On Friday we drove back through Rocky Mountain National Park to the north and headed into Wyoming. We found a lovely forest road camp spot near King Solomon Falls. Nearly as soon as we pulled into camp the Wonder Beast managed to find himself a full haunch of deer to gnaw on. This is no photographic evidence of this moment as I was a little grossed out. The camp spot was quiet and peaceful and a nice change up from the National Park. Rocky Mountain National Park had been fairly crowded on Thursday, but by Friday morning when we passed back through on the way out the crowds had at least doubled. We actually scratched our plans to do one more hike because of the crowds.
The next morning I drove back into town, at least as far as I needed to get some cell service so I could check on my Dad who lives in Redding and this was at the start of the large Carr fire. His area of town managed to stay safe throughout the fire, just smokey.
On the way into town I was waylaid by a large group of sheep that had decided to hang out on the main road, bleeting at passing cars. I also stopped in concern for an old sheep-dog that seemed to be wandering the road confusedly, far away from his sheep. I told the rancher further up the road about the dog, but he’d probably wandered home by that point. Poor old guy seemed plain tuckered out and looked like he’d waded through a mud trough. I hadn’t gotten too close to him because somewhere further down the road I’d seen a sign warning silly, concerned city-folk to not try to rescue sheep-dogs who could even become aggresive if you approached them, especially if their sheep were near. Luckily, I heard the sheep bleeting down the road before I had approached this guy. The other, sprier sheep-dogs that were still with the herd showed obvious disdain for us goof balls in cars that were too close to their sheep. One of them stopped in the middle of the road and peed on the tire of the car coming the opposite direction from me. I silently communicated to him that my car was harmless and did not require the same treatment. For whatever reason, he let my car be and wandered off to gather up more sheep.
When I got back to camp we had some breakfast and then hiked back to a small waterfall and swimming area. It seems to be a place not known to many people besides the locals. The hike was a fun little adventure with some ropes to assist with dragging yourself over some sketchier parts. I debated for a long time about actually dunking in the water, but never did. As soon as we got to the spot the clouds had rolled and the slight chill in the air made me chicken out. We stayed at the fun spot until it seemed like rain was coming and then headed back to camp. We had some cocktails and shared a fire with a nice family that was also camping out there.
