The BNSF railroad runs massive coal trains from Wyoming to electrical plants in the south. We were used to big trains, but this empty train heading north was one of the longest we have ever seen.

Entering Wyoming we spent our first night at an amazing campground at the Vedauwoo Recreation Area.  It is an area full of huge boulders and cliffs and is a very popular climbing site.  It reminded us of an area south of Jos in Nigeria, that we had camped in during our trip across the Sahara. (https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/regions/Rocky_Mountain/VedauwooRecAreaPoleMtn/index.shtml)

Compare with: https://pbase.com/diplostrat/image/103065105

Denise admires the rocks.

Can you find the climbers?

Free climbing to get the belay lines to the top.

Makes your fingers hurt just to look at it.

Stacked rocks

We then headed north to Casper through some lovely green country (obviously lots of rain here also!) where we saw lots of pronghorn deer grazing in the meadows with the cattle.  And there were lots of cattle!  Courtesy of the Harvest Hosts website  we found Historic Trails West, who offered free camping for the night if we joined one of their covered Conestoga wagon expeditions along the Oregon Trail.  (https://www.historictrailswest.com)

This sounded like tons of fun, and is just the sort of silly thing we enjoy, so we signed up for a wagon ride/pioneer dinner.  And it WAS tons of fun!  The driver included explanations of the Trail and background into the lives of those heading west.  Most fascinating was how to get the two Percheron horses (not authentic from the time but practical) and the wagonload of people safely down a steep part of the trail.  Not to mention getting them up it again on the return.  Our meal was excellent, especially the cherry cobbler!

Rain closing in.

Camped on the Oregon Trail

Denise holds the Percherons.

Percherons

Climbing the grade.

We spent a pleasant night up on the bluff surrounded by pronghorn deer and stayed warm and dry while the wind howled and the rain fell!  We have been experiencing lots of afternoon storms in Colorado and in Wyoming and some of them are quite violent.

The driver of our Conestoga wagon told us about the annual National Collegiate Rodeo Championship taking place in Casper at that time, so we decided to delay a day to attend the semi finals.  We had no idea that Western universities had rodeo teams and competed against each other for money and prizes.  We thoroughly enjoyed our first rodeo and watched with awe the bronco riding, the steer riding, and all the other events.  The skill of the riders and their horses is incredible. Fred, on the other hand, was most impressed that the majority of the broncos, steers, and even goats, made an immediate bee line for the exit chute as soon as their event was over. There were, of course, “shaggers” to catch and direct the animals, but in most cases it simply wasn’t  necessary, the animals knew when their event was over and left of their own accord. It may have been our first rodeo, but it was clearly not theirs.

We also visited the Fort Caspar fort and museum.  The site had long been used by traders, emigrants, and settlers. Over the years various trading posts, military installations, fords, ferries, and a bridge were built there.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Caspar)

Dedicated to Ella Hudson – Log cabin art.

Officer’s quarters

Enlisted quarters

Bridge replica.

Replica of one of Brigham Young’s rafts.

Frontier Bumble Bee

Still in Oregon Trail mode, we headed south to visit Independence Rock.  This rock was a gathering point and market for those heading west. Lots of names were carved on it by the settlers and it was known as the goal to be reached by July 4, so as to avoid the greater likelihood of winter snows in the mountains as they progressed to Oregon.  We did not find many clear inscriptions probably as we did not climb the rock itself. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Rock_(Wyoming)) We also went to look at Devil’s Gate, a cleft in the mountain that the settlers had noted and visited on their route west. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_Gate_(Wyoming)) We were not able to get closer than the overlook. From Independence Rock, the emigrants began an easy, one hundred mile climb to South Pass, a remarkably low and wide pass in the Rocky Mountains. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pass_(Wyoming)) Looking back at Lewis and Clark, and others, the South Pass was a kind of Shangri-La for European Americans trying to travel west. And by making it easy to cross the Rocky Mountains, the South Pass helped spell the death knell for the Plains Indian nations.

Independence Rock, looking east

Lost inscription.

Devil’s Gate to the west.

Looking east towards Casper

Denise enjoys the Rock.

The Devil’s Gate from the west.

New and improved panorama! Now even wider!

While on this jaunt, we realized that our refrigerator was not working well, again! So we turned it off, restarted it and prayed it would get its act together. We camped for the night beside the North Platte River in one of the BLM fishing camps, Chalk Bluffs.

The next morning our refrigerator (the one that was replaced last year in Maine) was really dead. So we returned to our campground in Casper with the aim of getting it looked at. The campground, the Casper East RV park (http://caspereastrvpark.com), welcomed us back and recommended a local RV repair shop. The shop, however However, told us to go away until August so we decided on Plan B. We ordered an ARB 50 quart plug in unit from Amazon and a new refrigerator,  a Nova Kool this time, the same as we had in the Tiger. We no longer trust the Thetford Norcold.  Meanwhile Denise borrowed a cooler from the camp owner which she will return when we return on Thursday to pick up our ARB. We did mention that the RV park was wonderful?

After Overland EXPO, we wanted to go somewhere to shoot pictures of the 917 in action. Bad weather put paid to plans to return to the Valley of the Gods, so we headed west, across Death Valley to California.

Along the way we stopped for the obligatory photo on old Route 66,

We did not spend any time in Death Valley; we merely popped through the 20 Mule Team Canyon, but that said, it is spectacular.

The grades into the valley test your exhaust brake to the maximum! Oh, and the views are amazing. But with an 18,000 lb. vehicle, the road commands a lot of attention.

A grade of almost 10%. Note the road continuing across the valley.

In May the temperature in the valley is not bad, but you can imagine what it is in high summer!

The heavy rains this Spring have turned the desert green.

Denise finds her Joshua Tree.

Blooming cactus

Climbing out the the valley, we camped at an abandoned work site, known as “The Slabs.” (The old foundation slabs make nice level campstites!)

Once into California, we turned north on US 395. We had never heard of Route 395 which runs along the Sierra Nevada, but we very much enjoyed driving it.  We are not alone – it even has a Facebook group.

Our first stop was the Alabama Hills. The Hills have been Hollywood’s secret weapon since the 1930’s. You want the Hindu Kush (“Gunga Din”), the Lone Ranger’s massacre site, Afghanistan (“Iron Man”), a burned villa (“Gladiator”), or simply spectacular scenery for westerns, great and not so great? The Alabama Hills provide it all in an area about two by five miles. We drove around the rocks a bit (proving that the swing away rear bumper would swing!) and then settled in for the night.

No, we are not in the Hindu Kush.

The next day dawned grey and dismal, but we still drove under Gunga Din’s bridge, almost by accident. (Sadly, Annie, the elephant, was no longer there.) This is a great video: https://vimeo.com/8561946

The bridge spanned from the concrete in the foreground to the rock on the other side of the truck. The “yawning chasm” was a matte shot. You are standing where Annie the elephant stood when she shook the bridge.

We left the Alabama Hills and headed into Lone Pine to visit the Film History Museum.  This was most interesting with everything from cars used in the era to memorabilia and posters from different movies.  Fred especially liked the old movie camera car, used to film racing cowboys and crashing wagons.

The town of Lone Pine has what may be the most beautiful McDonald’s in the world. (We went to the espresso bar, not as scenic, but better coffee.)

All of the scenery on Route 395 was incredible, though we could have wished for better weather – rain, clouds and even snow were our constant companions. 

Then it was time for a visit to a most moving and sad location, Manzanar, National Historic Site. One of the Japanese Internment Camps, established after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, it housed about 120,000 ethnic Japanese of which 60% were US citizens. They, for the most part, lost everything; homes, businesses, and even pets were abandoned at short notice. Allowed to carry, only a suitcase, they were forced into the windy, dusty high desert environment.  Parts of the camp have been reconstructed and interviews with former residents tell their stories. A very sad and shameful part of our history.

Museum exhibits.

Watchtower – an especially ominous image.

The internees built the gate house – note the pagoda like styling.

Monument to those who died at Manzanar.

Foundations and restored buildings.

As we continued our drive north, we stopped at the Laws Train Museum and Historical Site, a collection of old houses and memorabilia from the late 1800’s and one of the last narrow gauge engines and cars from west of the Rockies.  The Laws Depot from 1883 is there.  Other than the falling rain, it was pleasant.

Narrow gauge train.

Depot

Couplers

Rabbit conductor.

Gasoline Station.

Heading north still, we decided to see the Obsidian Dome, a volcanic feature amongst a number of volcanic calderas, cones and lava flows.  As the road climbed, the rain turned to snow and we found ourselves in deep drifts.  Of course we managed to get stuck as we were not expecting this and were not even in 4×4.  (Yes, we should have been).  This posed a bit of a problem – we had sand ladders and “Go Treds” but no shovel. (Don’t even say it!) We successfully extricated ourselves using the rear winch. For the first time in our lives, Mr. “I-don’t-need-no-stinkin-winch” was saved by a winch. (Yes, we did have a nice new tree strap.) Actually, the truth is that Denise ran the winch while Fred drove.

Denise, a beautiful wench, or is it winch?

Once out, the snow was falling, so we decided to stay put and camped beside the drift!!  Next morning we had a dusting of snow on us but the sun was shining!  We had not seen it in so long!

Our final stop on 395 before heading into Nevada was at the Mono Lake, known for its tufas.  Mono Lake is a salt lake, which forms tufas, strange spires and knobs, when fresh water springs containing calcium bubble up through the lake water and combine with the carbonate-rich waters of the lake. 

We started at the Visitor Center and then retraced our steps to the South Tufa area where a footpath led down to the lake and close encounters with both dry and wet tufa.  There are no fish in the lake only briny shrimp, which are a favored source of food for several migrating birds.  There are also alkali flies which are a food source.  There were a few birds around but we did not visit in the main migration season.

Mono Lake

Tufas

Denise and Tufas

Tourists playing in the Tufas

Looking north

The Mono Basin is very volcanic with the youngest mountain range in the US.  For example, Panum Crater only erupted 650 years ago.

As we left, we went to the Panum Crater, and climbed up the side to view the lake and the crater, before heading into Lee Vining to enjoy an ice-cream on the first sunny day in a week!  And on to Nevada where we planned to visit friends, for the Memorial Day weekend.

Panum Crater

View from the rim towards the lake.

The Sierra Nevada from the rim of Panum Crater.

Everyone knows you need a modern 4×4 for these trips!

This time our departure was rather rushed as we could not leave until the new wheels arrived from Germany.  (http://www.expeditions-lkw.de/felge-11-75×22-5-8-loch-et-110-kronprinz.html  Thank you, Fabian!) They made it by the skin of their teeth and we drove to Baltimore on the Wednesday to pick them up and then dropped them at the tire shop.  Fred had them installed with the new tires on the Friday and then it was all systems go for departure on the following Wednesday. Thank you all of the wonderful folk at Alban Tire, Springfield. (https://www.albantire.com) 

New, round wheels and tires!

It always takes far longer to get ready than one thinks it should but we made it out about 11 AM with most of what we planned to take with us!  And in the U.S. one can always buy what one forgets!  In other parts of the world that is not always the case!

We were heading for Overland Expo West, (https://www.overlandexpo.com/west) so had a limited amount of time to make it to Flagstaff, Arizona which made for long driving days. We could see considerable flooding as we approached the Mississippi River and as the river was cresting further north at that moment, we were glad to get through without problems. Perhaps as result of all of the rain, the spring flowers beside the interstate were lovely, even into the desert.

We took the shortest possible route, Interstate 40, but were frankly shocked by the state of the road surface in several of the states and by the general lack of open rest areas. Oklahoma had not one rest area available, so no wonder all the truck stops advertised “clean toilets”.  Even a camper needs a rest area for a lunch stop.  Eating lunch in a truck stop parking area is no fun. 

That said, there were some pleasant surprises en route. The KOA in Grants, New Mexico is not impressive from the road, but it turns out to be lovely and right in the middle of “El Malpais” (badland). (https://koa.com/campgrounds/grants/) They even have a short, annotated lava/nature walk which gives you a sense of the unique geology of the region.

As it was warm and the sun was shining, we made a flying return to the Painted Desert and stopped at the same overlooks we had visited on our first trip west in 2014. That time it was cold enough to chill the proverbial monkeys! This time it was lovely and the sunlight made the colors so much richer.

But we made it to Flagstaff in time, met up with friends at the KOA and headed to Overland Expo. And the new wheels and tires? Round and wonderful! We could make as much as 60 MPH!

Overland Expo is in a new venue, Fort Tuthill Park, which is right in Flagstaff, a boon for day trippers and those who stay overnight in hotels. The event is now up to 22,000 people, and, as Denise’s brother would say, it was “heaving.”

We showed the 917 at the XPCamper display and were busy dawn to dusk.

We were able to slip away and catch Dan Grec’s wonderful presentation on West Africa. (http://theroadchoseme.com)

Fred was also able to catch a presentation on driving to the Eye of Africa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richat_Structure a cool looking hole that can only be appreciated from space. Go figure! Still, we may put it on our agenda for the coming years. This link gives a good impressionistic view of the event: https://americanadventurist.com/overland-expo-west-2019/

True to the history of Overland EXPO in Flagstaff, it snowed on Monday morning!

We even saw Rob and Nina Blackwell’s old truck in the camping area. The new owner is said to be delighted with it. (http://whiteacorn.com)

An old friend from EXPO’s past. (This is the truck they drove across Asia to Europe.)