Adventures on the Steppes

On Friday we got all our chores done around the house so we could go do something fun on Saturday.  We wanted to go hiking but several places that would have been pretty had snow forecasted, so our options were limited to the Red Desert.  I didn't know anything about the Red Desert till Friday night, except that we pass an exit that says "Red Desert" near Wamsutter, which now I know is kind of ironic considering that you're driving through the Red Desert the entire time from Rawlins to Rock Springs. Someone told us they go snow sledding on the sand dunes in the Red Desert during the winter.  Leo wants to try sledding on the sand dunes without snow.   Anyway it's huge and encompasses the Continental Divide Basin, which is kind of like the Great Basin in Utah and Nevada--no drainage out to a sea, all the water drains into the basin.  Only the Continental Divide Basin in Wyoming doesn't get enough water to create a salty lake like Utah.  And a lot of it is steppes.  Actually the town where we live is on the steppes.  I think that's about the coolest thing ever about the town where I live!  Seriously, anything to make it seem exotic like Mongolia is a good thing.  I think Leo should definitely go for this look now, because, hey, we live on the steppes.  
Anyway, I looked up things to do in the Red Desert because several sites compared it to Southern Utah and Goblin Valley, etc.  And basically, there's NOTHING to do in the Red Desert.  Okay there's Adobe Town that's like Goblin Valley, but it's grey.  The reason why Southern Utah is beautiful is because it's red.  Grey is like death.  
See, not my picture, but it doesn't look like a fun place to visit.  Although, I'd happily go hiking there, and if we live here long enough, I probably will.  Leo vetoed it though.  And we thought about going to the Killpecker Sand Dunes, the largest sand dunes in the US.  
But again, it was actually quite far away and not that pretty--although I texted my sister and tried to convince her to meet us there with their ORVs but she was on a plane flying to Guatemala on a humanitarian medical service thing.  Whatever.  Hanging with us would have been way more important.  ;)  The Coral Pink Sand Dunes in Utah, are still prettier, because they're pink.


As it was, we decided to drive to a modern day ghost town and go geocaching and then try to hike around the Green Mountains.

Split Rock.

 So our plans failed.  We never found any of the geocaches we looked for in Jeffrey City.  It was weird though.  It was abandoned in 1980-82.  Before that it had over 4,500 residents.  But it was entirely based on one uranium mining company, and when the industry busted, it died.

The kids played at the elementary school park for a while and we peered in all the windows.  So weird.  There was still math problems written on the chalkboard below.

This was the brand new high school gymnasium--there wasn't even a proper road out to it.  So, so weird.

And then we headed to the Green Mountains.  Only that was a fail too, because all the roads up to the campground and Wild Horse Lookout were closed till June or something. And then the steering shaft broke on our van.  Luckily we had duck tape.    The kids did play in the snow and stream while Leo fixed that, and we had a picnic there.

Sebas is in orange.  He was tired of waiting in the car so I sent him down the road and told him that we'd catch up.

Leo had to reinforce it a bit. Glad it held till we got home.   We did see some wild horses and a lots of antelope.  And Ana was at a soccer game--she still couldn't play due to her concussion.



And pictures of adorable Efraim, because he is a doll!