09-19-08 Friday (Gun Fight?)

Here’s some photos of the view from the campground in Casper, WY. I have to tell you that their dog walk was in a fenced area in sand. I felt like I was in a giant litter box, which of course it basically is. I looked to the sky for a giant cat poop scoop. Fortunately, none was found.

Should we downsize to this?

Departing Casper Wyoming was a drive chock full of beautiful scenery. The balance of mountains, trees, and streams were perfect. We stopped at a rest area and Jim took Dasher to the fenced dog run. I stood by the coach and viewed the scenery. Just then, a Wal-Mart truck pulled right beside our coach. Photo opportunity. I guess the caption is “We haven’t been to Wal-Mart lately, so they came to us.” As I snapped the photo, Jim called my cell phone for me to hurry over to the dog run with the camera. It looked like deer or something in the distance. It was hard to see and the binoculars weren’t conveniently located. Can anyone tell what they are?







Unfortunately I’m confusing the different routes and parks where we spotted different features so I’ve rewritten this entry several times and at last edit, I have left out specifics. Some of it was Boysen State Park and others were from Wind River Canyon.

We drove through Boysen State Park and marveled at its beauty. We encountered an interesting sight. In the distance, were cowboys and cowgirls, herding cattle on the side of the road. That was something I don’t see very often, or uh, never, so I scurried for the camera again.

Video Below

Even more beautiful countryside drenched our senses. (Wow, creative writing). We approached a sign that read “3 tunnels ahead”; I was able to get the camera out for the last one. Railroad tracks nestled the other side of the stream and had a tunnel of its own. Further down was a large lake which was man-made according to the sign but beautiful nonetheless. The entire view was postcard worthy. All of these roads had pull-offs for stopping or allowing people to pass or whatever. In our case, we used one as a place to stop for lunch. No Pilot gas station lunch, no moth in the mayo, just an awesome, relaxing lunch. We then drove through a tunnel, once again.

Tunnel Videos Below:

Closer to Yellowstone, was a really neat town called Thermopolis which boasted information and tours and such on the Hotsprings. Reading online I discovered the natural hotsprings provide 120 degree water which is cooled down and then provided to various spas and bathhouses in the area.

The last town before hitting Yellowstone was Cody. Cody seemed like a great place to sightsee. We’ll probably stop there on our departure from Yellowstone.


Here's a slideshow of the awesome scenery:


Before entering the Yellowstone guard gate, we saw about 6 cars parked with people looking over a guard rail with cameras and such. We figured something interesting is down below so we pulled the RV over and investigated. Apparently they were watching a Grisly that was now out of sight. We gave up and went on our way. We entered Yellowstone, paid $25 to enter. Eh gads. We were told we had 27 miles more before the campground. Internet and cell phone service at this point were non-existent except for a few spots we drove past. 27 miles of uphill climbing sure took a long time. On the way, we saw people doing a similar bear watching thing but we had no place for the RV to pull over. I was able to see a couple of beavers down below. I couldn’t take any pictures; hopefully we’ll see them again.

We reached the campsite (Fishing Bridge) and it barely fit the RV. The site isn’t really deep enough. We also have no internet and fear we might perish of boredom here. After we see Old Faithful, we’ll decide if it’s worth sticking around here. Sitting outside tonight revealed pretty scary sounds in the woods. Howling and roaring. Not very comforting. Later in the evening we heard what sounded like a gunshot. Guns are illegal here so we wondered if something has attacked and a Ranger put it down?