From Denver to Yellowstone with some interesting visits along the way

Once we had manouvred ourselves through the suburbs of Denver and decided we really were on the right road our journey to Kemmerer, though long was uneventful.

We got lost a few times and were really certain by the end of the day that the best idea of all was a paper map: technology cannot be relied on if signals are non-existent!

Although we were surprised by the variety of landscapes and at the area covered by small centres of population along the road (Highway 25/87) there was no real opportunity to stop to take photos. I wished there had been more time to explore places with names like Laramie and Cheyenne. In fact the only stop we made was at a roadside Wendy’s near Laramie for lunch, which was (for us!) typical American fast food – burgers and chips. The best bit was the delicious refreshing lemonade that kept my thirst satisfied for the whole journey.

It was a bit of a shock to find ourselves driving along the Continental Divide at 9000 feet above sea level. We discovered that this mountain range starts in Alaska and goes right to the tip of South America. It determines whether water will fall off to the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean. Having noticed it once, we were to find ourselves coming across it a number of times during the journey.

In many ways it was the final part of the drive that was the most interesting as, just beyond Rock Springs, we came across the kind of rock formations we had only expected to see in Monument Valley – one Somjit thought looked a bit like two pieces of toast, we later discovered was called ‘Boar’s Tusk’ and is the core of an extinct volcano . Nearer our destination all kinds of contraptions we saw in the fields made us wonder what was being drilled for. We saw nodding donkeys at various places, came across a tiny settlement called Opal and saw some things that looked as if they might be for oil storage. There were also some very long trains..

We topped up with petrol at the service station down the road from our overnight stop – a very nice Best Western just off the main road in Diamondville, very close to Kemmerer. It took me a moment to realise that the pump wasn’t fooling me when it stopped at 8: it was working in good old-fashioned gallons. And the bill was a blast from the past, too – just $31. We had covered around 470 miles.

Ending the day with a comfortable bed and a good night’s sleep followed by breakfast included in our room price helped set us up for a fascinating second day…

First stop was the Fossil Butte National Monument where we had hoped to buy the America the Beautiful Annual Pass for entry to the National Parks. About fifteen minutes drive from the hotel this houses some fascinating exhibits and is one of the places where the greatest number of articulated (living) fossils have been found. The ranger was helpful but told me I had been misinformed – he also made sure I would get the pronunciation right next time I used the name: be sure to say ‘Bute’ not ‘Butt’ if ever you need to use the name!

We were also struck by the surrounding area covered in a blanket of purple and yellow flowers. The shadows in the hillside mark the sites of some of the original commercial fossil quarries.

I had it clear in my head that we needed to return to Kemmerer for our onward journey so drove back without checking the details I had saved the previous night.

The capital of Lincoln County is a small town, with some interesting buildings, but we couldn’t find the road we needed to travel to our next destination… the instructions we had suggested we needed to go back to Fossil Butte and continue beyond before turning onto the State Highway… I really should know better than to ‘remember’ what we need to do. Although we were glad to have seen a ‘normal’ town, we didn’t really have time to waste. There was a long drive ahead!

I was still determined to get hold of an ‘America the Beautiful’ Pass before we arrived at Yellowstone where I had been told to expect long queues and I had discovered that it was possible to drive up through the Grand Tetons National Park to enter Yellowstone from the South.

So we set off through the highways and byways of Wyoming on a quiet Sunday morning seeing how the weekend passes here. In almost every community the church car parks were full or filling up as we drove through; twice we saw ‘fresh farm ice cream’ advertised, thought ‘that sounds good’ and drove to the farm shop indicated only to find it ‘Closed on Sunday’. That would have delighted me at home where everything is just so available that there is no special day in the week, but here I found it frustrating while, at the same time admiring the people for their willingness to keep one day different. One town we drove through, Afton, has the largest arch of elk antlers in the world.

‘The arch spans all four lanes of U.S. Route 89 as the highway passes through downtown Afton. The arch is 18-feet tall and 75-feet wide. Smaller elk antler arches flank each side of the arch’s base.

First conceived by the Afton Chamber of Commerce in 1956, the Elkhorn Arch was completed in July 1958. It’s composed of 3,011 intertwined elk antlers and weighs over 15 tons. The arch was constructed at an estimated cost of $2,500. Today, the antlers, popular as an aphrodisiac in Asian medicine, are valued at an estimated $300,000.

No elk were harmed in the arch’s construction. Elk shed their antlers each spring, and the naturally discarded antlers were collected with a permit from the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission. Most of the antlers were gathered from the National Elk Refuge near Jackson, Wyoming. Annual antler collections continue for the arch’s maintenance and upkeep. It also receives a yearly coating of a special weatherproof finish.’

Details from atlasobscura.com where you can also find images – no we didn’t stop!

For much of the journey we drove through the varied lands of the Bridger-Teton National Forest, where the river and mountains provide outdoor activities for all and, as with many roads we have driven so far, points of historic interest are well marked.

As we moved north we had become aware of a range of mountains to the west but it was only when we entered the Grand Teton National Park, America the Beautiful pass safely purchased at the Visitors’ Centre, that we really saw them in all their glory. Although I knew the Rockies were close, I had no idea of the variety of scenery to be found in this part of the US.

The range looked different from different parts of the park and we stayed longer than we had intended, having originally assumed we’d be happy with a quick drive through…

but, at the far north of the Grand Teton Park is the southern entrance to Yellowstone – our ultimate destination for this stage of our trip and just thirty miles from our base for the next two nights.

But that’s a whole different story….