As I was taking pictures the day I approached Craters of the Moon National Monument in southern Idaho, I discovered this portable toilet laying on it’s side well below the road surface and out of sight of passer-bys. I hope no one’s inside!
Can you image what the company which owns it is thinking? Now why would someone steal one of our portable toilets???
The first photo is of what is undoubtedly the most photographed thing in the town of Jackson, Wyoming. Yes, there are some pretty photogenic mountains just north of town, but I’m talking about the town itself.
This is one of 4 arches, one at each corner of a one-block city park in town. What you are seeing are elk antlers. Lots and lots of elk antlers.
Then, as I was passing the aforementioned mountains north of Jackson (in the Grand Teton National Park), I saw this military aircraft taking off from the Jackson airport.
I was hoping to see a passenger jet take off or land (it’s a regular airport and I saw jets on the ground) but I was pressed for time and couldn’t wait for that to happen.
As I was driving southeast on Route 287 in northwest Wyoming I noticed this large object way up on the top of a mountain to my left (this photo was taken using quite a bit of zoom. It was WAY up there, and it is REALLY big). Does anyone have a clue what this thing is? I assumed I’d be able to Google the location and figure it out but I’m coming up blank.
It almost looks like a huge drive-in movie screen. I think it might be some type of reflector for transmission signals. I’m really stumped.
After leaving Jackson, Wyoming I headed north past the Grand Teton mountain range to the little town of Moran. There I took Route 287 southeast through western Wyoming down to the little town of Rawlins, along Interstate 80, where I got a motel room for the night. I intended to get to an Airbnb in Laramie, Wyoming where I had a reservation but for various reasons I didn’t make it that far (my first no-show in 2 1/2 years) and I let the host know by e-mail not to expect me. We had been exchanging messages throughout the day about my increasingly late ETA. I stopped by the house in Laramie the next day to apologize in person.
The northernmost part of Route 287 was on my list as a preferred scenic road but let me tell you, it was pretty awesome all the way to Rawlins (well, until it got too dark to see how awesome it was).
As you can see from many of the photos, a storm system was in the area (fortunately is was moving away from me). As I was nearing the split where Route 287 would branch off from Route 26 I saw this curious atmospheric phenomena. As the sky lightened after the storm had passed, a light colored cloud reached towards the ground. This cloud was quite far ahead of me so it had to have been very large. Rainbow-like colors, the full spectrum from red to violet (remember Roy G Biv?), appeared in this cloud. I have seen it once since then, but the one I saw this day was a first for me. There was no conventional rainbow, just the wide cloud which was reflecting colors from the setting sun. It was really cool.
And right before the sun was about set I saw these little guys when I stopped at a rest area.
Yes, those are the unmistakable red and blue lights of a US Park Service ranger patrol vehicle in my rear view mirror. Seems our hero was doing 51 in a 35, which the ranger thought was a tad excessive.
After reviewing my credentials, discussing my attire (what are you wearing that vest for?) and giving me a stern talking to, I was fortunate to get off with just a verbal warning.
When he brought my license and registration back to me he asked me what I had been taking pictures of. I thought that was a really stupid question to ask someone in Colorado, and I resisted the temptation to say something smart-ass because I figured that would just get me in more trouble than I was already in.
I was a few minutes late meeting Sam for lunch outside the Park, but none the worse for wear.
When I visited Rocky Mountain National Park the second day I noticed some changes from when I had been here the day before.
Those white rectangles denoting the pedestrian walkway weren’t there on Tuesday.
No, silly, that’s not what I’m talking about (although it’s true, they hadn’t been painted yet). This was a picture I posted the day before:
And here was the same view today:
I will be posting another more dramatic example of how things can change from one day to the next tomorrow.
The second day I was in Rocky Mountain National Park I stopped at this Visitor Center to use the restroom. As I was pulling in I noticed lots of people walking around in the areas next to the parking lot with Safety Sam vests on and carrying long grabber sticks. At first I thought they were having an Easter Egg hunt but no, they were volunteers picking up trash.
After doing what I stopped here for I spent some time reading the signs and looking around the property. I learned that this site was once home to the Hidden Valley Ski Lodge. The Park Service deconstructed the Lodge from 1999 to 2003 and reused many of the materials in building this beautiful new visitor center.
I also found a group of people under a shelter talking to a Park Ranger. They were the volunteers I had seen picking up trash. I got there just as the Ranger announced they he had combined all the trash which had been picked up and it weighed in at 8 1/2 pounds. Some people are such slobs….
I had noticed when I pulled in that there was a US Park Service Fire & Rescue vehicle parked near the building and a firefighter was talking to one of the rangers who was working here. Turns out he was there to give a demonstration to a group of youngsters who were having a Junior Ranger learning session inside the building.
And of course I couldn’t leave without getting my picture taken. Meet JohnBoy the Park Ranger.
I am spending two nights in Breckenridge, a ski town about two hours west of Denver. My youngest brother, David, spent the winter of the year he graduated college working at a ski shop in Breckenridge.
This is the view from the interstate at the Breckenridge exit looking south.
And this is a typical scene on the main street in town.
When my friend Shawn learned I was going to be staying in Breckenridge she told me I needed to go to a little French bakery in town and order “Little Nuns,” which are basically three small eclairs, Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear size, stacked like a snowman. Well, I found the bakery but they had no idea what I was talking about, so of course I opted for beignets instead!
Trust me, they weren’t nearly as good as they look. They need to send their staff to New Orleans to learn how to make a proper beignet. I struggled to eat them both, as they really weren’t even as good as the doughnuts I get at home. As Trump would say, “Sad”.
I texted my brother to see if he wanted me to get him anything while I was here. He replied “Nothing from Breck other than a piece of property on Peak 6, please. Preferably ski-in, ski-out”. Well, I checked and they had just sold the last one, so I got him a magnet.
After getting off the dreaded interstate I started driving north on a section of what is known as the “Million Dollar Highway”. I quickly came to the small towns of Century City and Black Hawk, which are comprised mainly of quaint little casinos. This one obviously caught my eye (and for those of you who don’t know me, I live in Durham, North Carolina, a tobacco town and the place where the movie “Bull Durham” was filmed).
I’ll post pictures from Century City tomorrow. It is really a cute little town.
I had passed this church yesterday on the way down to Breckenridge but the sun was in a better spot as I drove by today so I stopped again to get better pictures. Technically this is the Saint Catherine of Siena Chapel in Allenspark, Colorado, just south of Estes Park. Pope John Paul II visited the church while in Denver in 1993. He enjoyed a hike in the nearby woods, and also visited the St. Malo Retreat and Conference Center which was adjacent to the church.
The Conference Center burned in November 2011. A major rock slide destroyed most of the property around the church in 2013 and it was forced to close. It is now a construction site as the State of Colorado has taken over the property and is renovating the building.
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