Wyoming - Day 26 - to Rawlins via Snowy Range

Rawlins KOA, Rawlins
Sunday, 26 September 2021

This morning I got up before 2:00, the 2nd time the carbon monoxide detector went off.  That made 5½ hours of sleep last night, about 7 the night before, and about 5 the night before that.  I can't keep this up.  I know they say that old people don't need as much sleep, but I say maybe those old people just aren't getting as much sleep but need as much as they ever did.  I'm tired of this.

today's route

Actually, today's route was along the southern part of that loop around the interstate.  The northern part, through Medicine Bow, is the route I took when I went to Laramie a couple of days ago.  Today I went across the Snowy Range Pass on the route AAA has designated scenic.  And it was indeed a scenic route.

On the road

As I was leaving Laramie, I passed near the airport and saw a sign that I thought said University of Wyoming Flight School.  This seemed odd to me, and still does though I know more now that I've looked it up.  I learned that the UWyo is one of many universities that provides a college degree in aviation, that allows students to graduate with both the 4-year degree and a commercial pilot's license.  It's a program for people wanting aviation as a career, and apparently commercial airlines want their pilots to have a 4-year degree.

I've started a habit of scanning the areas near the roads for wildlife, mainly to be sure some suicidal deer isn't going to take me by surprise.  This morning I spotted a small grey wolf standing at the edge of a cornfield.  That's the first one I've seen on this trip.

The road I took out of Laramie - WY-130 - has been aptly designated the Snowy Range Scenic Byway.

At first what I saw was your usual beautiful coming-into-the-mountains scenery and reached the small town of Centennial, pop. 270 and elev. 8,076'.

A sign told me I was in Medicine Bow National Forest.  Also that it was Open Range with Loose Stock.

The birch/aspen up there were beautiful - yellow and orange and red - and especially so with the sun shining on them.  I'd left the campground at 7:30, a half hour after sunrise, but I was heading west so the sun was an aid to scenery enhancement instead of a danger to my driving.  We stopped for a break at a large parking area with picnic tables and a trailhead for an alpine hike.  These photos don't show how pretty the trees really were, but they'll give you an idea.

I can't tell aspen from birch and both are native to Wyoming, so I tend to use them interchangeably. 

The road continued to climb and my ears started popping.  I passed the National Forest's Snowy Range Ski Area.  Out of curiosity I looked up their prices, which seem to me pretty reasonable.  A season pass for an adult is $309, and for a senior over age 70, it's free.  I still remember how much I enjoyed skiing when I lived in Alaska, and I'd love to do it again.  But the last time I tried - outside Vancouver in British Columbia - my knee reminded me that I'd bunged it up skiing in Alaska and it just wasn't strong enough any more.  Too bad.

This mountain road was filled with s-curves.  One sign told me I had a double s-curve coming up, but it was a little unusual.

And that's what the road did.

I remembered that sign I saw about this being an open range area when I passed 2 black cows about 8'-10' from the edge of the road, and shortly another black cow on the other side of the road, and then still another walking right on the very edge of the road.  So yeah, open range.

At about this point I started to see snow on the ground.  First it was just in the shady areas, but then I saw it in bright sunlight.  These mountains are called Snowy Range, after all.

I negotiated a hairpin turn and then saw a warning sign saying there's a "steep slope next 10 miles."  I now realize that must mark where Snowy Range Pass is, though I didn't see a sign for it.  The pass is shown on the AAA map as being 10,847' high (I've seen 2 other heights from 2 other sources, but I'm going with AAA) - 3,000' higher than Laramie.  It's followed by Medicine Bow Peak, which I did see a sign for.  The peak is 12,013' high and no, I didn't get up there.  There're trails that lead those so inclined to the top, but I was only interested in the downward incline the road led me on from there.

This road is closed in winter, typically mid-November until Memorial Day.  And I'm wondering now about that ski area.  Is the road plowed up to that point?  Because there just aren't enough skiers with vehicles that can negotiate unplowed roads to support a ski area.

Anyway, I had an indication of how high the snow gets by tall sticks attached to many of the roadside signs and reflectors along the roadside, to extend their height.  If it's not to help snowplows know where they are, I don't know what they're for.

I saw more signs saying to "Watch for Wildlife on Road."  I regret that the cows were the only critters I saw.

For the last few weeks, my asthma has been getting very bad and I don't know why.  Wildfires?  Smoke?  Particulates?  Simply very dry air?  My sinuses get clogged so my body thinks it needs air - and I have had instances of shortness of breath - and I start coughing.  A lot, day and night.  I'm sure my critters are as tired of it as I am, but I also figure my campground neighbors get bothered, though there's not anything I know of to do.  Sometimes my inhaler helps, but not always.  It doesn't seem to matter if it's warm or cold outside.  The air's been very dry for weeks, but I'd always heard dry air (aka Arizona) was supposed to be good for people with respiratory problems.  Well, I'm going to Utah in a few days.  We'll see if maybe I'm just allergic to Wyoming.

I crossed the North Platte River, where the road turned north.  I passed a state historical marker for the Overland Trail, which was an alternate route to the Oregon, California and Mormon Trails that went through other parts of Wyoming.  Apparently there are still trail ruts that can be seen by those intrepid enough to go looking for them (not me).  This trail was most famous for being used by the Overland Stage Company, which operated in the 1860s.  I can't see that anyone knows why Ben Holladay (the stage owner) chose to use this route, given its arduous conditions and frequent raids by local Indians on both the stages and the stage stops, when there were other routes that seemed to work just fine.  But this is where the trail ran.

I saw a lot of antelope from here to Rawlins.

Remember that facility I passed on my way to Laramie 2 days ago that I thought looked like an oil refinery?  Well, today I passed it again and saw a sign saying it's owned by Sinclair and (they say) is "The West's Most Modern Refinery."  So I guessed right.  Nothing like growing up in Texas to give you an eye for oil refineries.

And we made it back to the Rawlins KOA after 4 hours of driving (Google said it'd take 2, but I knew I wouldn't be setting any speed records over 10,000' mountain passes).  Rawlins's elevation is 6,827', meaning I climbed 3,000' and dropped another 3,000'.  Maybe my breathing would improve if I just stayed on flat land for a while.  But I do love the mountains.