Road trip. Is there any better place in the world to take a
road trip this time of year than Wyoming?
Recently, we
made two such trips and saw a bunch of wonderful sites in our great state. Two
things stood out:
First, I have rarely
seen the countryside as green as it is now this late in the year.
Second, for
the first time in a long time, you can see for a100 miles or more. There are no smoky horizons blocking views
because of California or Canadian fires. What a relief that is.
The book The Big Sky by Montana author A. B.
Guthrie Jr., was actually about the big sky in Wyoming, not Montana. The state of Montana was smart enough,
though, to grab that as one of their primary mottos. The Big Sky has never been
prettier than now here in the Cowboy State.
We took two
trips, both of which ended up out-of-state. The first one headed north. The
second headed south. Here are my observations:
Yellowstone
National Park is my favorite place on earth. I have probably visited our
country’s first national park 120 times. I just cannot get enough of it.
This first
national park is the main draw for tourists coming to Wyoming.
But, and this
is a big but: it probably is not a good idea for a Wyoming tourist to visit
there around noon during the July 4 holiday. Whew! We went through the park on
July 2 and there was a lot of traffic heading to and from the park and inside
the park.
We headed in
through the south gate, which involves waiting 12 minutes in line to get
through the Grand Teton Park entrance. Then you drive the Rockefeller Parkway.
Then you wait for miles with other vehicles to get into the Yellowstone
entrance. That wait took 31 minutes.
Can’t think of a nicer place to wait, but instead of being in Wyoming,
all the traffic made it feel more like Interstate 25 north of Denver.
Ran into a Mr.
and Mrs. Eisenheiner at the Old Faithful parking lot. They were riding a
motorcycle to Alaska. They had started in Los Angeles. Wow, what a ride. I
believe that the name Eisenheiner is German for “Iron Butt.”
On this trip,
we left Lander about 8 a.m. and took US Highway 287 north through the Wind
River Reservation. The gigantic Wind River Mountains were looming on our left
and were just awesome. Next comes
Dubois, one of the state’s prettiest little towns and it was jammed with
tourists.
From there, we
headed over Togwotee Pass, which tops out at about 9,600 feet near Brooks
Lake. As you head over the pass to
Jackson Hole, the spectacular Tetons are shining in the distance – a million
dollar view. As you descend into Jackson Hole, it is common to see a grizzly or
two, but not on this warm day.
This is one of
the most beautiful drives in the state and is just keeps getting better, the
closer you get to the national parks.
Then, on this day at least, it got a little crowded.
I was headed
to a meeting in Bozeman, MT, one of the fastest growing cities in the country
at 112,000 people.
My trip home
involved coming through Cody, Thermopolis, Shoshoni, and Riverton. Everything
is so green!
Our next road
trip involved heading to Montrose, CO by way of Rawlins and Baggs. Then over to
Denver to see my 95-year old mother and back home via Cheyenne, Laramie, and
Rawlins.
Wyoming is
famous for its wildlife. No other state in the lower 48 even comes close to the
antelope, deer, elk, moose, bear, coyote, and jackrabbit you see along our
roadways.
Some of the
biggest antelope herds in the state can be seen along the route we took. Not
sure we can call them wildlife, but the state’s biggest herd of wild horses
roams the Red Desert between Lander-Rawlins-Rock Springs-Pinedale areas.
Wildlife Worth
the Watching was a program used for many years to promote folks visiting
Wyoming to see actual wild animals actually in the wild. A great program.
We made the
mistake of taking Colorado’s Interstate 70 going east into Denver on a Sunday
afternoon. Spent an extra two hours jammed in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Horrible experience.
Cheyenne was
gearing up for Frontier Days, Laramie looked prosperous, as did Rawlins, as we
sailed though on our way home.
Great trips
but a little too purposeful for me. I prefer to travel slowly and stop and
visit folks and interesting places. Will do that on our next trip.
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