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 shelterI 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...
