Wind River Canyon, Historic Trails and Mammoths

Saturday and Sunday  July 8-9, 2017    Wind River Canyon, Historic Trails & Mammoths

We left Cody on Saturday morning after retrieving a poster that I just remembered I left at the Buffalo Bill Wild West Museum and a quick stop at their quilt store. 

We headed south though the Wind River Canyon that ended in a reservoir.  

 The weather was extremely hot and we experienced temps in the high 90s.  We arrived in Casper, WY early in the afternoon and we took advantage to relax in the comfort of the air conditioned room.  Later in the evening after it had cooled a bit we ventured out to explore the town.  We had passed a Historical Trails museum on the way to our hotel and later discovered that Casper had four well known early settler trails running through it.  This was a spot where the North Platte River could be forded.  The trails were the Mormon,  California and Oregon Trails in addition to the Pony Express. 

We took advantage of the cooler morning temps to visit the Museum before we left town.  It told the story of the early Indians that inhabited the area before settlers came through.  The museum had good interactive exhibits to show the hardships that people experienced making their long trips to the promised riches of the west. 

Nan and I tried to pull the Mormon handcart.  The Mormons had pulled this cart with all their worldly possessions.  This wasn’t easy and I would hate to imagine what it would have felt like to pull this cart hundreds of miles across rocks and hills. 

  Nan took a ride on a wagon fording the North Platte River.  The wagon rocked back and forth as if going over rocks in the river. 

We visited the re-enactors outside the museum.  They were showing what the Mormon’s life would have been on the trail.  They brought a bucket of water so that Bo could have a cool drink on this hot morning.

From here we headed west across the plains.  There wasn’t much in this part of Eastern Wyoming.  Few cattle and fewer ranches.  The temps soared to 100* and the sun beat down on the dried plains.  As we neared South Dakota the plains greened up as we neared the Black Hills. 

We found our hotel in Hot Springs SD and left Bo to relax in the air conditioned room as we headed out to visit Wind Cave NP.  We were too late to get tickets to tour the cave, but enjoyed the exhibits in the Visitor’s Center.  We took a drive through the Black Hills and saw herds of Bison and hills of Prairie Dogs.  The road passed over a bridge that doubled back on itself. 

Back in Hot Springs we stopped by The Mammoth Site. 

 This is an archeological dig where they have unearthed 60 Mammoths.  Sometime in the 70’s a man was excavating to build an apartment complex and came across some large bones.  Research was done and it was determined that this was the site a sinkhole approximately 26,000 years ago.  At that time the sinkhole was filled with water and animals fell in unable to get out.  The apartment building was abandoned and an archeological dig was started.  The entire dig is under roof and our tour guide explained all the work they are doing.  Most of the bones are left in place to show their placement as the animals died.  

An entire Mammoth skeleton, you can see his body curving around

They have found Woolly Mammoths and Columbian Mammoths.  This picture shows the Columbian Mammoth in black, then an African Elephant, next a Woolly Mammoth and Asian Elephant followed by a Pygmy Elephant.  These things were  big.

two skulls with the tusks still attached

shelter built with mammoth bones, shelters like this are found in the Ukraine and Poland

This was truly fascinating experience that we didn’t even know existed. 

Tomorrow we are heading east and will soon be home.  What a wonderful time we have had exploring all that these Western states have to offer.