Adventure in the Wind River Badlands

When we visited the National Bighorn Sheep Museum in Dubois, the director recommended that we visit the Badlands east of Dubois and hike the interpretive trail.  It was about 2.5 hours, and it was more than we bargained for.

We set out a local road north from Dubois, into the hinterland:

We found the trailhead with our GPS coordinates and started walking out across the plateau, with one last look back toward our Jeep and the Continental Divide in the background:

The plateau led to one of several promontories over Mason Draw.  Across the draw, to the north, were several formations.  The two prominent ones are limestone, which is why they haven't eroded as quickly as the surrounding sandstone.  The leftmost one is known as, "Joe Back's Throne," and the right one is known as, "Carcassonne":

Working our way down the steep cliff, we arrived in Mason Draw:

From this position, we got a dramatic 360 degree view of the Badlands.

Looking at the sandstone cliffs to the north, Kathy noticed a unique circular arch at the top:

Turning west along the north side of Mason Draw, we spotted this dramatic formation that reminded us of Egyptian constructs in the Valley of the Kings:

Soon after this, we lost our location on the nature guide.  Our trial disappeared.  The trail guide was ambiguous in its directions.  And the wooden posts marking each of the stops on the interpretive trail were missing.  We knew generally where we were, but we couldn't find the remaining stops on the guide.  We looked west toward Kestrel Rock.  However, we didn't know it was Kestrel Rock as we hiked.  We thought we were atop Kestrel Rock.

After perhaps a half hour of walking the terrain, we finally found a wooden post that matched a position described in the guide.  We worked backward from there and found "Balancing Rock," in the center in the photo below, beside a beautiful white sandstone pyramid:

Having found our place in the guide's description, we worked our way back across Mason Draw and could look back to the north across a geothermal formation and a hole of wet clay and sand called a "soaphole":

We climbed the drainage back up to our plateau and gazed across the landscape to the big, white clouds moving into the region, as they always do in the afternoon during the monsoon season in this region:

As we worked our way back to the Jeep, Kathy found two treasures -- a large piece of beautiful blue-white quartz and a bleached spinal bone from some unfortunate cow or other large mammal:

We decided to leave the treasure finds on posts near our trailhead.  Driving back in the Jeep, we spotted a high overlook giving us an expansive view of Horse Creek Valley to the north, where we munched our lunch sandwiches.

After the meal, we drove back down into Dubois to visit the National Bighorn Sheep Museum and the Dubois History Museum, giving us an interesting perspective on the natural and human history of this area.

Did you know that a "Tie Hack" is a worker who cuts lumber and shapes it into railroad ties?  We didn't, but it was a key thing we learned in this visit.  Expect more impossibly interesting factoids in a future blog.