1118 August 27, 2024 Wyoming!

Tim looked out the window first thing this morning and there was an elk in the campsite next to us.  I wonder if the people who live here are as enthralled by the presence of the elks as we tourists?  Something tells me no.  We watched them eating flowers in town yesterday.

I drove the Jeep to the Estes Public Library and parked.  From there, I was able to access the Riverwalk.  The walkway was very well crafted and a pleasure to walk. 

This is a quaint and charming mountain town.  There were lots of lovely shops.  It would have been a great place to buy gifts.  There were high end boutiques, fine leather goods and handbags, pottery, jewelry, jerky, granola, distilleries; something for everyone.   It was too early to shop though!

I did stop at the Kind Coffee café for some cold brew.

This is a really artsy place.  There were sculptures and flower gardens and murals.

There were lots of chimes and musical instruments along the river.

The Veteran’s Memorial.

I was so glad that I made the choice to visit Estes Park today.

We packed up and with clean laundry, a full fresh water tank and other tanks empty, we began our journey to Wyoming.

We left Estes Park and traveled on winding roads back through Big Thompson River Canyon.

Three wild turkeys crossed the road in front of us.

We drove through Loveland and north through Fort Collins.   Fort Collins seemed like a really nice town.  There was everything anyone could want…from Walmart to Cadillac!

As we drove further north, the scenery changed.  It was starting to look like Wyoming with rolling hills and beautiful golden grasses, scrubby bushes and lots of rocks.

We saw pronghorns on the fields and prairie dogs guarding their sandy hills.

There were miles of snow fence. 

We got fuel in Laramie and then drove on the Snowy Range Scenic Byway.  We stopped at the Visitor Center for maps and information.  I saw this Cowboy Code posted.

My paltry pictures cannot capture the scale of this place.  Visibility today was 25 miles!  The sky is so blue and the air smells like pine.

We crossed over the North Fork of the Little Laramie River and then through the small town of Centennial; population 253.  We were at 8,000 feet.

We entered the Medicine Bow National Forest and found a campsite along a gurgling stream at the North Fork Campground.

This evening, we packed dinner and drove the Jeep 16 miles on a gravel forest road to Sand Lake.  We were at an elevation of 10,000 feet.

We walked to the water and through a derelict campground. 

We saw a marmot run across the meadow and he found a hiding spot in a crumbling cabin.

There were some hoof prints and some pawprints in the mud near the lake.

We ate corn on the cob and rotisserie chicken and grapes.

We inadvertently dropped a grape and two birds, Canada jays, also known as camp robbers, swooped in to claim it.  We watched one of the pair fly off with the grape in his beak.

On the way back to the campground, we saw a deer and then later, we watched this porcupine waddle across the road and scramble up the steep bank.

Tim brought me a purple wildflower, and I guess you could say he took me out to dinner.  When we got back, he brought me a square of dark chocolate.  It was a nice day.

After dark, we went out to look at the sky.  The moon had set at 4pm.   We were at a high elevation where the air was cold and thin and crisp.  The milky way and the stars were bright and beautiful.  I don’t know when I have seen a prettier sky.