9/18 - Boulder to Rawlins, Wyoming

Today's 200-mile drive was easy but really monotonous......only two roads until turning off I-80 to get to our campground with dry desert scenery the whole way.  

This is the way it started out......

Then it went to this.....

With the landmark of Pilot Butte thrown in near Rock Springs....

And it continued with this.

The southwest to south-central section of Wyoming is all high plains desert, very dry and windy with elevations over 6,000 feet. There's no agriculture with so little water available, but the area is energy-rich with numerous oil and gas wells. Coal was mined here years ago to provide fuel for the steam engines of the Union Pacific Railroad. The mines drew immigrants from all over the world. The town of Rock Springs (100 miles west of Rawlins) is now known as the Home of 56 Nationalities with the descendants of the immigrants celebrating the town's rich cultural heritage on International Day each summer. 



Our campground in Rawlins is dry and barren-looking, but the owners are very nice and it's convenient to I-80 and groceries. It's all we need for one night. The wind has been vicious all day, blowing so hard it knocked my hat off as soon as I opened the truck's door. If you don't have a ball cap that's tight enough to give you a headache it will be blown off in a nano-second.


We were in serious need of groceries so went 4 miles up the road to Walmart. We learned there that this town of 10,000 had only one grocery store until Walmart came.  After that another grocery store opened so people are very happy that they now have more options.  

While we were getting fuel at Walmart's station a herd of seven pronghorns came right up to the edge of the gas station's lot.  It was a buck and his six-member harem.  

The buck.....

And half his harem (couldn't get all six in one shot)

They grazed around the edge of the lot before wandering along behind the hotel next door.

The wind was still howling when we got back with the groceries.  It made for an interesting time trying to get the RV's door open and us inside with the bags without the door slamming open against the side. It was shaking the RV so much we had to hold onto our drinks to stop them from spilling.  We're very close to the interstate but we can't hear the trucks over the wind. There's an upside to everything.

Tomorrow we'll have another short day (180 miles) to get to Loveland, Colorado. The forecast there is for a high of 88 so we'll probably melt. We haven't been in temperatures that high for quite a while.