What's In Gillette, Wyoming?

A better question.  What is in Wyoming?  Not as many people as live in the Capital Region!  It is a sparsely populated state.  Even its largest cities would barely fill an NFL football stadium.  There are practically no taxes.  Yes.  Everyone pays federal taxes.  After that I suspect the largest, out of pocket expense might be meeting the deductible on automobile insurance.  There are many hail storms in Wyoming, especially in Cheyenne.

In Boston terminology, that is a wicked powerful storm.  The body damage is enormous.  It's a rental with Nevada plates.  I wonder if the renter took the collision damage waiver.  It's parked out front of our hotel.

What else happens in Wyoming?  Fracking.  Big time.  As we journeyed from Cheyenne to Gillette we kept seeing large Halliburton trucks with drilling equipment or hoses and tanks.  We drove by countless numbers of fracking wells in the middle of pasture where cattle were grazing.  I hope those farmers are keeping an eye on their water tables.

And what about Gillette.  What does it offer?  A Wingate Hotel.  Why go there?  So we can get to see this:

Not my photo.  Mine will be here tomorrow.

It is a bit of a haul to get from Estes Park to Gillette.  And it is further still to Devil's Tower, The Badlands, Theodore Roosevelt NP and Mount Rushmore.  Gillette happens to be along the way.

So does Cheyenne, Wyoming, the state Capital and Capitol.  The Capitol is closed and will be until sometime in 2020 for major restoration and repairs.  However, the railroad museum is open and there are some interesting pieces of art out front.

Check out the name of the bar over the lady's shoulder.

There are quaint customs here.  The businesses like to remind visitors that we aren't that far removed from the wild west, especially in Wyoming.

Bear and Nymph Lakes - Rocky Mountain NP

The first photo I place in the blog text is the one that Facebook ends up using.  Yesterday's turned out to be fairly mundane.  Today...

  less so.  It's not easy getting Jan to relax on camera.  I took this one while she was sitting on a bench at Bear Lake.

It's one of the more popular destinations in the park.  We used the Park and Ride access, which was 75% of capacity at 8:45 AM.  The Bear Lake lot fills by 7 AM. 

The hike to the lake is pretty easy.  The trail shows some gentle inclines and declines.  There are plenty of spots to get a good look at the vista.

At one point I foolishly suggested we could re-enact Michael and Laura's engagement video.  Unfortunately, my version of altitude acclimatization feels like a massive head cold.  My sinuses are complaining about living at 10,000 feet above sea level.  Using something like Claritin isn't a good idea.  It dries you out and that makes thinks worse.  Saline works ok, but basically you just need to wait until your body adapts.  Kneeling on the ground in front of Jan might have required an EMT to get me back up.

The hike to Nymph Lake is more challenging.  It is not long.  It elevates the entire trip to the lake.  We soldiered along with periodic rest stops. 

Lots of Lilly pads in bloom.

Our next section today is a request from grandson Adin, who relayed a request to see more mountains.  There is a haze over the top of the park today Adin, but here are the pictures I shot just for you.

Tomorrow we head to Gillette, Wyoming as a way point on our trek towards Mount Rushmore.  We bid adieu to Rocky Mountain National Park until the next time.

Rocky Mountain National Park (1st day)

Jan is in charge of showing you room interiors where we stay.  I take care of exteriors.  It's contractual.

Boulder Brook is a "private resort" with the housing units right alongside the river.

One of the resident engineers for the resort followed me around this morning while I took pictures.  I am guessing that visitors feed it.  I know people think it is humane but it is actually quite the opposite.  Our food is not made for their bodies.

No direct eye contact but when I moved it moved.

After documenting exteriors where we are staying it was time to head into the park.

Around lunch time we stopped to picnic at Lake Irene.  It's a pretty spot.  It's on our approved lunch list.  While we were eating our turkey sandwiches Jan remarked that she was surprised we got a table today.  It made it sound like I tipped the Lake Irene concierge for our spot.  After lunch we journeyed out for what should be a wimpy hike.  It is not terribly long.  There is some change in elevation, but not thousands of feet.  Trouble is we aren't acclimatized yet.  We flew from Albany at 400 feet to Denver, which is a mile high and drove to our digs which sit at 7600 feet.  Lake Irene is nestled in those pine trees at just above 10,000 feet.  We spent most of the day somewhere between 10 and 12 thousand feet.

Now that we are back at 7600 feet it feels oxygen rich.

Even in the middle of the day you can spot wild life in this park.  Elk are plentiful.  Here are a pair enjoying lunch.  They were eating in an area where the park service does not want cars to stop.  You are permitted to slow down.  I violated my own rule about not shooting video or images from a moving car.

Boulder Brook on Fall River

After spending quality time, in line, at Avis we made our way out of the metropolitan Dever area to Estes Park.  Our gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park is Boulder Brook on Fall River.

Our room shows a balcony that looks out at the river.  It moves with impressive speed at 7,600 feet above sea level.

It provides a soothing white noise.  It also drops the temperature.  Denver boosted a high of 100, but Estes was a modest 80 when we checked in.  Overnight it cooled down into the 50s.  

Jan took some pictures of the inside of our landing spot and posted them on Facebook.  Let's go see the park!

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Great quote.  Too great just to say we are starting our "travel to" day.

And we're off....

Not quite.  Today is a get ready day.  Wednesday we head west.  Getting ready means getting a blog up and running. Here it is!