The Road to Casper

---

The theme for today is “no service”. When we are traveling, I use my phone to research the things we see, so that I can write intelligently about them, for my blog. But I was not able to do that today. For most of our drive to Casper, there was no service. In this day and age, with the technology we have available, how do these people survive without cell or internet on their phones? Or for that matter, do they even have cell phones? I guess they don’t. Well, we survived just fine for most of our lives without them, so if you don’t have one, you don’t miss it, I guess.

So, we left Winter Park at 8:10 this morning and a chilly 53 degrees. But we dressed in shorts knowing that when we arrived in Casper, WY it would be around 80, and it was. We drove west through Granby and turned north through the Arapaho National Forest. This is the road on which we had a close encounter with a moose a couple of years ago and followed him up the road as he trotted ahead of us. We didn’t see a moose today.

For the first hour or so, all we saw was trees and creeks and a rare house set back in the woods. Log cabins are very popular in this area of the world. They blend into the environment so well. The road was lined with fir and pine and lots of aspens, which look a lot like white birch, but have a thicker bark that does not peal off like that of the white birch.

Emerging from the forest, we found ourselves in a canyon following a river…the Colorado River, which ended for us at a dam. We passed many creeks, as the road signs told us. I wondered if they were tributaries of the Colorado River, but alas, no phone service to confirm. The topography was lush as we left most of the mountains behind and got back to rolling hills covered with lots of sage and yellow grass. And this soon gave way to farms and ranches, where there seems to be a local theme in that all buildings were pure white and all roofs were bright red. These farms looked so neat from the road, as they sat in the middle of grassy green fields with hardwood trees all around.

The prairies followed us into Wyoming. We saw a lot of field mice and prairie dogs running across the road in front of us. I was thinking perhaps they were warming themselves in the pavement, but who knows. There certainly were a lot of them. The prairie dogs are a lot smaller than I thought they would be, like only 2 pounds (I found this on a rare moment of connection) and not as fast running away from our car. The mice run like lightning.

All along our drive we saw miles of snow fences. For anyone who is not aware, these fences are designed to stop the drifting of snow. And this told us that snow was an real issue in this part of the country. On flat land, with winds blowing, it could create real problems for the roadways as well as the homes in the area.

We found that Wyoming reminded us a lot of Nevada. Much of the land was uninteresting and bland. But there were isolated areas where the there existed hills of brick red and tan, looking like strawberry ice cream with jimmies and whipped cream on the top. But these areas were few and wanting.

We arrived in Casper early and decided to investigate this waterfall we had read about…the Garden Creek Waterfall. To get to it, we had to drive up a mountainside along the proverbial switchbacks to get to the area where we could walk up a steep hill through the woods to get a look at it. I am posting photos and a video, if the blog will take it. After visiting this treasure hiding in the dense woods, we followed signs to the Hogadon Ski Area. The road took us to the top of the mountain and what a surprise to discover a ski area with the lodge on top of the mountain rather than at the bottom. So you drive to the top, park your car, ski down the slopes, and the chairlift takes you back to the lodge and to your car. Kind of upside down from what one usually sees and we felt it was worth noting it in the blog.

After this adventure, we made it to our hotel for the night. Tomorrow, we head for Idaho.

---