Thursday, July 5, 2018

South Fork End Of The Lake - Part 1

During the other times we have lived in Cody we had bypassed the reservoir many times while heading to both the North Fork and Yellowstone National Park.
It was nice to see the water.
It's always nice to see the water.
But Buffalo Bill Reservoir always struck us as a bit of a barren place because there were few trees, and so we mostly bypassed it and instead focused on reaching the stunningly beautiful Shoshone National Forest and the Shoshone River that followed the path of the highway .
The South Fork section of the reservoir is not like that.
We had visited one place often over the years.
A place with a long dike that effectively divided this section of the lake into two pieces.
On this third (and likely final) return to Cody we found another entrance to the SF area of the lake.
A place with wide open views of the lake and surrounding mountains.
A place with endless supplies of drift wood and rocky shoreline, and endless places for humans and puppies to explore.
A place only two miles from our new house...............
The gravel driveway goes right down to the lake.
There is also a dike at this place, that not only leads to other sections of the lake (suitable for exploring and fishing) but also eventually leads hikers into the hills.
We have heard that it is all over-run with rattlesnakes at this time of year, and since we have been busy with moving we have elected to take those people at their word.
We're fine exploring down in THIS area for now..............
Every time we go out to the house to shuttle a truck load of small stuff before our big move on Friday (tomorrow) we stop here.
A place for puppy to happily run and for us to decompress.
On this day it was windy and cold, and the waves from the lake splashed noisily and violently into shore.
As I looked out over the mountains I suddenly realized that this place reminded me of Juneau.
The water.  The mountains.  The overcast skies.  The waves crashing into shore.  Even the rocky shore line.
It all reminded me of Alaska...................
Kory is so smart.
She already knows this place.
Already recognizes where we are going when we turn off the highway.
We have spots all over the area that our dog knows well.
When we head out the Greybull Highway to see the wild horses.
When we pull off the Greybull Highway to head into Oregon Basin.
When we wander into Red Lake just on the outskirts of town.
The River Walk.
Beck Lake.
And now here.
In the South Fork.
She is beginning to recognize it already and already loves it..............
A place where LC can launch his boat and where I can launch my kayak.................
A funny thing I have noticed already is that when I tell people we just bought a home down the South Fork, they always (invariably) want to know exactly WHERE down the South Fork.
It finally struck me after the second or third person had asked me the exact same question, that they were all asking the same thing.
A few more people and it finally struck me why.
They want to know how much money we have.
Are we simply well-to-do or are we Rich?
And if we're rich just How Rich?  
Capital H Capital R.
Because there is a whole lot of money in this town, and a whole lot of that money is down the South Fork.  
I didn't say it but I thought it the other day.
When a woman asked me the same question others have asked, she added "Do you have a ranch?  Do you have horses?"
I told her we just had a small home on an acre a few miles outside of town.
But what I thought was "No.  We don't have a ranch.  And we don't have horses.  But we've got a double wide and a dog.  Does THAT count?"
We are very lucky to have found this place.  
But we worked VERY hard to find it.
And these mountains and this lake are now ours.
I think that we will really like being here.
More pictures to follow...................

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