Hi Everyone,

We’ve been out of contact for a few days now so it’s time to catch up.  We left the Badlands on Friday and headed out to Buffalo (Wyoming that is :) for a quick layover going to our next destination.  As we entered Wyoming we caught our first peak at the higher mountain peaks; simply stunning! We stopped at a rest stop and inside there was a display about dinosaur archeology in this area (check it out kids!) The long trip has been challenging on my back; nobody should sit that long even for a healthy back! We were planning to go to Cody, WY  but our plans changed after meeting a nice family camped right next door to us.  He’s a physician in the Casper area and recommended some new spots for us to try out so our itinerary changed. 

We headed towards Kaycee and about 18 miles from there; after going through areas with flocks of Sandhill cranes and Pronghorn sheep, we found our camping spot.  It’s called the Hole in The Wall Campground and it is amazing!  We weren’t sure at first where to go because we couldn’t see anything but beautiful land all around us and no campers in sight.  It turns out that we were the only ones using the place so we set up camp and explored a bit.  We followed the directions and soon came through the Hole in The Wall Ranch (Paul Newman’s Camp for kids) and followed it through to the end of a gravel rd to a dirt road.  What we found was a canyon from the famed Hole in The Wall Canyon (as in Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid) called Outlaw Canyon in the middle fork of the Powder River.  It was incredible with a stream running through the base of it. There were several fishing access points to this area.  The further point was something I personally don’t want to experience again.  The road basically became pure dirt with rocks and major ruts and steep inclines; it was like being on a twisting turning amusement park ride; not what the doctor ordered for my back...   

We headed back to camp and began to get food ready for our meal.  Ron was relaxing after doing all the driving and I was on the other side of the camper cooking chicken on the grill.  I was going back and forth from the camper and grill and it felt so good to be out of the car stretching. Even with no one around you always have to be prepared for unexpected company to drop by which is what happened.  I was coming around the side of the camper to check out the chicken and our ‘guest’; a coyote, was there looking for a free meal!   I called out to Ron to come check him out before he took off from the campground.  After that we kept a closer eye on the chicken just in case any of his friends stopped by :) 

Later that evening a dog stopped by camp, a border collie that insisted that Ron play fetch with him.  We went for a walk down the road and he followed us as we spotted another dog and a man by his truck.  We figured this was the campground owner (Dale) and we were right.  We headed over to introduce ourselves and found him with a third dog who also insisted on playing fetch :)  From then on in the dogs often came by to visit... Dale was very nice and his campground is a gem of a find in this off the beaten path area.  When asked about the fee Dale referred us to a “donation’ box which is amazing and something Ron and I had never heard of before.  We had seen several horses in the pastures as we were driving into the campground and we found out they belonged to Dale.  They would soon be crazing in our area and we enjoyed their company as well... That evening there was a beautiful sunset  for us to admire and we relaxed for the night. 

The next day we woke up to a glorious sunrise and went over to explore the canyon area and found it to be incredibly beautiful.  When we got to the canyon area we were welcomed by the view of a deer on the top of the cliff!  We spent the day fishing and birding and roaming through the area.  Thankfully, I had poles with me to help keep my balance (thanks Bob they work great!!  At one point I couldn’t go any further so we set up a base camp by the water and Ron went further up stream to fish.  

We caught some nice fish, rainbows and browns. Apparently, there had been a couple of major floods in the area which killed hundreds of fish.  We saw evidence of the floods where the landscape had been washed out and new gullies had formed.  I’m glad we missed that!! We found falcon nest high up on the cliff.  There were 2 young in the nest and the parents were very busy going back and forth to feed them!! They were very entertaining for us to see and I enjoyed the show while Ron was upstream fishing and I was resting stream side.  That night we were both tired after a busy day so we enjoyed a quick meal and played with the dogs and horses and turned in early for the night. A lightning and thunderstorm came through at 10:00 which woke us up but thankfully it wasn’t a flooding rain.  We woke up early this morning and cleaned up the truck and camp ( a lot of red dust everywhere!) and are now in the Casper area where we are settled for several days.