Sunday, 5-25-97

Last night, the air was cool, very comfortable for sleeping. We got around somewhat early this morning. The view from the campground was very nice. I went to the office/store to buy a roll of film and a souvenir mug for Kay. While there, I had a nice visit with the owners of the campground.

The campground was located on highway 287, a route connecting Fort Collins, Colorado with Laramie, Wyoming. As it turned out, we could take this highway to cut our travel distance to Laramie by half. So we decided to use this route. It turned out to be a great choice. Not only did we cut our driving distance, but we were treated to a beautiful drive through the Rocky Mountains. We saw very scenic mountain valleys and colorful rock formations.

When we got up in the morning, the sky was almost clear. It didn’t take long for clouds to form. The continually growing and changing cloud formations entertained us all through the day. At Laramie we headed west on I-80. It is a nice time to be traveling this route. The recent rains have helped to turn the landscape many shades of green. I can tell the summers are short in this part of the country. The aspens are just starting to leaf out and snow is still lingering in the shaded areas of the landscape. As we drove west we saw familiar sights we haven’t seen for several years. We always like to see the varied rock formations and the beautiful mountains in the distance. The mountains are still capped with snow.

Snow capped mountains along I-80 in Wyoming

We enjoyed seeing all the new baby animals as we passed their fields. There were a lot of new calves and lambs born this spring. We also saw a few new colts, one of which looked like it was no more than a day old. The most interesting newborns we saw were two very small pronghorn antelopes. It looked like a family of pronghorns with the two babies staying close to their mother and dad was out in front leading the family across the range. One of the cutest sights we saw was a field full of goats, many of them new kids. Some of the little ones put on quite a show when they jumped straight up in the air, as if they had springs on their feet. We always enjoy watching the antics of baby animals as they discover their new world.

One of many storms we saw

We watched the clouds ahead of us develop into clusters of rain storms. At one time, a group of storms combined into a single large rain storm that seemed to stretch across the horizon like a big curtain of rain. Even as large as the storm looked, the highway seemed to find a way between the worse part.

We had only occasional light showers fall on the windshield. At one time, the rain drops contained ice crystals. The outside temperature was 38 degrees.

The route between Evanston, Wyoming and Salt Lake City is always a pretty drive. It was especially pretty this trip because of all the new plant growth and the streams running full of water. We had an unpleasant surprise when we approached Salt Lake City. Kay discovered the KOA campground, where we planned to stay, was no longer listed in the KOA atlas. We've stayed there twice in the past and figured it would be a good place to finish our day. With our original destination for the day gone, we decided to continue on to the KOA campground in Wendover, Nevada.

It was another beautiful drive for us as we headed toward the sunset. The sky was full of cloud formations that reflected off The Great Salt Lake and the Bonneville Salt Flats. The salt flats were covered with water, so it looked like a big lake. The sun occasionally would break through between the clouds, sending bright rays down to light up a bright spot on the water. Some of the cloud formations had columns of rain beneath them.

We found the KOA campground shortly after sunset. The campground has several casinos within walking distance. It was good to settle down from a long day on the road.