Horse Creek Springs, Gas Hills, and Beyond…

I’ve wanted to find the source of Horse Creek Springs for fifteen or twenty years, and failed. After looking at Google Maps/Earth, I decided to give it another try.
So I drove out to the Dry Creek Road and followed the dirt road to the place where I couldn’t go any further (in the Nissan, anyway) and unloaded the Rokon. I rode the Rokon to a spot that LOOKED like HCS, but wasn’t. I’d have to look at Google Earth to figure it out, later that night.

I drove out Dry Creek Road west and came upon BLM road 2401-Beaver Rim Road, which piqued my interest. Nevertheless, I continued out Dry Creek, and returned to Casper via CR 211 and Powder River. The temperature had been pretty pleasant, but the moment I got to Powder River, it was very hot. It was fine so long as I kept the pickup moving.

The next weekend I tried again: this time I succeeded.

After visiting the spring (which is listed as a warm spring in one of the WGS pamphlets), I drove down the road to BLM 2401/Beaver Rim Road. It heads generally northwest and eventually connects with BLM 2404/Agate Flat Road. I turned North to connect with Beaver Rim Road again, and drove along the rim until I came to a road that bailed off into the Gas Hills. I drove west from there and couldn’t find a two track to Ore Road, and turned around, this time returning to Casper via CR 212 and Waltman.
The bottom of the Nissan was polished clean by the sagebrush I’d run over during the trip.

I skipped a couple weekends to attend a meeting of the Bighorn Basin Amateur Radio Club in Kirby which was excellent), and to meet a colleague for a camping trip (ugh-don’t even ask), but the next weekend I drove out to Gas Hills via Buck Camp Road (which turned into a two track, just my luck), then to the Gas Hills, up the road to the rim, and back onto Beaver Rim Road. I drove the twenty? miles to Ore Road, driving to Riverton to fuel up and have a chicken fried steak at the Trailhead restaurant, then Back home.

The next weekend, I drove to Castle Gardens, walked along the trail and took pictures