Terry Bison Ranch

After reading Sue's post yesterday about the buffalo who have taken up residence near her house, I realized I'd never posted any pictures from the Terry Bison Ranch at the south side of Cheyenne, Wyoming. It's a great place. It's been in existence since the 1890s, when it extended west almost to Laramie (about 40 miles), east almost to Nebraska (about 100 miles), north and south about 100 miles each. Today the western boundary is I-25 North/South, east about 30 miles, north about 5 miles, and south about 10 miles from where the pictures were taken. The up close and personal buffalo here are what they call the "Show Herd" of animals that are more docile than most. Truly, you should avoid buffalo; they are very irritable animals, and extraordinarily powerful. The ranch herds them with Suburbans instead of horses to minimize danger to the people and horses. The buffalo have been know to charge the 4WD vehicles and knock them over - one on one. They can only be kept penned by use of high tensile strength barbed wire; they will walk through any other kind of fence.

Since they were shedding their winter coats, they really looked quite disreputable.

Most of the show herd gathered around the train that took us into their field, looking for the pellets our driver threw out the door. This one was particularly friendly.

I'm hungry; feed me!
This one liked her head rubbed. My daughters were enchanted.
Here's how you tell the adult boys from the girls, apart from the obvious. The girls' horns curl back over their heads, like these two lovely ladies.
The guys' horns go straight up. There are fewer dudes in the Show Herd, because they're fiercer.
This is one of three trains that roll through the buffalo pastures for their tour. The owner of the bison ranch built the trains and their track himself. He purposely looped his track about 3oo feet into Colorado, so he could boast that he owns the largest privately held interstate train line in this country. That made me laugh.
They had other assorted animals near the train depot, but the funniest was this goat. I love his hairdo.
And this is the mansion on the Terry Bison Ranch. Originally built by Senator F. E. Warren of Wyoming, very close to the Colorado state line (like 1/10th of a mile), President Teddy Roosevelt was a guest. So they can truly brag that "Teddy Roosevelt slept here!"
Of course, they had a restaurant with great food; we had buffalo burgers, bison chili and Beast sandwiches (pulled buffalo). No pictures of food; we were too busy celebrating Shannon's graduation.

And thus ends my little tour of Wyoming. I hope you all enjoyed it. And now you know what gender your buffalo are, should you ever encounter them!

Vedauwoo

Well, finally! The part of my trip you have all been eagerly awaiting (or at least Karin has): Vedauwoo. First, the pronunciation: "Vee-Duh-Voo". Easy, right? This is its own exit right off I-80; it's a wandering around, picnicking and rock climbing place. It's also public land, where you can just release your cattle to graze for the summer, and go collect them at the end of the season. So bear that in mind if you need a place to park your cows for a while.

This is the view from the parking lot. It's farther than it looks to those rocks just beyond the trees, and they're bigger than they look.

See? We're on the path now.
Still walking. Those are baby sage bushes there in with the snow. Remember, this was May 13. And there was plenty of snow around.
Finally, we get to the base of the rocks. The yellow is lichen of some sort, and that tree is growing out of a crack between the rocks.
Two of my climbers coming down after their first foray up the rocks.
There's another one. He was a very long way away; hooray for that zoom!
Out in a field, ready to go attack a different rock pile.
This is a more distant view of the first rock pile. You can actually walk up to behind the rock with the yellow, beside the 2 evergreens. I know, because my kids went up there to see a dog who was there waiting for his master. The master is the black speck near the top of the roundish rock in the middle of the picture. Right there: see the itty bitty black speck? I told you these rocks are bigger than they look.
There. See him now? Love that zoom. He had another dude at the bottom of the rock with his dog.
My 2 little guys, standing atop a rock, admiring the climber. NO, they are not going to take up rock climbing as long as I'm paying the bills.
Now, let's walk through the snow toward that other set of rocks.
This is how deep the snow is.

The wind always blows here. This tree is permanently bent in the direction of the wind: east
Look! They made it up the rock pile. Judicious use of the zoom again. Even when wearing ballerina flats, this dress loving girl does not climb rocks.
I thought the moon over the tree was pretty. It was about 5PM.

I know it's silly and juvenile, but the boys and I just had to have this picture. Note the sign on the outhouse. But I'd think that would be obvious!Hope you all enjoyed Vedauwoo! There are some more on my photo blog!

Abe Lincoln is on I-80

This statue is at the highest point on I-80 between the east coast and the west coast. It's right around 8000 feet in elevation. Yes, there are higher points in the Rocky Mountains, but this interstate doesn't go over them. This also happens to be the western end of Happy Jack Road, which runs between here and Cheyenne, right past Curt Gowdy State Park. Yes, it's named for the sportscaster Curt Gowdy, who was a native or something. (We once almost bought land off Happy Jack Road, which is why I know it so well. And in case you love the odd street names, we also seriously considered a house at the end of Experimental Farm Road.)

Note that it was cold enough that the boys' jackets were zipped up. They didn't waste any time getting back to the car, either.

Good thing I have enough zoom lens on my camera to get a decent picture of Abe!

Back to the trip to Colorado and Wyoming. This is the sign welcoming us to Laramie. If you squint carefully, behind the brick building in the foreground, you can see the city of Laramie. There's not a lot to it, other than the University of Wyoming.

This is a restaurant on the main street in town, Third Avenue. I really liked the doors on it. Sadly, it looks like this was another victim of the recession.
This church is the biggest in town. I believe it must be somehow associated with the university, since it's built in the same style, although it's several blocks off campus.
This is a door to the church, as seen from the side street off Third Avenue.
There were a number of little, 1950s-era motels like this one around. Ryan loved the bronc0busting bear on the side of it, so here it is for all of you to see!
Laramie's an old town, no doubt, and very small. But it is interesting! Next week: Rock climbing along I-80 (NO, not ME, silly!)