Picture Stones

On leaving Big Horn Canyon, I headed south. It was starting to get cold, in fact I heard that the Black Hills had gotten a little snow. I drove into the Wind River Indian Reservation and my socks were totally blown off. Wind River Canyon has got to be one of the most beautiful canyons in the United States and to think I found it by accident. A curvy road between two massive walls of rock with a river flowing right down the center of the canyon. I am really sorry that there was no time to take pictures- I really was awed. There were even three tunnels. I pulled over before the first tunnel to scope it out, since they were such narrow tunnels, it would have been heart-stopping to meet another vehicle in the dark.

I safely proceeded thru the tunnels and continued on to the Wind River Casino where I spent the night. Can you imagine my delight when I found out that Tuesday was senior night and you got a free meal in the restaurant? I joined my other gray-hairs, sat down and had a totally bland stewed chicken breast, mashed potatoes, roll and a carrot medley that had been boiled to an inch of their lives. I guess it is good to see what my future might look like.at

Leaving the casino, I headed to Kemmerer in the southwestern corner of Wyoming. Somebody told met that there was always snow in Kemmerer and it was a long way up to get there. They were not kidding – I think that I spent maybe over an hour just heading up the mountain, parts of which were pretty steep. At one point, I had shifted down to second and was going about 25 miles per hour. That is all my RV could give me, poor thing. When I got to the top, I stopped at a rest stop to give myself and my RV a chance to rest. At this point, there were tremendous cross winds. It was a long hard day.

The attractions in Kemmerer was two-fold. First up was a JC Penney store – the very first one. Kemmerer is where it all started. The store is still in business, it still has some of the original store fixtures from 1902. 

They call it the Mother Store

Fossil Butte National Monument is right by Kemmerer. Back in the olden days (fifty-two million years ago), a shallow lake covered this area. A thick growth of algae coated the bottom and when a creature died, it sank to the bottom, was covered by algae and because of this it never had a chance to decay or be eaten by creatures. They estimate that there are over a billion (yes, I said billion) well preserved fossils here. Millions of fossils have already been excavated. We have plant fossils, mammal fossils, birds, insects, spiders and over 20 kinds of fish. Again, I was amazed at much detail you could see in the fossils.

Check out the size of that Palm frond

Look at the detail

There was a scenic drive which I started off on but realized when I got to the sign that said 17% grade that my car, mighty though it is, would not be able to continue.  We turned around.

The fossils are all found in that light colored rock up at the top.  That used to be the bottom of the lake.

This was one of my Junior Ranger tasks - Move over Picasso!!

This is somebody's back yard near the RV park.  Evidently fences don't mean much here.  There was one buck and 23 does and youngsters.  Mr. Pronghorn kept trying to get all his girls rounded up, but they weren't listening to him much.

And another back yard.