GTTC: Day 3

We started this morning from North Platte, Nebraska. I looked up elevations and found that Columbia, Missouri, is about 700 feet above sea level. North Platte is about 2800 feet above sea level. Rock Springs, Wyoming, where we're staying tonight is over 6000 feet above sea level, and we went higher than that on the way here.

We were driving up this road from the east (coming out of the picture toward you) when we saw the blue sign below.

So we knew we were pretty high.

The cross road at the rest center is called Happy Jack Road.

We spent a while at the rest center. I took a picture of the Lincoln memorial there (below). The inscription is a little difficult to read in the picture. Here's what I think it says:

"'We must think anew and act anew.'

ABRAHAM LINCOLN
1809 - 1865


This monument commemorates the
sesquicentennial of Lincoln's birth by the state of Wyoming in 1959."

Then it lists the members of the Wyoming State Parks Commission, the donor, and the sculptor.

The visitors center attached to the rest area and the monument had displays describing the history of Wyoming as well as brochures and maps describing recreational opportunities (including bike riding!)

The rest area and monument is at the summit of the Laramie Mountains, a unit of the Medicine Bow National Forest.

We spent about an hour there, then drove on.

Some information we had run across indicated that there would be windmills about 40 miles west of Laramie. We saw a few about 40 miles to the east, but were watching for the larger number to the west and sure enough, there they were (below).

We weren't able to get as good a look as we wanted at the windmills from the interstate, so we left the interstate at Arlington and went across country on a two lane road for about five miles along the ranks of the wind mills to get a better look.

Once we got some pictures we were happy with, we returned to the interstate and traveled on.

The eastern part of Nebraska was all corn and soybeans. The western part seemed to mostly by grazing land for cattle.

The eastern part of Wyoming was very similar to the western part of Nebraska. It seemed to be mostly grazing land. As we continued moving westward, the land became rockier, drier, and more desert-like.

In the rest center mentioned earlier, we learned that prong-horned antelope outnumber the people in Wyoming. The population of Wyoming is about one third that of the Nashville metropolitan area -- around 500,000 versus around 1,500,000.


Laramie to Rock Springs was about 200 miles. When we got off the interstate in Rock Springs, we were greeted by this smiling fellow.

We found our way to our motel and got settled in, then wanted to go for a walk. At the front desk, we asked about places to walk. One of the young men standing there (a hotel employee I believe) asked me with a straight face, "Do you have a gun?" I think he was jokingly implying that parts of town are not safe to walk through unless one is armed. Although that may just be the "Wild West" aura I think the locals like to cultivate.

In any case, another hotel employee suggested that we drive up the hill to the local community college where there's a "track". We thought she was talking about a quarter mile track around a football field, like the ones we've used in Oak Ridge and Crossville.

When we arrived at the college, we were greeted by this more serious fellow. He's a replica of the (much larger) statues from Easter Island.











Up a hill a little way from the parking lot, we found the "track". It was actually a very nice walking trail winding through interesting desert habitat.

























From the trail, we could see different parts of the town.


















We were also able to see I-80 winding westward out of town into the sunset -- the road we'll take tomorrow morning to continue our journey.

Until then, good night.