We split from the Sleeping Bear RV Park in Lander and continued our westward trek. The Sleeping Bear turned out to be nicer than we thought it would be. The spaces were skinny but everything worked. There were no train nor highway noises to fill our evenings. They even filled our propane bottle right on site. Lander also turned out to be a hidden gem – the downtown was nice, Sinks Canyon State Park is right at the city’s edge and the Ford dealer had the windshield jets I suddenly needed because the factory jets are cheesy and fail if you look at them funny.
Right in front of the Sleeping Bear runs WY-28 which is the very road we needed to continue west. We skirted the big mountains right next to Lander but started to climb nevertheless. On our road atlas, it shows the pass we would have to cross as being South Pass, located right on the continental divide, and the elevation at the pass being 7550 feet. Something is a little fishy because we ended up climbing up to 8500 feet a long time before crossing the much lower pass. Like a dope, I thought the pass was the minimum elevation required to go from one side of the mountains to the other.
Fortunately, WY-28 passes through expansive mountain prairies and small sections of badlands where there are rock and soil formations as pretty as Bryce, but much smaller and a different color. The crags of the Wind River Range became visible once over the divide. We crossed the Green River which was actually green. We could look through the water and see the rocks on the stream bed. There were a couple tiny communities where some people could be spotted but mostly the road was lonely with nothing but nature in sight. And some pronghorn.
After about 180 miles above 6000 feet of elevation, we pulled into the Jim Bridger RV Park in Fort Bridger. We have been here before. It looks about the same but different folks are on the desk. They have full hookups, pretty big spaces and wifi but they ain’t cheap.
Peggy got some pictures as we sped across this landscape. Check them out by clicking the asterisk *