Quoted From A Fellow Traveler:

Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you smile. Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we should dance.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Bighorn Canyon Loop

Joyce wanted to take a "short" ride that ended up taking us over seven hours. But, it was an interesting ride that also took us over some beautiful mountain terrain.

Our first stop was the Heart Mountain Relocation Center located in Park County not far from Cody. This is the 2nd relocation we have visited, the first was in Arizona.
They also had a memorial at this site that honored the individuals from the camp that served our country during WWII.

The list of names of those that served the country that kept them behind barbed wire.
Heart Mountain was one of the relocation centers for the Japanese during WWII from 1942-1946.
Persons of Japanese American descent were given only a few day to depose of their land, property, and possessions. They were allowed to bring 100 pounds per person of what they could carry.
Some information about the complex.
Hospital building is to the left of the chimney.
The train tracks are still used today to carry freight, but the guard shack is gone.
The root cellars are on private property down by the railroad track.
This is what remains of the root cellar. I do not know what those things are on the top of the mound. They resemble small houses.
The children needed somewhere to swim so a swimming hole was constructed.
The site glass shows the area where the swimming hole was located.
The administrative offices where located in this area.
The support post for the offices are all that remains.
There was also a school as this was a small town behind barbed wire and guard towers.
The area of the school.
Information
The camp was like a small town with a fire, and police dept along with other facilities.
As viewed through the site glass.
The building were mainly just covered with tar paper on the walls and roof. This building was the hospital and looks like the exterior walls are covered with roofing shingles. Yet the roof is covered with tar paper.
Very little remains from the camp. This was the boiler room for supplying heat to camp buildings.
The camp will reopen in 2011 as a learning center. Some new buildings have been built to show how life was in the camp.
After leaving the camp, we continued on to the 2nd leg of our day trip.

The start of Big Horn Canyon loop from route 14A to route 14 and back to Cody.
See those mountains up there, that is where we are going.
Some information on the route we took.
More on the reconstruction.
As we traveled up into the clouds, we stopped for a look back at where we were.
Info on the Basin below.
A view from the road going up and up.
The Medicine Wheel at atop Big Horn Canyon is really something to see. Click on "Medicine Wheel" link for some interesting information.


This is the wheel at the top of Big Horn Canyon, it is located three miles up a dirt road then there's the walk from the parking lot which is a three mile round trip.
The center of the wheel.
The native Americans leave pray offerings hanging on the rope fence that surrounds the wheel.
The entire mountain is considered holy ground by the Indians so any offerings that are removed by the Park Service, must be placed within the rock on the mountain.
A section of the walk up to the wheel.
We departed the Medicine Wheel and as we continued our trip along the Canyon, we came to the Shell Falls. Man, there was so much to see along this Rt. 14A loop.
There are walks that take you to different sections of the gorge.

Different views of the gorge.

Joyce said we need more people in the pictures so it's me again, sorry.

There were two bikes with lisence plates I didn't recognize. While looking at the bike this big dude came over and we started talking. Him and his friend are from Czechoslovakia and are in the states for ninety days of riding. Wow, their BMW's were really showing the miles. They had stickers all over the bikes...even from some pizza place. He told me he was missing his wife and children. Have a safe ride my friend.
Tomorrow we head out from Cody. We will be back roading it to Devils Tower. Stay Tuned!

1 comment:

Vic said...

Awesome pictures!!!