2017 - Blog #2 - Arkansas to Wyoming

Neither of us had ever been to Arkansas or Kansas and before visiting them, we had wondered why anyone would choose to live in either one of these states.  We were really surprised when we passed through and now understand why the people who live here have chosen to do so.   Northwestern Arkansas is beautiful.  It’s lush green with misty mountains that reminded us so much of the Smokey Mountains and the Beckley/New River Gorge area of West Virginia.    Southeast Kansas has rolling, green hills with large pecan and peach groves, and scattered farmland.   As we crossed into Southwest Kansas, however, it was more like we had imagined it might be.    It was very flat with miles and miles of farmland, especially wheat fields, and little, struggling, boarded up towns that are few and far between.

Carly.... chillaxin!

How in the heck did she get up there?!

While in Kansas we camped in Baxter Springs Riverside County Park.   Baxter Springs is a tiny town on Route 66.   We really enjoyed the antique shops here and the rich history of this little town, including seeing the bank that was robbed by Jesse James and his gang.   The campground was a neat little place beside a river that had flooded two months ago.  The campground had just reopened 2 days before we got there.    The grass and trees were lush and green as if the flood had never happened but there were now port-a-potties on the concrete slabs where the washed-away bathrooms once stood,  the campground signs were bent over and twisted, and there were sticks and debrie still stuck in the rafters of the picnic shelter roof (which also was bent over at a slight angle).    It was amazing to see that this campground was able to survive such a terrible flood.

great place for lunch

the recent flood waters came to the top of the picnic shelter!

this shows the sticks and debrie left in the roof edge

this shows the campground signs bent and twisted from the flood

We celebrated our 38^th wedding anniversary in Pratt, Kansas.   We had a great dinner at the El Dos De Oros Mexican Restaurant in town.  The campground we stayed at was in the middle of miles and miles of flat, golden wheat fields that were in the prime of harvesting.   We had a scare here because it was 104 degrees during the day and no shade trees.   We went into town to catch up on laundry and when we came back to the campground, we discovered that the air-conditioner couldn’t keep up with that kind of heat and had quit running.   We were afraid that Carly may have gotten too hot in the trailer and neither of us were anxious to be the one to walk into the trailer to find out if she was okay.    Luckily, it had only gotten up to 97 degrees inside and she seemed fine.

We then headed for Colorado.   The first campground we had planned on staying at was a dumpy little place, so we opted to drive a bit further than we had planned and thank heavens we did.   We just loved Lake Hasty Campground in the John Martin Reservoir State Park, in Hasty.   It was far away from everything, we had a waterfront site, and we didn’t need air-conditioning because there a constant, cool breeze.    We wished we could have stayed longer here.

our morning view

Jean enjoying her time here

Lone Duck Campground, in Cascade, was our “second” destination spot on this trip.  It’s just outside of Colorado Springs where we met Jean’s cousin, Beth, for the first time.   Beth took us to the Rock Bottom Brewery where we had one of the best dinners ever.  We had a wonderful visit and Jean says that it was like they have always known each other.   Hopefully we will be seeing her before so many years have passed again.   While we were in Colorado Springs, we also visited Garden of the Gods.  It started raining when we got there but luckily it cleared up and the sun came out long enough for us to enjoy the beauty of this place.   The cottonwood trees were “shedding” while we were here and it looked like it was snowing outside of our trailer.   The big auto race up Pike’s Peak was taking place 2 days after we left and one of the racers was camping in our campground.    It was fun to see his car but we didn’t appreciate him returning late each night and leaving each morning at 3am with his noisy race car to do practice runs on the peak!  We also heard snow was predicted at the peak on the day of the race, meaning they would have to move the finish line to a lower altitude, which is a rare event!

Lone Duck campground

in the Gardens of The Gods

Gardens of The Gods with Pike's Peak in the background

the "Balancing Rock" on the left

out for a great dinner with Beth

Heading north towards our next “destination” spot –the Grand Tetons – we stayed in Wolford Campground in Kremmling, Colorado.    We weren’t looking forward to staying here, expecting it to be a barren, blah campground.  Much to our surprise (once again!), we found that we really liked this place even though there were no trees, only scrub brush and sage.   It overlooks a big blue reservoir lake with Wolford Mountain and the Gore Range of the Rocky Mountains in the background.   It sits at 7,400 feet elevation and the temperatures were 78 -81 degrees during the day and 38 – 43 degrees at night!   It was pretty strange to spend the “official” second day of summer looking at snow-capped mountains and sleeping in 30 – 40 degree weather.

prairie dogs everywhere kept Carly really busy!

that's us just to the right of center

view of Wolford campground from nearby hilltop

view from our campsite and snow-capped mountains

Our next stop was Saratoga, Wyoming where we stayed in the Saratoga Lake Campground County Park.  We discovered that our “neighbors” here were from Texas, but originally from South Florida and their high schools/football teams were rivals of the high school that Jean went to in Belle Glade.    We had such a good time visiting with them and hope our camping paths will cross again.  Jean especially enjoyed reminiscing with them about going to school in South Florida during the “troubled” early 70’s.   What a small world!  Saratoga has a hot springs which is free to the public.  Here we met even more people that we enjoyed visiting with.During conversation on one of our visits at the hot springs, we were highly encouraged to extend our next stay at Lander, Wyoming, so as not to miss their “fabulous” 4^th of July parade and fireworks.  We’ll check it out and let you know next blog if we decided to stay longer and how it was.   ‘Until then, we hope you all have a Happy 4^th of July!

enjoying one of the hot springs pools

Saratoga Lake

Saratoga Lake Sunset

 

Jerome and Jean