Cloud Peak Wilderness

For the holiday weekend we decided to head up to the Bighorn Mountains in northern Wyoming for 3 days of camping, hiking, sleeping on the hard ground, and s’mores. For the hike we wanted to find a B-52 that crashed during World War 2, on a mountain that they later named Bomber Mountain. We didn’t quite make it up there (vastly underestimated the length of the hike…), but still enjoyed an awesome hike!

We lucked out and got one of the last spots in the West Tensleep Lake campground, which made me very happy as it was the closest one to the trailhead for our hike. Our campsite was just a few feet away from the lake, which made it even better! Sine we arrived in the late afternoon on Friday, we mostly readied our campsite, and made a quick trip into Tensleep, WY, to find some fire making supplies (I had no idea campfires were still allowed!!). A moose and her baby calf did make a quick appearance across the lake, which was a nice treat!

Our home for the weekend… REI Camp Dome 2 tent. A bit smaller than I was expecting, but perfectly cozy!

Saturday morning we woke up fairly early and set off in search of the plane crash. Mistake #1 is that we probably didn’t set out early enough! Right behind Mistake #2, which was not really knowing how to get there! Bomber Mountain is located in the Cloud Peak Wilderness area, and it did indeed live up to its wilderness name! Seeing other humans was a rarity!

Trail map for the Cloud Peak Wilderness area. We hiked on Trail “063,” which is also known as the Mistymoon Trail.

Whoops, we didn’t know we would have to cross Tensleep Creek! Luckily we found some logs to shimmy across! On the way back we were so tired we just walked through the creek, and filled our boots with water. Actually felt pretty good, like gel massaging insoles, LOL

I wanted my mountain bike so badly at this point!!!

I love these little alpine flowers, whatever they are!

Panoramic view from where we stopped for lunch. This lake didn’t have a name according to GPS, even though it was huge.

Another panoramic (the “Pano” app for iPhone is addicting). This lake was super deep, right from the edge! Therefore, we dubbed it “Lake Deepasshit” 😉

Mistymoon Trail meandering around Lake Deepasshit

Final photo during the hike. We didn’t get near Bomber Mountain, but I did manage to soak in the beautiful views!

Needless to say, 7 miles into the hike we called it quits. The day was dwindling away, and the elusive Bomber Mountain seemed to get further and further away, ironically. Matt was sad, but I was still really happy that we were able to do such an awesome hike! Next time we plan on backpacking in with a tent and supplies so we can camp at Mistymoon Lake (which was about a half mile from where we stopped hiking) and then head up the mountain.

In total, we did 14 killer miles in one day. It really beat up my body, and my hiking boots. I am very happy that I did the hike with some trekking poles, which saved my knees a lot! I’m not really sure I have ever walked 14 miles in one day at any other time in my life…

A sight for sore eyes, or well… urmm, sore legs after a 14 mile hike!

We brought the road bikes along thinking we would ride a bit of the Cloud Peak Skyway. That never happened… so I wish that we brought the mountain bikes instead. Gotta get a bit wiser about bike choice now, haha! All in all, a very nice weekend! I haven’t been camping in years, so it was fun to sleep in a tent again.