We hiked twice in the Bighorn National Forest.
Once on the way to Glacier National Park and once on the way back.
We found both hikes using the trail.com app.
The first hike was at Circle Park.
It is pretty close to the interstate from Buffalo, WY. so it does not take long to get there.
The 5.6 mile loop we did had several lakes on it.
I almost fell in this pic.
I knew that was a possibility since I am clumsy but I thought it was worth the risk.
For the second hike we drove a little further in to the West Tensleep Trailhead.
We decided to take the trailhead to Helen Lake.
We did not really know how far it was but I thought it was just a few miles.
I try to keep these opinions to myself because I am a horrible judge of distance, as I found out over and over on this trip…
If you hike into the Cloud Peak Wilderness you have to register.
There is a place for that at the trailheads.
There is a water crossing.
We did not see a bridge and the place the horses cross was way too deep so this was our crossing.
This is me telling myself over and over “I do yoga, I got this, I will not fall”.
I really did not want Nick to get a picture of me falling.
I could not handle the whole “hiking to a lake somewhere ahead of us anymore” and decided to try and figure out the distance.
I used a folded up tissue to measure.
Eye balling it does not work for me…
I just stopped hiking and sat down to do this.
I figured Nick would notice eventually.
It ended up being over 11 miles round trip.
Helen Lake
We took a different trail back which added onto the miles and elevation climb.
I did not know about the elevation.
I would have chosen to go back the easier way!
This was supposed to be my easy hike after a lot of hard ones in Glacier, my poor legs had been told easy all morning.
I had a lot of moments where I thought we should turn back and that I had made a big mistake!
Like when they made me climb a little hill…
I think my biggest “maybe I made a bad choice” moment was when we were up here with a storm approaching and no sign of the trail down.
It did have beautiful views though.
And I felt like I was in a different world.
The wind was blowing in the storm and we were freezing so we were both REALLY happy to see the trail down!
We saw these deer on our drive out of the forest.
There were so many we did not even pause anymore when one of us would say “deer”.
Lighting at sunset.
This place is beautiful!
I definitely want to go back.
Maybe someday I will be able to hike to the top of Cloud Peak!
Of course I would probably have to start training now…
