Orionid Meteor Shower and Southern Wyoming

Milo and I took our morning walk in the frozen mud from yesterday's storm.  After raising the flag he mentioned that I should post something about the upcoming Orionid meteor shower.  The dark sky of the new moon should offer excellent viewing.  The meteors seem to originate from Orion's hammer, or club.  They will peak on the night of October 21st.  There can be as many as 20 meteors an hour.

I would like to use this post to take a quick trip through southern Wyoming.  I have received many comments from people who have made this trip. I thank them for their thoughts.  On our trip traveling from east to west, along Interstate 80 from Laramie you travel north of the Colorado Rocky Mountains along rolling hills.  There is a hugh windmill farm to the north of the highway, near Elk Mountain.  South of the highway is the area I fought my first forest fire when I was 20.  From there we travel to Rawlins, home of the Wyoming State Penetentry.  It was rumored for years that there was a set of cowboy boots in the front window of the main bank, downtown.  The story behind the boots is that they belonged to the last person to hold up the bank.  They buried him without them.

From Rawlins traveling west you cross the Red Desert and the Great Divide Basin.  The only way to describe it is miles and miles of nothin'! Nothin' except yellow-brown dirt, alkali flats (white), sage brush and tumbleweeds. You cross the continential divide with an altitude of 7208' and then 50 miles later, you cross it again, altitude 7200'!  The continential divide seperates the US continent into two parts, all the water on the east side flows into the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.  All the water on the west side flows into the Pacific Ocean.  And the water that fall in the Great Divide Basin....It doesn't flow anywhere.   It's a desert, there isn't any.

Halfway across the Great divide basin is the garden spot of the state, Wamsutter (an inside joke).  It's a town of house trailers and a couple of very expensive gas stations.  Try never to stop there.  The wind may blow you away.  The highway follows the route of the Union Pacific Railroad.  It was near Wamsutter that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid blew up the railroad car with Woodcock inside.  That is one of the true facts used in the movie.

Many, many miles later (and a movie or two on the mobile DVD player) is Rock Springs.  It's not the end of the earth, but it is rumored that you can see it from there.

 

Rock Springs, Wyoming

Rock Springs is 90 miles north of the Flaming Gorge Reservoir, known for it's trout fishing.  Head north and you will find the Shoshone National Forest, the Bridger-Teton National Forest, Jackson Hole and Yellowstone National Park.  We'll visit Jackson Hole and Yellowstone soon.

On the trip west out of Rock Springs comes the town of Green River and then the road side stop of Little America.  You have to stop for an ice cream cone....it's a much needed treat and reward for crossing the great American desert.  Stop and read the story.  Southwestern Wyoming has so much early western history, that is is best servered for another venue. It is stories of early fur trappers and American Indians.

Next we will follow the Oregon Trail across central Wyoming.  I'll share another great fishing hole with you.  Till then.....Happy trails!

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