I lost the Mountains and “Thank You” Miss Ormiston

There is a significant elevation gain from North Platte in Nebraska at 2802 ft to the Flaming Gorge area up at 6700 ft in western Wyoming. It is a gentle climb over hundreds of miles so the elevation gain is not very noticeable. In Wyoming, I-80 sneaks south of the Laramie Range then sweeps north of the Medicine Bow and south of the dome around Rock Springs. There are no mountains! When I got directly north of Denver, Colorado I expected to see what I would see from Denver; the front range of the Rockies. But after reading my physiography book which I have brought along, I found that I had been traveling up something called the Wyoming Basin and there are no mountains. Today I got within 100 miles of Salt Lake City before I saw the foothills of the Wasatch Range. Ah, finally real mountains!

I had traveled very close to “South Pass” and I had the misconception that when the trappers found the “South Pass” in southern Wyoming they had found a narrow “v” shipped valley in some large mountains.

An interesting phenomena occurs in Wyoming, as I-80 crosses the Continental divide in two places. In between is something called the Red Desert and has no outlet to either coast. The South Pass is just to the north of the Red Desert, whereas I-80 crosses to the southern side of the Red Desert.

When I left the Flaming Gorge area this morning, I located the valley of the Henrys Fork River where the first Rendezvous was held in 1825. The valley is wide and at least 25 miles long. There are cattle ranches and irrigated fields in the valley now. It is surrounded by a series of high bluffs and hills. A little father on I went through the town of Fort Bridger on the Blacks Fork River. Jim Bridger set up the trading fort in 1842. Four Trails go through Fort Bridger: The Oregon, the Mormon, the California and the Pony Express. Jim Bridger’s fort was certainly located in a great spot for business and must have been a welcome sight to the trappers and pioneers.

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Henry's Fork Valley

When I was a kid in Bernardsville, NJ, I used to get on my bike and go down town to the public library. Miss Ormiston was the librarian and I was deathly afraid of the woman. She was a big buxom woman who wore a bun, glasses on her nose and those old black heels with tie up laces. She was a formidable figure and I had to pass by her elevated check out desk on my way to the children's book room. But once I got there I was fascinated by a series of books with orange covers that covered famous figures in America. I particularly loved the ones about the west; Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill Cody, the Pony Express, the wagon trains, the buffalo hunting, the cowboys, the Union Pacific. I read them all and I had to brave the severe Miss Ormiston to check the books out!

 We played cowboys and Indians and watched western movies as kids. We each had our gun and holster with caps that sometimes went off. We were steeped in all things western. I attribute what I know about the west to those orange books. So “Thank You” Miss Ormiston.

I talked to a friend who remembers the same set of books and neither of us can remember ever having a formal course in that period of American History.

Ponderosa Pine Bark

Yesterday I followed a National Scenic Byway around the southern end of the Flaming River Gorge, a National Recreation Area. One of the viewpoints of the gorge was up at 7000 ft and there I found the Ponderosa Pine growing. It can be a massive tree and has a bark that smells like butterscotch or vanilla. I love the patterning in the bark.