Bighorn National Forest: Hazleton Peak

As usual the Bighorns did not disappoint today. I headed to an area of the forest I had not been to before, south of the Cloud Peak Wilderness on a seldom used Forest Service road. My destination for the day was Hazleton Peak, a roughly 10,000 foot peak that is not too often ascended. The climb up was pretty straightforward and I easily reached the summit. The return trip, however, was a bit more interesting.



On the descent I decided to take a shortcut and traverse a grassy bowl, cut through a wooded area and return to the old logging road near the bottom of the mountain. I got a bit disoriented on the way down though and was soon lost. I had no idea where I was. I started to feel a little bit nervous. I still had plenty of daylight though and using the sun’s position, I estimated the direction that I needed to follow. My estimate led me to an old logging road and I followed it for a while, paralleling a large meadow. After about a mile of following the road, I decided to take a peek at the meadow to see if there was a road there. To my great surprise the first thing I saw as I looked out onto the meadow was my blue Honda Civic. I guess I wasn’t as lost as I thought I was.