Thursday, September 1, 2016

Buffaloed

Sorry for the delay, Folks.  We've had a terrible time getting an internet connection.  We had a wonderful, relaxing time in Buffalo.  Almost every day we took a long walk somewhere.  Often it was at Heritage Park located east of town and very close to our RV park.  There are several acres of trails for off-leash dog walking. 

Located on what was the Bozeman Trail, in addition to beautiful views of the plains and Bighorn Mountains, there is a cabin built by settlers in the late 1800s. 


But the feature that got the most attention, at least from Colt and Rue, is the life-size statue of a bison bull.  When we first caught sight of it, Kota gave it a cursory glance and moved on to sniff for bunnies.  Colt and Rue, however, weren’t sure what it was.  I guess you could say they were both buffaloed.  They cautiously approached, noses working hard, until they were convinced it wasn’t real.  


Even on subsequent visits, Rue still needed to reassure herself that it was safe to be so close to something so big.  (And, after all, in previous years she had seen and barked at the real thing from the car window in Custer State Park.  A dog just can’t be too careful around something that big.)


Another of our walks was along Trail No. 107 below the Tie Hack Dam and Reservoir.  It is rated “easy to moderate,” and if that’s the case, we’ll probably opt for “easy” in the future.  After a walk along the shore to the dam, we got a view of Clear Creek below.


The walk down/up is a series of switchbacks, and at the bottom is the beautiful stream.  


We walked alongside it for perhaps a mile or mile-and-a-half, and around every bend was another breathtaking scene.


The guide said the trail “veers away from the creek and enters into an open meadow.”  However, the only veer we saw was almost straight up the rocky bank.  We climbed about half-way up, then decided a turn-around was in order.   What we think was the trail was very steep, and our three dogs were all carrying their packs, which made them pretty top-heavy.  We could just see one of them (or maybe one of us) tumbling down the bank and into the swift water below.  Maybe we missed the trail, but if we come this way again we’ll be better prepared for the “moderate” part of the trail. 



The dogs got a chance to get in some water time below the dam.  Then it was up the switch-backs and home for lunch.    


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