Headed West
It seemed strange to me to head West on I-90 from Rapid City. We've made the trip East so many times I just felt a little discombobulated. Strange. However, going a different direction gave us a different view. It was an uneventful 200 mile trip. We left around 9:30 and arrived about 3 PM ...back at Deer Park in Buffalo WY. This is a lovely park as you can see from this view of the entrance.
I had my camera ready as we approached Gillette, WY because there is an open pit coal mine beside the interstate that is pretty amazing. Here's a fly-by shot of the pit.
The huge tubes take the coal under the freeway to the processing plant on the other side of the road. There are always a couple of long trains with empty or full coal cars moving through the plant. There's not a good stopping point to get a better shot. What amazes me is how huge the pit is. Just look at the houses and trucks compared to the size of the hole.
As we neared Buffalo the sky got blacker and we had wild views of the snow-covered Bighorn mountains with a curtain of rain clouds rushing by.
We ran into the storm...got about 5 minutes of good rain that washed the bugs off the front of Mr. Blue. I have to say I'm happy to be out of Rapid because of the constant storm warnings. But the hostess here at Deer Park says they've had the same weather! Oh well. And the Missoula forecast shows a week of cold and rain. Will spring ever warm up? Is this global warming?