After leaving our beautiful campsite at Cowdrey Reservoir, Tom and I continued driving north on Colorado Highway 125 to the Wyoming state line where it turned into Wyoming Highway 230. Highway 230 merged with Highway 130 before intersecting Interstate 80 near Walcott, Wyoming. We headed west on Interstate 80 then northwest on Highway 30 to McCammon, Idaho.
Sites along the way
As we drove through Saratoga, Wyoming on Highway 230 we crossed over the raging North Platte River. It was filled to the brim!
Heading west on Interstate 80 in Wyoming, we crossed the Great Divide Basin. This stretch of the basin is defined by relatively low elevations of the Continental Divide compared to Colorado. Water within the Great Divide Basin doesn’t flow to the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans.
While crossing the Basin, we witnessed a cattle roundup… very appropriate for Wyoming, Beef Country!
As Tom and I continued west on Interstate 80, we were lured to the Little America Travel Center by signage. The many billboards along the interstate, especially the ones promising 75¢ ice cream cones, worked when I was a kid and they still work today! The store was packed with travelers waiting in long lines to use the restrooms and purchase items. We rested and ate lunch in our camper while others waited in lines. Then, just before hitting the road again, we snagged our ice cream cones from the nearly empty store.
The weather was cloudy, windy and rainy as we drove across Wyoming so we decided to put some extra miles behind us while its too wet to enjoy the outdoors. By the time we crossed into Idaho, the storm had already passed through. The ground was saturated and flooding, but beautifully green.
The skies were clearing by the time we reached Montpelier, Idaho. We stopped to check out the Oregon/California Trail Center but it was already closed. Instead we took advantage of the free dump station in the parking lot and moved on.
Tom and I stopped for dinner at Stockman’s Bar in Soda Springs. It was Friday night and we were hoping to find a small town honky tonk for live music and dancing. Had we found it at Stockman's Bar, we might have boondocked in their parking lot. Unfortunately, they didn’t have live music that night but they did have an active geyser right behind the parking lot.
We were getting ready to settle our tab with Julia, Stockman’s friendly bartender/owner when we learned the geyser was just minutes from erupting. So, we left the unpaid bill at the bar as Julia hustled us out the back door and up a small hill just in time to see the geyser erupt!
After returning to Stockman’s Bar to pay our bill, there were still a few hours of daylight left. So, we drove a little farther in search of a more comfortable place to park for the night. We ended up boondocking at a Harvest Host site in McCammon, Idaho.
Boondocking at Diamond P Grassroots Bison Ranch
It was just before sunset when we reached the Diamond P Grassroots Bison Ranch. We were too late for a tractor ride through the bison pastures but we could see them from our campsite.
We enjoyed a nice sunset through the clouds and awoke to a clear blue sky.
After we happily declared a “shorts” day, Tom and I packed up and hit the road again.
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