Taming the Wild West

On Wednesday we left Sheridan, Wyoming, in search of mountains and mustangs. Driving toward the Big Horn Mountains we rose from an elevation of 4,000 ft. to 9,700 ft. We saw our first snow around 9,000 feet and the cool crisp air was wonderful. The view looking back to the east was extraordinary and we could see for miles. At the top of the mountain we stopped to walk beside a small mountain creek. All was well and good until we started the descent. We dropped over 6,000 ft. in less than 13 miles. That might not sound so bad, but the signs that said you had to stop at the top, check your brakes, make certain you know all the locations for brake cooling stops and locations for emergency runaway ramps did make be a bit uncomfortable. We started down and were amazed by the view of the valley before us. It was incredible and you could see all the way to the Grand Tetons. After a white knuckled drive, smelling my brakes and stopping a few times on the way, we made it to the bottom. I never knew I liked flat desert-like landscape so well.
Once we were in the Bighorn valley we stopped in Lovell at the wild mustang center. The folks were very polite and told us where to look to try to find some horses. We drove into the Pryor Range and hadn’t seen anything so we stopped to eat lunch and look at the Bighorn Canyon. While eating our food, Missy saw a big horn sheep out the window. It walked across the road and scrambled down the near vertical canyon wall. We continued our drive north crossing the Montana border. Our first real find was a small band of big horn sheep. There were 5 or 6 of them right beside the road. Not much later we saw our first wild mustangs. In all, we saw 7 wild horses up close and personal. The only downside, Katelyn stepped on a cactus and was stuck by a few needles that went all the way through her shoes. She is fine now. All in all, the challenging drive was worth the effort.
We finished our day going to the rodeo capital of the world, Cody, Wyoming. We all had buffalo or Elk for dinner before going to the rodeo. Needless to say Lincoln, Landon and me all rode the bulls. I stayed on the longest.