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.

Original Ft. Bridger

(the wagon is an original thought to have passed by here 134 years ago)

Commanding Officer's Quarters

Bachelor Officer Quarters

Ft. Bridger

Judge Carter ran the trading post in the fort. This was the school building he built for his children to be educated (left). The building to the left of the school house is the bathing and laundry house.

Rock Spring, WY: Drove to Ft. Bridger this morning. It was much more than we expected. I thought we’d see a replica of the Ft. Bridger that Bridger and his partner built in 1843. It was built as an emigrant supply stop along the Oregon Trail, it was obtained by the Mormons in the 1850s, and then became a military outpost in 1858. It was also a stop on the Pony Express route. Must have been a busy place because it was right on the original route of the California, Oregon, Mormon, Pony Express and Overland Stage trails. I was sitting outside the museum waiting for Mike and met an older gentleman whose father emigrated from Greece. Ted is 90 years old and looks to be in his 60s. He worked with the CCC and built a lot of the bridges in Yellowstone, was in WWII in Italy and Africa. He was in charge of all the B24 mechanics during the war. He now lives in Honolulu but travels to Greece every year. In fact he’s traveled most of Europe and Africa. He was born in Wyoming.

After we toured the fort we were starving and stopped at a little café just outside the fort. They had homemade chicken noodle soup—even the noodles were home made. A cute little place and the soup was great. A beautiful day—mid-80s.

Flaming Gorge

Prong Horn hanging around campground

Sheep Creek Canyon

Rock Spring, WY: Woke up this morning to really high winds. The awning was taking a beating. Mike put it up. Just hung out today and watched the Olympics. Got really windy again in the afternoon. Mike had put the awning back out after the winds died down this morning, so he had to put it up again. The wind was really bad for a while. We’ve decided to extend for one more night here. We’re going to drive west of here to see Fort Bridger—about 60 miles west of here. Guess we’ll take 80 east towards Laramie tomorrow.

Flaming Gorge

Flaming Gorge

(gorge is 1700 ft. deep)

Flaming Gorge

Sheep Creek Canyon

Big Horn Sheep

Prong Horn

Wyoming Landscape

Wyoming Landscape

Rock Spring, WY: I’m so glad we had TV last night. We watched the Olympic opening ceremony at Beijing and it was spectacular. The Chinese people must be very proud of what they did. It was the most amazing thing—and all the people involved. Anyway, I’m glad we were able to see it.

We drove down to Flaming Gorge today and that was also spectacular. Most of it’s in Utah. We checked out a couple of campgrounds that are really nice also. They dammed up the Green River back in the 60s (I think) and created this fantastic lake/reservoir in this deep gorge. We took a side loop road through the Sheep Creek Canyon geologic area which had the most unusual rock formations. We saw big horn sheep there. Prong horns and big horn sheep were wandering through a campground we stopped at right on the rim of the canyon. 1700 feet down. Beautiful! We had lunch at Red Canyon Lodge and then continued around. A fantastic place. One of the guys at the campground had his camp chairs right on the edge of the canyon. Yikes! A beautiful day—81.

Commercial Campground

Commercial Campground

Commercial Campground

South Mineral NF Campground; Colorado

Dumont Lake NF Camground; Colorado

Dumont Lake NF Campground; Colorado


Freemont Lake NF Campground; Wyoming

Rock Spring, WY: Watched TV last night until I realized I hadn’t missed anything by not having it for a couple of months. Went back to reading my book. Up this morning and trying to decide whether or not we want to go out for breakfast. It’s really humid here also. We’re not used to the humidity. A couple pulled in next to us yesterday in their motor home pulling a trailer with a Harley on it. They’re on their way back from bike week at Sturgis. The motor home is an Alpha special edition (Mike thinks probably $1.2M) and the Harley is also a limited edition (Mike thinks probably $30K). Not the same old Sturgis. Nice people. They have a little black cocker spaniel.

Ok, here's one for you. Judging by the pictures above, would you rather stay in a full-service commercial campground, or a no-amenities national forest campground? This is why we prefer national forest campgrounds. A Corps of Engineers campground or State Park campground would be our first choice (they usually have water and electric), then national forest campground, then commercial. We use commercial campgrounds usually for one-nighters when traveling.

Freemont Lake Campground; Pinedale, WY

Half Moon Lake; Pinedale, WY

Thu, 8/7/08

Pinedale, WY, to Rock Spring, WY: Hated to leave this pretty campground. Went for a walk this morning and met a nice couple from Casper, WY. Beautiful morning—the lake is as smooth as glass and the vegetation smells so good. There are a lot of old growth pines and aspen in here. Really pretty. But we decided to go ahead and head south. We have a reservation at a KOA there for 4 days. Heading south we left the mountains and the area turned into a vast, flat, arid wasteland of sagebrush. Really desolate. And we followed the historic Oregon Trail for a while. When we got to Rock Spring there were some low buttes and hills, but still arid and dotted with sagebrush. Rock Spring sits at 6200 feet and has a population of 18,000. There is a herd of wild horses in what they call the red desert. There’s a drive you can take through the desert to see them. The KOA here is pretty big and not too bad. No trees, of course. All gravel sites. And we have TV for the first time since June. Didn’t miss much there. And the reason we stopped here was for the Flaming Gorge Recreation Area just south of here. Supposed to be pretty.