Glenrock to Yellowstone

On Thursday last week, I traveled along U.S. Route 20 in Wyoming from Glenrock to Yellowstone National Park.

My first stop was at the Glen Rock of Glenrock, WY, which I climbed to the top of:

View from the top of the Rock in the Glen

After climbing up the Rock in the Glen, I climbed back down and around it, searching for the names of people who stopped by on the Oregon Trail. This was made harder because there was no trail to climb up or walk around the rock, and people’s private properties (with fences) came right up to the edge of the rock in some places, so I had to do some climbing to get around.

In Casper, I stopped at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center, where I learned more about the Oregon Trail and three other trails that came through Casper. [See my Oregon Trail post for more details on this and the Glen Rock.] They also had some artwork created by American Indian students at a reservation high school.

A Mosaic

Along Rte 20 in a northward stretch from Shoshoni to Thermopolis was a scenic byway through the Wind River Canyon. There were some great views:

Wind River Canyon

There were some tunnels through mountains on today’s trip, which is a very different experience than driving an Interstate tunnel, like the one under Baltimore’s harbor!

Tunnel through a mountain

Coming out of the Wind River Canyon, there was a lot of red-colored rock, which was beautiful!

Red Rock near Thermopolis, WY

A bit further on, Thermopolis claims to have the world’s largest mineral hot spring.

Thermopolis Hot Springs

Just east of the entrance to Yellowstone National Park, I saw some buffalo by the side of the road.

Buffalo grazing by the side of Rte 20

More pictures from today are here. My next post will be about what I saw and did inside Yellowstone National Park.