Here we are in Lander, Wyoming, at the Pronghorn Lodge. It is more of an auto court than lodge, but we have a room at the back away from the highway and it is clean and quiet.
We said goodbye to Denver and headed north to Wyoming.
Our first stop was in Loveland, Colorado - we liked the name and it had a Subway. The Debby & Ed Official Odyssey sandwich for this trip is the 6 inch sub - turkey breast, pepper-jack cheese, 12 grain bun, all the veggies, except onions and hot peppers, mustard, cut in half. Add 2 low fat yogurts and lunch for 2 is $6.14.
Wyoming, the Cowboy State, is famous for buffalo, Yellowstone Park, dude ranches, agriculture, coal, birthplace of Jackson Pollack and Dick Cheney. Wyoming's under 50-year old population is quickly declining. To entice people to stay and interest 20-somethings to move to the state, the government is offering cheap plots
of land if residents agree to live and work in the small towns for a set number of years.
We knew that this was the day that we would once again be wowing, oooing and aaaing over the scenery.
We drove the Scenic Byway Route 287 from Laramie to Rawlins and then the Chief Washakie Trail to Lander. Thousands of pioneers and first nations people have traveled these same Oregon, Mormon, California & Pony Express trails. If you close your eyes you can see the wagon trains and horses in the distant. The red rock granite hills, the rolling high plains and the empty landscape provides the perfect background to let the imagination go wild.
Once again the weather was a highlight of today's journey. We had enjoyed a beautiful sunny drive, and lunch stop. Around 2pm we could see the sky change as we drove further north. When the landscape is so open, you can literally see what the future will be. First we saw the black clouds, then we started seeing flashes of lightening. We were driving through the Great Divide Basin.
(The Great Divide Basin is the largest endorheic drainage basin of the Continental Divide of the Americas. The basin is between the Green River watershed on the west (drains to the Pacific Ocean/Gulf of California) and the Medicine Bow River watershed on the east (drains to the Atlantic Ocean/Gulf of Mexico).
The basin is a high desert dominated by sand dunes, bluffs and alkali flats. Flora and fauna include small trees in some ravines and the occasional shrub, along with many birds (e.g., sage grouse, pheasant) and pronghorn antelope, mule deer, feral horses, and the occasional elk. The basin includes uranium ore deposits and many oil and natural gas wells. Elevation, 6501 ft.)
Just as we came over the crest of the hill at the Continental Divide, the temperature dropped from 24C to 10.5 in a matter of minutes. First the rain came, then huge balls of hail. This only lasted about 3 or 4 minutes, but the velocity of the precipitation was enough to wash the bugs off the window and rinse 2 1/2 weeks of dust off the car. We were out of the foul weather just as fast as we had entered. The sun didn't come out again, but it was brighter for the remainder of the drive.
The drive from Denver to Lander is just about 600 km. We arrived in town in time for a walk down Main Street, 1 mile each way, then stopped at Tony's Pizza for dinner. Vegetarian Pizza and a pitcher of Bud Light. We stopped at Betty & Ken's for ice cream then back to the motel to check our email, write the blog, then crash. Tomorrow it is just a short trip, 372 km, to Yellowstone National Park, home of the famous Yogi Bear and his little buddy Boo Boo.