Monday, July 8, 2013

July 8, 2013 Sunlight Basin, Wyo and Cooke City, Montana

We left Cody and headed toward Yellowstone via Sunlight Basin. One of the prettiest places around Cody.

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Past the red butte toward Sunlight. The view from the top of Dead Indian pass.

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The Nez Pierce Indians escaped the calvary here. They knew the only pass over the mountains was here, they slipped over just before winter and the calvery could did not follow because of the winter conditions. The left an Indian who was to wounded to travel and the army killed him and called the pass Dead Indian pass. The road down is all switchbacks. Look at  what the GPS showed.

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Sunlight creek carves a very deep narrow canyon.  It has a 100 foot drop off to the Clarks Fork river.  Pilot and Index peaks.

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We passed into Montana. The bus camped at Coulter Forest service campground. Our kind of place, lots of room and quiet. No hook ups.

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They had enough signs to alert us to the grizzly bear activity in the area.  No tents, no soft sided campers. Grizzly bear tracks in the sidewalk.

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We were only two miles from Cooke City, the coolest small town in America.

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The historic general store in Cooke City. A miner outside the visitors center. Cooke city was founded when they discovered gold and other minerals in the area. There was a huge mill for processing the ore here. Currently they are still cleaning up the environmental mess the mine and mill left.

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Parts of the old stamp mill. John with a bear wearing an apron and Cooke cCty T shirt.

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John enjoying a local brew while I shopped. I found these fishing pole/wienie roasters, cowboy flashlights and switchblades. The owner of this roadside stand was concerned that I was taking photos so I could copy his work. I told him no, it was for my scrapbook- didn’t tell him I publish it on line. He said all this work is patented.

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Evening light in the campground. John is smoking a cigar to keep the mosquitos at bay.

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Sunset over the campground. A poem about Yellowstone in a visitors guide about traveling by Hans Christian Anderson.

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Lots of wild flowers blooming.

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More wild flowers.

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