Travels with Bentley: Saturday, August 10

Saturday, August 10 - What A Day Saturday Was

Saturday, August 10

We both were on Google Maps this morning, looking at some of the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) sites around Rawlins and thought we'd check out a couple of them today. We first headed south of town to Rim Lake where we saw our first pronghorn (actual wildlife in the wild, not in town)!

The lake wasn't much - it was pretty dry around the edges. We didn't notice any sign of animals here. As we were leaving I took this picture.

Rim Lake

Probably just a weed, but I thought it looked pretty against this sandy gravel/dirt.

The next BLM land we visited:

Teton Reservoir - a lone RV on a hill, where there was room for at least 3 or 4 rigs to park overlooking the lake below.

Another RV here at Teton Reservoir. We talked with this really nice couple for several minutes before stopping at the bathrooms just down the road.

Our first wildlife in the "wild". Pronghorn deer.

As we left Rim Lake I noticed this beautiful rock formation with the natural stone shelf around it. It was gorgeous.

By now, it was close to noon so we headed back to Bentley for a quick sandwich before heading into town to visit the Old Frontier Prison. Reviews on Facebook and TripAdvisor showed it was highly recommended. While it was a bit eerie - it was informational. This is where this post became a frustration to me. I took pictures during our tour with my camera versus using my phone. When I went to download them, I lost 23-25 of the best pictures, several I wanted to include in the blog. They are nowhere to be found - they are no longer on my phone and not in Google or Gallery. I was really upset and had to set it all aside.

Since then, I've decided maybe God was trying to tell me I was stressing way too much over all this. I've now let the disappointment of the lost photos go - but on the other hand I took so many more pictures it took me quite a bit of time later to get all of them downloaded. Now that I have it done though I'm ready to finish the update for our two days in Rawlins, and get started on our stay in the Grand Tetons. I hope to get it done soon - because next is Yellowstone! How many more pictures will there be?

On the way to the Prison, we saw this beautiful home. It's interesting, that while I was trying to find information about Rawlins earlier, this house actually popped up, noting it had recently been listed for sale.

After arriving at the Frontier Prison we paid our fee of $8 each since we are both over 62. The next tour was at 1:30 and it was almost 1:00 when we arrived. They had several rooms where information was available to review during our wait. I told Dean I needed his picture and he obliged.

In another room were paintings done by several prisoners that were incarcerated. The inmate who painted this one picture in particular caught my interest, along with several others we saw later. In the article on the wall (which was one I deleted), it mentioned that Orcutt was a prisoner in Leavenworth, KS prior to coming to Wyoming. Orcutt was in a serious accident and lost one of his hands. All of his paintings were done after the accident.

This is a painting of the prison.

Most cells allowed for one person only.

Orcutt also painted these pictures. They were displayed in the prisoners dining area. As you moved down the walkway between tables the eyes of the bighorn sheep seemed to follow us. It was eerie!

Another picture Orcutt did...this one, no matter where you stood while looking at the picture - it looked as if you were always "on the right side of the track" - a message the docent said he was passing on to the other inmates - it's best to stay on the right side of the track.

Our docent, Galen, who did a great job.

The gallows - these are actually a reproduction of what was there. Later they changed to a gas chamber.

Even though the hatch was cemented shut, no one wanted to walk on it!

The entrance to the prison.

As we left, I noticed this mural. Very pretty.

Before we took out on our next adventure, we stopped at McDonald's for an ice tea and to use their facilities. I couldn't pass up taking a picture of these Cobalt boats here in Wyoming. They are manufactured in Southeast Kansas at Neodesha, about 55 miles from Oswego.

As we started on our next adventure we passed through the town of Sinclair, where there is a large Sinclair plant. Here's a little history about Sinclair, originally known as Parco.

Our adventure included heading east and then north of Sinclair to look at other BLM camping areas and to just enjoy the scenery of the area. We found the Dugway Recreation Area.

Dugway is located right along the North Platte River.

A man was fly fishing down river from the camping area.

Love these beautiful pelicans!

As we drove we admired the beautiful scenery, and noticed the clouds that seemed to be forming all around us.

We made a stop here where we learned about a byway of 64 miles (we had already driven a few of those miles from Sinclair to this point) that was supposed to provide some amazing views, so we headed north.

It is sad to see informational signs treated this way.

I'm not sure if this was being used by anyone or not, but it was certainly a beautiful setting for a home with a view!

Seminoe State Park is ahead

More pronghorn

Sand dunes - look at those clouds!

It looks like a beach near the ocean - right?

Looks like a few ATV's make use of this sand hill.

It wasn't too far down the road that we began to see this red rock, and we encountered a light rain shower.

Everywhere you look it is beautiful!

RV Park at Seminoe State Park - this campground had a fairly steep road to the RV sites.

Seminoe Campground on Seminoe Reservoir - this body of water was HUGE!

This is the other campground just down the road and we loved it. The road in to this one was not nearly as steep.

This was along side the road and nearly straight down to the reservoir below.

So all of a sudden the pavement ends and we are heading down quite a hill - a car coming up the hill as we are getting ready to make a turn.

Talk about a rough road - for miles it was nothing but washboard! Much of it going downhill at a fairly steep grade. We wondered what in the world we'd gotten ourselves into.

While Dean gripped the wheel and watched the road, I couldn't help but enjoy the countryside.

Finally, the road improved and we found pavement again. I thought this picture was gorgeous. I'm not sure I'd want to live out in the middle of nowhere though.

First time I've seen a plane in the middle of a field camping!

We finally reached Alcova Dam. We thought we'd get to drive over it, but that didn't happen. We just drove over the road below the spillway instead.

As I mentioned earlier there were storm clouds all around us all day, and except for just a short sprinkle, it missed us. However, we were able to enjoy this beautiful rainbow for a good 10-15 minutes.

The sun started to come out again and I was able to take this beautiful picture. The land seems to change every 20-30 miles. It's really beautiful here in Wyoming.

And then, here come the clouds again - it was surely raining all around us the entire drive home, until the last few miles and we had a decent shower before it stopped again.