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Time to hit the road again, heading north, first stop tonight is Riverton Wyoming.
Leaving Denver Betty took us through a less than impressive part of town and yes, I know all cities have them :-( there were a number of shelters just letting the homeless out onto the streets. Only one seemed a total crazy standing in the middle of the road going off, haranguing passing motorists & the world in general. We had previously noted that the homeless here were generally proactive in their attempts to get money, most had a guitar or other instruments like buckets or whatever & they busked vs other places where they simply begged.
Once out of the city we passed lush green pasture & cultivated fields; corn, lettuce and other crops. The mountains to the west were our constant companions, heavy with dark clouds, it would seem the weather there was far different to the sunny skies we travelled under. There were a lot of what looked to be small privately owned oil derricks same as the ones we saw in California. There were also a number of much larger ones in more concentrated numbers all beavering away dragging oil up.
We passed exits with names that brought to mind the old west movies like Laramie, Cheyenne and Medicine Bow. There were signs and barrier arms (unused) relating to road closures due to snow, hard to envisage on such a lovely sunny day.
The closer we got to the Wyoming boarder the more we started seeing cattle & horses grazing in lush green paddocks, even the odd herd of llamas. There's a large metal sculpture of a buffalo high on the hill and not far down the road a paddock full of live buffalo, awesome sight :-) Rolling along in Wyoming there were more oil derricks by the road, some with a massive wind farm as their backdrop, the flat plains giving way to gentle rolling hills. The paddocks here were mostly populated by cattle & deer. It's still a mystery to us why there's no sheep....more importantly, specially for Pete, why there's no lamb available!
We saw a cop with a victim pulled over and then as we pulled back onto the highway after stopping at the welcome centre, he had another one. Clearly not the place to speed!
We stopped for lunch at a rest area which would've been a little more pleasant had there been a little less wind and a few less of the signs warning of the presence of rattlesnakes! Of course we didn't spot any but guess that doesn't mean they weren't there lol
We crossed the continental divide at 7174feet, not so much after our drive through the Rockies :-) drove through vast open plains patrolled by massive eagles and back into the rolling hills. It seems as though every corner we turn there are more mountains, different each time simply a bewildering parade of formations; who knew there were so many variations?
Split Rock was a navigational aid back in the days of the great western migration, once here wagon trains knew how far they'd come and how much further they had to go.
Turning towards Riverton, our destination we again drove through vast open plains with mountains in the distance on both sides. It wasn't hard it imagine this in days long gone, cowboys, Indians, outlaws, wagon trains and the pony express.
On the outskirts of town is a sizeable oil field and some seismic workers with four big trucks carrying out some sort of tests.
A quick shop at Walmart, check in at the motel & we set off for Wind River Canyon. We crossed bridges for Badwater Creek & Poison Creek the latter was dry so maybe there was something to the poison theory lol There were some big lakes and dams leading up to the canyon. Then there was some awesome scenery, windy roads with high canyon walls & we even went through 3 tunnels. The sun set and a big half moon came up, all beautiful.
Back out of the canyon, just before the crossroad to go back to Riverton we spotted a large deer munching on the grass, our lone wildlife spot for the evening.
For the first time in awhile I cooked up a full on home cooked dinner, corn, broccoli, carrots the lot, wonderful :-)
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