SE Wyoming & Dinosaur National Monument

I started out driving the next day, heading for the Fort Laramie National Historic Site in Wyoming. It was only a few hours drive from Estes Park, and I could spend a few hours there before heading west toward the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. But when I was just south of Cheyenne, WY, I decided to head straight west on I80, toward Kemmerer, WY, so I could go to the Fossil Butte National Monument. I had enjoyed my stop at the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument and wanted to check and see what was at Fossil Butte.

As I approached Rock Spring, WY I noticed that the Dinosaur National Monument was just to the south down US191. That sounded like even more fun than the Fossil Butte NM, so I headed south. This is what I consider one of the good parts of traveling alone. I made 2 changes to my plans in a few hours and didn't have to worry about how it would affect anyone but myself.

The trip down US191 was very nice. The scenery looking out over the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area was  beautiful and it was an enjoyable drive. At least until I started having problems with my transmission. It didn't want to go into overdrive, to the point where I was slowing down while going down hill on a steep slope. I didn't get into Vernal until late, and found that there was no place to stay. Since I didn't want to try getting anywhere else until I got my car looked at, I spent far too much money on the last room in town.

I called a local shop the next day, then spent the morning at the Dinosaur National Monument. And of course, my car ran fine all morning. And when I went back to Vernal, the transmission shop checked it out and didn't find anything wrong with it. But they didn't charge for checking and all I really lost was a few hours. The loss of time did mean I was going to miss a get together at home, or at least get home so late I wouldn't enjoy it, so I decided to stay out west a few days longer. I just needed to decide exactly where to go.