Home on the Range, Antelope, & a Dust Storm 7/2/2010

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the antelope play and the wind comes sweepin down the plain. Boy all of those are true on our way and here in Casper, WY. We packed up and headed north for our trip to Casper which was about 185 miles. You talk about nothing but scenery along I-25. There was only 5 cities along the way and most of them you couldn't see from the interstate because they weren't big enough to see. There was Chugwater....pop. 244, Wheatland....pop. 3548, Glendo....pop. 229, Douglas....pop. 5288 and Rolling Hills....pop. 449. Along the way the scenery changes many many times from rolling plains, to mesas, to buttes to mountains, to forests and back to rolling plains with mountains on each side. You'll notice in some of the pictures how long and straight the road is as if you could see forever. All you seemed to do is go up and up and up but when we got to Casper it was actually lower in elevation than Cheyenne. I mentioned the town of Glendo above and as we drove up the interstate and we could see a great deal of land that looked flooded and come to find out it was. Beacause of excessive rain, heavy mountain snow runoff and the request from Nebraska not to release any reservoir water the rivers and lakes have flooded. Glendo State Park has only 10% of it's campsites that are accessible and have canceled all reserations for July and are thinking of doing the same for August and September. On most Independence Day weekends, Glendo State Park becomes one of Wyoming’s most populated areas, attracting between 10,000 and 15,000 people. As we drove the interstate the wind was blowing about 15-25 MPH with higher gusts that was moving the coach at times side to side. We got to the KOA in Casper about 1:00 and got set up and we thought the wind was blowing hard along the way. Well we'll tell you the wind at the campgrounds made the other seem like a summer breeze. It was blowing 30-40 MPH with gusts to 45-50 and at times made it kind of hard to stand up. After we got set up we had lunch and went out to take a look around. Actually we are not in Casper but in Bar Nunn, WY, pop. 936, about 2 miles outside Casper. We drove through Casper and actually it wasn't a lot bigger than Cheyenne with a nice older downtown section. As we drove through the National Historic Trails Interpretative Center we noticed 2 antelope standing along one of the trails so I had to have a picture. As we were driving back we noticed along the interstate what looked like fog but as we got closer it wasn't it was a dust storm blowing across the open land. As we drove through it we noticed about a 1/2 mile ahead of us clouds and clouds of dust blowing across the road which we didn't get into as we got off for the campgrounds. The KOA is situated on top of a hill overlooking Casper and the Laramie Mountains and Casper Mountain itself. Casper Mountain is a long mountain at the north end of the Laramie Mountains overlooking Casper, Wyoming along the North Platte River. Casper Mountain is such in length that it's visible from Space, at the altitude that the ISS and Space Shuttle fly. At a top elevation of 8130 feet, the mountain rises approximately 3000 feet above Casper. There are many recreation opportunities on the mountain. The campgrounds is nice as the wi-fi works fairly well, cable is great and the bathrooms are lovely, nice, clean and large. Well I guess that's all for our trip to Casper so until tomorrow we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad Dori & Dick