Things To Do On A Wyoming Mothers Day

Seems to me that a good Wyoming Sunday afternoon drive cures most of my ailments.

Sometimes it is all about the view - this one from 25 miles west of town

It is always fun for Jan and me to see what wildlife are up and around, enjoying the day. 

Looks like a family outing

Wild Iris

This time of the year it is fun to what new wildflowers are blooming.

Indian Paintbrush - Wyoming State Flower

Today we took a drive to the west of town, not a long drive, only a total of about 75 miles and a couple of hours.

Prairie Dog calling out

 I thought that today I would post a few photos of our drive – it’s kind of what Wyoming is all about. 

Hope all of you enjoyed the day as much as we did.

What About That Wyoming Wind

Not sure about you, but I am getting tired of all the wind. Where we live in the North Platte River Valley, we don’t get as much wind as most of the state, except, it seems, this time of year. So many days with gusts around the state at 60 or more mph, seems unusual even for Wyoming at this part of the year.

Where the Wind Really Blows - I did a bit of research to see how Wyoming compared to other states and, as expected, this is a windy state. Wyoming trails only South Dakota and Montana in average wind speed. I found it both funny and appropriate that the list has the District of Columbia at the top with a wind speed more than ten mph above than South Dakota. Imagine that, D.C. with all the politicians is the windiest place in the United States. (I do hope the people that compiled this list I used do know that The District of Columbia, is not a state).

That’s a Lot of Wind - Last year Casper had a wind gust that reached 103 mph in February, as much as a class 2 hurricane. So what is the windiest town in Wyoming? Good question, either Medicine Bow or Rawlins, depending on the source, and if you dig deep enough, other towns and cities will probably pop-up.

But all of Wyoming is not considered windy, Worland, Lander, Guernsey, and I am sure a few others will pop up as members of the least windy cities in the United States. How do these places qualify? With average wind speeds of around eight mph or less for the year. With the speeds at that level, cities are in the bottom 20% for the wind in the country.

Is it Spring Yet? - It has been warm enough to play golf if not for the snow and wind. Now the snow, because of the wind, has melted and I may head out to the golf course the next time the wind is not so bad. I know what you are thinking – “Well, good luck with that.”

That’s it, one very windy post, but I still do not want to live anywhere else.

Today’s photos from our drive west of town this morning – enjoy!

A Retired Life

Today some true Wyoming facts, all presented in photos.

15 miles west of town and the traffic does not appear to be too heavy

Nothing like a drive on a nice spring day. I know it is not spring yet, but it is sure starting to look like it.

Mountain stream running blue and cold

We took a drive out of town toward the Laramie Range yesterday, it was spectacular.

And a little closer to our pickup this little guy

The Pronghorn are in big bunches right now and make for some interesting photo opportunities.

A Raven amidst the Pronghorn

The snow up high always makes the mountains look perfect, with the big spring runoff yet to come.

Looks a bit like a painting

Thought today I would just blog out a few photos that I took on our trip.

Total trip, 72 miles, 36 out, turn around and 36 back. Only a couple of hours but most enjoyable.

The end of our trip, about three feet deep, we turned around and headed home

 

This was our view after we turned around

Eastern Wyoming -A Two Hour Vacation

When I tell people I live in Wyoming, I often hear, “Oh, Yellowstone, I love Wyoming.”

 Well I love Yellowstone myself, the most beautiful place on earth. But I have to explain that I live on the other side of the state, eastern Wyoming. Specifically, Guernsey Wyoming, south of Casper, north of Cheyenne. If that’s not enough I try, “two hundred miles north of Denver."

Then I sometimes here, “Is there anything out there?”

“Well yes, yes there is.”

My wife and I think eastern Wyoming is the greatest place to live on earth, we have mountains and plains, rivers, trees, wildlife and cows. Not too many places to shop and that makes it just about perfect. Monday afternoon we took a two hour ride out west of town and back—so here it is a quick glimpse of eastern Wyoming, just west of Guernsey.

Eastern Wyoming – A Two Hour Vacation.

A nice Texas cow in Wyoming, still like seeing these old Longhorns around, even if this one is not sure which way to let the horns grow.

 

A little history lesson – this is the Oregon Trail crossing at the Bitter Cottonwood. Hasn’t changed much since the trail was the best way west. Actually it hasn’t changed at all. It was a long day, at 17 miles, but this could be done from Fort Laramie in one good day. Travelers liked this camp site because there was an abundance of fire wood.

 

Not the wild herds of trail days, but this is open range, still no fences in site.

 

 

And we do have mountains in Eastern Wyoming, this is the Laramie Range

 

Laramie Peak through the boulders

 

Mountain pasture buffalo

This is Cottonwood Creek about 20 miles upstream from the crossing at the Bitter Cottonwood. Yes, I know, pretty spectacular.

 

Why do kids always want to race, I declined, 55 miles per hour seemed a bit too fast for me.

 

Still seems to be a good number of horses in the area. I know nothing about horses, other than I have fell off, been bucked off and been both bitten and kicked, but still really like them, not sure why. This appears to be some type of draft (work) horse, maybe a Morgan.

Sun is setting I’m ready to go home – ahh, home sweet home.

 

 

Maybe I will grill and enjoy the view from the back 40 this evening.

Depending on when you read this post, goodnight or good-day.