Hot, hot, hot

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Geo: 43.6461, -108.211

Day 5

We got an early start out of Brighton, heading north on I-25 toward Cheyenne. We stopped briefly in Fort Collins as I had never been there. We took a quick tour of the Colorado State campus, stopped at Starbucks in the historic district and were on our way again.

Weather was ugly. In the 30s and raining. It let up a little when we hit Cheyenne, so we headed to the Cheyenne Frontier Days Museum. Took some photos of the bronzes outdoors, hit the gift shop but didn't take time to tour the museum, although it was open on Sunday morning. It seems Cheyenne must have had a cowboy boot charity event, similar to the cows in Chicago. They were all over town, painted creatively. I took photos of 6-8 to use for scrapbooking. We toured the historic district, took a photo of the capitol building and got out of Dodge, I mean, Cheyenne.

We headed west on I-80 to Larimer, across the plains and passed those big contemporary white wind mills. As the elevation climbed, the temperatures dropped and the weather turned nasty. First sleet. Then snow. On June 13!!! It only last 20 minutes or so … but really.

We pulled off at Larimer to see the University of Wyoming campus. We had had a tour guide years ago in Barrow, Alaska who grew up on the tundra and without any trees inside the Arctic Circle. He claimed he only stayed one year at the University of Wyoming because there were too many trees. Hardly the case, but that was his story.

We headed west again on I-80. AAA has marked this road as scenic, but with the exception of a few outcroppings, this road was not. We pulled off at Rawlins for a not-so-yummy lunch at McDonald's (him) and Taco Bell (her). We might get recruited to be the poster children for fast food. Noteworthy here were the sea gulls on the parking lot. What's up with that?

From Rawlins, we took CO-789 north, marked as scenic from Muddy Gap through Lander to Thermopolis, but only the Boysen Reservoir along Wind River was remarkable. And our enjoyment of that lovely area was marred by mist and fog.

Thermopolis was our next stop where I insisted on visiting the Hot Springs State Park. It was quaint and interesting but hard to envision as a destination. The thermal waters truly were steamy and VERY hot to the touch. Took a few photos of the springs and Round Top Mountain and head north on CO-120 to Cody.

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