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I am writing this journal entry from the historic Old Faithful Inn built in the winter of 1903-1904. Everything is wooden, just as you would expect to find in an old log cabin. The inside lobby rises up five or six stories with a crow's nest at the very top. The Old Faithful geyser lies only a hundred yards or so from the inn. We're staying in a room that was clearly built before electricity was commonplace. It has a bathroom that is as large as the bedroom but has no shower - only an old-fashioned tub with feet. There is an electrical outlet in the bathroom and that is where I'm recharging all my gizmos (laptop, cell phone, and video camera). The room reminds me of days when I was a boy and my family would spend the night at someone's farmhouse. It's interesting but I wouldn't want to spend more than a couple nights here. I like my modern conveniences.
Our day started in Thermopolis on the way to the East entrance to Yellowstone. Before heading out and driving to Yellowstone we decided to call for park information and found out that the East entrance was closed. Oops! We had to drive thirty miles back the way we had just come and take another route through Grand Teton National Park and the Southern entrance to Yellowstone. Our mistake was fortunate, however, as we got to see in the daylight what we had driven through in total darkness the night before. We had driven through Wind River Canyon, a gorgeous Indian Reservation where the Wind River flows quickly through the rocks carving a spectacular canyon. We imagined that Indians were sitting on their pinto ponies at the top of each ridge. The top of the canyon revealed a large reservoir and a dam that controlled the water flow into the Wind River.
Central and Western Wyoming differ significantly from Southeastern Wyoming. Southeastern Wyoming has gently rolling hills and a few buttes. The fields roll on forever and everything looks like prime grazing lands for cattle and sheep. Central Wyoming has a myriad of rock and hill formations. The land is still used for cattle grazing but it's different than the rolling hills. It reminded me of the painted desert in Arizona but with more texture. Hills pop out of nowhere. There are more trees there than in the southeastern part of the state, probably because water seems much more abundant. It's a paradox - the land has more water (reservoirs are everywhere) and groves of trees exist wherever streams flow yet most of the land has tumbleweeds and sage brush and looks like desert. Most of the tree groves contain aspen trees that turn bright yellow in late September. The aspens are past peak now but still colorful. It's easy to imagine a western movie taking place there. "He's shooting from behind that rock, Hoss. Git down!"
Ann and I brought numerous books to read and a box of home-recorded videos to watch during the long boring miles that we were planning to drive. Somewhere in Colorado I realized that I had brought the wrong box of movies - the movies I really wished to watch were left at home. But we haven't read a book or watched a movie since the first day of our trip. The scenery in Wyoming is so spectacular that we were just content to stare and observe.
Driving north on Interstate 25 in Colorado from Pueblo to Ft. Collins (passing Colorado Springs and Denver), the Rocky Mountains are always to the west. But as you leave Ft. Collins and drive north to Cheyenne, the Rockies shift westward. We didn't catch up to the Rockies again until we reached western Wyoming, several hundred miles from Casper. Climbing into the mountains again seemed uneventful - climb a steep grade, drive through a valley, climb another grade, etc. At some point (Continued on page 2)
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