Cloud Peak!!

This last Monday and Tuesday, Maria and I and our good IWU friend Paul Kind had the privledge of taking a quick trip to the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming. We went to climb Cloud Peak, which is the highest mountain in the Bighorn Range at just over 13,000 ft. It was by far the hardest two day hike Maria or I have ever attemped.

The first day we drove from Rapid to the trail head, around a 4 1/2 hour drive and then hiked the 8 or so miles to the place where we set up camp that night. It was a chilly night, probably around 10-15 degrees or so. We woke up early on Tuesday to hike the final four miles to the summit. The final four miles however proved to be about the hardest four miles I have ever hiked. We gained about 3000 ft. of elevation in those miles and the final 3 miles were all spent hopping across boulder fields. No nice trails or switchbacks to climb this mountain, just lots of boulders and hopping from one to another. All in all Paul was actually the only one to make it to the summit, Maria and I stopped around 200 ft. or so from the summit. There are good reasons for this and you can ask us sometime, but for now we will just leave it at that. We then turned and headed back down the four miles to where we had set up camp the night before, and then back the 8 miles to the parking lot, and then drove the 4+ hours back to Rapid to complete the trip. It was a crazy good time and will prove, I think, to provide some great memories for the rest of our lives. The scenery was awe inspiring and the conversations with Paul (and also with the hitch hiker we picked up) were charitable and thought provoking. Even more to be able to share this adventure with my wife is a treasure I cannot express in words!! I have included more pictures here for you to check out.

Blessings,

NL