Journey Day 2 - Saratoga to Thermopolis

[catchup: written 26/08/16]
This morning was a bad one, especially for Lynne. Flying into Denver we had landed in the ‘Mile High City’, so named because of the altitude. We live at around 270ft above sea level in the UK and here we are really feeling the altitude.

Last night was wonderful sitting by the fire pit with the wine but this morning, the combination of altitude and just 2 glasses of wine together with not sleeping well from a combination of time zone and heat is reeking havoc.  We feel hung over, sleep deprived and have what I assume are altitude headaches.

Lynne not well at all and struggling to face the day while I went down for a much needed coffee and chatted with Dan. He had some sausages but I really didn’t fancy any food.

We left with mixed feeling over Copperline Lodge, partly I suspect due to our circumstances having arrived straight into it as our first journey stop and not yet being acclimatised to the life on the road. Dan took the place on earlier in the year and is working hard himself re-furbishing. The lodge had been used as a staff accommodation for some time and not been maintained so started in very poor condition. Dan has made great progress in a short time but it still feels a bit rough around the edges. When he’s a bit more organised and manages to turn attention to niceties such as having bed linen crisp and ironed rather than a bit crumpled it will be a big step forward. Though clean it does not make you feel ready to just jump into bed but rather have a quick check first.

Copperline Lodge

Saratoga High Street

I wish Dan well and would love to return in 12 months time and see how he has progressed.

Out on the road and we see Prong Horn antelope grazing. We are fully expecting to see lots up near Yellowstone so don't stop to look. The land is open poor land for miles running through bluffs and cliffs then out into big country.

We pass Sinclair, an untidy oil town surrounded by refineries. As we drive we regularly see the 'nodding donky' pumps and random pipework and tanks in fields.

Today is far from direct as we have deliberately diverted north through Seminoe State Park along the Wyoming Backway before turning south again. To our surprise, the road is unmettled for 30 odd miles but it is a lovely road to drive and well worth the diversion and extra miles. Varied colours appear in the strata of the rocks and we pass the stunning Seminoe Dam and reservoir in the line of the North Platte River.

At the summit we can see a massive vista opening out to the north. Looking back, we are leaving a long dust cloud as we descend towards Alcova.
 

Dropping to cross the North Platte river east of the Alcova Dam we pass better quality pasture where cows are grazing. At the intersection with highway 220 where we are to turn south west there is a garage with a shop where we by lunch and enjoy a superb ice cream before continuing.

Car and passengers fuelled up we travel down  smooth long roads to Independence rock. With the position of the Rockies, this was a landmark on the Oregan Trails which had to be passed by July 4th, Independence Day,  if they were going to avoid a deadly winter in the mountains. They would also half to refresh themselves in this area and let animals enjoy the Sweetwater River, so named bacause being snow melt water it had a sweet taste.

Seemingly many named weer scratched and carved in the rock but most have eroded away made worse by the fact that most visitors scramble to the top. I think deliberately, there is no clue given as to where names still are present in sheltered positions.

Lynne pleased to be here having read much about the Oregan Trails

Time moving on, we head south west to Muddy Gap where we joint the 287 and resume our journey northwest. I would describe this as big country, the wide road crosses the land often in long straight ribbons across the prairie. We pass different rock formations and colours as well travel and the terrain varies from time to time.

Nearing the end of today's journey, we entered a canyon and wound along the snaking gorge for several miles with the North Platte River bounded by the road on one side and the railway tight in on the other occasional dipping through tunnels to maintain it's path. The engineers who built it all those years ago were amazing.

We arrived at Thermopolis around 5:40, not too bad as we had been worried about today's mileage and speed of progress. Thermopolis is a pleasant little town based around a thermal spa and our hotel room looked out towards the river and our own pools.

Tired and tempted not to bother, we got ourselves changed and went and sat in the hotel's own outside thermal pool before having a brief swim in the main pool. Main pool was warm, but not after the heated pool which was in two pieces; a smaller tank was filling with the spring water all the time which you could barely dip your hand in and slowly cooling and filtering into the spa pool.

After our dip we decided to eat in the hotel restaurant and opted for the special, 'Salisbury Steak'. It sounded good but didn't really live up to expectations. We had lovely soup and salad to start but the main dish was a sort of mushy tenderised meat stroke burger served with mashed potato and a grey tasting gravy. Still, it was a talking point.

We thoughts we'd have a walk before bed and stepped out of the door into clouds of flies and thought better of it. And so to bed. A late full night so blog didn't get written tonight; I think it's going to be hard going keeping on top of it.

Today's track:

Statistics: Miles today: 287miles; Miles so far: 529; Fuel added so far: 11.3 gals; States: Wyoming; Time Zone: Mountain Daylight Saving (UK-7)