2021-08-10: Geocaching Through Wyoming and Into Montana Reaching Our Destination

Well we woke up this morning at the Wyoming Welcome Center just south of Cheyenne. The goal for today is to reach our destination in Bridger, Montana. Hopefully along the way we'll have opportunities for some sightseeing and picking up new counties for our geocaching map. So click along and join us. What did we discover today?

So we set out from the Welcome Center and headed north up I-25. Just over an hour later, I exit into the Dyer Junction Rest Area located in Platte County. After finding the geocache (GC7FP6B) for the county, we read the many information boards and took some photos. To the east we got a distant view of Laramie Peak.

The next four paragraphs are from one of the Historical Information Boards:

    As you journey through Wyoming, you are one of the countless travelers who has looked out to the west and seen the granite rising of Laramie Peak. Near Scottsbluff, Nebraska, approximately 80 miles east of Dyer Junction, emigrants witnessed their first view of the western mountains with the hazy silhouette of Laramie Peak. Although the sight may have been awe-inspiring for the emigrants traveling on the Oregon and Mormon Trails, it also indicated the start of their journey into the mountains ~ a much more treacherous expedition than that across the plains.

    In their diaries, emigrants and other travelers usually noted seeing Laramie Peak. In Chapter IX of his 1891 Roughing It, Mark Twain wrote, "We passed Fort Laramie in the night, and on the seventh morning out we found ourselves in the Black Hills, with Laramie Peak at our elbow (apparently) looming vast and solitary ~ a deep, dark, rich indigo blue in hue, so portentously did the old colossus frown under his beetling brows of storm-cloud. He was thirty or forty miles away, in reality, but he only seemed removed a little beyond the low ridge to our right."

    Laramie Peak, which stands at 10,272 feet above sea level, is the highest Wyoming point in the Laramie Range. Part of the central Rocky Mountains, the Laramie Range, originally called the Black Hills, reaches for 125 miles from the Colorado-Wyoming border to the North Platte River near Casper.

    Visible from over 100 miles away, Laramie Peak is named for the early French trapper, Jacques La Ramie. While on a beaver trapping expedition, La Ramie vanished from what is now the Laramie River. Upon learning of his disappearance, other trappers in the region named the river after him. Soon the nearby mountains, plains, and many other areas also took the name.

Driving further up into Converse County, we stopped at the Orin Junction Rest Area for another geocache (GC33N3D).

Just east of Casper, Wyoming was a T/A Truck Stop. There we fueled up and found another geocache for Natrona County (GC5CHCQ).

Still headed north on I-25, we stop at the Kaycee Rest Area for a geocache in Johnson County (GC8BC7Z).

Now driving on I-90, we make one last stop at the Wyoming Information Rest Stop in Sheridan County for our final geocache of the day (GC97JGC).

We finally crossed over into Montana via I-90 up through Billings. We don't have much further to go, therefore I skip geocaching counties because it would be much easier in the GeoJeep vs the big motorhome. So it's I-90 to Laurel, then turn south on US-212. At Rockvale, turning south on US-310 a few more miles and arrive in the town of Bridger.

But just as we pull into town I noticed the RV's temperature gauge starting to climb. Luckily we're just 3 blocks from the City Park RV Park. I quickly pick a spot and park. Then I head to the bedroom and lift up the bed to get a good look at the top of the engine. Sure enough, another freeze plug on the side of the head has sprung a leak! That makes the third one!

OK, so there's only two auto repair shops in town. One is practically right across the street. I go there first. Nope, they only work on cars plus they're booked solid. So then I drive around the corner to Carbon Equipment Repair. Yes, they do work on diesel, big rigs, and farm equipment. But they too are booked out for a month. And we're only here for two weeks. I say we can't go anywhere and we're pretty much at their mercy. Nothing to do now but to wait and see.

In the meantime, I'm still waiting for the other surveyor to show up. So that means a free week. Sounds to me like a geocaching road trip around Montana might be in the making. I hope to see you back again soon.

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