#12 Why-oming?

Wyoming was the first state where women could vote, hence its nickname, the equality state. Most people however call it the ‘Cowboy’ state and that’s certainly how we would describe it too. In fact, the first thing we came across were three cowboys on a cattledrive, next to a big iron sign telling us to, “Eat beef-this is cattle country”. Well that’s right up our cattle drive!!! Very few people live here though, and it is the least populated state in America. We certainly could live here if it wasn’t for the harsh winters and the year-round howling winds.

Driving through Wyoming is never a bore. From desert and canyons to snow-capped mountains and prairies, you can imagine the great host of wildlife on offer. There are pronghorn antelopes, deer, elk and moose; eagles, snakes and bears; and of course bison which Wyomingites sport on their flag.

We began our Wyoming journey with a visit to ‘Devil’s Tower’, the first ever national monument to be established in the U.S. This 867 foot (264 meter) tall butte is made of phonolite porphyry, an igneous rock formed as cooled magma or lava. We enjoyed exploring this unique geological structure on a beautiful stunning day, with a couple of hikes and quite a snake encounter too!

We stocked up on prime cuts of beef in Gillette and with a stop in ‘Buffalo’, made our way to the ‘Big Horn Mountains’, where we breathed in the alpine air and carried out a few hikes through the late spring meadows, which reminded us a lot of our home in Switzerland. With zero cell phone signal, we enjoyed three days of family time and of course eating our delicious steaks.

Next stop was Thermopolis, the town with the world’s largest mineral hot springs (measured by the amount of water flushing through, rather than its actual size). The attraction is situated within Hot Springs State Park and does include fun pools to splash around in. We however, decided to have a soak in the ‘Big Horn River’ where the water from the springs drop into, and enjoyed watching three daredevils jump off cliffs.

With relaxed joints and muscles, we drove south through the breathtaking gorges of Teeter Canyon and spent a night on the Boysen Reservoir before making headway to Cody, Buffalo Bill’s town.

It was Abigail’s birthday and in true wild west style, we took a horse-back ride through Cody’s dusty mountains. That was awesome, thank you ‘Cedar Mountain Trail Rides’. For dinner, we had pizza, and for dessert, a live street performance of a wild west show at the original Irma Hotel. The hotel was named by Buffalo Bill himself as a dedication to his daughter, of the same name. Buffalo Bill Cody, the showman of his day founded the town back in 1895. There is a very impressive museum, ‘Buffalo Bill’s Museum of the West’ which showcases his life amongst three other exhibitions. We only scratched the surface of this museum having only a morning to spend. Tickets allow visitors to return within a two-day period and we can see why. We definitely recommend stopping by.

We left Cody with wonderful memories, t-shirts and a belt buckle and took the 50 mile road out west to Yellowstone, the first national park of the USA, founded in 1872. We’re usually not the kind to book ahead of time, but we were advised by many people to reserve our campsites in the park. Not only is it the first national park of the USA, well the world even, it is the most visited today. We were lucky and managed to squeeze ourselves in and snap up three nights on three different campsites. Yellowstone reopened that week after the COVID lockdown. We were not expecting too many crowds, and visitors confirmed that it wasn’t so busy, however, it looked pretty crowded to us, we’re glad we didn’t turn up mid-August in a ‘normal’ year!

There was lots to see at the park though (it covers 3470 square miles of land) and we kept ourselves busy each day, sniffing the sulphuric air at the many geysers, watching ‘Old Faithful’ punctually perform to its audience, taking in the array of colours at Grand Prismatic Spring, admiring the mighty canyon that the Yellowstone River has carved through the millenials; and always on the lookout for wildlife. We didn’t get to meet Yogi Bear but we did spot a beautiful wolf, elk and bison. Actually, the buffalos were roaming freely through our campground…glad we didn’t sleep in a tent!

Yellowstone is fascinating; bubbling and steaming out of the Earth everywhere you turn. It sits on a giant super volcano, and if it was to erupt, would change the face of the Earth as we know it. What a place!

South of Yellowstone lies its mountainous neighbour, Grand Teton National Park. The scenic drive took us along the picturesque landscape of the Grand Teton Mountain range. So picturesque that even Ansel Adams had to capture the beauty in his famous piece titled, ‘The Tetons and the Snake River’.

In hope of seeing a bear, we spent two nights in ‘Bridger Teton National Forest’. We took a hike further up in the wilderness, bear spray in hand but still no luck! It turns out that our camping neighbours did spot a grizzly though…I guess we just need to sacrifice our lie-ins a little more and get up early…the early bird catches the worm!

After the national park marathon, we entered glamour and glitz at the ritzy town of Jackson hole. This place is the St Moritz of Wyoming. Boutiques, galleries and mountain outfitters decorate the boardwalks. A little too upscale for us but the antler arches that were displayed in the park and the wild west stagecoach that gallops through town were a nice touch.

All this hustle and bustle and tourism wore us out. We needed to escape for a couple of days and find something quiet and remote again.This was achieved at Granite Hot Springs. The ten mile dirt road was treacherous though! It was covered in potholes the size of moon craters and Richie needed to air down the tyres in order for us to get there in one piece! This short distance took us well over an hour. But…it was all worth it. Awaiting, was a beautiful campsite, sitting by a creek with a backdrop of mountains all shades of green. No big RV would make it up there, hence it being practically empty. Pure bliss! A mile up the road (we hiked!), we found the hot springs and soaked for hours, what an experience.

On our way to Flaming Gorge, we stopped at Fossil Butte National Monument and practically camped in the ancient subtropical lake area: a small patch of BLM land sandwiched between private cattle ranches and only a five minute drive to the visitor center. I’m sure that if we got our excavation tools out we could have dug deep and found a few fossiled fishes ourselves. This area holds some of the world’s best preserved fossils of fish, turtles, plants, birds and reptiles. The visitor center did an excellent job in showcasing these ancient specimens.

Flaming Gorge was the grand Finale to our Wyoming visit. It sure does live up to its name. The drive to the Flaming Gorge Reservoir, where we camped for three days, was spectacular. Dark clouds loomed over the desert, building up to a dramatic evening light, a photographers dream…..but when dusk sets in…boy oh boy, the sky burns and does its name proud.

Now that’s why Wyoming has made it into our ‘Top of the States’ charts!

Thanks for reading, we’ll meat you around the world!