July 2 - Burgess Junction WY to Ashland MT
What goes up inevitably must come back down again... at least here on Earth. Today we too drop down a tad... from our almost 8000 ft perch last night to a more pedestrian 3200 ft. tonight. Most of that drop occurred in the first hour after leaving Burgess Junction as we descended the east side of the Bighorns.
Agreeable drive down the hill to Dayton, Ranchester, then a small chunk of I-90 to x16, where we picked up WY-338/339 north, into Montana again, so we could pick up US-212. We stopped along the way at the Tongue River Reservoir State Park and had a picnic lunch.
At US-212 we nosed east through Lame Deer and Ashland. For the record: there's a community college in the Native American community of Lame Deer. The name of the institution of higher education is Chief Dull Knife College. We thought this interesting.
My objective was to find the campground I believe we stopped at during a trip west in 1974. I know it was along 212 and it was on the north side of the road. Those two features limit the number of candidates... and I truly think we found it when we stopped at Red Shale CG (NFS). Dar's a little more skeptical of my claim. But despite having no recollection of the facilities themselves (and it is a bit primitive), I'll continue to claim "this is the place". Arrived early afternoon and there was no one in the campground at all. By evening a handful of others showed up.
Scrounged up enough downed wood for a good campfire and decided to stay two nights.
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Miles Today: 147 (odo 8912)
Elevation: 3200
Location: N45.571, W106.146
Camp: Red Shale CG NFS near Ashland MT (free)
Weather: Sunny and warm (80s)
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| Munching breakfast. |
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| US-14 in the Bighorns |
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| Usually they wait till we have the bushouse... and always on a narrow road with no shoulders. |
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| Our free camp for two nights. |
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