A True Sunday Drive

Sunday the 9th we headed around wildlife loop in search of animals. It was a beautiful partly cloudy day perfect for photography. I haven’t done much landscape photography this trip so I thought maybe we can do some of that today. There are a series of hairpin turns heading down onto the wildlife loop.

Roy pulled off in a turn out and I got a few pictures showing some of the vastness of the park. The dirt road you see is Oak Draw Rd, this is sometime where you can see buffalo also.

We had a little bit of a surprise rounding a curve we come upon some stopped cars, thinking oh it is probably prairie dogs because we were in that area of the park. Turns out it was the begging burros.

I enjoy watching little kids interacting with the burros. I am not sure if this little one was enjoying it or just a little nervous about touching the burro. We stuck around for a short time watching them pose and do selfies with the burros. But we headed off for more of our Sunday drive. Buffalos were waiting for us somewhere we hoped.

At the other end of wildlife loop rd. where we hadn’t seen buffalo this year, there they were. I think this Sunday drive was a drive full of oddities. We were near the middle of the line of cars waiting to move ahead and get around the buffalo. We had been waiting awhile with no movement in sight, it was then we saw what we thought at the time to be stupid people trying to get selfies. This was not the case.

It turns out that the holdup was not stupid people but bikers who were having some tire issues. Not something I’d want to have happen surrounded by buffalo. In the video you can see the bikers walking and standing off to the side of the road.

Speaking of bikers and buffalo it is interesting to see the wide berth the bikes do give a buffalo who has decided to stand in the road and not move, so you must go around. I know sometimes when they are that close, I get nervous. I don’t think I could be brave enough to do it on a bike.

We inch our way through the buffalo and decide now we can get back up to speed and head back to the trailer only to be stopped in our tracks by this buffalo who was going nowhere fast. Roy did end up going around him after a short time.

Sometimes you just have to take your time and drive like you are out on that Sunday drive.

Blowing in the Wind

A few things to know about Wyoming it is windy, high, friendly people and you cross the Continental Divide. We were at 7000 feet while we were in Lyman WY and we are at 7000 feet tonight in Rawlins WY. We do start down the other side tomorrow, Casper WY is only around 5500 feet. We have had wind before today mostly a tail wind which has saved on gas. Today however we had a crosswind, and an 8 foot wide dust devil to deal with. This is another time I am thankful my husband was a trucker, we went for a sway but he was able to let the devil pass at the best place it could. The people we have come in contact with are very sincere and happy, it is amazing and refreshing. I get the impression in this part of the country people seem more relaxed, and less stressed. Crossing the Continental Divide occurred twice today once at 12:30pm elevation 6930 then again at 1:30pm elevation 7000 it is amazing 70 feet does make a difference.

I am running a streak we saw another couple of wild horses today which adds to the total for the trip. No bison yet but did see some pronghorn antelope that aren’t really antelope. Find out why here As always there were plenty of cows.

Some nostalgia for Roy at leaving Lyman WY today we were able to get gas at the original Little America. He told me the story about this being one of the places he would stop when he was driving truck. Speaking about his trucking days, I was able to see the original two lane I80 next to the current I80. I also was able to feel what it must have been like driving a two lane interstate, there was construction on the westbound side of the road for about 18 miles. I would say interesting is an understatement.

I was able to take a few quick shots with my cell phone of snow fences. You can tell which way the snow blows by the direction of the fence. The other way I was able to tell we were in snow country were the gates and signs that read when flash return to ……. I am so glad we did not go through this area closer to winter, I am a snow magnet.

I am fixing the last paragraph as I fell asleep while writing, sorry about that.

I have yet to be able to get a Milky Way shot. Lyman WY was a nice level spot good view interesting foreground clouds suck. The night at Rawlins I couldn’t see the core but I was able to see a part of the Milky Way. The campground is too close to I80 for me to get good pictures. I am hoping maybe Casper WY but for sure Custer. In the coming days you will see a group of pictures from our first week, and I will also put together a post covering things I forgot to mention, in my other posts.