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

South Dakota

We went to the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, SD.  You go into the building and the dig is right there.  It was really great. 

They leave most of the bones in place so you can see the process.  They think the animals got trapped in a sink hole and died there. Sort of like the La Brea Tar Pits. 

This one is almost complete with only it's head missing.  They have found 60 mammoths so far, and they have only dug twenty or so feet down so far.

These people are from Earthwatch.  They volunteer to dig a couple of weeks in the summer.  Some even come every year.

They think the native people built homes using the bone of mammoths.  They've found similar buildings in Siberia.  Interesting

This is a copy of the baby mammoth that was found in Siberia. It's name is Lyluba ( I think.)

Later that day we drove to Wind Cave National Park.  We didn't go into the cave, but we did drive around for a while.  We saw tons of wildlife.

Like this herd of bison about a football field off the road.

We saw lots of pronghorn throughout the park.

One pronghorn was even licking the road; we think she was after the salt.

We drove on into Custer State Park.  It's on the same highway.  This is a herd of wild burros. This brave group was begging from the tourists.

They seem to like people.

This little girl had a handful of carrots and the gray one kept following her around.

We saw the Badlands National Park.  It's like a wall of stucco that runs a long way.  In fact the old timers called it the wall. 

From up high you can see for 25 miles.  This view is from the Cliff Shelf.  We walked up and back.  I think that it was a mile loop.

The shapes were weird.

Can you imagine coming up on this in a covered wagon?

We walked all but one trail here in the park.  It was six miles long one way.  No way.

You can see the stripes in the hills.  It is layers of sediment from an inland sea a looong time ago.

We visited an old sod house from 1913.  People the Browns lived on this property until 1960ish.

It's so lonely out here.  Your nearest neighbor must be miles away.

Prairie dogs are so cute, but they sure messed up a garden.

At least they had a lovely bathroom.  Haha

Back in the Badlands.

We saw a deer along the side of the road.  She had a radio collar on.

One of the trails had some fossils on display.

A view of the "wall."

This is what it looks like up close.  It is very hard.  People were walking on it and it didn't leave footprints.

We went into Wall, SD to the Wall Drug.  We had a burger in the café. 

They have a dinosaur that "feeds" every 12 minutes.

This the patio that has a fountain that kids can run through.  

The place is like a theme park in the middle of nowhere.  It's kind of kitchy.

More Prairie dogs

Too cute.  He's standing guard.

 

 

We are in Casper, WY today.  We'll be here for three days.  Tomorrow we have to do the boring things that must be done like laundry and grocery shopping.  Ugh.  But then we can go sight seeing.  Must go for now.

 

Love, Mom and Dad