Whimsy Calls: Big Wonderful Wyoming - a quick trip to the mountains

I'm from Wyoming and my folks still live there so it's just a hop, skip and a jump to drive north from Colorado and cross into the Cowboy State. We finally had a few days last week to slip the surly bonds of earth and head into the high country.

As we drive north on Highway 287 I cannot resist taking photos from the car window looking east. I have a zillion of these and they are never alike.

Big skies abound!

I should mention that Wyoming is the 10th most extensive state in the union but the least populous with just over 580,000, according to 2013 numbers.

Rugged grasslands, high plains and rocky outcropping merge in northern Colorado en route to Wyoming.

As a girl I was always proud that Wyoming was the first state to grant women the right to vote and to elect a woman governor. A funny thing about that election is that Nellie Tayloe Ross defeated my great-grandfather Frank E Lucas, who was then Secretary of State until the death of her husband, then governor William B. Ross. My great-grandfather served as the 13th governor from 1924-25 until the next election and Mrs. Ross was elected as the 14th governor of the state of Wyoming. Although she only served two years she later served as Director of the U.S. Mint from 1933-53.


About a mile north of Virginia Dale, four miles to the Wyoming border, elevation 6,970 feet.

Virginia Dale, now an easy-to-miss shuttered building along the highway that used to house a cafe and post office was once a famous stop on the Overland Trail in the late 19th century. I read that it's the last of its kind still standing. Few cars whizzing by it would ever guess its history.

Soda Green Lake, a favorite for ice fishing.

As we continue to head SW into the Medicine Bow Mountains via Highway 230 that we picked up in Laramie, Wyoming, it is a breathtakingly stunning day for travel.


Highway 230 heading into the Medicine Bow Mountains.


Sheep Mountain, a traveler's familiar reference point.

We pass Woods Landing nestled along the Big Laramie River, about 25 miles southwest of Laramie with about five miles to our destination. Wyoming is drier and windier than most anyplace in the U.S. with great temperature extremes. Regardless of the season, it's always good to pack for the unexpected. In summer, nights can get cold and days could surprise you. At this elevation the UV rays can be brutal, especially on cloudy days, so be sure to pack a good sun protection lotion and clothes to layer. And, NEVER leave home without adequate water.

Our trip was unexpectedly cold and rainy. Really doesn't matter, though. When I'm in the mountains, at 8,770 feet elevation, I'm so elated to be in the crisp mountain air that I'll be happy with any weather!

(I was also rather happy to have brought some warm sweatshirts, long pants and boots.)

It's always fun to take a Jeep ride, bumping slowly along rough dirt trails, enjoying the scenery and that marvelous feeling of exploration.

Since it had rained so much and the questionable quality of the dirt roads was even more questionable with all the thick mud and new ruts, we stayed only on the "main" roads. We passed a lot of fellow campers who had the same idea.

If you love the solace of open space, you'll love Wyoming. If you love skies that seemingly never end, you'll love Wyoming. If you love looking out at hundreds of miles without human development, you'll love Wyoming.

I should probably explain why so many trees appear dead. Sadly, they are dead, killed by an infestation of the Mountain Pine Beetle. More than 1.5 million acres in Northern Colorado and Southern Wyoming have been destroyed by this nasty beetle. Nearly all the mature lodgepole trees are dead now and when you read or hear about raging fires in Colorado and Wyoming, you'll understand that there is abundant fuel just waiting to ignite.

The Mountain Pine Beetle infestation was triggered by severe droughts in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I wish I could tell you that it's over but this infestation cannot be stopped.

I confess that I was horrified the first time I saw areas that were once thick forests of lodgepole pine now cleared bare areas, dead trees knocked down for safety's sake, sometimes in huge pyres to be burned as safety precautions. It was heartbreaking to travel to beloved places, once quiet and shadowed, now open and bright in unrelenting sunshine.

I won't lie to you and tell you that I don't miss the forests of my youth. I miss them with every trip to the mountains. But, my parents, wise as parents are supposed to be, look at it simply as change. Just that. With this change there are more wild flowers and a whole new vista awaits. I've tried to embrace that philosophy.

With that, here are a few additional vistas I want to share...