Tetons and Yellowstone Day 1
Tetons and Yellowstone
Day 1 - September 6, 2005 - Monument, CO to Lander, WY
We were able to get up at our regular time, Gen did her UOP weekly report, we walked, and got ready for our Teton-Yellowstone trip. Just as we were pulling out of the garage at 9:20, it started to rain. Although the sun was still out the rain was getting our little red car all wet!
We stopped at Castle Rock on I-25 and topped off the tank of gas. We drove to Lone Tree (south Denver) and I stopped at COSTCO to have some prints made of our Colorado photos. We were finally able to leave the Denver traffic behind and headed west on C-470 and then I-70. We took US-40 north and at the top of Berthoud Pass (11,3125 feet) we stopped and took several pictures of the car and the sign, even though there three Douglas County school buses parked right at the summit. This is an excellent road, well maintained, with frequent passing lanes. Traffic was not too heavy, although there were still many campers and boats. The trees and brush here have already started to change colors to golden brown in this late summer. We passed the Winter Park sky area which is vacant now but are getting ready for an early opening for winter skiing.
We passed the little town of Fraser, noted for being the coldest city in Colorado. We stopped at a beautiful new resort community and I took a pictured of Gennie by a statue of a huge moose frequently seen in this area. We stopped to take a picture just in case we do not see a real one - Gennie's goal on this trip.
We followed the headwaters of the Colorado River west to Kremmling and then headed north on Colorado 14 and over Muddy Pass (8,722 feet) where we again took a picture of the car with the elevation sign. This is a beautiful area of rolling hills, huge hay pastures, with cattle grazing along the Colorado River. There were many pull offs and parking areas for those who wished to fly fish along and in the river. We saw red tailed hawks, antelopes, a golden eagle, deer, but still not a moose.
We stopped for lunch at Walden, noted to be the moose citing capital of the world. At the Rock River Café there were lots of hunters, many locals and a few tourists like us. After eating our sandwiches (2:30), we were on our way north on Colorado 125, only 20 miles from the Wyoming border. At the border we stopped once again for a picture and then we were on our way through the vast and rolling hills of southern Wyoming. We made a cell phone call to the Best Western reservation for a room in Lander, WY for tonight. The reception was very poor out in the middle of nowhere. This was the route of the Overland as well as the Oregon, Mormon Trails, and Pony Express.
We thought gas would be less expensive in Wyoming but at 4:15 when we stopped in Rawlins we found out it was just as expensive as Colorado. The road from Rawlins (US-287) was very barren with a few cattle and antelope and miles and mile of giant tall snow fences. One can only imagine how the snow blows through here in the winter! We arrived at our BW-The Inn at Lander after a brief stop to wash the thousand and one bugs off the car. Gennie helped me dry it and we looked good again.
At 8:15 we went out and ate a salad and a pizza at Tony's. It was excellent and we were able to get back to our hotel at 9:15. We drove 470.4 miles today and crossed the Continental Divide four times.
| Miles Traveled | Gallons | Avg. Price | MPG |
| 94.8 | 3.04 | $3.159 Prem | 31.21 |
| 320.0 | 9.156 | $3.069 Prem | 34.95 |
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