We left
Cheyenne around eight and within a few minutes we were into the dry lands.
We drove past
a fairly good sized wind farm right away. These hills and ridges seemed
especially suited to a wind farm.
We learned
that they have more prong horn antelope than people so we were on the lookout
for them.
Our first
stop was the rest stop with the Lincoln Memorial, at mile 323. This is a grand
place with many exhibits telling about the area. Some of the topics covered
were the railroad history, the animal life of the state, the cowboys such as
Butch Cassidy and the other attractions you could visit. We spent some time
there and then I went outside and took pictures of the Lincoln memorial.
Then we were
on our way again. All of Wyoming is over a mile high and it is actually high
dessert. At one point it was almost 9000 feet high. We drove past mile after mile of nothing. It is all brown, I guess I
should say tan, and there are no trees. There was some sagebrush and every now
and then you would see a bush.
The land had some rolling hills and every once
in awhile we would come to a geological formation of significance and perhaps
a large rock left by the glaciers.
The land is barren and no farming is being
done.
There was
mile after mile of fencing and I had to wonder if the fence was there to keep
animals inside the fence or was it to keep them off of the road? Were they there for the antelope or for the
cattle that might be there in the spring of the year?
Sometimes we
saw pumping oil well grasshoppers and once or twice we saw what might have been
a gas processing plant.
Driving along
you had to wonder why anyone would choose to live here.
Do you recall
the Burma Shave ads? The ones where there was a sign every mile or so. I don’t
but I was told about them.
Anyway there
is an oasis almost 2/3rd of the way across the state. They call the
spot Little America and the first sign telling you about it is at the one
hundred mile mark and there were many of them after that.
Of course we had to
stop there. Right in the middle of the dessert is this complex of stores and
restaurants and even a group of cabins to rent. There were playgrounds for the
children and a large truck stop and loads of parking. It is really quite an
amazing sight.
They had wonderful soft ice cream cones for fifty cents so of
course we had to have one. I expected a very small one and to my surprise it
was a very large one. The best 50 cent value of the entire holiday,
The day began
cool enough but before you knew it the gauge was showing 30 degrees. The miles
of dry, barren, lifeless countryside continues for most of the day.
Around
four o’clock we saw dark clouds begin to gather in the north . We could see
that it was trying to rain. In this part of the country they often get what is
called virga. The air is so dry and it
is so hot that the rain actually evaporates before it hits the ground. We could
see this happening in the distance.
But
before long we ran into actual rain. It rained very hard and there was thunder
and there was lightning. In fact it was so bad at times that it was difficult
to see the road.
By
now we were almost in Utah, and as we were leaving Wyoming another huge field
of Wind turbines appeared. So the state was punctuated with windmills, some at
the beginning of I 80 and others at the end of I80
The
next day was more of the same. Basically Wyoming and Utah are high dessert with
much brown and very little green. The altitude here ranges from 4 to 5.5
thousand feet.
But
Utah has water available in some spots and when they do they irrigate and that
really makes a difference.
Again
I have to emphasize that this view was from the I80 corridor and it may or may
not be representative of the entire state.
