We got up fairly early and had breakfast. Broke camp by 9:30am and were on our way out of the village when we looked back and saw Old Faithful appearing over the tree tops to wave goodbye to us. It would be unfair to choose a “favorite” in Yellowstone but I’ll always have a special spot for the Grand Old Lady of the park.

We leave Yellowstone with a great satisfaction of seeing all that it had to offer…and seeing it at it’s best. We head south for a final goodbye to the Tetons….then east towards Casper, Wyoming.

After we were out of Yellowstone and Teton parks and turned southeast at Moran Junction we traveled over some scenic roads. Togwatee Pass was very pretty and we kept in the mountains with the Tetons slipping into the background until they finally disappeared after we crossed the last high mountain. We passed a beautiful red mountain area that was full of cracks and crannies like the Badlands, then got into rolling, sandy mesa country with just the mountains on the rim of our ride now. Coming from the cool air of the mountains into the lower altitude has been hard on all of us today. We had a noon snack at Dubois…then on to Shoshone to camp for the night. It was another sandy, gravely, parking space but the showers lured us in and we lined up for a good bath. Our fist since Idaho Falls. Grampa, George and the kids went into town for root beer and ice-cream so we had root beer floats before bed-time.

SATURDAY AUGUST 12TH

We had our fist rain of the trip last night. A storm blew up and huffed and puffed against the camper with gusty wind but it didn’t last long. Just got enough rain to settle the dust. We stopped at Hells Half Acre and looked around. It looked like the Badlands…only much smaller. The folks saw large herds of prong-horned antelope between there and where we stopped for lunch. (Glenrock, Wyoming) We are in barren rolling hills with stretches of sagebrush in the flat areas….still very dry. We’re following the head-waters of the North Platte River….we met up with the river at Casper.

We stopped at Fort Laramie to see the old fort and most of the original buildings were still there. We enjoyed seeing it due to the large part it played in the taming of the West. We went on to Torrington, Wyoming and stayed right on the border for our last camp night in Wyoming. A rain threatened but went around us so we took the kids to the pool for a couple of hours and we adults sat around, relaxing and having a good visit. We camped in a nice city park with the North Platte River running close by. After evening chores we had our treat of root beer floats and turned in. We are clear out of the mountains now and the heat came back once we were in the flat land again.

I know I am always going to miss the mountains and the scenery they provided. The colors, the vastness, the pines and birch that hugged their sides, the water that they spilled down their slopes………their character. Silent sentinels under a canopy of blue sky who bid all to come… and climb…. and see. They are forever etched in my mind.
I know this trip with our own family of five, mom and dad, uncle Alfred and aunt Beulah is very special because it will never happen this way again. I am aware that the children will soon be growing beyond family trips and the older family members will not be able to travel like this for many more treks. There is a sacredness about seeing things for the first time that can never be duplicated. They say, “you can never go back” and I know that is true. Things change, times change and if you return there is a wistfulness in memory that cannot be equaled. It is always less than you remembered.

For the beauty and strength, for the gift of sight and sound and for the joy of discovery……we bid farewell.

Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther