Day 27-July 2, 2013-To Casper, WY
Gorgeous weather again-85 and sunny.
Drove 188 miles in 4 hours all on I-25.
Didn’t leave ‘til after 11 but we didn’t have that far to go and it was all interstate driving. We drove through Wheatland which grows a lot of……wheat. All flat plains here. Then through Chugwater where there were rock outcroppings caused by wind and weather. The wind picked up here a little bit here but it didn’t last long. The terrain started to get greener and we started to see more ranches and farms. A few large ranches with grazing cattle and big trees near the homesteads. Better irrigation here, we’re near the Laramie River and later the North Platte River. Big cottonwood “forests” lining the banks of the rivers and more pastures than plains. This is called the high plains.
Drove past Douglas, WY, the original home of the jackalope, a taxidermist’s trick combining a jackrabbit and an antelope. More open ranges where we did see antelope playing (no deer, though). More gently rolling hills here too.
Casper is bigger than I thought, it’s the second largest city in WY and it’s the “hub” of the Oregon, California, Mormon and Pony Express trails. They all had a stake here because there is a pass over the Rockies that isn’t too difficult nearby. There are wagon train ruts and some footprints in the sandstone that have been preserved for over 100 years in a museum in town. We’re at Fort Caspar Campground and there actually is a fort here. The spelling of Casper changed because the a and e are so close that somebody made a mistake when telegraphing something back east. We met a nice woman, Cheryl, from West Palm Beach who is traveling with her chow dog, Badger and is camped next to us. Spent the afternoon exchanging stories and routes. She’s headed back home after seeing a lot of the Federal Parks.
Dinner was leftover ribs and burgers….just as good the second time around. Stays light out late, 9:30 and still some light in the sky, we must be far west in the time zone.