Bighorn National Forest - Travel Tips

A Travel Path Podcast

www.atravelpath.com

00:00 Introduction

00:38 What makes the Bighorn National Forest so special to you?

01:25 Who should go to the Bighorn National Forest?

01:52 How long should someone spend in the Bighorn National Forest?

03:24 Is there any lodging or campgrounds nearby?

05:18 What is the best time of year to visit the Bighorn National Forest?

06:47 Is the Bighorn National Forest pet/kid friendly?

08:00 Is there any nightlife in or near the Bighorn National Forest?

09:00 What are some of your favorite food places near the Bighorn National Forest?

10:00 What are three things to do in or around the Bighorn National Forest?

10:55 What are two complaints someone might have about the Bighorn National Forest?

11:30 Is there an RV/rig size limit?

11:58 What is one thing you cannot leave the Bighorn National Forest without doing?

13:04 What are a few items you always take with you while backpacking?

Linnea and Akela:

Linnea & Akela (linneaslife.com)

Linnea & Akela - YouTube

In case you missed it, take a listen to Part 1 where Linnea discussed her transition to van life and some of the precautions she takes as a solo female traveler. In today’s show, Linnea discusses all about the Bighorn National Forest located in Buffalo, Wyoming.

🗻Bighorn National Forest

Bighorn National Forest - Home (usda.gov)

BighornMountains.Com - Rodeos and Other Events Schedules

🍴Grocery/Diner

https://www.facebook.com/southsidebuffalowy/

Home - DJ's Grocery (djsgrocery.com)

🥾Hiking

Mistymoon Trail, Wyoming - 173 Reviews, Map | AllTrails

💧Water Filter

GravityWorks™ Gravity Water Filter System | Platypus®

🏕️Camping

iOverlander | Find your next destination

The Dyrt | Camping near me: Tent, RV sites, Glamping & Cabins

Free Camping Near You | Go Camping for Free! (freecampsites.net)

onX Maps: GPS Map App for Hunting, Hiking & Off-Roading

#podcast #travel #linneaandakela #vanlife #bighornnationalforest #wyoming

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Transcript from YouTube:

all right lanaa thank you for coming back on the travel tips segment of the podcast and joining hope and I how you doing today I'm doing well thank you guys for having me great so if in case anybody missed the first episode definitely take a look she told her story of how she went from Fitness Nutrition to doing that on the road and then eventually turning that into full-time van life she has an enormous audience on YouTube she's on all social media platforms so if you miss part one definitely check it out and part two travel tips we're talking about one particular destination so the name where are we talking about today we are talking about the big horn National Forest perfect now what makes this place so special to you why are we talking about it well actually this can get a little bit personal because when I was in high school my family did a backpacking trip actually in the Big Horn national forest and that was my first introduction so this area is um right near Buffalo Wyoming and so that was I I we loved that area and then a few years years ago Chris's bus broke down just south of that area I was like oh we're right near the Big Horns let's just hang out there for you know the rest of the month or whatever and so that was a really cool like reintroduction years and years later so yeah I'm very like attached to that area emotionally oh perfect now for the Big Horn national forest for someone who likes to do what who should go there anything outdoors so It's a Wonderful backpacking area It's a Wonderful fly fishing area and really just like Wildlife viewing is fantastic there too a lot of bears and a lot of moose and you can see some elk I believe I don't know if I ever saw elk actually a lot of deer yeah oh very nice now to get that full Big Horn National Forest experience I know you said that you've posted up there for a couple of months but if someone's just going to plan a trip there how long should they go for I would say at least three weeks so just like any area I think the longer that you're there the more that you really figure out the vibe you learn about the Hing gems from the locals and so I think three weeks is a great time because you have space to go and explore the national forest aspect of it where you can go and you can camp for free just like any national forest but then there are so many different Trail heads and so many different Alpine Lakes so even if you don't fish like insanely beautiful views of crystal clear Alpine Lakes anywhere you go and then the farther into the back country that you get the more expansive and um yeah just the more expansive views the more higher elevation the more dramatic mountains so if you're really into that you can kind of touch anything from just like hiking a few miles to go through you know you're flying a little bit or you can do like eight days in in the back country and just Summit some beautiful mountains or just do a cool loop and it it's an amazing Place nice sounds beautiful now if there's someone who maybe doesn't want to or the backpacking or Back Country intimidates them a little more you think they could still go and like you said do just a few miles to throw their line in is there a lot of campgrounds around or any lodging for anybody Yes actually there there are a few options for lodging and then there are a few campgrounds but just outside of those campgrounds are like national forests you know it's just like a BLM area where you can just park and be there for 14 days at a time and really from a lot of those areas you can even walk to Trail heads and I think there was a hike that we did that was maybe three miles in and you're at just a series of these gorgeous Alpine Lakes so it's really like all levels of of outdoor adventure and what's really cool about this area too is that I think because so many people are going to Other Des like so many people go to Teton so many people go to Yellowstone that it really draws a lot of the crowd away and so while you know at the peak season yes there are people there if you go in shoulder Seasons you're going to have Trails mostly to yourself you're not going to see many people and um you know even if let's say you do you know you do take three weeks to be there and you go looking for two days some of the other time can be actually just driving around going over the path visiting little mountain towns that are known for their ice cream shop or their coffee shop and so that's really fun too to get kind of the the lay of the entire area if you're not totally into the backc country space sure now you mentioned Yellowstone and Grand ton how far away are we talking from those two locations that's a really good question a few hours I think I don't know but it' be great like if you're in that road trip mode right you can make that a stop and you can go and you can enjoy some of that and then still be able to transition over do some of those bigger attractions and then also hit those small towns so I think it's perfect to talk about something that's not something everybody's heard of but allows them to stop and get just a different perspective of an outdoorsy dream for sure now you did touch on the seasons but what would you say is like the best months to go or when would you want to be there um I prefer fall and that's because of the bugs so like late summer or fall um because there is a lot of water up there of course and when you have standing water you typically have mosquitoes um typically late fall is a really or late summer early fall is a wonderful time to go because the temperature is perfect it's not super super hot like it's that at that time it's really good for Aila too she can be on trail all day and then the bugs are much much less so it's comfortable on all fronts oh yeah that's a really good point yeah not having bugs versus having bugs makes a huge difference in your experience now Wyoming gets cold in the winter time would you recommend not going there how cold does it get in the winter time in what in this area yeah I would recommend not going there um so when I mentioned buffalo buffalo is like the town right uh at the base of those mountains but to actually get into the national forest you're climbing a few thousand feet it's at least a 15 degree difference from the actual little town where you might restock or go to eat or whatever to like where you'll be adventuring so I would stay out of there for the dead of winter for sure good tip well that is good to know and you're obviously traveling with your dog so I know where you're going is pet friendly but do you feel like in this area pretty much anywhere you go is going to be pet friendly for you yes absolutely the entire National Forest Aila and I just did a weeklong so trip out there she was with me the whole time a lot of dogs are out there so yes very very dog friendly we even um had a place in town that we love to go eat and they loved our dogs going in they they had a back patio they would bring out water for the dogs the whole town is dog friendly it's fantastic perfect now you aren't traveling with kids but do you see a lot of families on these hikes or you know in some of these Trails sometimes I think the shorter ones yes yeah sometimes you know small small children in like the backpack carriers and whatnot um of course when I get really deep back there no probably SE a lot of people yeah it's definitely family friendly though um there's a spot that we would park and a lot of like our viers with families would be there for weekends and whatnot so yes very cool now aside from you know being in nature is there anything to do um nightlife wise like are we talking are there any restaurants in the area any bars yes a few it's a very small very small downtown but they um it's it was kind of fun in the summer they had a lot of like festivals going on there's like a rodeo in town and as far as restaurants they kind of have everything that you need uh my favorite place to go I believe was called the Southside Grill just good like bar food and um yeah I this might not matter to most people but having a really wonderful gas station is really nice so we had a really there's a really wonderful gas station there um where we would like hang out if we had to be in town overnight or if we wanted to like walk to go get a drink or whatever we could come back and sleep at the gas station which was super cool I think that's pretty much all of it though cool you mentioned that one spot that had really good um bar food but any other um breakfast lunch dinner spots you want to note uh I remember that there's a small Diner there as well that has great breakfast but I cannot remember the name but definitely the Southside Grill was awesome and then for groceries DJs is a really awesome little grocery spot um there's also some fancier restaurants that we went to that were really fantastic um but really you only have like one of each category like it's kind of just a main Street and like a few roads off of that that's pretty much it that's awesome it sounds like it's a great mix of you have the whole big horn National Forest where it's just Wilderness and it's an outdoor person's dream but at the same time you're close enough to civilization where you can you have restaurants gas stations all the Necessities absolutely yeah it's one of my favorite spots ever to be yeah we may have driven right by it and haven't heard of it but we definitely want to venture out there at some point maybe our next trip right awesome so we'll pivot to the final three questions the 321 countdown the podcast so what are three things to do in or around the Big Horn National Forest that we haven't talked about yet okay for a trail I highly suggest Misty Moon Lake Trail that's a really wonderful one it's pretty easy if you want to spend a night or two out there and then fly fishing basically any Creek that you can find and just to pay you back off of that they um if you're excited about fly fishing and you want to hike back a little bit most of their elpine lakes that are close to probably where people will be parking or camping are stocked with really beautiful trouts you can be catching brck trout you can be catching um tiger trout you can catch Cutthroat there's a lot of different variety out there that's pretty much it sounds like just backpacking just just enjoying the Wilderness in general that's right there that could be the answer to the last question actually but um what are two complaints they might not be complaints but that people just weren't prepared for about the Big Horn National Forest I would say bugs if you get there on the wrong season and you're spending a lot of time near water the bugs are going to be bad especially in the back country during like a muy season so I would say bugs and then two something that did surprise me if you care about your vehicle uh the climbing elevation to get up there it's just a lot on your vehicle if you're not used to that or if you have a really large rig you're really pulling a lot of weight up a pretty steep incline to get into the national forest and if you're towing something would is there like a limit you would recommend can big rigs get up there or is it just not very maneuverable they can they absolutely can um I don't know if it's just Wyoming people but there are big rigs in places that I didn't know big rigs could go so it's doable yeah great and one last question what is one thing you cannot leave the Big Horn National Forest without doing um you cannot leave there without backpack in you just can't do it because it's just so beautiful when you get into the Wilderness yeah I like that answer that's great that's funny so as far as wild life you had mentioned everything but elk you would seen there right I'm sure obviously elk yeah hang out there but yeah there have to be elk there I mean I met a lot of elk Hunters I just personally didn't lay my eyes on any while I was there um but a lot of moose and um elk scat and deer and fish and really good mushrooms actually too great mushroom hunting interesting we were just looking at mushrooms in a tree the other day and I was wondering can I eat this and we didn't because we don't have any idea but that's a do you bring like a field book with you or just the knowledge of having been in the outdoors for so long you know what's poisonous and what's not yeah I wish I knew more but I know a very very select few yeah so we actually uh we thought we were harvesting King bites and they were not um upon further research but that's okay we learned that they weren't now just because we did talk about backpacking a lot um and being in the back country what are a few items that like you definitely even if you're just going for like a day or two if you're doing a small trip like what are some items that you always take with you water purification always um one of my favorite things ever is a platypus um it's called it is a platypus it's the gravity Works platypus and it is uh the most fantastic water purifier I've ever used I spent a lot of my time using like a hand pump MSR water purifier that would like screw onto a NeNe but then I was introduced to the platypus a few years ago and it is so nice because all you have to do you take one side of the bag you scoop up the the labeled dirty bag with water four liters of water which is a ton of water and then it's just all gravity fed systems you hang in a tree the clean bag sets below it and it just in a half hour you have four liters of clean water so definitely the Platypus and then um a comfortable sleeping pad I spent many years of my life sleeping on a little foam pad and when I finally invested in a nice like actual like blow up little um like Camp pad it just your sleep it's so worth getting good sleep out there awesome all right so we got a couple Essentials in there and yeah tons of wildlife so we have have not seen a moose in our journey yet so maybe we'll head to Big Horn national forest and find one yeah yes do it yeah well thanks again lanaa for coming on again if you haven't seen part one lanaa she came on she talked about her entire journey I highly encourage you check that out I'll link everything in the show note descriptions below lanaa and Tequila thank you again thank you guys so much