The last night in WY (actually, our first night in WY, since we officially stayed in MT) we went out to a local steakhouse in town. I grabbed one of the pamphlets that told about the local history of the town - it was a Pony Express and a Union Pacific railway stop for many years before the interstate came through. We talked about going on a ghost tour of the town, but decided maybe not-- we didnt want any visitors following us home that night.
The meat was melt in your mouth fantastic, with a side of big baked potato and veggies, and the boys all had fun. Actually, they were smiling cause I mentioned they could go swimming afterwards.
The view from outside our hotel - neat geologic formations surround this town, completely different from where we had been that morning.
The town had a bunch of sculptures along the main drag, and we got out at the boys insistence to go ham it up with some of them. We never saw bear in Yellowstone, so why not here?
Day 5 dawned with us driving south to Flaming River Gorge national monument, on the border of Wyoming and Utah. The drive south from Green River was boring as all getout, until all of a sudden you come upon this flaming gorge:
Mom! Mom! We gotta stop so we can take a picture next to the dinosaur sign!! Oh, alright. We were pretty close to Dinosaur national monument, too, but we didnt swing by there as I heard the visitor center was closed for renovations.
We had taken a vote earlier in the morning at breakfast - do we head south an hour to see Flaming Gorge, and then head back up north an hour to I-80 and over to I-15? Or do we continue on south on a two-lane road for most of the state of UT and see the back ways? Popular vote was the back highways -- grandma Elta would be proud!
Along the way at one point, we got stopped by another herd of wild animals. Not bison, but cattle this time. I swear they were being wrangled by the Marlboro Man.. The kids didn't know who I was talking about (thank goodness!).
Most of the day we were winding through a mixture of deserts, forests, and steep grades up and down mountain passes. We spent the time counting those cows again, and seeing who could guess the closest time from the lightning up ahead to the rain hitting the windshield. There were three different stretches of scenic road that we drove through, and I would do it again someday.
We had lunch somewhere in the middle of the state, and pulled into Cedar City, UT that evening right around dinner time. We took a poll and decided that popcorn and candy while watching Toy Story 3 was a way better dinner than dinner out somewhere else. The next morning we planned to hit Cedar Banks and a tiny bit of Zion National Park, but the rain and flash flood warnings decided our fate for us. We zoomed back through the little corner of AZ, on to Las Vegas, Barstow, and finally home that afternoon.
Zion, Bryce, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon - you're all on the slate for another road trip....which may or may not be before a return to the lands up north.
No comments:
Post a Comment