Lake Guernsey, WY

Our trip to Lake Guernsey State Park in southeastern Wyoming recently was a real winner. We spent most of the day exploring the park, then stopped for the night in Torrington, WY, stopping the next morning for a short visit to the Scottsbluff National Monument in Nebraska on our way home. We were accompanied by my father (BC) on this trip, and Joe did all the driving in BC's car.


This was our first visit to Lake Guernsey, which is about a 2.5 hour drive from our house, and we were most impressed with the park. The day use fee was $6 (4 for WY residents), very reasonable, and we had the park almost to ourselves--only saw a couple of cars and motorcycles while we were there. No one at all using any of the camping or day use areas we visited, which made it easy to stop and look around at a good number of them.

Lake Guernsey was created by damming the North Platte River in 1927, primarily for flood control and irrigation needs. The lake soon attracted recreational users and the Civilian Conservation Corps was eventually brought in to build facilities and roads to accommodate this originally unanticipated need.


gate tower on the dam

There is a museum in the park highlighting the CCC's work and general history, unfortunately it is only open in the summer months so we weren't able to visit this trip. The park, however, is full of bridges, picnic shelters, lookouts, drinking fountains and restroom facilities, constructed of rocks and amazingly large wooden beams by the CCC and well maintained, so they are still beautiful and useful today.


Joe atop a viewing platform high above the lake (steps on far side of platform)





view from the viewing platform

We saw some really nice picnic shelters in our wanderings around the park, 2 of which were like open buildings with stone fireplaces, a couple of picnic tables and million dollar views. Very, very nice. One is called "the castle" and the other "Red Cloud". Both are spectacular.

entrance into the castle


view from the parking area; also informational sign about the construction


inside view, lower level. Incredible panorama of the Laramie Mountain Range viewable through the arches


fireplace, main level in the castle

view inside Red Cloud picnic shelter

I didn't take enough pictures of the CCC facilities on our wanderings, mostly just overwhelmed at what I was seeing. We drove by a roadside drinking fountain sheltered by a massive wooden roof that was definitely imposing, must get a picture of that on my next visit, as well as some of the other amazing things we saw. I did, however, manage to take some pictures of interesting rocks behind the Red Cloud shelter:



We stopped for a picnic lunch at Davis Bay, which seemed to be a small campsite near the water when the lake is full. We had sandwiches and canned pineapple, washed down with water and coffee, and it was a fine meal. Afterward we stayed awhile enjoying the area and the warmth of the afternoon sun, eventually moving on when lots of flies arrived and got quite pesty.


Joe checks cell signal strength (none!) after the picnic at Davis Bay


Davis Bay, lots of sandy beach with the water so low...

After lunch we spent a couple of hours continuing on our tour of the park. Breathtaking views at every vista. A magnificent, warm, sunny afternoon. Perfect.




The next morning we continued driving east from Torrington, turning south at Scottsbluff after a brief visit to the top of the monument, BC's first. It was quite cool and a bit windy at the bottom, so we figured it would be cold and blustery on top. We were wrong, it was warm, mild and calm! Spectacular view--it always is.


view from the top of Scottsbluff


Joe and BC enjoying the view

Crews were patching cracks on the road to the top the morning we visited, and we were the only vehicle visiting at the time, so we had our own personal pilot car to take us to the top and then back down (he waited for us while we were sightseeing on the bluff). About halfway down the hill we had to stop and wait for the road crew to complete the task they were working on, which was great. Usually there is no stopping or standing on the road (which has great vistas of its own); this time we were able to enjoy them as well as watch a little of the work being done, able to see some of the details of the job.

All in all, a great get-away. Joe and I plan a return visit to Lake Guernsey in the near future, we were very impressed with how nice it is. We have made a couple of trips to Scottsbluff that are blogged here and here if you missed them and are interested...

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

We recently took a trip to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. It was a great trip, a bit of distance from here, which necessitated an overnight stay in the town of Gunnison.

Day one, the drive to Gunnison, was fun. Lots of beautiful scenery all the way. Didn't take many pictures on the drive, mostly just sat and enjoyed the scenery. We did take a short drive on some county roads outside of Gunnison, and it certainly is a scenic area.



We had dinner in our hotel room, tasty pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy.

Day 2 we got up fairly early and headed for the canyon. Again, a drive full of spectacular scenery.

Lots of places to pull off the road and enjoy the scenic views on the drive to the canyon

On our drive to the road along the North Rim of the canyon, we drove along part of the Curecanti National Recreation Area, which includes 3 dams on the Gunnison River and their resulting lakes.


lake

one of the dams

scenery approaching the North Rim

"It sure is beautiful here!"

----------------The Canyon--------------------------------------------------------

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison is breathtaking, there is no doubt about that. A canyon almost half a mile deep and only 1500 ft wide at its narrowest point. The first view I took, my hands clamped to the railing, literally took my breath away. I'd had no idea what to expect, and was so spectacularly surprised at the drama of the view. Wow.

Here are a few photos and a video that will give you a small taste of the majesty of this place. Enjoy!















We managed to stop at all the pull-outs on the road along the North Rim. Some were just a few steps from the canyon's edge, others required a short hike. But every view was different, one more spectacular than the last, and most importantly, every viewpoint had a nice, safe viewing area with a sturdy rail. These drop offs are not for the faint of heart!!


just something about this place makes you want to hang on tight to something secure!

We did see a lot of flowers, some birds, a mule deer and this lizard on our trip:

Cheyenne Wells

On a recent Wednesday we took a day trip to Cheyenne Wells, a town in southeastern Colorado. Earlier in this year we sent away for a vacation packet that featured museums and attractions in the area, and we decided to visit two museums we'd read about which are in Cheyenne Wells.
We started out running backroads down to Denver, then headed east on I-70 to Limon, where we headed south on US 287 to the turnoff for east US 40 and Cheyenne Wells. It was a beautiful day, weather-wise, mostly sunny and hot, but there was a nice breeze blowing that kept anywhere in the shade pretty cool and pleasant. And it was a beautiful drive to CW.
Our first stop was the city park for lunch. We packed the fixings for sandwiches and some snacks and drinks, so we found a shady parking spot and had a very tasty picnic lunch with the windows down and the breeze keeping us nice and cool.


very pleasant park


Joe is assembling his BLOB (Beef, Lettuce, Onion and Bacon) sandwich.
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Our next stop in CW was the Telephone Museum. CW was the first community to have a wireless phone system installed, and it was in 1946. The earliest cell phones, though of course these were "regular phones" tethered to the wall, not today's tiny portable phones. It is an interesting story of how all this came about, and the museum also has displays of phones and related hardware from the past.


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The Cheyenne County Courthouse is right across the street from the Telephone Museum


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Our next stop was the Cheyenne County Heritage and Old Jail Museum

The jail cells featured some very interesting metalwork. Large levers on the outside of this contraption opened the cell doors. There was a grated opening high on a wall above the cells so the sheriff could look in on the jail from his home, which was also in the building.




2 tiny cells, with 4 folding bunks and very little floor space


detail of the metalwork


display of old tools and miscellaneous pieces, still in the the jail half of the museum. All the items had informational cards near them, and these cases are open, no glass, allowing the items to be handled, turned over, or whatever for closer examination. This wouldn't work in most museums, but it is a fantastic feature in this one. We were the only visitors at the time we were there, and we suspect that they don't often get large crowds. We had to cross the street to the county building and ask to have the museum opened, it seems to be pretty much on request. A very nice woman opened the place right up and stayed to supervise our visit and answer questions.


displayed jug with informational card


this room, also in the jail half of the museum, was full of collections of arrowheads and other Native American artifacts found in the area over the years, along with some local artwork --an eclectic display


gourds, of course, caught my eye...


blue and white cups in on upper left shelf look like Gail's dishes...


all kinds of stuff, much haphazardly arranged, which just added to its charm
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The other half of the museum building houses the Cheyenne County Heritage Museum, full of all kinds of stuff of various vintages, put together to "furnish" a house. Again, the open arrangement allows for closer examination than the usual behind-glass displays.


kitchen


another view of the kitchen


butter churn that holds 9 gallons of cream


tiny stove


laundry room (with cream separator in the corner)
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Leaving Cheyenne Wells, we headed north on US 385, a road almost in Kansas.


T-A-L-L stack on a building in Burlington, CO
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Last Spring we were hoping to make it out to the area north of Wray, CO where the lesser prairie chickens do their mating dances. With all we had going on in Feb and March we didn't make it, so we decided to check out some of the areas off county roads where we might park to watch them next Spring. (Roads north of Wray off 385) Turned out to be a wonderful drive through some spectacular grassland terrain.


one of the county roads


view from the road


a great vantage point


box turtle we saw crossing the road


these flowers were blooming in many areas
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Done with driving the county roads, we got on US 34 and headed for home


10 years ago there were lots of sunflower fields along 385, beautiful, endless fields of yellow, flowers all facing east...today most of the acreage seems to have gone to corn cultivation


which means lots of silos



A great trip!