June 30, 2019 – Wyoming

Bye Geese!!!!!

I’m writing this while we are traveling through Wyoming on our way to Montana.  This morning, we left Riverview RV Park – so far, our favorite park!  Over the last four weeks, we have watched the Canada goslings grow up, seen the Big Thompson River rise to cover the swimming hole area and fall back below, seen the cottonwoods explode with white puffy seeds (ED. NOTE – One of the craziest things I’ve ever seen, it looked like it was snowing for days), explored Loveland, Fort Collins, Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park.  The hubs and I would both be sad to leave but we know we’ll come back here – possibly for the fall.

It’s, like, just across the border!!!!

We were in Wyoming within 45 minutes of leaving the park – we didn’t realize how close we were to Cheyenne!  As we came into Wyoming, we suddenly noticed a silhouette of a buffalo on top of a cliff  – very cool.  Further into the state, we are again amazed at how different the landscape is – it looks so different from anywhere we had been.  The first thing we noticed was the WIDE OPEN spaces! (ED. NOTE – Great tune!!!!)  Fields of green as far as the eye can see.  All of a sudden, another silhouette – this time a cowboy.  Then steppes – the hubs said those were caused by a large glacier coming through the area (I’ll be looking that up). (ED. NOTE – Glacial lakes and erosion to be precise!!)  It’s like something just cut straight down the middle of the cliffs and formed a valley.  The steppes were covered with low green shrubs and rock.  One thing we noticed is there are few trees. 

Guess what – another silhouette!  A dinosaur and apparently, I missed one of a deer.  At this point, I figure this has to be a “thing” here, so the hubs looked it up.  Along Interstate 25, private citizens have put up and paid for the silhouettes, sometimes for advertising (couldn’t figure out what any would have been advertising though) and sometimes just for fun :)! 

At one point we passed a ranch with 3 camels and what I think were cows (the hubs says he thinks they were buffalo, but….). (ED. NOTE – Yep – buffalo!!!) The Rocky Mountains have stayed west of us for most of the trip so far, sometimes looking like gray shadows and other times popping up with snow capped peaks.  The land changed to rolling green hills past Kaylee and we began to see the prong horn deer that were so prominent between Genoa and Denver.  Once we got north of Denver, they seemed to disappear – I’m loving watching for them again!

 

We’ll be stopping sometime tonight before 10:00 in a parking lot or truck stop for the night (I sure hope its better than our last Walmart overnight experience). (ED. NOTE – It was not!!!)  Then heading to Wye, Montana right outside of Missoula for the next two weeks.  We’ll be visiting a friend (and his family) we haven’t seen in 25 years. 

The result of one man’s hubris!!!!!

Wow!  I looked at the map earlier and saw that 30 minutes up the road was the Little Bighorn Battlefield Monument.  How could we pass that up?!  After going through the Visitor’s Center Museum to get our bearings, we headed out to the monument and surrounding trails.  As far as you could see were rolling hills covered in yellow sweet clover which had a sweet scent. (ED. NOTE – Hence the “sweet” in Sweet Clover)

We started at the Indian Memorial which was dedicated on June 25, 2003, the 127th anniversary of the battle.  This memorial commemorates the Native Americans who died trying to preserve their way of life and fought General Custer and the 7th Calvary.  It bore plaques with quotes from various Native Americans who fought.  They were comprised of Lakota (Sioux), Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes which came together to fight against Custer.  The memorial listed names of those who were killed in the battle. 

 

We crossed the road and looked around the crest of the hill surrounding the 7th Calvary Memorial where Custer’s Last Stand took place and tried to imagine being a soldier looking out at the hills and watching hundreds of Indians on horseback riding toward you, then turning to look behind you and seeing more and realizing you are surrounded.  It certainly gives you pause. (Ed. NOTE – Yeah, those folks knew they were screwed!!!)   White headstones marked the places where those at the crest of the hill fell and as you looked around the hills, white markers stood where other soldiers had also fallen. 

To the left of the Visitor’s Center is a National Cemetery holding those who died in wars up to 1978.  After that time, no more reservations could be taken.  We were so grateful we took the time to stop and view a small piece of history.