As we pulled out of Jackson Hole Monday morning, it was a gorgeous, clear, chilly day. Finally, we could see the mountains.
Scenery like this just soothes my soul. It makes me smile and say ahhhhh.
We drove south on 191. Still beautiful mountains, but it got drier and uglier.
We drove for miles along the Hoback River. So pretty. The rivers are our favorites.
Once we hit I-80, we headed east toward Laramie. We've discovered that America has more than one or two armpits; this area is one of them. So barren, dry, windy, ugly. No green. Just miles and miles of rolling hills with these snow drift fences. We did see a lot of antelope. I'm not sure what the poor things eat, but they seemed to be surviving just fine.
One of our challenges in looking for a campsite was to avoid the smoke coming up from Colorado's wildfires. This is near Laramie. It is not a cloudy/overcast day. This is smoke from many miles away. You could smell it too.
We set up camp and Abe started getting all his fishing stuff together. We had a new fly-fishing rod we had saved since his birthday in March to give to him. He was rather pleased. Liking the shorts with the boots!
Marci, our resident wood splitter. Getting fire stuff ready for this NO FIRES ALLOWED campground.
This morning, Marci woke up with this lovely eye. Knowing her, it was probably a mosquito bite.
Tim cooking bacon and eggs and pancakes this morning. So good. Love camping! Love eating outside!
While we ate, we planned the days activities.
We are parked up against the mountains, beside a river. This is the mountain we see from the side of the RV. I have my lens zoomed all the way in, - it's a lot farther away than it looks. Also, a lot steeper than it looks. We planned on hiking up this. But...since there are homes at the base, we decided to go for another mountain.
This "other" mountain is much steeper, much bigger, and rocky all over. Marci, Conni, and Abe went a different way than Tim, Angi, and I.
It was so steep! We found out real quickly, that we are not elevation acclimated. Puff, wheeze, puff, wheeze! The best way is to stop and rest often.
View back down to the Laramie River. We're about 1/3 of the way up.
Taking a break. We would have bouts of nausea, and Angi had a few black out episodes.
Bear went with us, but he kept wanting to stop and rest. Wimp dog. He never summited.
Abe and Marci at the top!
View of the Rockies.
I made it! Very pleased with myself. It took us about an hour to get up to the top. Elevation: approximately 8,000 feet! No wonder we could never catch our breath.
Tim took a picture of the summiters. (Conni stayed way down with Bear.) The white flag is not a flag of surrender. It is a we-came-we-conquered banner!
View from the top back down to our camping spot. Our RV is on the other side of the river tucked back by the trees.
And now we begin the descent.
Back down with Conni and Bear.
Conni hanging out on a ledge.
Wow. That's still a long way up. That's the Laramie down below.
Back down and returning to base camp.
This is a guy's version of playing purses. Abe sat here forever going through his tackle box. In fact, it was more important than lunch!
Grilling out for dinner. Tim's cowboy potatoes....
...and Tim's marinated chicken. Delicious bombacious!
After dinner campfire. If we keep it in our fire bowl, maybe we can get away with it.
Roasting marshmallows. Abe called this "epic perfection."
End of the day...Miss Saggy Eyelid.
I think we will all sleep well tonight. Tired bodies, clear mountain air, cool breeze, running water sound....what's not to like?
we used to live at 8,000 feet most people who came to visit us were sick for a day or so, know what you mean fresh air and the water is yumm!
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