Lake De Smet

About five miles north of Buffalo, WY, and just off Interstate 90, is pretty Lake De Smet. For the reasonable fee of $10 a night, you can pick one of the many spots along or overlooking the lake.  (They also have $15 electric sites, but those are just in a row like an RV park.  How boring.)  We picked a spot with a view and I didn't care how much Ron had to do to level up.

Here's our view out the front window.

Unlike the lakes in New Mexico and Colorado, Wyoming's lakes are full to the brim.  We understand that isn't always the case, so it must be a good year.  We stayed there Saturday and Sunday nights and the place was packed with large groups on Saturday.  I love seeing the families having fun together and enjoying the outdoors.  The problems for me (Scrooge that I am) are the smoke from campfires (I'm allergic), fumes from generators (ditto), and loud music.  But we picked our spot carefully and everything was fine.  The people in the RV on that point of land in the picture even set off some pretty fancy fireworks for us to enjoy.

Buffalo is situated at the base of the Bighorn Mountains and the helpful gentleman in the visitors center suggested an interesting drive.  Following his directions, we drove about 20 miles south on SR 196, then turned west on Crazy Woman Road.  Yes, he had me at the name.

The flat scenery quickly became more colorful and interesting.

And soon we were headed up Crazy Woman Canyon on a one lane gravel road.  It was a bit of a challenge for Ron when we met a vehicle coming the other way, but again, it didn't bother me.

We were following the north fork of Crazy Woman Creek past some long ago (I hope) fallen rocks.

After quite a bit of climbing, we met US 16, a really, really nice road, especially in comparison.  We turned west and went as far as the 9666 ft. Powder River Pass before turning back.  The lupins were in glorious bloom.

We returned to Buffalo on US 16, stopping at a scenic overlook that lived up to its name. According to the sign, that's Bighorn Peak (12,324 ft) on the left and Darton Peak (12,275 ft) in the center.