We agreed in advance to do at least one night in a motel on this nine day journey. It was intended to be midweek, when we were to be in Yellowstone, but an Expedia search and a few phone calls revealed that there was nothing in or around Yellowstone available for miles. So, Samuel suggested we do it earlier in the week. That ended up being last night, departing today, where we stayed in the Country Inn and Suites in Greeley, CO.
At the CI&S of Greeley we swam, watched TV, and this morning, we hit the continental breakfast hard. Waffles, bacon, sausage, etc were a welcome replacement to three mornings of pop tarts and granola bars.
We departed Greeley, returned to Northbound I-25, and arrived in Cheyenne, WY around 10:30 AM MDT.
First major stop: The NCAR Supercomputer https://nwsc.ucar.edu/
NCAR is the National Center for Atmospheric Research. They do important work, and their research requires massive computational abilities. They had a nice, free, interactive science museum with hospitable assistants. The highlight of the museum is viewing their supercomputer. This supercomputer gets into techno-jargon I can't begin to fathom. I was impressed by Samuel in his understanding and appreciation of it all (which is why I added it to the itinerary).
We saw their supercomputer Cheyenne, pictured here.
Five columns of towers of computers possessing 1000s of microprocessors. At one time, it was the fastest in the world, and I think they were the first to reach the benchmark of 1 Petaflop of speed. (Don't ask me what a petaflop is.)
It was later that we found that Cheyenne was their OLD supercomputer. It was decommissioned and was not even turned on. Pictured here is the smaller, faster, newer supercomputer Yellowstone. Only one tower is barely visible behind Samuel. Both Cheyenne and Yellowstone are both water cooled and air cooled and are linked with 1000s of miles of individually labeled cable bundles. Wow.
More from NCAR NWSC.
Then, on down I-80 to Laramie. Lots to do in Laramie, but we skipped on past. Further west, we exited and went 2-3 miles down a gravel road to the Ames Monument, a large pyramid of rock out in the literal middle of literal nowhere that is on the National Register of Historic Places (BSA Citizenship requirement, check!) and is a tribute to the Ames brothers who were instrumental in the financing and building of the transcontinental railroad. A pic...
Then a side trip scenic byway - Wyoming 130 - known as the Snowy Range drive. Excellent. Highly recommended. I think it went through Medicine Bow National Forest. It was the highest mountain pass I've ever driven through at nearly 11,000 feat. At the top of the pass is Libby Flats and other scenery pictured here.
On to Rock Springs, WY. But not before some drama and a little accidental museum visit. Our 'distance to empty' gauge in the Chevy Spark was off. We didn't run out of gas, but we made it into Rock Springs on fumes.....I put 8.6 gallons into an 8 gallon tank. We had been hustling on the 80mph Interstate trying to make it to the dinosaur museum before closing time at 5:00PM. We made it - just barely - to the Rock Springs Historical Museum....walking in around 4:55. We strolled through...walked up the stairs....not a dinosaur in sight. Descending the stairs, we saw the docent shutting down the lights and we asked about the dinosaur museum. We were told those were at the Western Wyoming Community College.
Google said the Natural History Museum at WWCC closed at 5PM, but we tried to go anyway. It was good we did, as Google was wrong again. It was a very nice and very impressive collection of nearly complete dinosaur skeletons, attractively displayed, including a triceratops and a T. rex.
More on Rock Springs....A nice city. Busy this time of year because of the National High School Finals Rodeo all week long. I encouraged Samuel to go to it, but he was not interested. We hit the Rock Springs WalMart supercenter and re-supplied, and we also hit the Rock Springs O'Reilly's to get some brake light lamps. They had went out on the drive up. Entering Yellowstone tomorrow, we thought we would need some visible brake lights for the bumper to bumper traffic.
On to Farson, WY for overnight. But before we got there, I had a side trip planned for Killpecker Sand Dunes, the world's second largest dune formation. Sounded like a winner. It wasn't. Google Maps was wrong on size, distance, and dimensions. We got well into the interior of it and began encountering terrible washerboards on the dirt roads, and we continued to weigh the options of continuing (surely - it's right around the next bend!) VS turning around (and repeating 10-15 miles of terrible roads). We opted to continue. We finally arrived at the Dunes. Pictured here.
Note: To enthusiasts who can bring ATVs, horses, and high clearance 4-wheel drive vehicles, this is probably the destination for you. For someone driving an economy car wishing to see sand dunes, you're best to stick with the sand dunes accessible via asphalt roads off 160 in Southern Colorado.
We finally figured our way out of Killpecker, after 45 miles of dirt and 1.5 hours wasted to arrive at the home of Dr. Megan Beavers and her husband. We saw their little farm and camped in their yard as a nice source of electricity, hospitality, and a one hour closer way point to the Tetons and Yellowstone.
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