Southern Wyoming

We went to The National Historic Trails in Casper.  We "rode" in a covered wagon while it crossed the North Platte River.  The pioneers followed this river for a long ways.

The Trails Museum covers four trails that came through Casper.  One of the trails was the Oregon Trail.

They have a sample of the goods that families carried with them.  The stove probably got left on the side of the trail because it weighed too much.

The Mormon trail

A lot of the Mormons used hand carts like this one.

The California Trail

This is the route it took. 

And last but not least, The Pony Express. 

They rode in relay from St. Louis to Sacramento in ten days.

The express lasted only eighteen months because the train finally went cross country.  

This is a road sign from present day.  People like to follow the trails like people following the old Route 66.

You can see all of Casper from up there.

Then  we drove around the center of Cheyenne.  This is the first governor's mansion. Nobody lives here anymore; it's a museum now.

The Capitol

All around town are large cowboy boots all painted up differently. 

like this one

It's in front of the depot that has turned into a museum as well.

This horse is sculpted from tools and gears etc. to do with trains.

This is the big deal in western wear in this part of the country.  It's very expensive!

Your dad tried on a $150. cowboy hat.  Cute

This a steam engine that ran from Cheyenne to Ogden, Utah until the 50's.

Today we are in Lyman, Wy.  We drove up to Kemmerer to Fossil Butte.  It's supposed to be the site of the largest fish fossil area in the world.

They've found bird fossils as well.

This one is about the size of a chicken.

That white layer at the top is the fossil butte.

We walked up this trail.  And I mean up.

It looks rather like a desert from here.

It has lots of flowers like this Indian Paint Brush.

From about two thirds up you can see forever.

That little bitty white patch in the center of the photo is where we have to get to talk to an intern who is digging for fossils.

These are a couple that have been found at this site. 

Here's our intern.  She just graduated for U of Mich.

There is suppose to be a moose and her calf in the thicket of Aspens.  But all we saw was her scat.  Although we saw a kestrel and a flicker.

We climbed waaay up there.  We're almost back down to the car.  It was about two miles round trip.

 

We've had a good time so far.  In between Cheyenne and Lyman we stopped over in Rawlins.  There was nothing there we wanted to see or do, so we had a rest day. It was very relaxing. We were counting the days this morning and discovered we'd be home in three weeks from today.  Boy time has gone by fast. 

 

Well I guess that's all for tonight.  More later.

Love Mom and Dad