We arrived at our final destination of Five Springs Campground near Lovell, Wyoming, where Andrew likes to paraglide. I love the terrain around here with the variety of colours, the mountains and looking out onto the flatlands.
This notch in the distant ridge is a unique feature called a superimposition.
"It refers to the Bighorn River cutting directly across the apex of the Sheep Mountain Anticline...effectively slicing the mountain in two. Millions of years ago, a meandering river established its path across a flat landscape. As regional uplift pushed the massive Sheep Mountain Anticline upward from deep below, the river maintained its original course, acting like a saw cutting through the rising rock. The river carved a steep, ~2,000-foot-wide gorge directly through the center of the anticline." (Nevada Bureau of Mining and Geology)
There were a lot of cow pies in the paragliding launch area. Luckily they weren't fresh so we were able to move them fairly easily using sticks and rocks. Good use of time while we waited and hoped the wind would cooperate. It was totally the wrong direction and quite strong.
In the meantime, there are lots of short hikes in the area to keep us occupied. Rainbow Canyon is one of my favourites. Again, I love the varied colours.
Cottonwood Canyon is another favourite.
With the wind forecasted to continue to be too strong and wrong direction for paragliding, we decided to take a couple days and drive around to the other end of the Big Horn mountains, a route we hadn't been before. Ten Sleep is a well known rock climbing area and with these beautiful spires so close to the road, you can see why.
A little further along, we hiked up to a fire lookout tower where we could see some of the higher peaks in the area, including Cloud Peak at 13,000+ feet.
It was definitely full-on lupine season. So many of these colourful flowers to be seen.
Tie Hack Lake was a great lunch spot and the butterflies liked it too.
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