Today is Sunday, May 30th. We had poor internet connection at the camp, and it is still too cold for us to go fishing, so we went into Gunnison, home of Western State College. We had a picnic lunch at Jorgensen Park across from the campus and the Pioneer Musuem. Here I am working on the blog updates in the park. We probably won't be able to post anything new again until we leave the high mountains on Tuesday. We will be heading for Utah.

The gorge is below Bob. We had to get another photo of snow capped mountains before we left them.

This is another place that you have to see with your own eyes to appreciate the incredible depth and beauty. p.s. We found out if you left double click on the photo, it should enlarge.

We crossed over the dam that was below our campground and took the road along the gorge, State Road 92.

This is the view from our campsite in Sapinero, a small recreational area on the Blue Mesa reservoir, about 30 miles west of Gunnison. The river and lake that feed the reservoir stretch for almost 20 miles. There several picnic and primitive camping sites along the way. It is still too cold and windy to attempt to go out in 'Ducky". We decided to stay here over the Memorial Day holiday to avoid traffic, so we will probably continue to do short road trips in the area.

On route 50 heading toward Gunnison.

Along route 24. The mountain peaks here were named Harvard and Princeton.

A different view from the rv park. We left here Saturday morning, May 28th, to head to Gunnison.

The Pastime Club, the last remaining saloons from the "red light district' in Leadville, where there were once 94 during the old west days. This was across from the rv park that we stayed at.

A mix of snow, land, lake and mountains as we near Leadville, where we will spend the night. Tomorrow we will head southwest towards Gunnison for the Memorial Day weekend. It is still very windy, although the temperatue is comfortable in the mid 60's.

Along scenic highway 91...Fremont Peak is in the background, at an elevation of 11,318 feet. In the foreground is a snow covered frozen lake.

One last view from The Summit.

Still at The Summit...

We had to take I-70 for 10 miles to get our connecting route to Leadville, but there wasn't much traffic, even for a holiday weekend, plus there was this gorgeous roadside rest at "The Summit", between Frisco and Breckenridge.

Friday, May 28th, we left Saratoga, and by 8:30 am, we had crossed the Colorado state line. This the White River on Colorado state highway 9 as we headed toward Leadville.

We took another drive up through the Medicine Bow National Forest. Figured we wouldn't see this much snow again for awhile.

Bob took this picture of a second deer that was across the street from the pavillion enjoying someone's lawn.

It was still too windy and cold to do any fishing, but we had one more day in Saratoga. We stopped at the little museum, which had a lot of interesting displays of the area, including Encampment, a town about 15 miles south at the foothills of the Sierra Madre where copper was mined in the late 1800's. Next to the museum was a beautiful pavillion. I didn't know it at the time, but there is a deer directly behind me at the back of the gazebo. Bob noticed it as he was taking the picture. If you can zoom in on the photo, you should be able to see it.

I think it's self explanatory why the road was closed! So, we headed back down to our campsite. We'll spend the rest of the afternoon cleaning the truck and the unit.

We tried to go over Snowy Pass, but the road was closed. Snowy Pass Range is in the distance, and Laramie is beyond that.

In the background is Medicine Bow Peak at an elevation of 12,103 feet.

We continue to be amazed at the ever changing views.

Since we weren't going fishing, we decided to take a ride on Wyoming 130 through Medicine Bow National Forest, which extends into Colorado for a total of over 2.5 million acres. This is one of the beaver dams we saw at the foothills...but no beaver in sight.

That is the North Platte River behind me at our rv site. We had hoped to do some fishing here, but the river was swollen and running rapidly due to recent storms. About 15 miles north of here is a crossing for the old Overland Trail.

The cattle didn't seem to mind sharing their grazing land with the windmills. Our stop for the next two days will be at Deer Haven RV park along the North Platte River in Saratoga. Web connections delayed posts. More to follow.

Bob was able to get his prescription filled in Casper, which looked like a pretty town, and then we headed toward Saratoga, WY through the mountain basin. Here, near Medicine Bow, was a huge wind field operated by the Mountain Power Company. We were following the Sand Creek Massacre Trail along Wyoming Rte 130.

We had stopped at Riverton on US 26/287 primarily for Bob to fill a prescription since the town had a Walgreens, but the pharmacy didn't have a supply of what Bob needed, so we had to change route and go to Casper the next day. We had stayed at the Wind River RV Park, and it was one of the worse ones. Units were doubled up, there were extra charges for everything, including showers (which we don't use since we have our own, but this was the first time I had seen a charge for use of the park showers. It was 50 cents for 3 minutes and a quarter for every minute after.). The town's biggest claim was "The 1838 Rendezvous". We had seen a historical sign for it, and went to see what it was. We were led down a rutted dirt road that ended at a private ranch with no other information. Later, we found a brochure that explained the mountain men would gather yearly at a predetermined spot where they had buried supplies for the return trip, and Riverton was the "randavouse" spot in 1838, where "plenty of trade, whiskey and white women" would be available. Interesting is that by 1838, the fur trade had pretty much ended due to diminished supply of beaver and demand since men's hats were then being made of silk. The town still celebrates the rendevous annually starting June 30 through July 4th with seminars on beaver trapping/skinning, frontier cooking, and tomahawk throwing among other frontier skills "related to the mountain man era".

Nearing Riverton, along US 26/287, the terrain changes once again along the Wind River. We will spend one night here on our way to Saratoga, WY.

As we descended the mountains, the snow subsided. We had crossed the Continetal
Divide in the West Thumb of Yellowstone where the elevation was 7988 feet. The Teton mountains in the background are around 10,000 plus.

How's this for a winter wonderland in May?

Outside Yellowstone, the road changes to John D. Rockerfeller Memorial Parkway in the Grand Teton National Park. Snow flurries and mist were our travel companions, but the roads were thankfully clear.

Believe it or not, the outside temperature is about 25 degrees, but it didn't feel like it. Snow covered Yellowstone Lake is in the background, just beyond the hot spring.

The thermal heat here at Steamboat Point overpowers the snow and ice on the lake.

Here is view of Yellowstone Lake coming in from the east. The lake was mostly frozen and covered with new snow. The mountains in the background were blurred due to the snow storm that was coming in.

We headed back to the south entrance of Yellowstone to go through the Tetons on to Riverton, WY. The ranger at the east gate warned us that there might be a delay while the snow that had fallen during the night was being plowed.

Monday, May 24, 2010, about 8 am outside the lounge/restaurant of the Yellowstone RV park where we had spent the last 3 days on the outskirts of Cody. Before we left to to to Riverton, I asked Bob to take a photo of me sitting in the rustic furniture that was on the patio. The owner of the place looked like John Wayne...at least 6'8" and he really had a class act RV park. It had been lightly raining and Bob warned me that the furniture would probably be wet, but as usual, I didn't listen to him, and ended up traveling w/a damp dupa.

And yet another...tomorrow we will head out back through Yellowstone taking the southern route into the Grand Tetons and points southeast to Riverton, WY.

Another spectacular view...

From Chief Joseph we turned onto the Bear Tooth route, on Rte 212. About 12 miles up, the road narrowed and was closed due to snow. The temperature had dropped to 25 degrees, but believe it or not, it was warmer than below because there was no wind.

The road wound around these mountains at a 7% grade.

The Clarks Fork river along the drive...the temperature as we started out was around 52 degrees.

The sign relates the history of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce in his attempt to lead his people to freedom from the reservation, using this route to reach Canada.

Sunday, May 23, 2010, heading out to Chief Joseph Scenic byway north of Cody, we were able to get a photo of the white pelicans along the bank of the Buffalo Bill reservoir. Not as many by any means as we saw in the Everglades, but the magnificent birds nonetheless.

This picture is for my sister-in-law, Bev, who saw her first rodeo in Cody. Does it look the same, Bev?

We returned to the park after doing our errands in town, and did needed chores at the unit. We even had a few snow flurries. Tomorrow we will take another scenic drive designated as a national "red ribbon" route along Chief Joseph Scenic Byway.

This is a shot of the reservoir right before the Buffalo Bill dam. The road goes through 3 tunnels which were carved out of the rocks.

May 22, 2010 errand day in Cody, WY

On the way into Cody, the road passes along Buffalo Bill Reservoir and State Park. Colonel Cody owned this land before turning it over to the state. There is over 40 miles of shore line around the reservoir with picnic, camping, fishing, swimming and boating available. With mid morning temperatures at 46 degrees and threats of storms, not much was going on here today. There are American white pelican here. They were too far away to get a good picture. I had seen some in Yellowstone, too, but didn't believe they were white pelican until I saw some park brochures that confirmed the birds did indeed inhabit the area before heading south for the winter.

Our stop for the next 3 days is at Yellowstone Valley RV Park about 18 miles outside of Cody, WY. The view from my little window is almost the same as the one at Gardiner, sans snow!
Another rainstorm was brewing and the wind was rocking our unit. We will head into Cody tomorrow for a little sight seeing and errand running...time to change oil in the truck and get some groceries and propane. We've gone just about 4900 miles since leaving home.

Now, we are out of the park and in the Shoshone National Forest on US 20/14/16. Informational signs here said archeologists have found evidence of American Indian habitation as far back as 10,000 years ago.

We pulled over to give the brakes a chance to cool down. I asked Bob to move back a little further so I could get a better picture, but he wasn't going for it.

We continued to climb toward Avalanche Peak, elevation 10566.