Hells Half Acre

July 5 2021, elevation 5009, we were at around 7376.

In a light mist we pulled out of Warren Bridge CG much earlier than planned, but we were ready so we said what the heck, lets troll on outa here. The drive today was 179 miles, we drove a good portion this the other day on our way home from the Red Desert so we knew what to expect, realtime flat then a climb to the top of the mountain, after that it was new territory.

We knew there was a good climb up to the ghost town of South Pass, we decided in advance that I was going to let Mary follow me in the Jeep to the top of the Mountain, it’s all 2 lane with no passing lanes going up, we unhooked the jeep at a rest area just before starting a real climb. Once at the top we reconnected the Jeep and followed a semi down the 7% grade on the other side. Going that direction, it’s MUCH more of a climb. I think 4 miles at 7% grade and a few more at 6%, anyway it’s one long hill to climb up.

The original idea was to stay in a free spot in the town of Lander for 2 nights and explore the area. When we pulled in, even without all campers scattered around, it would have looked chaotic. Throw in campers and cars parked everywhere we decided to just move on. On down the road, 27 miles, we went to the town of  Riverton to park in a casino parking lot. We didn’t go in, just sat and read. We’re just going to spend the night and move on in the morning. Once we relaxed a few minutes, Mary called and got reservations for the next 2 nights about 125 miles on down the road.

Along about 5:00PM a very strong, mostly wind with some rain, storm rolled through. As I was typing this we were really doing some rocking with expected wind gust of 50-55 MPH. An hour later the wind was gone the parking lot was almost dry and it was a little on the humid side.

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July 6 2021

I can tell we’re lower in elevation, I slept with the window and vents open last night.

We moved to Casper WY which was about 120 miles away and we’re now about 5181 ft in elevation. Mary broke her Apple watch several days ago and wanted another one Best Buy in Casper was the closest place to get one so here we are, and I’m broiling again. UGH!!!!

Plaines of desert, what ever you want to call it with one exception, nothing to see.

This morning, we really needed to drag our feet getting there, it was only 120 miles total and we couldn’t check in until 1:00. First, we didn’t leave the casino until around 8 am then we stopped in the Walmart parking lot which was only 4 miles down the road, grabbed a couple of things there, then we stopped at the only rest area on the road  for a while.

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We left the rest area and just a couple miles further down the road was Hell’s Half Acre which is roughly 320 acres. It was a pull off with a nice big parking area. The high chainlink fence with barbwire at the top kept you from getting to close to the soft crumbling edge of the cliff. Didn’t mind the fence but it was hard to get pictures.

Moving on down the road, we sat through some construction, no worries, now, about being early.

And I’m probably not supposed to mention this but it sure is HOT!!!!

The end