Friday, 10 September 2021
Google had told me today's drive would take 5½ hours, which meant all day long driving at my rate, so we left the Jackson Hole campground at 6:10 AM. Once again, this was just over a half hour before sunrise, but it was definitely daylight so I was worried only about seeing more wildlife on the road at that hour.
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| today's route |
A stop in Jackson
Passing through Jackson, I stopped at a grocery store, where the clerk told me Jackson's gotten to be too expensive to live in. She said she'd lived there most of her life, but that many people had moved away because of the affordability problem. She said the millionaires that have moved into town are tearing down the older, more affordable houses and are building mansions that only they can afford. Having seen something like it in Austin, I could understand her concern.
She said rich folks don't have to behave like that and cited the Rockefellers who, she said, donated the land that is now in Grand Teton National Park. I looked it up and found she's mostly right. This website https://resource.rockarch.org/john-d-rockefeller-jr-creates-a-national-park talks about Rockefeller's efforts from his point of view. And this one from the National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/Rockefeller-Grand-Vision summarizes the initial efforts and more recent ones as well. And finally there's the Wikipedia page that includes additional facts about the family's most recent efforts. https://en.wikipedia.org/Laurance-S-Rockefeller-Preserve The clerk's information gave me a perspective on this place I hadn't known and made the stop worth the time.
At 7:20, the radio said it was 39° in Jackson. Fall is definitely moving in.
On the road
Driving north toward Yellowstone, I was in a flat flat valley, bounded by high mountains on both sides. I passed a herd of horses and, in another field, 4 horses, all different colors, following each other single file. This is definitely horse country, based on the number I've been seeing.
At Moran (which is on the map but I never saw), US 26 turned to the east, the road started a serious climb and my ears started popping. It overlooked heavily wooded hills into a valley. Those hills, by the way, would have been called mountains anywhere else, but compared to the Tetons, they turn into hills.
I was driving east at sunrise so, unsurprisingly, the sun was in my eyes most of the way. On that road, with all that sun, it was very disorienting.
I started seeing signs saying watch for wildlife, watch for deer, watch for elk, watch for bears, caution: bears near road, and over and over saying SLOW DOWN. Since the speed limit was only 45 mph in the first place, and I was driving uphill, I slowed down even further but figured those signs were aimed at more cavalier drivers. I'd've loved to see some wildlife but no such luck. In fact, other than the several bison and 2 bears I saw in Yellowstone, I haven't seen anything wilder than Magpies in days. Too bad. Still, I wasn't exactly speeding over those mountains.
I passed numerous large parking areas that I'd thought were pullouts for people to enjoy the views. In fact, I counted 12 of them and realized, after I saw some signs, that they were more likely for snowmobilers to park in (at the right time of year). Although I saw one parking lot specifically designated for cross-country skiers, with snowmobiles prohibited.
All that climbing resulted in the Continental Divide, at 9,584', followed quickly by Togwotee Pass, elevation 9,658'. Jackson is at 6,237', so I climbed more than 3,000' on that drive.
A sign told me I was in the Shoshone National Forest. I wondered what mountains it was I was driving through and, after some time spent with the map and the computer, I can say that I still don't know. They might have been part of the Absaroka Mountains, a subrange of the Rocky Mountains, but I just can't tell.
And then I saw a sign warning: Open Range - Loose Stock. Not my idea of a good place to let cows roam loose, what with the narrow road and mountains and all.
Nature thinks it's fall here, and the scenery is becoming beautiful. Fall is my favorite season because of the wonderful colors.
I passed 2 historic sites fairly close to each other, neither of which I stopped for but both of which are historically interesting. The first was labeled a Wyoming Point of Interest, and it was the Tie Hack Memorial. I figured that to be somebody's name, but when I looked it up I learned that "tie hack" is a logging term that refers to someone who specialized in cutting down trees, chopping off the limbs and hacking the resulting "tie" to meet the specifications needed - often for railroads (you've heard of railroad ties?) - thus "tie hacking." Here's what the memorial looks like. https://www.hmdb.org/tie-hack
The second site was Union Pass State Historic Site. Union Pass is interesting geologically, since it's the place where 3 mountain ranges meet (Absaroka, Wind River and Gros Ventre). From this point, water can flow to the Mississippi River, the Columbia River, or the Colorado River. The pass was used by Indians, fur trappers and early settlers. Here's the historic marker at that site. https://www.hmdb.org/union-pass
And then I came to Dubois (pronounced as due-boys). Their nickname is Valley of the Warm Winds, and they claim to have mild winters. I'm skeptical myself because they're smack in the middle of several mountain ranges, but I guess they know. Dubois is the home of the National Museum of Military Vehicles, which I thought was a joke when I first saw it mentioned. But when I drove by, I saw an enormous building, which I guess houses a number of military vehicles.
Gasoline here was almost 20¢/gallon cheaper than in Jackson.
I found a park where we could stop and take a walk after that drive, and we found ourselves next door to the National Bighorn Sheep Center. I still had a very long way to go, but on another trip I'll stop here because it looks interesting. https://bighorn.org/about
I crossed the Wind River near Union Pass, and then again after Dubois. In this area, I started to see big red and white striped rocks along the river, carved into weird shapes by erosion (I guess).
I passed fields of large rocks and scrub; a large field of a green crop between the river and the rocks. And I saw a sign telling me I was passing Wind River Painted Hills. I'm sorry that I couldn't find a photo online and wasn't really able to stop to take one myself, but this was pretty country. I'd like to come here sometime with a small vehicle and a good camera. I really like my camera but it's limited.
I crossed the Wind River again before the military vehicle museum, and then again after I passed it. The message being that it winds around a lot.
A sign told me I was entering the Wind River Indian Reservation, and another sign told me to look out for Bighorn Sheep for the next 2 miles. I didn't see any sheep but I did see a lot of horses, and a lot of deer warning signs.
And then I came to a place deserving of a "painted hills" designation: I saw ochre, silver, purple and tan stripes above the red and white stripes I was still seeing. These mountains were beautiful - the colors, and the rocks sculpted by erosion and behind them much higher mountains showing blue that I think were the Wind River Mountains where the canyon is. Just beautiful, and this was a good time of day to be driving there because of the light.
I saw signs saying "This is Beef Country" and a few herds of cows, but mostly what I saw were horses.
And crossed the Wind River again. And passed the towns of Morton (a church and 2 or 3 houses) and Kinnear, pop. 44, elev. 5410' (we'd lost a lot of elevation). I saw a very large body of water and no sign telling me what it was, but from the map I'm guessing Ocean Lake. Online I learned that it's an "essential breeding ground for thousands of migratory waterfowl." The WY Game and Fish Dept. is working to improve habitat by building ponds and nests for the birds.
Then Welcome to Riverton, The Rendezvous City. It's quite large for Wyoming with a population of 10,615 and an elevation of 4,956' (still dropping). I thought their nickname came from it being a sort of crossroads for highways near the center of the state, but the city's website just says that for centuries people have chosen the Wind River Valley to come together. Unsurprisingly, they have an annual Rendezvous festival in the summer.
Riverton's size is able to support an arts center, Central Wyoming College, and an outreach program for the University of Wyoming. It also has a Riverwalk and some fairgrounds. Just your basic big-city-Wyoming hub.
I passed a sign for the Wyoming Sugar Co. and have learned that it's a cooperative that processes sugar beets which, presumably, are some of the crops I've been seeing.
Riverton may not be an obvious hub, but the town of Shoshoni north of there claims to be the Crossroads of Wyoming. Shoshoni, pop. 649 and elev. 4,820', fits the bill a bit better not only because several highways meet there but also because it's at the southern end of Wind River Canyon. When I went through this canyon earlier this month, I decided to avoid it for the rest of the trip, if possible. When I planned today's route, I just didn't realize where this road would take me until I was here. But it turned out that the first go-round inured me to the s-curves and tunnels and so forth that I found here, because this time through I was able to enjoy it more.
Boysen State Park and its campgrounds stretches out for some miles along the canyon, and some of it is on the shores of Boysen Reservoir, a major water body in these parts.
I passed a sign warning of Rock Scaling - Expect 20 Minute Delays. I've read that this sport is quite popular in Wyoming and has caused local irritations because the popularity - and the cars and people that it brings to an area - are delaying traffic in a number of places. I got lucky here because I didn't run into any of that. What I did get is road construction delays. While I was waiting for the red light to change at one of those areas, I took this photo.
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| your basic Wyoming scenery |
And again I passed the various rock formations with the signs explaining how old they were: the Gros Ventre, dating to the Cambrian age (500-600 million years old); the Gallatin, also Cambrian; the Amsden, from the Pennsylvanian age (270-310 million years old); the Porphyria, from the Permian (250-275 million years old) - [I was climbing up through the ages] - the Dinwoody, from the Triassic (185-225 million years old); and the Chugwater, also Triassic.
And I was back in Thermopolis, where a sign told me it was 89° at 12:35. So I climbed up through both time and temperature. This time I took a different road through town and came to Hot Springs State Park, "World's Largest Mineral Hot Springs," they claim. I've been to hot springs in other places and wasn't interested enough to stop here - I thought - until I saw what I was passing.
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| Hot Springs State Park |
A historical marker explained that this is called the Rainbow Terraces, and that it's formed of mineral deposits called travertine. I always thought of travertine in connection with building materials, and an online search told me that's what this is. The travertine that's used in houses came from mineral springs, especially hot springs, and it's a form of limestone. The historical marker said that, as it flows down the terraces, the water cools and its algae and microorganisms produce these varied colors.
This site was sacred to several Native tribes, and chiefs of the Shoshone and Arapahoe signed a treaty in 1896 donating this land to the US government on condition that it be set aside as a public land for all to use. And here it still is.
Back on the road, I found far less traffic than I'd have expected on a Friday afternoon. I passed a herd of goats, several fields of that green grass which I think is hay or something, fields of sugar beets and corn.
Worland didn't have a sign, which was odd since it has more than 5,000 residents and is the county seat. It also had a small city park, where we stopped for a leg-stretch.
A little farther on, Manderson did have a sign, saying it has a population of 114 and an elevation of 3,890'. Seeing as how just a few hours ago I was almost 5,000' higher, that's some drop.
I saw more crops growing up here, but agriculture seems to require serious irrigation. The land is naturally scrubby and rocky, with bare areas and areas of pale grass.
The town of Basin, pop. 1,285 and elev. 3,870', calls itself The Lilac City. They have an abundance of lilacs growing here (though I don't know why) and have a lilac festival each June.
The 10 miles or so from there to Greybull are mostly a Deer Crossing Area - Please Reduce Speed. And then into Greybull, pop. 1,847 and elev. 3,788. The town was established in 1906 and named after the Greybull River, which was named by local tribes after an albino bison bull that lived in the area. I planned to stay at this campground for the next several nights.
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