WYOMING
Wyoming is super awesome. I loved it. It's very much an alien planet, if I haven't said that already. Weirdo rock formations, lots of bubbling pools, bison everywhere, etc. Or they may be buffalo. I don't know the difference. Either way, enormous photo drop coming here. If you quote this post, be sure to delete all the image code because it's gonna be reeeeeally long I bet.
So I drove up from Fort Collins in the late afternoon/early evening. My first impression of SE Wyoming is that it was very Flint Hills-y but not quite as plateau'd and with some weird rock formations thrown in. None in this photo, but you can picture it.
Got into Cheyenne with enough time before the Bat Cats' impending OSU game 2 beatdown to cruise the downtown near the capitol. The building itself is nice (gold dome), but whatever. You've seen one state capitol, you've seen 'em all (except LA, NY, FL, and AK). One thing I did notice though is that they have this statue out front. I was conflicted about it because the townie MHS Indian in me loved it, but also it seemed like an ominous reminder of the inevitably racist sculpture they're gonna put in the MHK roundabout. Either way, giving him a peace pipe seems a bit much. Racists.
Here's a good picture of what SE/Southern Wyoming looks like. State is SUUUUUPER deserted, btw. Always jockeying for 49th in population with Alaska, if I recall correctly.
Drove an hour past Cheyenne and stopped off in Laramie to see UW's town and campus and stadium and arena. It was decent. Verrry small though, like 30,000 townies small. I'll post a bunch of stadium pictures in the other stadium thread, but they did have this that I'll just drop off here.
I don't know.
From Laramie I basically drove the length of southern Wyoming along the interstate, heading toward Jackson Hole. I saw this kinda weird billboard in Wyoming a lot. She's crying. Buckle up.
Now we get into the really elite nature'y stuff, because there is almost no civilization that I could find west of Laramie. But tons of awesome crap to look at. After a few hours, the rolling hills and rock formations turn to small, rock'y (not Rocky) mountains, and then before you know it you're 45 minutes outside of Jackson Hole and looking at these badboys.
It's important to note that practically every day I thought to myself, "This is so badass. Way cooler than the badass thing I saw yesterday." Each day the scenery kept getting increasingly better. It was amazing. And I realized I'd stepped into Mother Nature's big leagues when I reached that point about 45 minutes outside of Jackson. I want to live on this farm.
Fast interstates gave way to windy mountain roads and I knew I was heading into one of the truly elite areas in our country.
That night I went into Jackson Hole's downtown. Went to Pinky G's pizzeria to watch the Bat Cats lose a heartbreaker in the third game. Watched on a tiny TV while some hot chick at the bar was being relentlessly hit on by some dicknose. The town itself is about what I expected: extremely elite, very touristy/resorty, and full of seasonal worker early twentysomethings who come there to smoke weed and take people on whitewater rafting tours. Small town, but every inch of it is great. Weird note: Jackson Hole High School is located on a street called High School Road. lolwut.
Camped that night at a campground on Hoback River. Just kinda found it. Had to set up my tent in the dark after the game which sucked, until I finished and looked up and saw more stars than I have ever seen in my life. Man. Super starry skies are way better than skies with very few stars. I wish I had a camera capable of getting a picture of it, but I don't so here's a daytime picture of where I camped. It was right by a rushing river.
From there it was on to Grand Teton National Park/Yellowstone National Park. What I didn't realize is that the Grand Tetons start, like, six miles after you get through Jackson Hole. Here are a bunch of Teton pictures.
Then it was Yellowstone time. I actually ended up spending way less time in Yellowstone than was recommended here. Basically wasn't even there for a full 24 hours, unfortunately. This was partly because all the campsites were completely booked up. Which was weird, because it wasn't even bumper-to-bumper traffic or anything and it was, like, Tuesday or something. Would love to go back, because what I did see was very cool. I basically just went up the west side of it. Didn't get to explore the eastern part of Yellowstone at all, which is gonna be first on my list when I go back to the area. Feel like I missed out on a lot of cool stuff, but I realized it would be absolutely impossible to do everything I wanted to do in the ten or so days I had, so I cut Yellowstone short this time so I could get on up to Montana. Anyway, here are a bunch of Yellowstone pictures. Notable things I saw besides a ton of incredible views were Lewis Falls, and Old Faithful Bubbly Ground Park.
Lots of tall, skinny trees all bunched together along the highway. Actually this was all over western Wyoming. Any arborkats know what kinda trees they were?
Stud kid fishing all by himself in Lewis Falls.
Now for pictures from Old Faithful. I expected it to be just that one big dumb geyser, but the park in which Old Faithful is contained is actually very big. Lots of geysers. Lots of blurbling, foamy, steamy pools rising up from the center of the earth. And yeah, bison everywhere. I sent Future Mrs. SB a picture and she called it The Land Before Time and she was right. I walked around TLBT for about 4 hours. Probably walked a total of about 5 miles. Also there's a huuuge lodge there. Might consider staying there if I ever go back, just because it looks weird and kinda hokey. Anyway, pictures.
After a few days in Wyoming SB already knew this was the best, #1 trip. Thought it couldn't possibly get any cooler. But SB hadn't been to Montana yet.