Up Hill and Against the Wind

Wednesday, June 5, 2013
We were up and about fairly early this morning and left the Moraine Campground around 8:30.  We drove to the Beaver Meadows Visitor’s Center where there was a stamp available.  Once the stamping was completed we watched a video on the Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was well done and very enjoyable.

RMNP looking over Estes Park

 
The Moraine VC was closed so we were unable to go into it and could not locate that stamp at the other VCs.  We returned to the Fall River VC gift shop where, of all things, we discovered a penny smasher, in fact 2 penny smashers.  Fred and Betty had a great time smashing several “coins of the realm”, which were added to their smashed penny books.

Elk in the park

There was some road construction in the park.  The park road system is being overhauled in anticipation of the park’s 100th anniversary in 2015.

Our Camp sites

We left the park, traveling east on route 34 to Estes Park where we fueled up the caves, then on to Loveland, CO where we turned north on route 287 to Fort Collins and Laramie, WY.   287 is the main route north and south through Fort Collins.  It was a lot more congested than Barney and Betty remembered.  We did manage to locate a Subway in Fort Collins and grabbed a sandwich for lunch before continuing north to Laramie.  Once you are out of Fort Collins, the drive on up to Laramie is a pretty pleasant one.

Going through river canyon

At Laramie we took I-80 west and pointed the noses of the caves directly into the wind.   We stopped at the rest area at Fort Steele but decided it was too early to stop for the night.  We made it to the rest area west of Wamsutter, WY where we stopped for dinner and will dig in the caves for the night.  We are parked in the back yard of a family of prairie dogs which are standing around watching us.    Someone has said that in Wyoming, no matter which way you travel you are always going uphill and against the wind.
That statement seems at least reasonably accurate.

Frank Lloyd Wright designed VC