August 20, 2017 - Fort Collins, CO to near Casper, WY

Today was the start of Tobey’s bike ride from Yellowstone to Glacier National Park.

We had two exchange students with us for the last three weeks, so much of getting the RV ready took place after we got them on their ways home to Estonia and Germany.  Penny supervised every trip from the house to the RV and was quite relieved when we loaded her food and toys, knowing she would get to go along! A final fill up with gas and groceries, we were ready to hit the road by 2:30 pm.Because the solar eclipse will be on a path over the Casper, Wyoming area, we were worried that traffic would be terrible. The Colorado newscasters were predicting traffic jams and more than 600,000 people heading to Casper. Maybe we were ahead of the crowds, or maybe because we took Highway 287 and not I-25, but the traffic was not bad, at all!We did have rain, off and on the entire trip. By evening, most had passed through and we were greeted with lots of stars in the night sky.

We had planned to stay at Hell’s Half Acre, about 37 miles west of Casper – the same place we camped on Tobey’s bike trip last year. There were a few cars there, but one person told us the “rangers” were telling people they couldn’t camp there. There was a new gate across part of the property, keeping people from accessing the views of the canyon area.

We turned around and went 20 miles back east toward Casper and spent the night on BLM land near a small lake. Free. We were just thinking of all the people who are spending big bucks to rent hotels rooms in Casper (up to $1000/night!) and campgrounds charging over $200/night. We even heard that one of the shopping malls near Walmart was charging people over $100 to camp in their parking lot. I think we had a great deal.

Tomorrow we will go back down the road to Natrona – a wide spot in the road – and stop at one of the wide pullouts to view the eclipse before heading north toward Yellowstone where we will meet friends, Phil and Marcia, so the guys can start their bike ride.