As we were heading down the back side of Dead Indian Pass I looked up at the sky wondering if the predicted rain was actually going to fall.
After two solid days of heavy rain in Cody the sky was in a seeming holding pattern of blue and sunshine.
But this was the mountains and I have learned over many adventure races over the years that the weather can change in a heart beat in the mountains.
When I think back over the years and remember races done in snow, ice, freezing rain, pouring rain, ugly-ass cold, high heat and humidity it does not even seem like I am that same person who slugged away for hours and days without stopping and without sleeping.
Who WAS that person??
Not me.
Surely...........
By this time we were deep into the mountains.
Deep into the Rockies.
And this is a magical place.
LC smiled broadly at me at one point and told me that he felt like he was 18 again.
Magical words in a magical place.
Pictures taken as we randomly but briefly pulled off black top and drove a mile or so down a dirt road.
Just to see what was there, but turning around again quickly because............well...........we were never gonna get to Cooke City at this rate..........
A small herd of deer grazing almost unnoticed on a hillside............
There were only a few homes in this section of the mountains.
A long way from civilization of any kind - no towns, no random country gas stations or convenience stores or little antique stores that continually dot the back roads of everywhere-Tennessee.
Between Cody proper and Cooke City there is absolutely nothing but the mountains..........
More deer on the move up the hill after they watched us pull the truck over to the side of the still-dirt road..........
Sunlight Creek Bridge.........
This bridge spans a huge and very deep gorge.
We pulled off the highway and parked the truck in a large parking area so that we could check the place out.
Leaving Jamie loudly protesting in the truck (princess had been in and out of the truck 20 times by that point in our trip) LC and I spent a long time here taking pictures of the very beautiful bridge, the surrounding mountain ranges and trying with only limited success to take pictures of the fast moving river at the bottom of the crazy-deep gorge.............
A very calm and unbelievably beautiful place so close to where we live.
I spent the day yesterday very glad to be doing exactly what I was doing...........
As we continued further we caught many glimpses of a huge grass-covered table top.
We saw it often and every time we turned one of the many hair-pin turns on the highway it looked a little different.
Eventually we again pulled off the highway.
The dirt road led to the base of the table top and also to this marker remembering a park ranger who served this area in the early part of the last century..........
We were preparing to leave the dirt driveway and continue further when LC looked over and saw this herd of deer grazing on one more hill side.
They are everywhere, and we have both commented on just how much game there actually is in Wyoming.
Deer, elk, antelope, bear and more are all abundant and we love that fact.........
Beautiful that never seemed to end...........
As I stood on the grass beside the highway looking out over the snow-covered mountains and abundant pine trees and quiet lake LC looked at me and smiled.
He told me that he remembers scenes like this when he was a child.
He was always enamored by the west and to him these scenes were quintessential Rocky Mountains.
He loved being here in this place.
I loved being here in this place.
My dog, my sweet trooper who spent 11 hours yesterday hopping in and out of the truck, loves anywhere we are..........
Increasing clouds but the weather continued to hold.
As we moved even further into the mountains we began to follow this jagged mountain, that seemed to follow us much as the earlier table top had followed us.
We began to climb yet again and moved into huge amounts of snow............
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