Cheyenne Depot Museum

The Cheyenne museum is mostly UP related an focuses on the Cheyenne area of Wyoming. The up model is wood, wonderful work!

Ubion Central and Northern HoN3 Model Railroad

This is a spectacular model railroad. Narrow gauge in Colorado. It doesn't get any better then this. Bill Miller will love these shots. The shots go from one end to the other. The layout is point to point and does not appear to have staging or interchange but the on-line structures and equipment are great.

Union Pacific Railroad in Cheyenne

Behind the Cheyenne Depot Railroad Museum is the former UP Cheyenne yard now much reduced from its zenith in the 50's. Unfortunately access to the historic roundhouse area and back shops is prohibited as the Big Boy recently moved from California is ensconced within. Interestingly the yard tower is raised above the highway between the lanes

Yellowstone East Entrance Road

The trip from Grand Teton to Cody was a tough one but very beautiful as well. The first surprise was the 8' snow banks in Yellowstone on either side of the road. The next was the frozen lakes. All this the first week after Memorial day. Our route took us through the park for over 80 miles most of it on the shore of frozen Lake Yellowstone. We traveled about 3/4 of the way around the lake. The final surprise was the decent on the access road through the east gate. About a 3000' decline next to a canyon so deep you couldn't see the river at the bottom. Talk about white knuckles. Never again! The river has a dam just outside Cody that creates a long reservoir. All extremely picturesque but also with lots of grades and turns.

Cody Wyoming

Cody has a world class museum dedicated to all forms of western plains life as well as Buffalo Bill Cody. They also have a raptor reclamation center. These birds have been returned to health but can not be returned to the wild due to the permanent effects of their injuries. It also has a huge rodeo complex and many fine restaurants. Of course we chose a saloon:) They also have the prototype for the Hoover Dam and the bottom photo is the outrun and canyon from the dam.

Grand Teton

 Wow!!!! What a place, phenomenally rugged mountains, beautiful lakes, fly fishermen everywhere, the Snake River engorged with flood water, bears with cubs (what!! whoa they could be dangerous), elk, micro breweries, and beautiful meadows. What's not to like:)

The other side of Yellowstone

Our trip from the west side of Yellowstone begins with a view of a sculpture of two elks dueling for mates. We then proceed into the park itself. after several miles we enter the canyon carved by the Gibbon?? river through the caldera crated by the last great Yellowstone eruption 640,000 years ago. Yellowstone is actually a super volcano that erupts every 600,000 years or so. (seems a bit late as we speak). When viewed from space the remains of a series of previous eruptions that stretch across Idaho can bee seen. Yellowstone is a hot spot similar to Hawaii but cataclysmicly different in one respect. Yellowstone erupts explosivly unlike Hawaii that erupts more or less continuously. The last eruption here blew away a section of mountains over 50 miles in diameter and created an ash cloud that buried everything east to the Mississippi River. The photos here show the caldera interior exposed by the river. The snow fields on the exposed rim of the caldera are quite high and haven't quite yet melted entirely on Memorial day weekend. With all the recent snow melt the river is moving quickly and the lush grass on the banks is attracting the buffalo. In a few weeks they will migrate to the higher pastures for the summer.