Windy Wyoming

 We started our day with a walk in Thermopolis State Park, home to mineral hot springs and a bison herd. We walked across the Swinging Bridge footbridge over the Bighorn River, and stopped by the Teepee Fountain, built in 1909 to cool the hot mineral water. As the hot mineral water flows over the stone base, it cools and deposits layers of travertine.

Once on the BMW, we headed south on US 20 through the Wind River Canyon, a gorgeous ride where the rock cliffs rise 2500' with the 2-lane highway, Wind River, and train tracks winding along the bottom of the canyon.

Some of these rocks date from the Precambrian period, more than 2.9 billion years ago. The road passes through three short tunnels before coming out on the south side of the canyon and the Boysen Dam and Reservoir.

Boysen State Park covers more than 35,000 acres, including the huge reservoir. Backed by the snow-capped mountains to the West, it's a gorgeous spot - and we saw hardly any traffic.

We turned west onto US 26, spotting numerous antelope as the road wound up through hills, then down long flat stretches.

There are still patches of snow on the north-facing hills, even though we were never higher than 7000'.

We stopped at Sweetwater Station at the junction of WY 135 and US 287 for a bathroom break, and thanks to the several interpretive signs, we learned about prehistoric people who lived here for hundreds of years and the Mormon/Oregon Trail that passed nearby. This is a wide-open, empty part of the country and it was a very welcome stop.

We continued on US 287 toward Rawlin, passing through more open land on roads that stretched ahead of us as far as we could see.

We stopped for lunch in Rawlin where we realized we had veered away from our planned route. We regrouped, rode a few short miles on I-80, then got back on track on US 30 toward Laramie.

On the way to Laramie several huge tractor trailers carrying wind turbine blades passed us going the other direction, and then we came up groups of wind turbines as far as we could see. We've been buffeted by strong winds every day in Wyoming, and it makes sense to use that wind for energy.

We rode 298 miles, ending the day in Laramie. This was the first day of the trip that we didn't need our rain gear and we enjoyed the sunny skies and wide-open landscape.