Wyoming – what a beautiful place!  And we only covered a tiny slice of the state… we’ve got plenty more to see.  Now what makes me a bit nervous is showing you a few of our locations – we think they are beautiful, but you may view them as desolate and lonely.  To each their own.

We spent a couple of fabulous days in Denver with our son and his fiancé.  We headed west on I-70 to Route 40 where we crossed Berthoud Pass, at about 11,000 feet, towards Wyoming.

One of the things about Wyoming is it is so freaking pretty.  If we stopped for every beautiful picture, we would never get anywhere.  And partly the problem is that cameras simply cannot capture the breadth and depth of what you are seeing.  Sorry to disappoint in the picture category here.

Karen found a boondocking site on Robbers Gulch Road in Baggs, WY.  Essentially, it is like a fire road – there is nothing out the road except some very random oil derricks, and very few of them.  But there was an abundance of open space, and no other people for miles.  Not a thing in sight, except for a few small power lines.  And us.

One of the interesting things about being out west is you can see weather coming towards you from many miles away.  Always a beautiful sight.

We continued our drive from Baggs towards Dubois, WY.  And once again we found ourselves on pristine, open roads watching beautiful Wyoming.

We were the only people on this 70-mph two-lane road when we see cars stopped ahead of us.  Dead stopped, people out on the road.

Turns out there are cowboys driving a cattle drive (you can’t make this up), with what we would guess to be 1,000 head of cattle, crossing the road.  You’ve got cowboys, state troopers and sheriffs blocking the road in either direction, for perhaps 45 minutes to an hour.  Cars off, people out enjoying the scene, practically a tailgating experience.

Apparently, ranches move their herds from the high country where the early summer grasses are the best, and then late summer start to drive them to lower elevations before colder weather sets in.  Rawhide!

And Karen caught a picture of John, Beth, Rip, Kayce, and Jimmy.

We continued on to Dubois, WY, with endless vistas and drop-dead gorgeous scenery.  And we stayed at a real campground – what grownups we are!  We stayed at Solitude Campground (doesn’t that sound right for us?), which had nice views but was seriously overpriced and quite frankly misrepresented from their advertising materials.

Dubois is a pretty cool little town, and you could definitely stay a few days here.  One of our tasks was to do laundry, so we went to the local laundry – you know, Laudromat and Carwash.

Speaking of things to do in town, there is the National Museum of Military Vehicles.  I know this sounds dry, but honestly, it is so well done.  If you are a veteran, it is free admission.  But either way, well worth whatever price of admission.

Having loaded our wash, I saw a number of overnight hikers standing around out front, so I went over to them and asked where they were hiking.  Turns out, Dubois is only about 20-25 miles off of the Continental Divide Trail, and they were hiking the entire trail from the Canadian border to the Mexican border, and were about two months into a roughly 5 month hike.

They had hitched a ride into Dubois to resupply, so we offered them a ride back out to the trail.  Off we go with a half-dozen hikers (and their gear).  We hope Tom and and his cohorts (can’t recall trail names) all make it safely the rest of the way!

Anyway, the views from our campsite were pretty cool.

Our last stop in Wyoming, at least on this part of the trip, was a stop at Grand Teton National Park.  Pictures don’t do it much justice – you just must go.  We stayed at the Gros Ventre park campground, which was excellent.

Next stop:  Idaho!