Trip to Wyoming and the Tea Kettle Ranch B & B

After church on Sunday, July 22, we continued north to the "Oregon Trail Historic Byway" along US 26.



Our first stop was at the Oregon Trail Ruts, just south of Guernsey. Although many remnants of the trail can be seen in Wyoming, the Oregon trail tracks here are notable because they were cut into the sandstone. A short trail leads to the deep gorges cut by the wheels of thousands of wagons.







Just down the road from the Trail Ruts is Register Cliff.


This is a sandstone precipice raising 100 feet from the valley floor of the North Platte River, it is one of the three main sights along the Oregon Trail where emigrants left their inscriptions, still visible today.


HISTORIC FORT LARAMIE

The best stop was at Historic Fort Laramie. The fort was started in June, 1834, when fur traders built a small stockaded post. The fort was abandoned in 1890, the year Wyoming gained statehood.

During its 56 years of service it became a haven for gold seekers and emigrants, a station for the Pony Express and a military post during the Plains Indian Wars.



TEA KETTLE RANCH BED & BREAKFAST



Calvin and Isabel were wonderful hosts. They welcomed us into their beautifully decorated ranch house, 12 miles north of Torrington.
The home is located on top of a plateau overlooking tens of thousands of acres of ranch land. We enjoyed the long view and the sunset from a rear facing deck just outside our bedroom.

CHEYENNE FRONTIER DAYS


The next morning we headed south to Cheyenne for a day at Frontier Days and "The Daddy of 'Em All" Rodeo.





After the Rodeo we had enough time to stop for dinner at our favorite Cheyenne Restaurant, The Albany. This Restaurant has been in business since 1942. Virginia loves the prime rib sandwich and Kurt feasted on the grilled mountain trout, which are both their specialities.


http://www.albanycheyenne.com/

A Golden Day

We worked Monday through Wednesday so we could have a long 5 day weekend. Thursday, July, 19, we drove to Golden, Colorado. We took the scenic drive over Lookout Mountain, stopping at Buffalo Bill's museum and grave site.
We had a delicious lunch at the Old Capital Grill in historic downtown Golden.This was the first capitol building of the Colorado territory. The historic brick building housed the first legislature sessions when Golden was the capital in 1866.

After lunch we toured the Coors Brewing Company. This is the largest brewery on earth, with a capacity of over a million gallons a day. After the self guided tour we each sampled three beverages of our choice in the hospitality room.

Goose Banding, Rodeo and a 4th of July Hike

We accepted an invitation from the State of Colorado to help with the annual Canada Goose Banding effort at Walden Reservoir. Kayaks were used to herd over 600 geese into a corral.
This was possible due to molting season, the geese were unable to fly. The geese were then separated by banded or unbanded and goslings. The banded geese were recorded and released. The unbanded geese were sexed, banded and released.

NORTH PARK NEVER SUMMER RODEO
The girl on the right is Taylor, the Rodeo Queen. She also is one of the YCC (Youth Conservation Corp) Summer employees at the Refuge.
Don't let her girly looks fool you, she grew up here in Walden on a ranch and is a hard worker. Taylor also competes as a barrel racer in the rodeo.




In this picture of the barrel racing event you can see the smoke rising in the distance as one of the many Colorado wildfires burns. This one is in Poudre Canyon about 50 east of Walden. Poudre Canyon runs between Walden and Fort Collins.

Having received our ATV Certifications this past January, we are putting them to use in our work here at Arapaho NWR. On this particular day we were using the ATVs to haul obsolete fencing, removed by the YCC, out of the back country for recycling.

BIG CREEK FALLS HIKE
On Independence Day we took a five mile hike in the Zirkel Wilderness Area with friends and fellow volunteers, Carolyn and Wally.






The Wyoming Ground Squirrels, who live all around us, enjoy eating the spent petunia blossoms. We enjoy watching these busy little critters. Sure glad the hanging flower basket is out of their reach.



While updating our BLOG, we looked out our back window and spotted three young moose.
What a joy it is to live on a National Wildlife Refuge. We were able to take a picture of one before they ran away.