what?
Less than 0.5 mile W of here is High Point 9191, and about a mile away is a 9,200 foot contour enclosing another high point. Want to go see if we can peakbag those?
Umm, aren’t they even farther from the G6?
Yes, but I think it’s nearly all forested. We wouldn’t be in the wind.
Well, in that case …
Of course, you’d probably have to expend an awful lot of energy barking at squirrels.
Squirrels! You sure know how to beat around the bush, don’t you, SPHP? Why didn’t you say there would be squirrels to begin with?
And with that, the Carolina Dog was off like a shot. She raced W across the Garden of the Gods amphitheater. Before SPHP could get there, she had already found a huge squirrel tree right at the edge of the forest. Loop and the squirrel were both raising a ruckus.
So it was off through the forest, SPHP looking for High Points 9191 and 9200, and Lupe keeping a lookout for squirrels. Lupe wound up scouting out rocks along the W edge of the Garden of the Gods amphitheater, but the forest was so thick there wasn’t much to see.
The American Dingo wandered W or SW. She seemed to be gaining net elevation, but it couldn’t have been much. The forest had no landmarks other than occasional meadows and hidden glens. Lupe reached a small, flat clearing where 4 spruce trees stood surrounded by low junipers.
It was hard to tell how far Lupe had gone. The terrain was practically level now. 80 feet W of the distinctive clearing, Looper came to a group of white stones scattered at what appeared to be a slightly higher spot. Quite possibly this was the highest point in the whole region. Was Lupe at High Point 9200? SPHP didn’t think she had gone far enough. Might be High Point 9191, though.
Lupe continued W another 80 feet losing a bit of elevation. Here she came to another meadow of moderate size. The ground farther W was clearly lower, so Loop turned S. She went 200 feet, and appeared to be nearing the S edge of the mountain, when she suddenly found herself on the brink of an opening in the ground.
A narrow crack! So narrow that Lupe could have easily jumped across it, but the crack looked deep and dangerous. If by chance she fell in, she might be seriously injured or killed. Even if she survived, there might not be any way to get her out of there, either. SPHP begged Lupe to be careful, but she stood nonchalantly at the brink.
What’s wrong, SPHP?
Loopster! Don’t you see that deep crack?
Yes, what about it?
Be careful! It’s a sign that the whole mountain is going to fall apart some day. It’s dangerous right now, if you fall into it. Stay away from it. Don’t stand there! You’re on the brink of the CRACK OF DOOM!
Upon inspection, the Crack of Doom looked about 40 feet deep. Getting out of it might have been possible, if uninjured, but wouldn’t have been easy. Fortunately, an escape wasn’t necessary. The Carolina Dog had sense enough not to fall in. She thought SPHP was simply being overly melodramatic.
Maybe all the way to the Crack of Doom was far enough? SPHP could see it was going to be impossible to know for certain in this forest if Lupe ever reached High Points 9191 or 9200, anyway.
The long trek back began. Lupe went by the probable High Point 9191 site, and the clearing with the 4 spruces. She had a fabulous time in the forest on the way back to the Garden of the Gods.
Lupe returned to the Garden of the Gods (9,163 ft.) upper tier, and once again sat by the S rim. A chipmunk, bold as brass, came scrambling close by along the rocks and taunted her repeatedly. It was a dangerous game of Hide and Seek that the chipmunk won, but kept the Carolina Dog thoroughly entertained.
The weather had improved. Plenty of clouds still around, but sunshine, too. Rain and snow showers were no more. The wind was dying down. With a beautiful evening ahead of her, Lupe left the Garden of the Gods.
So much fun! Lupe returned to High Point 8867. She never did go down to see the slope S of it with the springs that might actually be part of the Garden of the Gods, but she did enjoy a long, gentle, downhill romp on the big ridge to the E. SPHP did not forget the promise made earlier to let her explore the forest W of the PK Cow Camp. Lupe had a blast!
What a day! And what a lovely evening! Looper was past the PK Cow Camp and approaching the North Tongue River again. Only a pleasant stroll along it, then back through the Elysian Fields of Puppy Happiness left to go. The day’s adventures were about concluded.
Wrong! With an American Dingo, it’s never over until it’s actually over. Suddenly Lupe raced ahead! She turned sharply, and disappeared into the willows near the river. A moment later, SPHP heard a tremendous splash!
What on earth?! Had the crazy Dingo hurled herself into the frigid, rushing stream? And even going like a rocket, how could she have made such a giant splash? SPHP was instantly concerned. The current was powerful, and the river banks lined with thick willows that would make escape difficult.
Moments later it all became clear. Loopster came racing back, tongue hanging out with a huge grin on her face. She hadn’t flung herself into the icy North Tongue River at all. That had been someone else. Someone much bigger. Someone now safely on the other side of the river.
Shame on you, Loop! How long have you been plotting this?
Plotting what? Said little Miss Innocent.
You know what I mean. Moose hunting!
Lupe never answered. She trotted briskly ahead sniffing her way along the river, curly tail waving proudly behind her. So in the end, the Elysian Fields of Puppy Happiness lived up to their glorious reputation after all. Lupe was happy, happy, oh, so happy crossing them on the way back to the G6. (6:42 PM, 52°F)
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