That picture is from the end of our 9 hour drive from Western Nebraska to Central Wyoming. Here's what it looked like at the beginning:
We enjoyed a great evening at our motel in Ogallala; clean rooms, comfortable beds and a pool that we all enjoyed! We at breakfast at Denny's and were on the road by 9:30 headed northwest to Wyoming.
Soon we passed Lake McConaughy and continued to follow the North Platte River.
The terrain got drier and rougher as we got closer to Scottsbluff, NE.
It thrilled the boys that we were by a well-used train track for much of the trip!
The only crops in this region are those well irrigated!
I think these are Courthouse and Jail Rocks.
I love my barns! I should do an out-takes post about the barns that I can't quite capture as we zoom by at 65 mph!
I think this is Bighorn Mountain.
Not long after leaving Scottsbluff, we entered Wyoming, but neither of us adults saw a sign or any indication! Next thing we knew, we were in Torrington on the Wyoming side of the border. Oh well!
Torrington is home to the Buffolo Bill Museum. Fun times! And then the view looked like this again:
Finally, mountains in the distance!
Did you know that Wyoming is the 9th largest state but has the fewest people? There are only 522,830 people in the entire state! (According to my 2010 Rand McNally atlas.)
Please don't laugh at my pathetic attempt at a panoramic picture! My camera has that setting, but I saved all of the pictures separately on accident, then put them together with a PicMonkey collage. While I love making collages in PicMonkey, this does NOT seem to be the way to make a panoramic shot!
We traveled north and west on Interstate 25 through Douglas and on to Casper. It's a cute little city with some picturesque beauty to it, but I wouldn't want to live there!
I love the huge clouds that came rolling in! I was totally expecting a downpour, but we only got a few drops.
You see a lot of these tiny houses and outbuildings. Some, like this one, are abandoned. I always wonder about them. Who would live here? Why did they leave?
We saw lots of antelope!
After Casper, we took 20/26 west to Shoshoni.
Isn't it just gorgeous?! I prefer a few more trees, but there is something quite breathtaking about the rugged beauty of Wyoming.
After Shoshoni, we went north for a few of the most exciting miles of our trip! We went by the Boysen Reservoir and along the Bighorn River, going right by the Wind River Indian Reservation and Guffy Peek, measuring 8046 feet.
It was beautiful! The river was in a gorge on our left and the mountains went way up on both sides.
We had fun going through some tunnels--I think it was the first time that the boys have been in a tunnel!
The train tunnel was a little more "rustic".
There's a glimpse of the Bighorn River!
Our day ended in Thermopolis, home of the world's largest mineral hot springs. Apparently it is quite the destination, as we had a hard time finding a room at a motel! We actually drove the length of Thermopolis three times!
My husband noticed when he filled the car up with gas that one of our tires was low. He filled it but discovered we had a leak! He put on our full-sized spare and we plan to get new tires after the weekend. We're so thankful he discovered it before it was flat and that we were at the end of a day's journey when it happened! God is good.
We went back through Thermopolis to find a place to eat. We decided on Pumpernick's which had several really good vegetarian dishes! I had a grown-up grilled cheese with chilis and tomato and a side of locally grown sauteed veggies. Yum!
Tomorrow: Yellowstone!
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