28 March 2010

Badwater Road to Dry Bridger Road

The paved road from US-20 turns toward Bonneville at the junction below and switches from being Badwater Road to Bonneville Road. To stay on Badwater Road, you must turn left onto the gravel road.

Badwater Road, Bonneville Road, WyomingWe returned to the spot we had left at the end of my last blog post.

Badwater Road, WyomingThere are a few side roads which lead off of Badwater Road but are not named. What follows are six shots from one of those dead-end roads.

Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, WyomingFor the sake of perspective, I asked my wife to be a part of this photograph. It is a wall of columns, and this shot shows all of them.

Badwater Road, WyomingWhat follows is along the main road.

Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, WyomingBelow is a close-up of above.

Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, Point of Mountain Road, WyomingBadwater Road continues southeast to Lysite at the junction above. The Lysite, Lost Cabin area has many of these natural gas drilling sites as seen below. Because of this, there are a few warning signs along the way.

Poison Gas, Lysite, Wyoming
Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, WyomingWhat follows are shots taken from Point of Mountain Road.

Point of Mountain Road, Wyoming
Point of Mountain Road, Wyoming
Point of Mountain Road, Wyoming
Point of Mountain Road, WyomingPronghorns gallop away as soon as they see you, but this loner came trotting by us and passed within about 20 feet. It was so unusual that we weren't prepared to take any better shots than the one below.

Point of Mountain Road, Wyoming
Point of Mountain Road, Bridger Creek Road, WyomingAt this junction, we turned onto Bridger Creek Road.

Bridger Creek Road, Wyoming
Bridger Creek Road, Wyoming
Bridger Creek Road, Wyoming
Bridger Creek Road, WyomingThen we turned onto Dry Bridger Road, or Hot Springs County Road Five which leads back to Thermopolis. The other roads we were on had been graded recently, but not so with this one.

Old Bridger Road, Wyoming
Old Bridger Road, Wyoming
Old Bridger Road, WyomingAbout a half mile past this cabin we encountered too much mud because of the melting snow, and so we turned around and decided to have our picnic lunch below. By the way, I didn't understand the nature of mud until I came to Wyoming.

Old Bridger Road, WyomingWhat follows are the shots I took on the way home, taking the same route.

Old Bridger Road, Wyoming
Old Bridger Road, Wyoming
Old Bridger Road, WyomingBelow is the snow on the other side of the dam which holds back this small reservoir.

Old Bridger Road, WyomingThis is a part of the dam:

Old Bridger Road, Wyoming
Old Bridger Road, WyomingThe next four photographs are a part of the ditch below, next to Badwater Road.

Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, WyomingThe stones below are from the location pictured above. I found them all within a six foot radius.

20 March 2010

Badwater and Quien Sabe Roads

A few miles before the turnoff to Bonneville from US-20 are some abandoned buildings on the east side of the highway. We stopped to look around and see if anything was worth photographing.

abandoned house, Wyoming
abandoned house, Wyoming
abandoned house, Wyoming
abandoned house, Wyoming
abandoned house, Wyoming
abandoned house, Wyoming
abandoned house, Wyoming
abandoned house, Wyoming
abandoned house, Wyoming
abandoned house, WyomingThis is a spring full of fetid water.

abandoned house, WyomingThe next three shots are the view from the "backyard."

abandoned house, Wyoming
abandoned house, Wyoming
abandoned house, Wyoming
abandoned house, Wyoming
abandoned house, Wyoming
abandoned house, WyomingMost of the shots above were taken by my wife. I was feeling so distressed by the trashiness of us humans that my mood thwarted my ability to see what would be good to photograph.

Below is a view from Badwater Road, with Bonneville in the distance, to the right of Badwater Creek which is only partially seen on the right of the shot. For a view of the entrance to Badwater Road from US-20, click here (this link also includes shots from our first trip along Badwater Road).

Badwater Road, Bonneville, Wyoming
Badwater Road, Bonneville, WyomingQuien Sabe Road (see sign below) is Spanish for Who Knows. Here is a link to Google Maps for the location of the junction of Badwater and Quien Sabe.

Quien Sabe Road, WyomingThese are pronghorns (often referred to as antelopes, but really they are a different species):

Quien Sabe Road, WyomingAlong the roads in this area, there are rocks which line both sides of the road. Maybe this is just the result of grading the roads or maybe this was done decades ago to help travelers know the path of the road.

Quien Sabe Road, Wyoming
Quien Sabe Road, Wyoming
Quien Sabe Road, Wyoming
Quien Sabe Road, WyomingAfter following Quien Sabe Road until it became what looked like a minor private road up the side of one of the foothills, we turned around and explored more of Badwater Road.

As you can tell by the photograph below, Badwater Road isn't filled with interesting sights. But what enhances the experience is getting out and seeing close-up what is suitable to be photographed. This is why we like this hobby.

Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, WyomingThese little hills or mounds are grayish green in color and so soft that the effects of rain are quite obvious.

Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, Wyoming
Badwater Road, WyomingSince we only had six hours of respite from taking care of my wife's mother, we had to cut short our return visit to Badwater Road. Maybe we will get another chance to visit this area.
Badwater Road, Wyominglink: index to photographs