What could be better than driving through Southeastern Wyoming? Rolling hills of native prairie grass, only occasionally interrupted by farms and fields. Cottonwood river-bottom forests in the low points. The Laramie River. Pronghorn, historic windmills, and endless blue sky. Eastern Wyoming isn’t in-your-face, like Yellowstone in the other corner of the state, but it is wild and free and oh so open.
It was only 20 miles north on Interstate 25 before the right turn on highway 26. Southeast into the sun the rest of the morning. At Guernsey, the North Platte still flowing full. Fort Laramie. Fort Laramie is not in Laramie, it is east of Cheyenne on the Laramie River. The Oregon Trail. Register Rock, a 100 foot high outcropping. Thousands of pioneers camped here and inscribed their names on the sandstone, dating as far back as the 1820s. Historically significant artifacts now. A graffiti rock, then.
Prairie grass going from green to gold. The motorhome doing well for a heart-transplant patient. Slow moving coal trains on sweeping railroad track turns. The picturebook small town of Lingle. Torrington, a big city by comparison.
At the Nebraska state line, the town of Henry, population 145. Morrill, Nebraska, a shiny silver diner. Scottsbluff. Chimney rock. A right turn at Oshkosh to head south back into Colorado. Dryland corn. Dryland corn sure looks different from irrigated corn. Fields of sunflowers, and finally, Bonny Lake State Park. A very nice campsite, and Red-headed Woodpeckers.
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