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Wyoming


I crossed two states without seeing any rain but now, nine minutes into Wyoming, it's starting. After half an hour of very heavy rain and hail, it's easing and I've reached the start of the steep ... A viewpoint. The road hugs that rock. Another view. And another. Some new flowers. The summit of the Teton Pass, at 8431 feet, or 2570 metres. There should only be one higher pass on ... That's not the usual advice. I will be spending tonight in the city of Jackson, Wyoming. It's in a valley called Jackson Hole, wh... On this side of the pass, I have the choice of the road or this path on the right. I was leaning tow... Behold, the Jackson Hole. The path is pretty good. I even passed one woman who was cycling up it. Because it's steep with shar... For the first time on this trip, I'm feeling cold. Luckily, the Sun is coming out now and I haven't ... Bird boxes. Some other motels near mine. When I booked, everywhere is Jackson was amazingly expensive so I would... The receptionist said I could take the bike up to my room. I initially parked it here but after seei... The seals on these boxes let air out but not in so if you take one up to altitude and back down, its... One of the reasons why I booked the motel that I did is because that bike shop is only two blocks aw... Because I was cold and wet coming down the mountain, and it's quite late now and I want to be up ear... The pizza box doubles as a drip tray for when I put more oil on the chain. It's quite chilly in Jackson this morning and the cloud level is not far above street level. Downtown Jackson. I had previously seen pictures of archways made out of antlers at the entrances to... The road out of the town. Dabbling ducks. Maintenance work. They look more like ducks to me. The flat floor of the Snake River valley. The bike path is interestingly wiggly. I'm in Grand Teton National Park, where all the road signs look like that. Jackson Hole Airport, the site of Sandra Bullock's plane crash in 2000. The sign for the airport. A plane coming in to land. The Grand Tetons, seen from the bike path. Unfortunately, I'm going to the more distant, and less well known, out of these two. A viewpoint. Tourists. A different viewpoint. Another view of the mountains. The speed limit here is lower at night. My guess is that that's to prevent vehicles hitting animals ... Oh! I didn't expect this trip to be a safari! Buffalo! A big buffalo, looking like the one on the state flag, which I haven't shown you yet. Buffalo. The vehicles of people looking at the buffalo. A buffalo. More of them. Noxious weeds, apparently. I'm about to start climbing towards the Togwotee Pass, the highest point on my ride. ... Buffalo Fork, a tributary to the Snake River. Scenery. I wass passed by several large pieces of machinery on their way up the hill. The road. A camper van towing a car is quite a common sight around here. Sometimes the cars themselves are pre... Here I am engaged in extreme sport. When I was getting insurance for this trip, I noticed in the sma... The Togwotee Lodge, where I caved and refilled my bottles. Two cyclists on their way down. Scenery. A sign warned of nine miles of roadworks but, like yesterday, all that actually existed was one smal... A view. Another unidentified thing. A mirage on the road. This climb is nowhere near as strenuous as the man in Mitchell made out. The pass which I crossed in... I leaned my bike against the barrier but then saw that it's not attached to the wooden support. The ... I think that's Three Waters Mountain. According to a notice board, water falling on different sides ... An old photograph of some early cars coming through this pass. This isn't quite the highest point on my trip because just out of sight round the corner, the road r... My bike, with the drainage basin of the Snake River behind it. I've crossed continental divides before but I've never seen one where there are significant streams ... The continental divide. Impressive. Wind River Lake. As water leaves the lake through this pipe under where I'm standing, it becomes the Wind River, whic... The beginning of the Wind River. Although I'm pretty much at the highest point of my ride now, I believe I'm almost immediately going... Two motorcyclists. The rock on top of the hill on the left is the Tie Hack Memorial, commemorating the people who used ... The Wind River looks pretty snakey if you ask me. Lumpy ground. I think my new handlebar tape has pretty much settled into a stable configuration now. It looks just... A view from the road. A view. Stripey rocks. Stripey rocks. The remains of a purple bird. The other side of the valley. Stripes. On my previous American trip, I kept hoping to find a town sign which gave the population, elevation... The flag of Wyoming. An entire deer made of antlers. Dubois. The reception area of where I'm staying. My cabin. The cabin has its own guest book. The first entry is a couple from Rolla, Missouri. ... Last night's sink tap was very slow and too low to get a water bottle underneath. This one has neith... My bike, locked to a tree for the night. The view from the door of my cabin. That car doesn't have a place for a front number plate. The fire station has a weird mast. The general store, which really did seem to stock a wide range of incoherent things. Names carved into the wooden sidewalk. This is where I had dinner. It's got a proper saloon bar, like in the films. Dubois by night. A vacant diner. This is the kind of thing that I wanted to see in Jackson. The motel across the road has one with li... At night, I can see that there's a geodesic dome near where I parked my bike. Are they changing the times of the church services? Just outside Dubois. Rocks. A landscape. More rocks. We're now 1000 miles into the trip. The bike seems to be in pretty good shape. I don't like these frequent cracks. It looks like the traffic lane gets resurfaced more often than t... I was just overtaken by a motorbike with what looked like a British registration. More amazing rocks. Wow! Today's ride is 150 km but the land has a downhill trend and I have a tailwind for the first half of... I passed a sign announcing that I was entering Burris and then passed a sign for traffic going the o... Just some sheds. Crowheart is another tiny settlement so I'm surprised it has a library. This sign was also at Crowheart. I will be spending most of today crossing the Wind River Indian Res... Horses. A rest stop at a petrol station. The pipes for the two drinks machines inside. With 586000 people, Wyoming is the least populated State in the union. Alaska has a lower population... The road. It's hay moving time. Scenery. A wind pump. There's also a "nodding donkey" pump just visible on top of the ridge. It seems to be just a sculpture. Landscape with cows. A ranshackle bar. It looks long closed but apparently it opens at 6pm every night. A little church. I've come off the main road to take a short cut. I saw this animal on the road in the distance and had to use my telephoto lens to make sure it wasn'... It seems that these birds like to be down in the grass where you can't see them but then when they g... That buffalo really looks like it's bracing itself against the wind. A flock of those birds. If you looked across the field from the side, you wouldn't see the birds on the ground. Rock formations. It looks like there's some heavy rain behind me. I'm feeling a few spots but the wind is blowing fro... I decided I would stop and drink some of my water when I was 40 km from my destination. At pretty mu... The weather forecast was right when it said that the wind would be variable this afternoon. For the ... Crops being bent by the wind. It is mainly from my right and slightly helping me but there are a few... This is quite funny. I've got the wind in my favour but I'm having to deliberately go slowly because... I think these are the same birds. Indidentally, I saw some more of ... Boysen Reservoir. Boysen Reservoir is part of the Wind River, whose source I saw yesterday. It is held back by the Boy... Boysen Reservoir. My motel is the first building in the town of Shoshoni. I booked this motel by phone three months ago but when I got here, they had no record of my reservat... Absolutely no fish cleaning in the rooms. There's a little winch for opening and closing the window. I had it open for a while but my laptop s... This motel is remarkably generous with the shampoo and soap. I was about to set off but it's started raining. The motel next door to mine has seen better days. Shoshoni. A whole street right in the middle of Shoshoni is derelict. Is a school bus likely to be stopping on the road ahead? There's nothing there. Rock formations. Scenery. Scenery. Rocks. Today is this tyre's last day. I had thought of swapping it with the front one a few days ago so tha... Somebody looking at my buffalo pictures from a couple of days ago predicted that there would be ante... The antelope in context. Oh. A couple of oversize loads. Scenery. Scenery. Some kind of facility. I don't know if it's for oil or water. A dead snake. Another group of antelope. Only the little ones seem interested in me. There are some antelope in this picture too. I stopped for lunch in Hiland. It's not a big place. Inside the shop-come-cafe-come-petrol station in Hiland. The door on the left leads to a bar. Appare... Some tanks. Scenery. A good mirage. This is one of the landmarks I had been looking forward to seeing: Hell's Half Acre, a rather strang... Hell's Half Acre. Hell's Half Acre. Hell's Half Acre. The upper reaches of the Powder River. Here comes a train! The train. While I was watching the train, I noticed that this was watching me. Bye, train. Lopes. They don't seem to know whether to watch me with interest or run away. Lovely creatures, aren't they? I haven't had much luck getting phone reception. I've tried all three of the new SIM cards in both o... An interesting skyline. It seems that Sturgis is a motorbike rally in South Dakota. This sign must be aimed at bikers headin... The landing lights of the so-called Casper-Natrona County International Airport which, as far as I c... Oil is big business in Casper. This is an industrial estate for drilling-related companies. I wonder if "Ghost Town" is a common nickname for Casper. Casper. A smoke shop at a petrol station doesn't seem like a good idea. Casper. It's bad enough that in many countries, a cycle lane is has to give way to a nothing road like that ... A snowplough. Casper isn't all about oil. This factory is processing bentonite. Admittedly, one of the uses of ben... The North Platte River. For a few years, I have been mulling over various possible rides in America ... Most of the war memorials that I've seen start in 1914 but this one goes back to 1865. Casper. Part of the white water park, on the North Platte River. I encountered bins like this a couple of days ago. You have to insert your hand and push a bar to un... This cannon is commemorating an incident in 1921 where some oil tanks caught fire and the solution w... Amoco Park, sponsored by the oil company. An example of a cable tool drilling rig, as used from 1878 until the 1950s. The open lane on the left is for the drive-through cash machine. I don't know what the two closed la... A statue of an angler on an island in the rapids of the white water park. There were some real peopl... Downtown Casper. On the right, just to the left of the tower block, you bight be able to see the nam... My day ends with this cycle path. Crazy golf. I'm staying in this cluster of hotels and restaurants next to the river. Eclipse gear. My hotel. That barrel-shaped building next to my hotel is the planetarium. I bet it's going to be busy over th... It's taking me a while to find my room in this hotel. Fortunately, to make the search interesting, t... The view from my window. This would have been ideal on my 2011 trip. That looks like a snowplough sitting on the corner of the hotel car park.... I think some camper vans tow their cars directly and others tow a trailer which carries the car's fr... I went to this place for dinner: The Fort Saloon. There's a limousine parked outside with a handwrit... I've seen rocky mountain oysters advertised for a few days but I've only just remembered what they a... The Fort Saloon. I wonder where people had previously been walking their dogs. A free, strangely-shaped newspaper was delivered to my room. It's called the Casper Star Tribune, al... After 15 days of riding, today is my first rest day. I'm staying here in Casper until Monday morning... This is the bike shop which has told me it definitely has loads of good touring tyres in stock. This must be the centre of Casper: the junction of 1st Street and Center Street. Casper. The old railway line which is now a cycle path leading to the mall. It's the same one that I'll be u... A whole load of snowmobiles. The cycle path. I had to ride a short distance on this road. I didn't enjoy it. Best Buy doesn't look very busy, which is lucky because I'll be taking up quite a lot of their atten... Buying a new laptop and hard drive caddy was easy. When I got outside, I remembered that I needed to... The new laptop in its box just about fits in there.... I have produced quite a lot of rubbish while I've been here. At least I'm not trying to dispose of t... I've been to the bike shop. It didn't have quite the cornucopia of touring tyres that the man on the... Now it's turned into some kind of wild west road. I feel like I'm about to have a gunfight. A dog dryer? Sinclair's Casper Refinery. So this is where those articulated caravans come from. Pipes. Just some scenery. Yellow bales of hay on green cut grass. The motorway. A type of lorry which is quite common here. I think the bottom opens up to release the contents onto... Another picture of the same bridge. These look like pelicans but I wouldn't expect them this far inland. An oil pump, pumping. The Glenrock motor racing track. Glenrock, where fireworks are prohibited. A sign near here says that John Fremont's expedition to the far West camped in this rocky glen in 18... Now my road goes over a few hills. The railway. Glenrock. My shoelace must have just decided to hang a way it has never hung before. In three deft bites, my f... Approaching the Glenrock wind farm. My road through the wind farm. And again. Sorry. The wind farm. The wind farm. Ever get that feeling you're being watched? This road is quiet enough that I can ride in the traffic lane but that doesn't help much because mos... The landscape. I saw a sign like the one on the left earlier. I hadn't seen any before today. I can see rain showers and bolts of lightning on the horizon. There's no wind at all today and it lo... This sign commemorates the One Mile Hog Ranch, which it describes as "perhaps the rowdiest, rou... The North Platte River. Scenery. These are the first sheep I've seen since Oregon. They blend in well with the scenery. I think that's a silhouette of a jackalope, a mythical cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope. Roads into Douglas. Swirling clouds up ahead. I have been told that ... Another of those lorries. This one's rear trailer doesn't look as comically short as some. My hotel. It's so new it's not there on Google Earth. A federal number plate. My hotel has an impressive range of sweets for sale. I already have as many as I can carry though. Awww. This is the end of my continuous unpowered journey from the Oregon coast because I can't see a... The coffee machine is in the bathroom. Maybe in the morning, I'll wake up gradually the way I occasi... The weird thing about this room is that there doesn't seem to be any way of shutting the curtains. Y... Now I've found the stairs. They were at the end of the building. Outside my hotel. Another rain shower is passing over. This is the most undercover I can get my bike. A big horse box. Time for dinners. A disassembled light aircraft. That's not what I said my name was. I'm glad I don't work here. I'm having every day off in August. Parking the bike here to keep the rain off it didn't completely work. The bench and the back end of ... The road out of Douglas is five lanes wide with good shoulders until it goes past the highway mainte... Cows. These ones have big horns. Landscape with motorway. There's a train. I-25 heading towards Cheyenne. Some kind of radar, perhaps. Scenery. Scenery. A service station with a view. Farewell, highway 20. This is where we part company for the last time. Enjoy Boston. A train. The same train. The back end of the same train crossing the North Platte River. I think it's a type of railway points. I'm not sure why there are tanks of propane all along this stretch of railway. A little combine harvester sitting in a field on its own. The train has stopped to let two trains go past in the opposite direction so I'm getting ahead of it... Scenery. Looking towards Glendo Reservoir and Glendo State Park. I've arrived in Glendo before the back end of the train. Glendo. The place on the left has a giant deckchair on its lawn. Roads out of Glendo. Ah, so the Oregon Trail and the Pony Express both came through here. A view. Another view. Rocks. I'm on gravel for a short distance now. In the US, railways are mainly for freight. There are several railway companies which each have thei... A view. More rock formations. This is a strange one. According to this, I'm now crossing the Oregon Trail, the California Trail, the Pony Express and the... There's an Oregon Trail Bank! Now dark clouds are forming. The mountains have finally disappeared from view, the ground has become flat and it's starting to fe... I've arrived at my destination over an hour earlier than I expected because for the last 35 miles, t... My room. Really, I only took a picture of it because I'm happy to be in it so early in the day. I had a moment of panic when I thought I had lost my spoke-replacing tools but I found them in the e... Several of the hotels have had things like this: bedside mains sockets and USB power sockets. They'r... The view from my window. The receptionist said that I could leave my bike parked under the canopy, in another attempt to keep... This is right next to the main junction in the centre of Torrington. That vehicle has got some temporary traffic lights. I haven't seen any in operation. All the roadwor... Torrington. Torrington. Torrington. Torrington's main street. Cattle brands, like ... The cinema and library. On the way out of Douglas this morning, I passed a small cinema with a sign ... A train approaching. Torrington, with a train. As I rode into town in the rain, I saw a few fast food places just a couple of blocks away from the ... It's been several years since I've taken paper maps on these trips but I happened to see maps of bot... A fireworks shop immediately on the Wyoming side of the border.