Day two of our Big West Road Trip was jam packed! The kids and I spent 12 hours exploring more than 500 miles across northern Colorado, southern Wyoming and northeast Utah. I am still trying to process all of the amazing things we saw today. Even though we spent so much time in the car, I think the kids had a great time.
We started the day in Loveland, CO. The Loveland Visitor’s Center and Sculpture Garden was right across the street from the hotel, so we started the day there. We were having a great time checking out the sculptures until a family of geese decided to chase us away. That seemed like a good time to pile in the car and head north to Wyoming.
Cheyenne, WY is only an hour north of Loveland, CO. Just after entering WY on I-25N we found a WY Visitor’s Center. We stopped in to pick up a few maps and brochures and discovered that they have a cool WY museum area too…and it’s free! The kids were able to play in a jail cell with Billy the Kid and even figured out how he escaped from jail. There was also a full size tepee campsite and the bones of a wooly mammoth. Not bad for a free museum! After checking out the visitor’s center, we continued north to Cheyenne (another 10 minutes) to explore the city center. We parked at the Cheyenne Train Depot and walked around the Union Pacific roundhouse and museum. As we were walking around the city center area, we saw a sign for FREE horse carriage rides. Another awesome surprise…that made Paili extremely happy! The driver, Mr. Steve, explained that he was a retired middle school science teacher who decided to dedicate his time to educating visitors on Cheyenne history. As he drove us around the city, he pointed out historical sites and shared interesting bits of info. One of the most interesting was that Wyoming is called the Equality State because they were the first state to have a female governor and the first to let a woman vote. Who knew Wyoming was so progressive??
Since we still had to make our way to UT today, we had to cut our Cheyenne visit short. This time instead of heading north, we hopped on I-80W toward Laramie. Our first stop was Buford, WY. Buford is a tiny little town just 30 minutes from Cheyenne that has a population of 1. Evidently a man bought the entire town several years ago and is the only resident. There used to be a little deli in the town, but we found it shut down. So it was back on the highway to find lunch in Laramie, WY. We were really impressed with Laramie. It is the home of the University of Wyoming and a yummy sports bar called “Born in a Barn.” This place had the best chili dogs I have ever had! It was smothered in queso, homemade chili, more cheese, bacon pieces, and onions. Beware the heartburn, but it is so worth it! To work off some of those calories, we walked around the town and found another Union Pacific train yard and a farmer’s market as well as several very cool murals painted on the buildings.
After leaving Laramie, we continued heading west on I-80. The landscape began to change dramatically. In addition to incredible mountain views, we saw multiple plateaus and buttes. At one point, Paili said it looked like the surface of the moon. Although Paddon was convinced we were in a desert because they looked like sand dunes. Either way, I think they were impressed with the scenery.
Just passed Rock Springs, WY we decided to take a more scenic route on our way to Logan, UT. We exited I-80 onto Hwy 30 West. This ended up being a much less traveled road that took us to the Fossil Butte National Park. From there we took Hwy 89 South into Utah. They had a great little pull off area at the state line to take pictures with the UT and WY state signs. A few miles into Utah, we entered the Cache National Forest that also included Bear Lake. The kids could not believe I found a beach for them! So of course, we had to stop and explore the beach area. I cannot even describe how beautiful this place was. You had a nice beach area on one side and then mountains on the other side. Add to this the fact that the sun was setting. It was absolutely breathtaking!
By this time, it was 9:00 pm and getting dark. We needed to get back on the road and head to the hotel quickly. While I like an adventure, driving through the mountains of the Cache National Forest at night alone with two kids didn’t seem like a very smart idea. Rule number one of road tripping is safety first! We made it safely to the hotel just before 10:00 pm. I feel certain we will all sleep well tonight!
