Traveled by many, remembered by few

Today I drove from Pueblo to Ogden, Utah. Today it's the green line on the Google Earth map in the last post.

I started out getting to Colorado Springs and Pike's Peak. I was disappointed with Pike's. I guess I had expected it to be standing out amongst a horde of mountains. You can't really tell how tall it is when it's almost alone, rising out of the plains. (I took this picture later, from another vantage point.) The disappointment was similar to that of finding the Alamo in the middle of downtown San Antonio. Call me weird. Anyway, I was wrong. I took my disappointment back when I could still see it in the distance when I was on the other side of Denver. That's a long way.

I didn't stop at the Air Force Academy. I had the feeling that it wouldn't be a campus that was visitor friendly. I may be wrong. I didn't have time to find out. You can see the crazy signature A-frame cafeteria buidling in the middle of the picture.

Here's the Front Range north of Denver. They're right there up close, really! Am I alone in the old misperception that Denver's in the middle of skying mounts? I actually knew that it was at the base of the Rockies, but it seems easy to be misled into thinking otherwise. Perhaps it's that whole mile-high thing. Maybe I just assume too much.

Further north (this is looking East) there is little vegetation. Just a bunch of brown rolling hills. I saw a lot of brown today.

I jumped into Wyoming! I had lunch at this great restaurant in Cheyenne. It was called Poor Richard's and I ate a Tenderloin Philly Steak Sandwich. My tongue tried to beat the gums out of my mouth. Rachel Ray's eyes would've rolled back, but she would've had to find a good deal for dinner later. Here I am at the Wyoming State Capitol building.

There were a lot of different and interesting rock types and formations along the road in Wyoming. It looked like God had tore things up pretty good in this area.

There were some pretty, scenic passes.

I passed a massive wind turbine farm. You wouldn't believe how many didn't fit in the picture. there was another one near the Utah border. I wonder how much of their power comes from the wind? It's very, very windy here. A marker at a roadside stop not far from here said that the wind quite often gets up to 70mph, especially during the winter.

There was really a lot of snow, everywhere. The day was in the high 60's and it wasn't going anywhere fast. Hard to imagine what this place looks like in Winter. I'd like to know what these things are. Across the state there were perpetually these propped up pallet contraptions. They were much larger and sturdier than that, of course. Could they be keeping the snow??? There was always unmelted snow behind them...

Here's a picnic table in that roadside park. I think it's strange that a picnic table would be so dang sheltered! There might as well be a door. I guess they weren't joking around about the high winds. This reminds me that I meant to post yesterday about panhandle rest areas in Texas. They're all hopped up fancy tornado shelters. It seemed kind of random to me.

If New Mexico was the "Land of the Trailer House," (and it is) then Wyoming is equally "The Scruffy State." Is that a first class conditional? Class needs to start up again. I liked Wyoming, once. I don't think that I could tolerate it again. The majority of the pretty passes and landscape was quickly used up in the southeast part of the state. This place is desolate. If I come back, I'll opt to be airlifted to Jackson Hole or Jellystone, Boo Boo.

Yeah, here we are on an obscenely curvy part of the highway. It's amazing that there are shacky settlements in places, anywhere. I'm kind of amazed looking back at it that it was fun driving today...but it was. :O)

There were two Continental Divide places, this being the second. I wonder how that's legal? What does that make the area in between the divisions? I think I may have a missing part of my day in there.

Here's a pretty formation that was more common in the midwestern part of the state. I don't know if you can see the stratification. This is a clean color for a state. It doesn't show dirt.

Here was an unexpected treat. A tunnel! Into pretty rock! I wonder why the decided to do this here, when they had blown to hell most of the other rock that was in the way.

The inside wasn't as cool. It was too crampy. Actually, it was fun. The part that wasn't cool was me trying to fiddle with my camera while driving 75 (legally) through a mountain with no shoulders.

current music: John Denver: Sweet Surrender