Road Trip June 2026 - Wyoming - Part 2

In Sheridan, we stay at the historic Sheridan Inn and enjoy going to the Sam Mavrakis fishing pond. There are always birds and other interesting creatures to see. Whether or not I get any good photos is another question! 

On the way back to Five Springs, the Burgess Junction Visitor Center has a short hiking trail nearby with great spring flowers and, with luck, a few other creatures. 

We often see moose along this stretch of road, close enough to get a few acceptable photos.  

Back at Five Springs, the wind was still not cooperating but we held out hope and, in the meantime, drove further into Big Horn Canyon. On the Rangers Delight Trail, these sheep were pretty chill as we carefully approached for photos. 

This area is well known for wild horses and the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center is located in Lovell.  In all our trips here, we'd never seen them until now! These ones were fairly close to the road so we stopped and admired them. So beautiful! 

After finally giving up on the wind allowing Andrew to paraglide, we took one last short hike up Five Spring Canyon.

And got one last view of this colourful vista. 

Road Trip June 2026 - Wyoming - Part 1

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. 

Road Trip - June 2025 - Hiking near Five Springs

Weather permitting, Andrew paraglided in the morning and late afternoon as it can often get too windy by mid-day. This gives me time to do a workout and for us to meander elsewhere during the afternoons. 

We hiked the Stateline Trail which denotes the border between Montana and Wyoming and overlooks part of the Big Horn Canyon and Big Horn River. Thankfully, it's not a very long trail and we made quick time on it as it was very cold and windy that day and trying desperately to rain. 

Another day we discovered Cottonwood Canyon and checked out a few of the back roads in the area. 

The waterfall that was described as a highlight of the canyon was totally dry but you could see where it was supposed to be, pretty much centre of the photo. 

These cactus, and the lizard, were near a boat launch by the river. 

There was another spot along the highway towards Sheridan that Andrew wanted to check out and, after stopping for lunch at a nice viewpoint, we found lots of great flowers. 

And before we left, we also checked out Rainbow Canyon which was very nice! I just love this landscape and all the colors.

Andrew hiked a couple other trails close to the campground (including a new one we hadn't known about before) while I was working out. 

I managed to sneak a photo of this butterfly while Andrew was in the air flying one day.