going to wyoming thursday. any must sees? - Page 2 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

John Doe · #16 07-13-2006, 11:20 PM

We go to Jackson Hole every year and my wife hates skiing, but that snake river lodge is a truly incredible spa and is within 1/4 mile of the condo we use. http://snakeriverlodge.rockresorts.com/

TwitchKitty · #17 07-14-2006, 12:49 AM

Links to another thread about Wyoming:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=148769

t walgamuth · #18 07-14-2006, 02:53 AM

hmmmmm maybe the education convention is booked into that one with the backlit waterfall in the pool.

no income tax...now i see why cheney likes it there. kindof like a carribean island without ever leaving the states.

tom w

pxland · #19 07-14-2006, 08:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

no income tax...now i see why cheney likes it there. kindof like a carribean island without ever leaving the states.

tom w

I didn't know the wind blew 40 miles an hour everyday in the Carribean!

Botnst · #20 07-14-2006, 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pxland

I didn't know the wind blew 40 miles an hour everyday in the Carribean!

..and gets -15F in the Oregon Basin, WHILE the wind is blowing! Jesus Christ, I saw rocks blowing! Rocks!

catmandoo62 · #21 07-14-2006, 08:34 AM

what might that small town in iowa be??there used to be a car museum in murdo S.D.right off I-90 about 1/2 way across the state,and of course you can't miss Wall Drug just don't drink the water.

pxland · #22 07-14-2006, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by catmandoo62

what might that small town in iowa be??there used to be a car museum in murdo S.D.right off I-90 about 1/2 way across the state,and of course you can't miss Wall Drug just don't drink the water.

Don't forget Deadwood (the series and the gamblin' town) on your way through the Black Hills.

t walgamuth · #23 07-19-2006, 08:27 AM

and having a really great time. my wife is going to meetings most of the time and i am driving around to my hearts content in some of the most incredible landscape i have ever seen.
the entire area is one that is shaped by tremendous plate movement. the plates are pushing together and great stony sections are being pushed up on both sides of where we are. the grand tetons on the west and another smaller range rises up on the east. the huge flat valley that jackson hole is in is mostly level and is built up of a layer of sediment, sand and gravel that has worn down from the mountains from wind and freeze action. the sediment in the bottom is 18,000 feet deep!
on monday she was done a noon so we went up to yellowstone. just the drive up there would be stuff to dream of looking at in the midwest, but here the most incredible lakes with the mountains rising up behind go without even a label. we drove about 200 miles in yellowstone in a big loop including old faithful which was about 4 minutes late. people from many countries and states there. we spent a half hour talking to a family from denmark. there are so many vents and small geisers and bubbling mud pools that after a while they arent even labeled. also buffalo wandering around, some close enough if i had a wadded sheet of paper i could have hit them easily. majestic animals.
and wildlife. prong horn antilope, caribou, deer, hawks, jack rabbits, cotton tails and more. havent seen a bear yet or a cougar.
oh yeah, i am driving the big dog, my 03 dodge 3/4 ton with cummins and six manual. on the tank in yellowstone, with a lot of driving around 50 i got 23.75. the section of just yellowstone if i had filled up without adding highway miles would have been over 25 for sure.
then yesterday i drove down to dinosaur national monument. it was about 300 miles through high plateaus and mountains. semi desert, pine forests and just spectacular scenery. romping up and down the mountains at 75 and 80. and using the gears to save brakes coming down. fun. i kept wishing i had my benz.
lots of antilope. the cotton tails in the semi arid areas are yellow, the color of the dried grass that dominates that area. the deer are very yellow too.
the last ten miles before reaching vernal utah the closest town to the monument included a section of ten switchback curves dropping down to 20 mph. oh yeah, and out here when it says 40 mph for a turn you might not want to try taking it at 20 mph more like you can in indiana. about 10 over is it. and if it were wet you would want to just do the posted speed.
i will post this and add more.

tom w

pxland · #24 07-19-2006, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

oh yeah, i am driving the big dog, my 03 dodge 3/4 ton with cummins and six manual.
tom w

You fit right in with that rig.

t walgamuth · #25 07-19-2006, 08:46 AM

so i go out to the monument visitors center.
now the whole reason i came down was to see the fossel bead which is enclosed in a building so you can get up close and see the bones embedded in the rock, right? so i ask the lady for a park map etc. she says casually, " oh yeah, the pavilion with the bones in it is closed for structural problems"......WHAT? "i just drove six hours through the mountains in the most strenuous driving conditions to see that. it is closed?...." "yes....since last wednesday...were very sorry". "sorry? what about me?" " so are there any other places we can see the bones embedded?."..."no, but there are some specataular viewing places where you can see the mountains and valleys". "i just drove through all the spectacular scenery i want for today thank you. i came down here to see the bones embedded in the rock!...no thank you for driving around your park and looking at rock formations!"
so i tried to find another way back to jackson without driving the same road back. all were about twice the distance.
so i headed back reluctantly. it was now about 4:30 in the afternoon. the drive had taken me over six hours on the way down.
so i drove back to vernal. i discovered they have a very nice museum there in a spectacular modern building with swooping curved rooms . in the center is a huge skeleton of the huge long necked thing that is a herbivore (a borontosaurus?) that doesnt sound right. but also a lot of bones and interactive stuff.
i spent about 45 inutes there, then got a cup of hot coffee and a sub a bag of chips and a fruity drink for the drive back and headed north.
just outside of town i rounded a curve and there before me was a mile long section of limestone that was heaved up at a 40 degree angle like a huge model tilted. on the angle of it i noticed a curved shape, what is that i wondered? it was an outside curve from a river which had carved its way through the limestone for a few hundred thousand years, then dried up and the whole slab was now tilted up. then i looked and incredibly there was about a mile long section of the river bed perfectly preserved winding back and forth all sitting high and dry at a 40 degree angle for us to observe. one of the most incredible geological things i have ever seen and not even a pull over with a placard describing it.
ok you creationists, which day in the creation process did this happen?

so soon i was as happy as a hog in mud driving back through the ten switchbacks and mountains.
as it was more along toward evening i was soon seening a lot of animals. on one section of high plateau out in the sage brush (or whatever those low gray green bushes are) i saw a group of five wild horses about 100 yards from the road, grazing.
as i got closer to jackson the white tail deer started making their presence known. i had noted that there werent many of them. not compared to indiana i thought. wrong. i just hadnt seen them because it wasnt evening before. so i was whizzing along at about 75 and i see a fawn beside the road, right at the edge.

more

tom w

t walgamuth · #26 07-19-2006, 08:56 AM

thinking that his mom would be following and i might hit her i slowed right down to maybe 10 as i crept by him. and just as i was beside him out from my left popped his sister and threw herself against my left front valance. with a sick feeling i looked in my mirror i looked behind me to see her pick herself up and wobble/ run stiff legged in a circle and then off to join her brother....yeah!

as i neared jackson, the last thirty miles is a lot of lush land with rivers winding along the road and lots of cover. deer country!

and so at least six more came too close to sacrificing themselves to the dodge god. but i didnt hit any more.

and i made the trip back in about four hours and was in bed reading by 1045.

what a drive though.

oh yeah i also drove by a division of halliburton in the town where the u of w is, the name is escaping me. also lots of oil well drilling out in the sagebrush. and trucks hauling pipe, and huge tanks and such.

and it appears that the car of choice in wyomming is a pickup, as they outnumber cars by about 3 to one on the road at least.

and the most humble mobile home may have a corral beside it with six beautiful horses a beautiful long horse trailer and a couple of very nice pickups to haul with. here it appears you invest in horses before your house. i suppose they work with them somehow. they arent just for rich folks like they are in indiana.

there is much more to tell but my hands are tired.

having a great time.

jackson the town is a mish mash of fake cowboy bars and stores selling phoney stuff and designer clothes stores. and breakfast at the virginian yesterday which consisted of coffee, oatmeal, a bannana and a side of ham cost me $10. the going rate. and diesel ranges from 301 to i saw a high of 385 out by the lake on the drive yesterday.

tom w

TwitchKitty · #27 07-19-2006, 09:21 AM

Watch for the immigrant trails. There are often placards on the roads where you cross them. They are on some roadmaps also. IIRC the trails split in west central WY and go to Oregon and Salt Lake City, etc. Those were some tough people to push all of thier worldly belongings in handcarts across that country. There are graves all along the trails. Almost any physical problem was deadly under those conditions. When you look across the horizon and see recognizable landmarks, those are the same landmarks the immigrants used to navigate.

Warning, if you venture offroad, sagebrush will scratch paint.

kerry · #28 07-19-2006, 09:22 AM

Looks like I'm too late, but I loved the fossils at the National Monument (Fossil Beds National Monument?) north of Green River. I also love the landscape around Vidavou(sp) just off I-80 between Larimie and Cheyenne. I've paddled the Green and Yampa rivers thru Dinsoaur National Monument a number of times. I can't imagine a more spectacular river experience. It's too bad the building was closed at Dinosaur because those fossils are worth a view.

t walgamuth · #29 07-19-2006, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwitchKitty

Watch for the immigrant trails. There are often placards on the roads where you cross them. They are on some roadmaps also. IIRC the trails split in west central WY and go to Oregon and Salt Lake City, etc. Those were some tough people to push all of thier worldly belongings in handcarts across that country. There are graves all along the trails. Almost any physical problem was deadly under those conditions. When you look across the horizon and see recognizable landmarks, those are the same landmarks the immigrants used to navigate.

Warning, if you venture offroad, sagebrush will scratch paint.

yesterday i stopped and looked at the historic marker for the oregon cutoff. no evidence of the actual trail was in ready evidence. i hear that in many places you can still see the wagon tracks.

tom w

t walgamuth · #30 07-19-2006, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kerry edwards

Looks like I'm too late, but I loved the fossils at the National Monument (Fossil Beds National Monument?) north of Green River. I also love the landscape around Vidavou(sp) just off I-80 between Larimie and Cheyenne. I've paddled the Green and Yampa rivers thru Dinsoaur National Monument a number of times. I can't imagine a more spectacular river experience. It's too bad the building was closed at Dinosaur because those fossils are worth a view.

thanks. i cant remember when i have been so disappointed. i felt sorry for the ladies working there, having to tell folks it was closed. i heard someone the day before had flown in from europe to see them!

unfortunately i am not young enough to do the paddling thing. it sounds great though.

tom w