Cloud Peak Wilderness, Big Horn Mtns. Trip

[Shawn Ryan]

Just sharing some photos from an annual trip with my brother and friends.  Great fishing and incredible country.

[Timberstalker]

Wow, amazing country for sure.
Did you see much in the line of game?

[Shawn Ryan]

Four moose in the beaver ponds at the trail head and a herd of about 40 elk in the tundra.  Spent most of our time very high, above most big game habitat.  Plenty of elk sign in the sub-alpine country.

[denali]

Looks like fun , nice pics

[Shawn Ryan]

Wow, amazing country for sure.
Did you see much in the line of game?

And many big whitetail bucks in the alfalfa fields near Big Horn on the drive in.

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[Bean Counter]

Outstanding! I got a deer not too far from there a few years ago 

[Timberstalker]

About how many miles did you cover, round trip?

[DOUBLELUNG]

Thanks for the memories!  I lived in Buffalo 1991-1993 and spent many wonderful days up there. 

[Shawn Ryan]

Timberstalker, maybe 35 or so. Lots of excursions to lakes to fish; moved camp every day.

Doublelung, what a great place to live. We initially looked at Ten Sleep, but decided against packing out our human waste. My friends stayed an extra day to do some rock climbing in Ten Sleep Canyon. We also looked at the Highland Park area, but the "road" is impassable to 4x4 pickups for about 20 miles before it reaches the Wilderness according to locals. Is that accurate? We certainly noticed that the USFS roads were far worse than in WA.

BC, we were astounded at the number and size of bucks. Was that your experience?

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[Bean Counter]

BC, we were astounded at the number and size of bucks. Was that your experience?

I think they're going to be more concentrated up there at this time of year with the summer heat and easy migration corridors down into the Sheridan valley below. I doubt I saw as many as you and we never entered the wilderness as we were hunting and refused  to fund the guide industry extortion racket.

 It was definitely beautiful country and I can think of far worse places to hunt or even just hike around and photograph for a week as you guys did. That said I probably wont return there for deer. Concentrations are definitely higher in the valley below and we easily saw as many moose and elk as we did deer in in da Bighorns. We were mainly up there for the public land and because I had some dumb, bull nosed idea that I was going to kill something in the famed "BIGHORN MOUNTAINS" dadnamit.       I'm an even luckier brown noser and schmoozer than a hunter as we hit it off with a landowner and he's brought us to his place for the past few years no charge 

We ran into a biologist who confirmed our population survey in the Bighorns . They weren't even really interested in how the deer are doing in the mountains and were really hot and bothered about brucellocis (sic?) in the elk for risk of transmission to the domestic cattle population. I definitely wont be burning my WY elk points there. Saw some decent bulls but nothing that compares to down in my parts of Arizona and New Mexico.

[Shawn Ryan]

Thanks. Great photos. Nothing wrong with making friends in great places who invite you back!

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[Bean Counter]

[jkthomps]

This is great! Thanks for sharing!

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[DOUBLELUNG]

Timberstalker, maybe 35 or so. Lots of excursions to lakes to fish; moved camp every day.

Doublelung, what a great place to live. We initially looked at Ten Sleep, but decided against packing out our human waste. My friends stayed an extra day to do some rock climbing in Ten Sleep Canyon. We also looked at the Highland Park area, but the "road" is impassable to 4x4 pickups for about 20 miles before it reaches the Wilderness according to locals. Is that accurate? We certainly noticed that the USFS roads were far worse than in WA.

BC, we were astounded at the number and size of bucks. Was that your experience?

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When I lived there the deer density was insanely high - I think you could buy 10 doe tags, but I never killed more than four in a year (plus 6 pronghorn).  The Bighorns are noted for producing lots of nice, symmetrical 22-24" wide 4x4s, really big bucks aren't too common but they are there.  I couldn't tell you what the status of the Highland Park road is or was, but I can say that when I moved to WA I was amazed by how nice the USFS roads are compared to Wyoming!  There was one "impassible" road about 10 miles from an area I worked in frequently, but I figured out that if I hit the rock on the left with enough speed with the left front, the front tires would levitate enough to catch the rim at the top of the big rock that otherwise was a barrier, and as long as I kept the speed up and put the left rear on the same rock, I could clear the big one without hitting the differentials or drive line.  Definitely impassible to any vehicle I owned, but passable with a government rig ... tough on rocker panels but doable

[Shawn Ryan]

That is too funny about the truck and the road.

Where the deer mostly whitetail or mulies? The alfalfa deer we saw were whitetail.

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