At a population of 4,400, Buffalo is one of the largest cities we have stayed in this year. Okay, that is stretching it a bit. We did stay in Denver, CO and just south of Oklahoma City, OK, which are large cities. We have also stayed in several smaller ones.

We drove up to Bighorn National Forest the day after we arrived in Buffalo, WY. The western edge of Bighorn National Forest is about 125 miles east of the eastern edge of Yellowstone National park. Fortunately, it was only about a half hour from Buffalo. There are northern and southern highways through the forest. The northern highway is route 14 through Ranchester, WY. We took the southern highway, route 16, through Buffalo, WY.

After the scenic runaway vehicle catcher, there is a pull-off about the national forest named Hospital Hill Interpretive Site. It has some beautiful mountains in the distance. When you try to photograph them with a phone, they look puny instead of majestic. These appear to be the Bighorn Mountain Range – Mather Peak East, Darton Peak, Bighorn Peak, and Loaf Mountain.

There are many scenic views along the road; there are more than you could photograph and publish in a lifetime.

Further up the road, we caught someone moose-spotting, so we pulled over to moose-stop too. The mother moose did not much appreciate it. The baby moose did not seem to care. (I wonder if Mother Moose lives in a shoe?)

A little further on, there is a pull off named Loaf Mountain Overlook Observation Site. I think the people that named the pull-offs were paid by the word. (If someone named me loaf mountain, I would avalanche all over them.)

At 9,666 feet, Powder Pass is the highest point on Route 16 in the Bighorn National Forest. The top of the pass has a stunning mountain view of Hesse Peak, Hazelton Pyramid, and Hazelton Peak.

Right before the Meadowlark Lake scenic areas, there was a pull-off recognizing firefighters that died in the line of duty and a plaque about the CCC company that built the dam that created Meadowlark Lake.

The last place we stopped was the North Cove Boating Site. (Clearly, the person that named this location did not get the memo that they were paid by the word.) The site was right down at the edge of the water at Meadowlark Lake. The lake was still mostly frozen over, and you could still see the snow mobile tracks across the lake. On a less scenic note, the tracks mostly went to and from the vault toilet.

On the way back out of the forest, we saw a few pronghorn antelope.