beyond the Buffalo Pasture, part 2

The weather was chilly and overcast, but with four hours to enjoy by ourselves, we decided to make the most of it. We took on the challenge of climbing the mountain in the background below. You also see it in this blog's banner above.
We parked next to the gate above and took the road which heads farther east toward our destination. This marks the eastern boundary of the buffalo pasture for the Hot Springs State Park, and the gate is at the end of Madette Road.
You can see in the photograph below the winding dirt road we hiked.

The dip in the road below was the point where we decided to leave it and take a direct route to our goal, the mountain on the right.




The ridge of rock which follows the ascent of the mountain can be seen above. We followed it as we climbed.

In the shot below, you can see Thermopolis in the background on the right.




The context of the close-up below is seen above.

The shot above looks toward the summit. The benchmark below is from that location. Note that it is called "BLACK BUTTE." Click on the photograph to enlarge it.

The above photograph looks west toward Thermopolis, and the one below is a zoom shot of Broadway Street, the street on which I was standing for the banner photograph at the top of each blog post. To see this banner photograph, click here, and then scroll down to the eighth photograph, the one with a self-portrait, of sorts.

Below is the view looking north from the summit.
We decided to descend the eastern side of the mountain, as the picture below illustrates.

the view looking north, halfway down the mountain:
berries from two different kinds of juniper bushes:

There were numerous homes like these at the bottom of the mountain:

a yucca plant:

We got back onto the dirt road upon which we had begun our hike and which curves around the mountain. This shot looks northeast.

the northeast side of the mountain:
the dirt road, looking northwest:





Along the road, we found this dead insect. My wife was excited to see it because of her first childhood encounter with it in New Mexico where it is called "child of the earth," a translation of its Spanish name, "nino de la tierra."

In just over three hours, we got back to the buffalo pasture gate.

See also beyond the Buffalo Pasture, part 5, part 4, part 3, part 1.

link: index to photographs