Cheyenne Train Station (1860s)

State Capitol

Cheyenne, WY: Went into Cheyenne late morning. Parked at the train station and had lunch at the restaurant there. It’s a beautiful, restored station. After lunch we took their little trolley around on a tour. Started storming just as we got through the tour. Came back and kicked back the rest of the day. Leave tomorrow for somewhere in Nebraska.

Area around Cheyenne

Just east of Laramie

Glacial Lake up at Snowy Pass

Hancock Lake--the NF campground we almost stayed at

Medicine Bow National Forest
(that white stuff is snow)

Wyoming Territorial Prison (1872)

Butch Cassidy's Mug Shot

Cheyenne, WY: Drove back to Laramie and up into the Medicine Bow Mountains and the Medicine Bow National Forest. Pretty drive up over Snowy Pass at 10,800 ft or so. We left Cheyenne and it was 80. Up on the pass it was 59. A beautifully forested area of pines, firs, and spruce dotted with alpine meadows full of wild flowers and lots of glacial lakes. We were going to stay at one of the campgrounds up there—Brooklyn Lake. Thankfully we didn’t since it’s way back on a dirt road and there was snow up there. Back down to Laramie and we toured the historic Territorial Prison there. Butch Cassidy was incarcerated there for a couple of years. We stopped for lunch at the little town of Centennial (100 people)—at a little place called the Beartooth Saloon. Unlike the name, it was an artsy little café. And great food.

Wyoming landscape

Snow fences everywhere along I80

Rock Spring, WY to Cheyenne, WY: Today we drove from Rock Spring to Cheyenne. Interesting landscape along Rt. 80. Rolling hills covered with sagebrush gave way to sagebrush flats and lots of gas wells and oil wells in one stretch. Not real pretty there, but all that gave way to a vast emptiness of rolling hills which was really quite pretty with the absence of any humanoids. Vast ranches that stretched for miles. Saw a couple of guys on horseback rounding up some cattle. After Laramie we climbed up into some mountains in the Medicine Bow National Forest. Very pretty—reminded me of the Black Hills. We’re staying just south of Cheyenne. Cheyenne is situated on a high short-grass prairie. Snow fences are everywhere along Rt. 80. Winters must be awful here. But summer is great—70s to 80s with low humidity, and 40s and 50s at night. Perfect. We’re going to explore tomorrow.