The Trifecta and a Whole Lot of Nothing

Last night’s hotel was the best one we’ve stayed in so far. Not surprising, since it was also the

newest. Phillip and I had a good night’s sleep, probably because of the swim and hot tub visit, to tackle what has become the trifecta of our trip: a museum, a historic site, and a natural feature. Our first stop was about a mile from the hotel, the Wyoming Pioneer Memorial Museum in Douglas. The museum had a nicely displayed collection of historical and cultural materials related to the westward expansion and the settlement of Wyoming.  

Some of the more unusual collections in this museum included the display of musical instruments, the pioneer crockpot, and the pony express memorabilia. I saw a zither and a dulcimer, both string instruments. The pioneer crockpot was a lidded wooden box with a round metal insert. A round stone was heated and put inside, then the pot was put on top of the hot rock and the lid was closed. The pony express display told the story of its formation in 1860 by a stagecoach operator who hired young men to make the trip from Missouri to California by horse in ten days. And of course, like a lot of places we’ve visited, this museum also had a tie to Dances with Wolves. They had one of the teepees that was made for the Indians in the movie. I really need to watch Dances with Wolves again when we get home!

Our next stop was the Ayers Natural Bridge. Water had eroded through the rock and created an arch above a wide stream. This small state park was quite nice with trees along the stream and a path that we clambored up to walk atop the arch. The rock around the natural bridge was a mixture of the red slate and gray granite. We also saw chunks of rose quartz (same stuff that sold for $3.50 a pound in Keystone and $2 a pound in Kadoka).

Even more interesting than the bridge itself was what we saw on the rock of the bridge, hundreds of swallow nests. The nests appeared to be made of mud and the swallows flew around with their rapid turns and banks. We didn’t see many bugs in the park, probably because of the swallows whose diet consists of flying insects. Another fact about sparrows is that the male makes the nest then courts the female. And the females are attracted to swallows with longer tails. Swallows also defend their nests, but we didn’t get close enough, even when we went to the top of the bridge, to threaten the nests.

On the side road to the Natural Bridge, we had seen a herd of buffalo. On our way back to the highway, we stopped and took pictures of the buffalo herd. It was a privately owned herd, grazing in a field just like we’d see cows graze. We were able to see baby buffalo along with adult ones.  This picture shows about half the herd, as they were spread out in the field and I wanted to show the concentration of them and the closest buffalo calves.

Our next stop was the third trifecta visit: to a historic fort. We actually planned a stop at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center, rated the #1 attraction in Casper, Wyoming in TripAdvisor, but unbeknownst to us, it is closed on Mondays. We found out from the clerk at the fort that the Center started closing on Mondays because it is staffed with federal employees and the government cutbacks caused them to close on their slowest day, Monday. The fort, Fort Casper, was interesting with its re-creation on site of the actual Fort Casper from the 1860s. Many of the displays in the buildings were actual items used by the soldiers who staffed the fort.

We then left Casper and headed south toward Rawlins, Wyoming. About 55 miles south of

Casper, we stopped at the Independence Rock State Historic site. Independence Rock is this huge rock jutting out of the land that has a smooth, polished, and glossy surface caused by a process called “windfaceting.” On this smooth surface, the pioneers crossing on the trails that cut thru here had carved their names. Although some of the carving had weathered away, we could still make out some pre-1900s carvings. And yes, that is Phillip in the picture climbing the rock. The sign at the entrance said it was allowable to climb to the top. Phillip said it was easier to climb up than the climb down. I stayed on ground level.

Our next stop, just a few miles south, was at Devil’s Gate, a small state park (actually more like a pull-off with a walkway, signs and an outhouse style restroom). I signed the unattended visitor’s log that showed we were the first visitors of the day, at about 3 pm. The Devil’s Gate is a 370 foot high, 1500 foot long fissure in the rock that was a major landmark on the Oregon Trail. About that Oregon Trail, 1 in 10 people who tried to make it died, mainly from disease. The most common killer for these emigrants was cholera, which they got from drinking tainted water.

I need to correct something I wrote in a previous post. The blue-gray bushes we see in the

fields is not the sticker bushes we have in Texas. It is sagebrush. Sagebrush does not have stickers. It is still an invasive weed, but it’s about the only thing that grows here. Average annual rainfall in this section of Wyoming is about 11 inches a year. Sagebrush can handle the arid conditions as it has two sets of roots, a long taproot that can go three to eight feet deep and a series of lateral roots that can get the moisture near the top of the soil when it rains. My apologies to sagebrush for mistaking it for nasty sticker bushes.

Both before, and especially, after Independence Rock and Devil’s Gate was a whole lot of nothing. No cattle. No trees. No green grass. At times, the conditions were so harsh that we didn’t even see sagebrush growing. Occasionally, if we were within a few miles of a river or man-made reservoir, and the sagebrush was growing, we’d see small herds of pronghorn antelope. Pronghorn antelope are one of the few animals who eat sagebrush.

We easily found a hotel in Rawlins, as I-80 runs east-west through town. After renting the room, we drove thru downtown Rawlins in search of a place for dinner. What did we see but a Thai restaurant. We stopped and were very happy we did. The owner and wait staff were Thai and the food was authentic and delicious. My larb was spicy and Phillip’s chicken yellow curry was flavorful with lots of sauce for his rice. And sticky rice with mangos for dessert! They did something, possibly whipped the coconut cream a bit, to give the sauce over the sticky rice some extra body and silkiness. Heaven in Wyoming and a nice end to a drive thru the desolate landscape of east-central Wyoming.