Summer Road Trip: Wyoming, and Colorado???

Day 2 of our travels brings us to Wyoming, or Adam's favorite state. The views are absolutely amazing here, every where you look. One of the first rest stops/visitor centers is in Pine Bluffs. The facilities are perfectly fine, but the cool part is that you can go on a short hike to a real archaeological dig site and explore the area.  The kids did great on the hike there even though the temps were soaring well into the 90's at this point. Once there, we were able to find out a lot about the people that used this area as a mode of transportation. The kids were even able to "hunt" for arrow heads. We were just about to leave when the lady working there asked where we were heading. We told her our camp location and she said it was beautiful. Then Adam noticed a sign by the door, "Please don't tease the rattle snakes". He of course made light of it and a little joke. The lady then goes on to tell the kids that was why she had a shovel at both doorways, and that you can sometimes find them on the path back so to be careful and watch your step. THEN she says that they have grasshoppers there that make the same sound as a rattlesnake but they stop making the noise after a bit. What was just a 7 min hike there, turned into a 15 min hike back resulting in Adam carrying D because she was too frightened to take another step. Thanks lady!

 (see those super cool looking shirts we are all wearing? We made those the week before our trip so that we could have fun looking shirts to wear. All you need is a cotton shirt, Sharpie markers, and rubbing alcohol. Check here for more details)

 We made a stop at the tree in the rock just outside of Buford. D was super excited to see prairie dogs just running around by us while we stopped.

 We then made it to our camp site for the 2nd night. We stayed at Vedauwoo Campgrounds in the National Forrest in Buford Wyoming. Super cheap at just $10 a night. Tent camping was nice and quiet. Because we arrived on a Sunday night not many people were there.

 Our site for the night. Here is really where the Leave No Trace policy is super important!!!! The views from our tent were just amazingly breathtaking! We could not believe our luck and finding this wonderful little diamond in the rough. After dinner we went for a short little hike. The kids were still spooked by the lady's warnings of rattle snakes, but to make it worse, they spotted signs all over that said, "Bears love trash". So now not only were they freaked out about rattlesnakes, they were frightened of bears. (I must say, so was I)

 On our hike, we made sure to stay on the path way and to not disturb any of the rock formations. We only climbed where it was safe, and on the path. The kids found to rocks to be fun and silly at times.

(I spotted this one and thought it looked like a face)

Our site in the morning just before packing up.

Just across I-80 on the same road as our campground sits the Ames Brothers Pyramid. Once you arrive to the road, don't be surprised that it is a gravel road for about 3 miles. This pyramid just sort of showed up out of nowhere as you are traveling down. When we arrived there, a small group of college kids were hanging out. They had sent off weather balloons further down the road, and were waiting there for them to land somewhere so they could go and retrieve them. Pretty neat!

Just a little bit further down I-80 sits this really interesting rest stop. It also holds a giant statue head of Abraham Lincoln, and is the highest elevation point along the entire route of I-80. The kids joked that they were about to get sneezed on while standing underneath this head. There is also a museum inside the rest area. An added bonus is that a bunch of rest stops along the way were giving out Wyoming tourist stickers that have a fun vintage feel to them.

Now if you have ever looked at t a map of I-80 through Wyoming or even traveled it, you would know that it runs very close to the southern border. We were playing a game in the car where we had to look for someone picking their nose (fun, right?), and we missed what looked like a turn off for continuing on I-80. Next thing we know we see a sign that says Welcome to Colorado! Wait, what??? That was not a state on our list to go through, how did we end up here?? So we stopped at the visitor center to find out. We explained to the nice ladies inside what had happened, and she said that 90% of the people they get in are for the same reason. Who knew?!?!?!

So we added on an additional 30 min to our travel time that day, but got to knock off another state on our list! Next stop Utah and Nevada!!!