Idaho 2011, Day 3—Wyoming At Last

We were up early again after sleeping well. Rather than make coffee or breakfast, the McDonald’s across the street provided our morning meal. We were off just past 6:30 AM, crossing into Wyoming, and seeing our first antelope near Cheyenne. We climbed steadily from about 4700 feet to just over 8750 feet, and crossed the continental divide twice. The combination of wind and mountains took their toll on stress-free driving today. However, we really like Wyoming, and the high plains and high desert are addictive.
We arrived at the Twin Pines RV Park just east of Lander, WY, about 1:30 PM, set up “camp”, and left for quick visits to South Pass City and Sinks Canyon State Park.
South Pass City is Wyoming’s second oldest incorporated town, founded at the height of the area’s gold rush in 1868. It underwent several cycles of boom and bust, but through the efforts of a group of Wyoming’s citizens, is preserved almost exactly as it appeared a century ago. While it was hot in Lander, about 95 degrees, Kay and I saw several patches of snow still on the mountains at a pretty low level, and the temperature had cooled to 65 degrees in South Pass City. As a side note, I first saw South Pass City in the early 1990s on a trip following the Oregon Trail, and touring Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks when Jenny was a young girl. On that trip, her friend Abby accompanied us, and they were put in “jail” in South Park City. We still have photographs of them being carted off to jail.
Sinks Canyon State Park in situated in a canyon formed by the Popo Agie River, behind me in the photo. It is unique in that the river flows into a cave—the Sinks where Kay is standing—disappearing completely for a short distance before reappearing in a pool called the Rise, bubbling up through the sand. The river seemed awfully high; this year there were 38 days of overflow, i.e. days when there was too much water for the underground system to handle, compared to an average of only 16 days.