Day 17-June 17, 2015-Cheyenne, WY-Buffalo, Botany and Beer
Cold last night, we needed the heat on, but it got up to 80 and the sun is strong.
We’re staying at Terry Bison Ranch Resort. It’s a working ranch with the second largest bison herd in the US (the largest is Ted Turner’s in Montana) with over 5000 head of bison, camels and emus. They have cabins, Senator’s Restaurant, Tombstone Cafe, Brass Buffalo Saloon, guided horseback rides, gift shop, banquet facilities, ATV tours, fishing, train rides and lots of things for kids. The ranch is 28,000 acres, 43 sq. miles and employs lots of people.
We opted for the Bison tour in the morning. We went down the hill from the campground to another part of the ranch which has a bunkhouse, catwalk above all sorts of animals, a breakfast restaurant, barns and stables. The bison tour is on a custom built train. One of the owners built the train and other trains on the property-he’s over 80 and over the years he’s built lots of sculptures and climb on equipment for the kids. The train went out into the ranch and at one point went into Colorado for about 3 minutes before turning back into Wyoming. We stopped at a herd of about 40 bison and fed them some kind of pellets the ranch provided. These buffalo weren’t part of the herd that’s raised for meat. Don’t know how they lucked out. There was one huge one and you could tell he was the boss man. There were eleven calves born this year. We could see our campground in the background and in back of that got a glimpse of the Rocky Mts. which are about 35 miles away. Back to the ranch we took a walk on the catwalk and saw goats, pigs, horses, llamas, donkeys, ostriches, camels and bunnies. Great view of the catwalk (also built by the same man). A lot of the ranch hands are living at the campground, one man I met has been here for 20 years with his family. There’s a resident squirrel, Toasty, who eats almonds out of your hand. And a cat, Killer, named because she’s a good birder. She followed me all around the ranch and wanted lots of loving. I found out she belonged to one of the ranch hands and stayed in his RV for about five years and then discovered the barns and ever since then decided she liked the barns better than the RV. Lots of scampering things in the barn to chase.
Packed a lunch, left the campground and found a do-it-yourself car wash before we went to Lion’s Park. There we found a lake with people fishing, ducks, geese, mini golf, regular golf, an amphitheater and picnic benches where we ate lunch. Across the street from the lake was the entrance to the Botanic Gardens. Here were beautiful gardens, roses, herbs, bonsai, orchids, perennials, trees, statues, a peace garden, community gardens, a solar heated and powered conservatory, water gardens and flowers we grew and loved in Connecticut-the lilacs were just blooming, as were the peonies, but the irises and daffodils were gone.
Drove through the historic section of Cheyenne, past the rodeo stadiums, the capitol building with its beautiful gold dome and statues all around it. Back in town we got on the free carriage ride through town with Belgium Draft horses Beaux and Pete and the drivers Steve and Jared. We went through town and learned about the early Wild West days of Cheyenne and how it got to be the capitol. Interesting fact-Cheyenne is the most populous city in Wyoming with 62,000 and Wyoming is the least populous of all the states-600,000 in the entire state. 10% of the population of Wyoming lives in Cheyenne. Walked through town, found the Freedom Edge Brewery and stopped in for a drink. They’re getting ready for the Brew Fest this week-end. There was going to be a gunslinger gun fight in town tonight but we decided not to wait-we knew how it ended anyway by looking at the grave markers in the town’s Boot Hill, part of the make believe town where the gunfight took place.
Got back to the campground and tried to make some more reservations for the days ahead. I must have called over a dozen places with no vacancies. One campground wanted $143.00 for one night-they must be nuts!!!! Finally settled on a place we’ve been before-not exactly where we wanted to go but it’s a nice place. Went to dinner at Senator’s Steak House on the ranch property. We had to have a bison burger while we’re here. We danced a bit to the two cowboys providing entertainment tonight and then back to the RV, where somebody was giving us a fireworks show. Lots of lightning in the sky and it rained for a bit. Getting cooler again, too.