Sheridan is located in the eastern foothills of the Bighorn National Forest. On my drive from Thermopolis and Riverton to Sheridan, I drove through the National Forest and didn't think much of it.
Originally, I'll admit, the idea of spending time and going into the National Forest didn't pique my interest. Yuck, more woods. Then I did some research on the actual mountains and found out that Cloud Peak (Bighorn's largest summit - 32 miles SW of Sheridan) is the 98th tallest mountain in the US. Though that may not sound impressive (because who wants to boast the 98th of anything?!), the other 97 are mostly in Alaska or Colorado. If you take those states off, then Cloud Peak is like 20, and that's pretty cool.
So there I was, making the 3 hour roundtrip drive to see the mountains. I researched a place at the base of the mountains on the west side that looked cool and figured if nothing else, I would get to that place and snap some pictures. To go through the mountains from Sheridan, you either drive north then west, or south then west. The latter route I had done on my drive a couple of days ago, so I ventured north.
I was startled when I weaved my way up the summit and realized woods were not blocking my view down. From the high vantage point, everything looked flat below. Sheridan looked tiny. I could see for miles. Quite frankly, because I was so close to the Montana and South Dakota borders, I wonder if I could see some of those states as well.
Though parts of the drive had forest, the majority of the route’s main feature was not trees. Instead of blocked views, I could see everything and towering all around me were mountains. Rock formations that made me feel so small and boring compared to these spectacular landforms. I had no idea this was what was in the National Forest, I honestly thought it would just be a bunch of mountains covered in trees. What a fun surprise!
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