We drove through the remainder of the Grand Teton Park, with even more spectacular mountain ranges to view and several Snake River vistas. It's a different Park than Yellowstone with more opportunities to view antelope and deer than we saw in Yellowstone. Wished we had seen some more bears (my favorite animal...they can chase a beagle and not wheeze and pant) and bison, but it was not to be. As we left Grand Teton, we headed south to Jackson, WY, sort of a cowboy/mountain town. I purchased two carabiner clips to better secure Lewis and Clark to each other or to immovable objects. Dad suggested he could clip onto his belt-loops on his pants and keep his hands free while walking Lewis and Clark, but I had this mental cartoon image of the dogs running in opposite directions and pulling his pants off, so I suggested he clip the leashes around a bike rack. This worked well. The ride south of Jackson toward our eventual destination of Rawlins, WY started through some beautiful national forest land, taking us over many twists, hills and Snake and Hoback River loops. The place is positively lousy with rivers.
I saw some dark clouds ahead and stopped to put on some leathers. Good thing because it really busted loose for about 15 minutes with what I thought was hail but which was just a little semi-frozen rain drops. This cleared-up and then we came out of the hill country and saw the land begin to flatten as we neared the town of Pineland, WY. We dined here on beer, hamburgers and bratwurst at the Wind River Brewing Company. Great IPA! Lewis & Clark had behaved well and found their way back into my good graces by now and were tossed a few morsels from my hamburger. We pressed on to Rock Springs, WY along US-191 through terrain that was pretty much arrow-straight and very reminiscent of the Dakotas.
With a few hours of daylight remaining, we gassed-up and continued along I-80 East toward the pastoral village of Wamsutter, WY. This place will likely remain a pastoral village for many years because everything is closed on Sunday. We decided to do some more pressing on toward Rawlins, WY, where we hoped that it being the site of the Wyoming State Penitentiary, we'd at least find something open on a Sunday since that's Family Visitation Day at most penal institutions. Don't ask me how I know this.
There are a lot of signs along the highway with the words, “GUSTY CROSSWINDS”. I thought initially this was the name of a famed Mountain Man from the Frontier Days or perhaps a Western Movie Star, but soon realized these were advisories. Still, it makes a good Movie Star name.
Dad and I ended the day with a real Father's Day Dinner (this one was right on schedule) and then retired for the night.
Here's the day's route:
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