Imprints...

All of my plans for the weekend changed with a telephone call; my good friend Tonie was sick and unable to come stay with me for a few days. So instead of playing hostess for a weekend of laughs, tears and lots of Scrabble games, I went on a drive with Gary.

As you can see in the pictures below, the sky was a beautiful blue, it was about 45 degrees and no snow or not much out on the high desert. We headed north and took a dirt road east at about the 14 mile hill. We got our first glimpse of the Wind River Range when we were about 20 miles off the highway.

We saw several herds of antelope and for some reason they were spooked and ran away before we could get pictures.

Our first stop was the White Mountain Petroglyphs. From the parking area, this cliff did not reveal the secrets it housed.


Walking closer, I could spot several Eagle Nests. The nests were at least 6 feet tall.

On the face of the cliff were the first horsemen petroglyphs. They took my breath away when I spotted them.


Then I spotted the water dripping; water in the desert.... amazing!

There were several caves, some were deep and I could imagine someone using it for shelter from the elements. This cave had smoke on the ceiling which looked like some modern cave man or woman built there.

Some of the caves were tunnels and not easily accessed.

This cave was shallow and held bones of some animal, probably deposited there by a man.


When we walked around the corner, to my surprise we found these bear petrographs. In this picture you can see the bear paws and in the middle, the bear. I was in awe while exploring these ancient drawings.

There was once a mighty hunt!

This petrograyph is of an elk. We didn't spot any elk that live in this area of the Red Desert but we did spot an elk track!

Elk tracks in the sand.

This next picture is the road to Boar's Tusk. This road was once the railroad tracks where Iron Ore was shipped from Atlantic City. For those of you who don't know, Atlantic City, WY is over South Pass across the Wind River Range. The Atlantic City mine is now closed and the land has been reclaimed.

It seemed like it took a long time driving but we finally arrived at the Boar's Tusk. Here are a couple of photos of it from a couple of different angles. The Boar's Tusk is an old volcanic tower.

Our next stop was the Killpecker Sand Dunes which are the largest continually migrating sand dunes in North America.

Our next stop was the Tri-Territory Marker.

As the sign reads, this is the common boundary of the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Northwest Territory (1846) and Mexico (1848) The site is located where the Continental Divide crosses the 42 parallel north lattitude. It was amazing to see a landmark of history out here in the middle of nowhere!


The sun was beginning to set as we hit Hwy. 28 between Farson and Lander. We had only traveled about 50 miles but it had taken us all afternoon to walk in the footsteps of the past.

The beautiful Wind River Mountains were pink and purple.

Gary and I had a glorious day together.