Rockies and Fort Laramie

On Day 3 (29/5) we departed our hotel in Denver at 8 am in light rain. We drove North along the I25 as far as Loveland, and then turned west where the scenery became more interesting. Flat-lying sedimentary rocks changed to steeply dipping slates as we entered the impressive, winding Big Thompson Canyon. The vegetation was varied – pine, spruce, silver birch and aspen with leaves just breaking. The rocks changed again into gneisses and finally granite. 

Our first stop was Estes Park, at 7500 feet altitude, the gateway to the Rocky Mountains National Park. A park in this area refers to a flat area between peaks. Many of the peaks in the park are over 14,000 feet (3 times the height of Ben Nevis). Even at ground level here we noticed the effects of altitude – shortage of breath and a slower pace of movement. Many of the access roads are only seasonal and still blocked by snow. We returned to Estes Park, a pleasant town of 6000 people with the usual services and gift shops, for lunch and met this fellow on the way.

We returned down the winding gorge to Loveland, and spent the remainder of the afternoon on the journey North to Cheyenne, just into Wyoming. We stopped at a visitor centre to stock up on maps and information leaflets. Our hotel for the night was Little America, a country-club style establishment with a golf course, and Tony promptly went for a swim in the outdoor pool – sunny but breezy.

Day 4, Thursday, dawned sunny but windy, another 8 am start. En route we stopped at a supermarket in Cheyenne to buy a picnic lunch for our visit to Fort Laramie. The Great Plains landscape was evident on this part of the journey – gently undulating grasslands with occasional bluffs or outcrops of pale rocks ((siltstones?), occasional grazing cattle and pronghorns, a type of wild antelope. We drove North again on I25 and then turned East on to I26 to Guernsey, a small garrison town on the North Platte River. Mid-morning we stopped at the nearby Oregon Trail Ruts, a national historic landmark. These are remnants of the original ruts worn in the bedrock by wagons of the pioneers and settlers migrating to the West, in the mid-19^th century.  There were camps in this area where settlers found a way across the river. From here we soon reached Fort Laramie (not to be confused with Laramie), another historic site close to the junction of the Laramie and North Platter Rivers. Originally set up as a trading post, Fort Laramie was a government post from 1849 to 1890, and saw many movements of people travelling west, as well as conflicts with the native Indian peoples. Today it consists of some ruined buildings and some reconstructed, such as the cavalry barracks and the captains’ house. Although a very interesting site, the visit was marred by what can only be described as vicious winds!

The afternoon was spent driving in heavy rain into South Dakota and towards the Black Hills along I79. Our stop for the next 2 nights is the Adoba Eco Hotel in Rapid City, another windy location! The weather forecast for the next few days does not look good.