Rocky Goes to Alaska

Day 19, 13 June 2015

Boulder, CO to Rawlins, WY 235 miles

The Wyoming Visitors Center was one of the nicest we’ve seen. In addition to a cool display of the wide variety of outdoor sports and tourist attractions, it also had an actual dinosaur skeleton. We took the Happy Jack Highway from Cheyenne to Laramie just to get off the interstate, and it was great - rocks, hills, and no 18-wheelers. On the way to Rawlins on I-80, we passed the Sinclair oil refinery. The familiar dinosaur is the Sinclair symbol. No oil wells were visible, but the refinery was massive. It processes in excess of 80,000 barrels per day, including heavy sour Canadian crude and Utah waxy crude coming in from pipelines. Although we did not see them, Rawlins has a dozen murals all over town, painted by local artists. General Rawlins arrived in the area in 1867 on a surveying trip for the Union Pacific Railroad. When they discovered a spring, he wanted it named after him. The Wyoming State Prison, also known as The Old Pen, first opened in 1901 and housed more than 13,000 inmates during its 80 years as a correctional facility. We took a tour through the prison, including its death chambers – gallows and gas chamber. Sobering. Only 13 inmates were executed in the prison’s history. Seems if everyone took a tour of a prison, maybe they would be discouraged from committing crimes. Southern Wyoming has a noticeable lack of trees.

Does my Jeep's new rear end make it look fat?

Wyoming Welcome Center

Dinosaur skeleton

Massive Sinclair refinery

Happy Jack Highway view

The Old Pen

Cell on death row

Gas chamber last used in 1965

Day 20, 14 June 2015

Rawlins, WY to Fort Bridger, WY 180 miles

Jim Bridger - beaver trapper, trader, and guide - established a trading post in what is now Fort Bridger in 1843 with his partner Louis Vasquez, in order to supply the needs of wagon trains on the Oregon Trail. Twelve years later, the Mormons bought the post as a resting place for their people emigrating westward. After a dispute with the US Government, they burned it before retreating to Salt Lake City. US troops arrived in 1857 and built what was to remain an important fort until 1890. It proved to be one of the main hubs of westward expansion used by mountain men, Indians, emigrants, Mormon pioneers, the US Army, the Pony Express, the Overland Stage, and the Union Pacific Railroad. It is now a Wyoming Historical Landmark. The original Oregon Trail ruts run right past the current replica of Jim Bridger’s trading post.

Commissary

Covered wagon on original Oregon trail

Replica of trading post

Day 21, 15 June 2015

Fort Bridger, WY to Pocatello, ID 219 miles

We passed the 13,400 acre Kemmerer Mine complex in the southwest corner of Wyoming. It is one of the Special Bituminous Mines that are allowed unique reclamation methods that focus on habitats and post mine land use options. The adjacent PacifiCorp power plant, which got our attention, gets its coal by conveyor from the mine. Fossil Butte National Monument is one of the ten least visited national parks, probably because it is in the middle of nowhere. Over 8,000 acres of outcroppings containing fossils are preserved. Tectonic forces warped the land 50 million years ago, creating a lake where ancestors of many modern mammals, fish, and reptiles flourished in a subtropical climate (one of our cyclical global warmings). When these creatures died, their remains were protected by layers of sediment. Later, under pressure, the sediment turned to limestone, preserving the fossilized skeletons in almost perfect condition. On certain days, visitors can join rangers on fossil hunts. Pocatello greeted us with a dark storm cloud hanging over the city, a flat tire on my bike, and a surprise hail storm.

Kemmerer mine and PacifiCorp power plant

Fossils recovered at Fossil Butte

Fossil Butte

Day 22-23, 16-17 June 2015

Pocatello, ID to Boise, ID 216 miles

On the way to Boise, we stopped at some of the towns along the Snake River. Most notably, Twin Falls is home to Shoshone Falls, sometimes called the “Niagara of the West,” and tumbles 212 feet to the canyon floor. Nearby is the site where Evil Knievel attempted his jump across the Snake River Canyon in 1974. Just upstream is the Perrine Bridge which spans 1500 ft. at a height of 486 ft. above the canyon. This bridge is a popular BASE jumping spot. We saw a hang glider come down from the brim to the river shore where three of his kayaking buddies were waiting in the water. Marti and Frank live in a beautiful high-rise condo right in downtown Boise. The view from their balcony is awesome. We rode about 16 miles on our bikes before we discovered a broken spoke and wheel, so we spent a little time (and money) at a bike shop. But the ride along the Boise River was great, and there were surfers wrestling with the waves below one of the small dams. We went to the horse races at LesBoisPark, winning some bets, losing others. Turned out that picking the jockey (Nikeela Black) was a better bet than picking the horse. And it was great to be included in Marti’s birthday celebration at a wonderful restaurant. So glad we got to hang out with Frank and Marti, and it may have been one of the few times we saw Marti outside of a ski trip.