Goodbye South Dakota

Trip Start Jul 17, 2008
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Trip End Aug 17, 2008


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Flag of United States  , Utah,
Thursday, July 24, 2008

We left Custer State Park this morning at 7:30. Hard to believe we left home one week ago today.  Our final evening in South Dakota was most interesting for Erin!! In order to get internet connection we had to go down to the lodge. Erin trekked down with the computer around 7PM. At 8:45, she returned a little out of breath. She had to dodge two buffalo on her way home. There is a paved path from the lodge to the campground but when she rounded the corner she noted that there were two buffalo blocking the path. Albert and I had the same encounter two mornings prior and we had to take a detour over a small fence and through a small creek. Erin had to do the same-laptop case in hand she took the detour and had a great story to tell. By the way, the creek had little water in it with a lot of large rocks to climb over.  Albert said we better say this so we don't sound like really bad parents.
We crossed into the state of Wyoming at 8:45am. What a state it is-very unpopulated! We thought South Dakota was unpopulated Box cars
Box cars
 .  Wyoming covers an area of 97,000 sq. miles. The population is just over 500,000. Cheyenne is the capital and has a population of 55,000.  To describe the terrain is difficult. It feels like you are in a Western movie or perhaps on the moon with grasslands meeting the outcrops of rocks and mountains in the distance.  When we asked Erin what is looks like-she said boring!!! I think it will be a similar feeling when we drive across the desert. At first, really cool and then a little monotonous!  We saw many freight trains, most with over 150 cars (Albert counted!) filled with coal.  Communities are few and far between. Our lunch stop in Wheatland was very exciting. Like most of the state, we've seen, Wheatland has absolutely no shade as there are very few trees to be seen.  In fact, Wheatland is 40 miles before the town of Chugwater. We were disappointed that we had missed Chugwater's Chili cook-off as it happened last weekend. Mining is the big industry and we saw several oil refineries and oil wells. Similar to Wisconsin they have several areas with windmills throughout the state.  We did travel through some beautiful mountainous areas-quite a big ski area in Wyoming.  Did I mention that this is the windiest place we have ever been?  As we got closer to the Utah border the terrain began to change dramatically. The area began to become much more mountainous and greener. They have trees in Utah! We planned to stop in Evanston, Wyoming but we decided to push a little further-destination- Salt Lake City, Utah.  We crossed into Utah around 7:15PM. We arrived in Salt Lake around 8:30. The mountains are incredible. We saw some of the Olympic Village sites. The I-80 enters the city and goes downhill for 10 miles.  We are staying here for the night and will head out by 6:30 tomorrow am. With adding two more hours to our drive we should be well into California by tomorrow night.
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