Wyoming is a place with wide open plains filled with Pronghorn and beautiful mountain ranges. It’s said there are more pronghorn in Wyoming than people. They are a beautiful animal and while we’ve seen quite a few all over the west, we’ve seen more herds in our travels through Wyoming.

A pronghorn mom and her two kids are a pretty common sight.

We traveled into southern Wyoming and the Medicine Bow National Forest. We camped the first night at Lost Creek CG and then made our way west to Snowy Range Pass at 10,847 feet. The alpine vegetation, stark mountains and beautiful lakes make it a great place to visit, even if you are two miles up.

From the lookout at the pass we could see a couple of fires near the Wyoming – Colorado border to the south. We dropped down out of the mountains and into Laramie, WY for a bite to eat and to explore around.

We visited the historic Wyoming Penitentiary that housed many of the early criminals in the west, like Butch Cassidy.

The 6 by 8 foot cells were not much to call home. They put many to work making brooms in the factory on the premises.

We then drove back up to the pass and camped at Surgarloaf CG, near the pass. It was a beautiful spot when you looked to the north.

But when you looked to the south, the wind had whipped up the fires so that the skies were filled with smoke. We thought we would wake to a smoky site, but it rained nearly all night and created a crystal blue sky in the morning.

We hiked around the area, which gets to be tiresome quickly at 2 miles up.

The crispness in the air and the fall colors on the ground let you know that this area will be under snow again soon. We saw that the campground didn’t even open until 21 July this year due to snow.

We dropped out of the mountains again and traveled to Como Bluff, WY, where in the 1880s a huge amount of dinosaur bones were uncovered. The walls of the museum there are actually made out of dinosaur bones. Every paleontologist must just cringe when they see this – lol.

We then headed north and passed by Sinclair, WY and the Sinclair Oil refinery. Being in the middle of dinosaur country, I guess that’s why Sinclair gas has the green dinosaur, an environmentally friendly gas.

We made our way to Seminoe Reservior and the North Red Hills CG in the Seminoe State Park. This time of year it’s pretty easy to get a great spot.

In the evening, the wind began to howl and the clouds at different altitude were moving in opposite directions. I can imagine what a winter storm must look like in this part of the country. I cooked some great bison burgers outside and we had a cozy evening in the warm Roamer listening to music. Glad we weren’t tent camping.

In the morning, the clouds were still wrapped over the mountains.

The road north towards Casper, WY was beautiful.

The wind was gone so the clouds were more like an eerie fog bank as we climbed through the mountains. We lost count of the number of pronghorn, deer, turkey and other animals that were out along the dirt road.

Once the clouds began to break up, we stopped at Alcova Reservior and Black Beach CG, just south of Casper, WY. Again, it’s hard not to find a great spot.

We’ll be heading north for a little while before we turn south and head home for the holidays.