Day 6

Thursday was a travel day, from Bozeman, MT to Casper, WY. After leaving Bozeman about 8:30 AM, our first stop was near Greycliff, MT at a Prairie Dog Town. It was started by a man who was concerned about their habitat being disturbed. This was one of several dogs we saw and heard barking.

The most scenic shot for the day was around 3:10 PM at the entrance of the Wind River Canyon, WY, in 109 degree sunshine. Yes, you read that correctly! We saw no trains in the canyon, but saw some magnificent rock formations which were up to 600 million years old.

Just before the canyon we passed through Thermopolis, WY, which is famous for its mineral waters and hot springs. Here is one of the mineral domes formed by a fountain of the water. It was only 108 degrees here. We decided not to try to find the bison in the park; hopefully they were somewhere in the shade trying to stay cool.

Today's fun challenge: what the heck is this? We think it looks like a Pac-Man Ghost. We saw it south of Frannie, WY about noon, when it was only 95 degrees.

On to the trains! You didn't think we would have a vacation day without them, did you? This MRL switcher was at a plant on our way into Laurel, MT where it was already 95 degrees at 10:30 AM. After this, we shot a "meet" of two trains nose to nose, but not on the digital camera. The engineer turned on his lights for Nancy's shot of one of the trains.

This BNSF train was also in Frannie,WY (population 180), with an engineer named Cody, who used to play baseball. The load was from the Montana Limestone company.

This BNSF is in Greybull, WY about 1:15 PM and 103 degrees. Greybull has a large population - 1,815 - and an air museum which resembles the one in the movie "Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man."

This BNSF southbound was shot south of Manderson, WY, population 104, at 1:45 PM at 100 degrees. We selected these photos for the page because the scenery is some of the greenest we saw today. Many areas were desolate; we decided not to include those shots on the web page.

We made it to Casper about 6:30 PM after long delays and 25 mph slows (not speeds) for roadwork between Shoshoni and Wallman, WY. Tomorrow we will be in Casper with family. TGIF!