Day 1 of Lupe’s 2018 Dingo Vacation to the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming & Beyond!
6-9-18 – Early afternoon found Lupe streaking across the border into Wyoming riding high in air-conditioned comfort upon her pile of gear, pillows and blankets. The G6, all shined up for the occasion, raced W on I-90. Oh, yeah! It was on! The glorious Summer of 2018 was officially underway!
Lupe was thrilled! After nearly 9 long months spent close to home in the Black Hills of South Dakota, it seemed like forever since she’d headed off to new adventures in faraway places. Yet the American Dingo clearly remembered exactly what Dingo Vacations are all about.
Furious barking, mostly – at least en route! Loopster eagerly scanned the fields along I-90 for the next herd of cows or horses she was rapidly bearing down upon. Barking at cows, horses, sheep, antelope, barns, outbuildings and suspicious haystacks is a joyous game that never gets old! The decibel level in the G6 seldom meets safety standards while in cattle country.
The first respite from the din came at the Moorcroft, WY rest area. Loop and SPHP both got out to stretch. Lupe sniffed about the grounds, which featured big, shady cottonwood trees. Sadly, no cows or horses were right here today, but SPHP read an interesting true story to Lupe about some mighty fine days long ago in the Old West when there had been plenty of cows in Moorcroft.
The Bighorn Mountains of N central Wyoming were Lupe’s destination for most of this first Dingo Vacation of 2018. The Bighorns are only a few hours from the Black Hills. Despite an afternoon start, Lupe would easily arrive by evening.
Even before getting to the Bighorns, though, Loopster had one quick peakbagging possibility SPHP wanted her to check out along the way. At Gillette, SPHP turned S on Hwy 59. Antelope Butte (5,073 ft.), a hill with 30 miles of isolation (minimum distance to a higher point) was only 6 or 7 miles S of I-90. Curiously, it was seldom climbed according to statistics on Peakbagger.com.
The map showed Antelope Butte was situated only a mile W of Hwy 59. A side road went to towers on top of it. If hardly anyone was getting to the summit of a hill so close to town with a road to it, access issues were likely. A long shot, perhaps, but maybe it was worth a short side trip to check it out? Lupe liked the notion that there might be antelopes.
Antelope Butte was easily spotted before Loop was even out of Gillette. It wasn’t anything too impressive, just a grassy hill with towers on it. Disappointingly, not a single antelope was in sight, either. The Carolina Dog would still climb it, though, if she could. Why not?
SPHP turned W on a promisingly located side road SE of Antelope Butte. A 0.5 mile drive past a couple of businesses brought Lupe to a locked gate. Looked like this was the right place, alright. It wouldn’t have taken Looper long to get to Antelope Butte and back from here. However, in addition to the locked gate there were other subtle hints that maybe it was best not to.
A lot of equipment was stacked around, apparently related to the energy industry. Lupe had passed some sort of Halliburton shop on the way in from Hwy 59. SPHP drove back to see if Lupe might be able to obtain permission to climb Antelope Butte.
Saturday afternoon. The Halliburton shop was closed. No one at all around. Posted signs weren’t the least bit encouraging. The gist of them was that if you weren’t an employee or officially invited, just go away. OK. Whatever. Antelope Butte wasn’t happening. Not today. Lupe and SPHP returned to I-90 and headed W.
3 hours later, Lupe was at the Sand Turn overlook along Hwy 14 on her way up into the Bighorn Mountains. Lupe could see the town of Dayton in the distance and a long way out onto the prairie.
At Burgess Junction SPHP veered S staying on Hwy 14. Another 9 or 10 miles brought Lupe to road construction at Prospect Creek. Here SPHP turned W on USFS Road No. 10.
No. 10 climbed steadily and wound around quite a bit. After a couple of miles, Lupe had her first look at Prospect Benchmark (9,774 ft.).
Even though Antelope Butte hadn’t worked out, Lupe was still going to get to log a peakbagging success on her first day of this Dingo Vacation. Prospect Benchmark looked like a snap!
So far, most of USFS Road No. 10 had been fairly rough. It deteriorated further as SPHP drove on. The last stretch of road leading to a cattle guard was deeply rutted, and would have been impassible if wet. Nevertheless, the G6 managed to make it up to a broad, gentle saddle 4 miles from Hwy 14.
After crossing the cattle guard, SPHP parked the G6 by a barbed wire fence. Prospect Benchmark was now only a ridiculously easy 0.33 mile away to the S. This was going to be cake!
Although the temperature had hit 95°F while traveling across the Wyoming plains on I-90, the evening was pleasantly cool way up here in the Bighorns as Lupe set off for Prospect Benchmark. (7:19 PM, 62°F) Loop started out following USFS Road No. 217, a simple dirt road which headed SW up a long, gentle incline.
Once beyond a large snowdrift, Lupe abandoned No. 217 near the road’s high point just N of the summit area. She scampered S up the remaining grassy slope to a partially broken down escarpment. A mere 5 or 10 foot scramble among the rocks brought Loop up onto the N edge of Prospect Benchmark’s vast, flat, barren summit area.
That had been easy! All Lupe had to do now was find the actual survey benchmark. A cairn of white rocks not too far away along the edge of the escarpment seemed like a logical place to begin. The Carolina Dog found nothing near the cairn, however, except a nice view back toward the saddle where the G6 was parked.
A check of the topo map showed that the survey benchmark ought to be located toward the SE end of Prospect Benchmark’s huge summit area. Loop and SPHP traveled SE along the escarpment forming the NE edge of the summit keeping a lookout for the benchmark.
Lupe found nothing of interest until she got close to the end. A 2nd cairn of white rocks sat perched upon a high spot right along the escarpment’s edge, but the survey benchmark wasn’t here, either.
However, Loop could see a metal rod sticking up from a smaller 3rd cairn 20 feet to the SW. That seemed promising! Lupe went to check it out.
Still nothing! Hmm.
The far SE end of the summit area was now quite close, so Lupe went to it. Again nice views, including a distant view of Cloud Peak (13,167 ft.), the highest mountain in the Bighorn Range, but no survey benchmark.
Lupe and SPHP wandered back toward the NW still looking for the benchmark. Even though the terrain was flat and exposed, if the survey benchmark really wasn’t somewhere close to this SE end, it was going to be hard to find. The summit area was just that big.
Maybe Lupe wasn’t going to be able to find the benchmark? Maybe it wasn’t even up here anymore? Even if it was, finding the benchmark might be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Then suddenly, there it was, right in the general vicinity shown on the topo map.
The benchmark was on exposed rock, which made it easy to spot. The marker was only 20 feet NW of the 3rd cairn Lupe had come to, the one with the metal rod sticking up out of it. A fair number of loose white rocks were nearby. SPHP used them to build a cairn. The largest rock had a stiff wire wrapped around it.
Well, that was that! SPHP congratulated Lupe on her now completely successful ascent of Prospect Benchmark (9,774 ft.). It was an easy start to her Dingo Vacation, but this was just the beginning.
At any rate, the sun wouldn’t be down for a little while yet. Lupe could spend this extra time exploring the area. Just for fun, the Carolina Dog and SPHP wandered 0.33 mile off to the W and SW. The temperature was dropping, but it was a pleasant trek on a beautiful evening with mostly clear skies and only a light SW breeze.
The sun sank toward the horizon. Time to head back to the G6. Lupe had fun sniffing and exploring along the way. She crossed snowbanks, and returned to Prospect Benchmark once more.
As Lupe’s adventures go, Prospect Benchmark had been a pretty short one – less than 2 hours, even including wandering off to the W. Loopster arrived back at the G6 still all corked up and full of Dingo energy. (End – 9:00 PM, 54°F)
As twilight faded, SPHP threw a tennis ball for Lupe to chase, then joined in the fun chasing her back and forth around the G6. As far as Lupe was concerned, this exciting game of chase was the highlight of the whole day! She got to show off how fast, agile, and tricky she is, while making a complete fool of SPHP.
Thankfully, it was getting dark. SPHP can only put up with so much abuse. Yet seeing Lupe having so much fun really was the best part of the day, a great finish to the first day of her 2018 summer adventures way up here in the beautiful Bighorn Mountains at almost 10,000 feet by Prospect Benchmark.
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