First 2015 marathon in the West – ROAD TRIP!

Have always wanted to hike in Wyoming’s Bighorns – just south of the Montana border – so planned a 3-day weekend around the Casper Marathon on Sunday.  Unfortunately, late spring snow (2 weeks ago) followed by a week of heavy rain impeded my plans – State Highway 16 from Buffalo to Ten Sleep flooded so…Plan B.

North on I-25 from Colorado to Casper, straight shot.  Stopped an hour short, near Douglas – first destination: Ayres Natural Bridge. Snapped a pic & snagged some sage (natural car deodorizer & FREE).  Short walk over the natural bridge cut by LaPrele Creek (tributary of Wyoming’s North Platte River).  Peaceful place.  Would stop here again on Sunday, after my run.

Storm clouds rolled in.  Spent the afternoon at Casper’s Tate Museum viewing dinosaur bones, then the Nat’l Historic Trails Interpretive Center – 4 major wagon trails passed thru Casper (Oregon, Mormon Pioneer, California & Pony Express).

Dinosaur digs & fossils make “the Cowboy State” a paleo- tourist destination. More dinosaur finds in Wyoming than any other U.S. state.

So many fossils at Tate – WOW!  In New York museums, you see maybe 2 or 3 dinosaurs.  In small town Wyoming – big dinosaurs, little dinosaurs, mammoths, sediment fossils.  GREAT way to spend an afternoon.  Highly recommended.

Started Saturday at Garden Creek Falls in Rotary Park (crazy beautiful), then hiked Casper Mountain.  Not the Rockies experience of the Bighorns, but a good 5-mile day hike.  Probably not the best prep, day before a marathon but…I’m a lover of mountains.

Afternoon plans?  Float trip on the North Platte.  No rapids here, lazy river float.  What I most remember is our Riverton-based guide’s colloquial speech.  A fourth generation Wyomingan, he recommended a trip to Fort Caspar where Native Americans were slaughtered. Couldn’t be taught not to steal cattle – so were exterminated.  I asked about Sacagawea’s grave site in Fort Washakie.  He commented she was a Sheep Eater, a Mountain Shoshone.  Seriously?  And if so, who cares?  None of his facts matched any ‘semblance of reality.

In rural Wyoming, there are Cowboys & there are Indians.  Seems the two do not mix – even in 2015 🙁