driving through wyoming

It's a long, long drive  and we aren't even out of it.  We stayed in the Bridge Bay campground in Yellowstone.  It's about a forty mile drive to the South Entrance.  We left through the South Entrance.  We left our campground at around 10 am this morning and we arrived at our destination at 7 pm.  It's been a long day and we logged 500 miles.  Driving that long is tiring.  We had to drive through part of the Grand Tetons to leave the area.  We had our first Grizzly Bear encounter.  It was a mama bear and two cubs.  They created quite a bit of a bear jam and people were trying to get close to them!  Didn't they read anything about these creatures!  Leave them alone, they are wild and aggressive.  You only view them from afar and from in your car.  Which we did.  I mean, there is a reason they sell bear spray....

Mama bear and two baby bears in the Grand Tetons

My car was getting some excellent gas mileage.

We stopped for gas and drinks at a gas station in the Wind River Reservation.  I didn't realize that they don't charge tax on reservations, so that was a nice surprise.  People also drive super nutty in reservations.  I was driving 5 over the speed limit and was getting tailgated, so I slowed down so they could pass me.  He decided to get five feet from my bumper and guess what jumps out in front of my car.  A pronghorn antelope.  Some how I stopped just enough and swerved just enough to miss it.  The guy almost rear ended me.  He FINALLY passed me and flipped me off.  Because it's my fault he was tailgating me and a pronghorn jumped out in front of me.  Right?!?  I'm grateful that I did not hit the thing.  It was on one of those long desolate highways with nothing on it.  I'm sure he would have not stopped to help.

Fort Washakie is on the Reservation and it seems that most of the tribe lives there.  It's sad to look at the housing there.  The school does look fairly new though.  Fort Washakie also has the gravesite of Sacajawea.  It has a small roadside sign pointing you there.  We found it pretty far up the road and on a hillside.  Her gravesite is a shrine, it reminded me a Madam Levou in New Orleans.   People have tied bracelets on her wrists and ankles.  Someone even painted her toenails and fingernails.  I did not know about this site before and I'm not sure why it's not more well known for how big of an historical figure she is.

We were up visiting her gravesite when someone drove in and locked one of the entrances.  The one we came in.  I didn't know there was another one, but there was.  I thought for a brief moment we might have been locked in.

Wind Farms throughout the state.  What a great source of energy.

Driving through Wyoming, you notice a lot of small cabins.  Some in hillside and others just in the middle of a field.  It seems the families left and the house is just there.  Waiting for the next inhabitants that will never come.

Oh, little house in the middle of nowhere.

Driving through Wyoming, I also noticed familiar names from the Oregon Trail game.  I asked my kids if they ever played Oregon Trail, they asked me what it was....I feel like I need to find the game for them to play.  I loved it when I got to play it in school.  It was a way to get away from all those other kids and name the other characters after them and see them pass away from dysentery.  We followed the Snake River for a long time, saw Independence Rock from a distance, drove through Fort Laramie and I think I remember South Pass.  

We passed by Split Rock, which lead the people traveling west right towards South Pass.

Right before we reached Cheyenne, we passed through Buford.  A town of one.  For real, here's the sign.

And now, we shall rest our heads at this lovely establishment.  It's actually not too bad.  The room smelled good, the bathroom was clean and the beds don't have any unwanted friends.  More travels tomorrow.  

Real live key!