Fort Collins, Colorado & Douglas, Wyoming

After a terrific week in Rocky Mountain National Park, we're taking our time meandering up to Grand Teton & Yellowstone. On our trip last Summer, we tried to see as much as possible; while we fit in a lot of sights, the pace was a little breakneck; this Summer is a bit slower.

Fort Collins is a college town East of the Rockies. I'm not very good at geography, but I think it is on the high plains (same as Douglas). Because of the altitude, and the fact that it is close to the mountains, the weather can be a little dramatic. In both towns, we saw afternoon thunderstorms that were short but fierce, and it can be very windy and a little hot. Nice and cool at night and in the morning, though.

We stopped in Douglas for one night last year; we thought there might be a little more to it than a quick drive-through would show, so we stayed two nights this Summer. Douglas was voted one of the best small towns in America, but it still feels cowboy-like. It was along the Oregon and a couple of other pioneer trails, so there is a lot of history around that. It also had a POW camp during World War II. We didn't check out the museum, but apparently it has memorabilia related to Butch Cassidy and Sundance as well as props from Dances With Wolves.

There are a lot of jobs in energy around here: wind, gas and oil. There is not enough housing to accomodate the energy workers; quite a few seem to be living in trailers thrown up around the area. (Including some in the campground where we stayed).

Above is a picture of a playground in state park outside Douglas. (Isn't the bottom of a redrock canyon a nice place for a swingset?) The real draw to the park is a natural stone bridge and a stone wall with names etched on it of people who passed there through the decades. We saw names going back to the 1920s, but I believe there were even older names, going back to pioneer days.

A little bit of kitsch: Douglas is also the birthplace of the Jackalope, first sighted in the 1890s and then patented in the 1930s. There are statues all around town.