Bighorns

I'm on a trip in Wyoming visiting a few fires that burned last year. The Bone Creek and Little Goose fires burned in July/August last summer and provided a good field recon opportunity. Plus, Sheridan, WY, is the home of my Dept. of Interior counterpart, so we're having a great time.

This is my first trip to the Bighorns (sorry for the stock photos; I don't have a card reader here and can't upload my photos yet). This place is great. In Utah, I'm used to gamble oak, PJ, and sagebrush in areas not taken over by trees. Here, on the north-eastern side of the range, they have grass (gasp!) and coniferous trees. No PJ. No oak. Sagebrush in areas possibly overgrazed by cattle. It's beautiful.

We had a great look at the range, the trees, and open grass meadows yesterday as we pretty much drove from Sheridan to Shell. Today we visit the Trail Creek fire, a range fire that will provide the most insight for us. We sometimes struggle with mapping the severity of rangeland fires and seeing the effects on the ground will help alot.

I've got a tee time with 4 of the guys on the trip tonight at The Powder Horn. Should be fun.