July 12, 2014 ~ Kingston, WY to Rock Springs, WY
I worked until noon, washed my clothes, got gas and two large slices of Everything Pizza at the gas station (one slice for $3.59; two for $5, so of course I bought two). No ice needed as it was still rattling around in the new cooler. The motel guy eventually showed up at the desk as another gentleman and I waited, ringing the bell numerous times. He was still in stocking feet and wearing the same grey T-shirt and jeans as last night. He had to rummage somewhere underneath the counter for quarters so I could use the washer and dryer...but he had a lazy nice smile.
Back on I80, I drove east, feeling sleepy for some reason, up and down long grades with sagebrush high desert on either side of the road and very little else. After 100+ miles, I headed north to Seedskadee NWR. The name of this refuge is from the Shoshone "sisk-a-dee-agie"meaning "river of the prairie hen" and I expected trees and water - cool pine forests, based only this lovely name. Not exactly...
It was 28 miles north of the interstate and the web site said it could be "bitter cold" as it was over 6000 feet. However, most of the state of Wyoming is over 6000 feet. In fact, the average mean elevation is 6700 feet, second highest in the nation. (Colorado is highest with mean of 6800 feet.) Not bitter cold; utterly silent; sunshine; sage; flies and mosquitoes; blue blue skies and the Green River. This refuge is another "mitigation" refuge, mitigating the habitat damage of the Fontanelle and Flaming Gorge dams. Seedskadee protects 36 miles of the Green.
Since it was Saturday, I didn't expect anyone but it is unusual to be where one can see forever and hear nothing. There were a few birds but the huge flies and other unidentified flying insects, plus the mosquitoes plus the heat plus rattlesnake possibilities plus failing walking shoes precluded even a short ramble out of the car, so I drove on refuge roads near the river where I saw a gentleman and his two dogs fishing from a drift boat. I love these western rivers.
The headwaters of the Snake are in the mountains of northwestern Wyoming. It runs south and then west through all of southern Idaho. Near the border with Oregon, it turns north, flowing through Hell's Canyon and empties into the Columbia in eastern Washington. It has 16 dams! References describe these river as being "used for" irrigation and hydropower.
The Green also begins in western Wyoming mountains and generally runs south to Utah where is joins the Colorado. It has two major dams as mentioned above: Fontanelle and the huge Flaming Gorge.
EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG
The Flaming Gorge Dam in Utah is a significant regional source of water for irrigation and mining, as well as for hydroelectric power. Begun in the 1950s and finished in 1963, it was highly controversial and opposed by conservationists. Originally, a dam was to be built in Whirlpool Canyon, but the conservationist movement traded the Flaming Gorge dam for halting that proposal. Apocryphally, the Sierra Club, a not-for-profit environmental organization, lost its tax-exempt status for political action in opposing the proposed dam.
I spent a couple of hours in a Starbucks in Rock Springs and then discovered it was adjacent to a Walmart with many other obvious overnighters so I joined the crowd. Impressively, everything always quiets down by 11 or even earlier. There were a few simple conversations at the open doors of RVs but none of the RV park hoopla.
It was windy and the western sky had a mess of complicated clouds with the sun moving through them. I learned the next morning that the National High School Rodeo Finals were to begin in Rock Springs that day. I watched kids and their families bustle about, all with well worn cowboy boots, including one girl with long Goldilocks curls, wearing a red jacket denoting her a "2014 Contestant." She had that "whateVer" expression on her face. There was also a trio that interested me: a nicely dressed middle-aged couple and a young Chinese girl, and judging from their conversation, they were just getting acquainted. She was explaining how iPhones have an abbreviated language for use with Chinese; no way would all the Chinese characters be used.
One other time, years ago, I had travelled through Rock Springs and remembered it as a windy gritty town out in the sagebrush just off the interstate. It apparently has made itself into a viable regional center for commerce and culture in western Wyoming but definitely predominately a ranching cowboy culture.
 |
| Seedskadee NWR - WY |
It was 28 miles north of the interstate and the web site said it could be "bitter cold" as it was over 6000 feet. However, most of the state of Wyoming is over 6000 feet. In fact, the average mean elevation is 6700 feet, second highest in the nation. (Colorado is highest with mean of 6800 feet.) Not bitter cold; utterly silent; sunshine; sage; flies and mosquitoes; blue blue skies and the Green River. This refuge is another "mitigation" refuge, mitigating the habitat damage of the Fontanelle and Flaming Gorge dams. Seedskadee protects 36 miles of the Green.
Since it was Saturday, I didn't expect anyone but it is unusual to be where one can see forever and hear nothing. There were a few birds but the huge flies and other unidentified flying insects, plus the mosquitoes plus the heat plus rattlesnake possibilities plus failing walking shoes precluded even a short ramble out of the car, so I drove on refuge roads near the river where I saw a gentleman and his two dogs fishing from a drift boat. I love these western rivers.
The headwaters of the Snake are in the mountains of northwestern Wyoming. It runs south and then west through all of southern Idaho. Near the border with Oregon, it turns north, flowing through Hell's Canyon and empties into the Columbia in eastern Washington. It has 16 dams! References describe these river as being "used for" irrigation and hydropower.
The Green also begins in western Wyoming mountains and generally runs south to Utah where is joins the Colorado. It has two major dams as mentioned above: Fontanelle and the huge Flaming Gorge.
 |
| Green River on the Seedskadee NWR - WY |
EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG
The Flaming Gorge Dam in Utah is a significant regional source of water for irrigation and mining, as well as for hydroelectric power. Begun in the 1950s and finished in 1963, it was highly controversial and opposed by conservationists. Originally, a dam was to be built in Whirlpool Canyon, but the conservationist movement traded the Flaming Gorge dam for halting that proposal. Apocryphally, the Sierra Club, a not-for-profit environmental organization, lost its tax-exempt status for political action in opposing the proposed dam.
I spent a couple of hours in a Starbucks in Rock Springs and then discovered it was adjacent to a Walmart with many other obvious overnighters so I joined the crowd. Impressively, everything always quiets down by 11 or even earlier. There were a few simple conversations at the open doors of RVs but none of the RV park hoopla.
It was windy and the western sky had a mess of complicated clouds with the sun moving through them. I learned the next morning that the National High School Rodeo Finals were to begin in Rock Springs that day. I watched kids and their families bustle about, all with well worn cowboy boots, including one girl with long Goldilocks curls, wearing a red jacket denoting her a "2014 Contestant." She had that "whateVer" expression on her face. There was also a trio that interested me: a nicely dressed middle-aged couple and a young Chinese girl, and judging from their conversation, they were just getting acquainted. She was explaining how iPhones have an abbreviated language for use with Chinese; no way would all the Chinese characters be used.
One other time, years ago, I had travelled through Rock Springs and remembered it as a windy gritty town out in the sagebrush just off the interstate. It apparently has made itself into a viable regional center for commerce and culture in western Wyoming but definitely predominately a ranching cowboy culture.
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