Our first overnight stop in Wyoming was Rawlins, mostly because it was a good halfway point between Denver and Jackson, Wyoming. And on the way from Denver to Rawlins … well there’s another state capital, Cheyenne! We stopped for lunch and were able to take some pictures of the Capitol.

On our way again, we made a few more stops, at Laramie Regional Airport, airport code LAR, which Larry thought was cool, and Buford, Wyoming, the smallest town, population 1. While I was driving, Larry was reading about Rawlins and what to do there. The number 1 attraction in Rawlins? The old Wyoming State Penitentiary! The reviewers said to take the tour, it’s creepy but very interesting and well done. Larry called to see if the tours the next day were full, etc. He found out that we could take a tour at 10:30 am the next morning with about 40 school age children. This did not seem like a very attractive option; joining school kids on a field trip in a creepy prison. We also wanted to be on our way earlier than that to get to Jackson which was our next stop. We did stop by the prison and looked around just the museum part, which fulfilled our creepy quota for the day. We didn’t get to see cell blocks or gas chambers as advertised on the tour. But we saw ropes that held down various prisoners while they were electrocuted, and homemade knives the prisoners made to stab people. We were wondering about the kids on the field trip, like how old they were, etc. But we didn’t stick around to see. We had places to go and things to see!

We have been to Jackson before and really enjoyed the resort feeling of the town. And having another stop before Yellowstone was needed. We got to Jackson in plenty of time to take a walk into town, look at some shops and have dinner. It was a beautiful afternoon and evening.

Next stop was Yellowstone National Park, but first we drove through Grand Teton National Park. We really lucked out with mostly sunny skies, and with there still being so much snow on the mountains, the scenery was spectacular! The Tetons are so rugged!

We arrived at Yellowstone and were a bit surprised by how cold it was, 36° and windy! Old Faithful was true to it’s name though and would spout about every 90 minutes. We were able to watch it erupt a number of times, and it’s just so amazing. The oldest national park, Yellowstone is 150 years old this year. Old Faithful has been doing it’s thing for a very long time!