Wide Open Wyoming

I’ve wanted to come to Wyoming since reading nearly all of CJ Box’s- Joe Pickett (National Parks Ranger) novels. I was sailing around Europe on Toodle-oo! and enjoyed reading the mountain adventure. Joe Pickett’s home town is Saddlestring Wyoming. The town and mountains sounded idyllic and spectacular all at once. So… here we are in Wyoming…

Wyoming gave us our first glance of the real Rockies. With it, we saw the reality that we’re not going to be able to get everywhere we want to – at least not easily. We entered the state in the southeast corner. We were in Cheyenne, headed west towards Medicine Bow on route 130 through Centennial. Shortly after entering we encountered unpaved roads followed by a road closure due to snow. Instead of feeling sad we felt glad and stopped and boondocked among the snowdrifts!

Camping among the snow drifts . . . . .

We back-tracked the following day and made our way north towards Kaycee by way of the Fossil Cabin – constructed entirely from Dinosaur fossils.

Dreams are reality when you see what the Boylan’s created when they started collecting fossils in 1915 from nearby Como Bluff. Fossil Cabin is made of 5,796 dinosaur bones found nearby and weighs 102,166 lbs. The site was under renovation when we visited.

Spectacular scenery on our journey!

We were searching for a place to camp for the night and came across mention of the Hole-in-the-wall -campground. It was made famous by Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch who used to hide out there in some of the caves while being chased. It was some 17 miles off the beaten path but well worth the journey. The geology of the area is spectacular with red red cliffs and flat lush grazing land…we arrived in the afternoon while the sun was illuminating the red landscape.

As we climbed towards our chosen boondocking spot, the red cliffs turned more grey with spectacularly deep canyons, and the grass turned to sage grass and mahogany bush.

With such spectacular scenery, we opted to stay a second day.

We saw another campsite high above the canyon and took a somewhat difficult, if short, drive over a rocky road to a very private campsite. It overlooked the previous night’s campsite.

The morning saw us travel further north, through Kaycee – to Saddlestring- the home of Joe Pickett from my novels. I was aware that Saddlestring was small – it’s hard to find on the map – but suspicions rose as we travelled mile after mile of unpaved roads. We finally arrived  at a Dude Ranch. This is apparently where CJ Box stayed and got his imagination. There was no little white house with a picket fence, no school, no Police station complete with ineffectual Sherriff, no Pardna Burger where I had figured lunch would be had… What a let down! Always a journey to figure fantasy versus reality.

With private land all around, we decided to move on and found ourselves at Tongue River Canyon at the base of the Big Horn Mountains. We found a camping spot right beside the river. This allowed for an enjoyable hike up the side of the Canyon the following morning. We took a spectacular drive along Rte 14 over the Big Horn Mountains witnessing the Elk fires damage along the way. We drove down into Thermopolis for a lovely hot springs bath at the free public bath house.

After a relaxing soak we needed a place to camp for the night. While walking the dogs a couple suggested we go to the Petroglyphs at Legend Rock – about 20 miles out of town. More unpaved roads later, we found ourselves at Legend Rock State Petroglyph Park . There were “no camping” signs all around. Since nobody was there, we stayed and enjoyed studying the Petroglyphs as a full moon rose. There are at least 283 different petroglyphs on 92 individual sandstone panels.

South of Thermopolis, we found ourselves travelling down the spectacular Wind River Canyon – and windy it was!

The river in the canyon is fed from Lake Boysen Dam and Reservoir – within Boysen State Park. The elevation is 4,713′. While using the free dump we asked the gentlemen rangers where to stay. They suggested the other side of the reservoir where no one camps.

We stayed and enjoyed the solitude and the long walks with the dogs along the beautiful rock strewn and driftwood beach. We saw white pelicans and heard many different birds.

Onward to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone!