Agate Fossil Beds, Northwest Nebraska

I judge the size of a town by whether or not it has a Walmart. Perhaps this is a bad habit to get into because I don’t actually like Walmart, but I’ve found that it’s pretty effective. It tells me a lot about what type of town/city I’m dealing with. When I was looking into whether or not to accept a job in Torrington, I Googled (verb) where the nearest Walmart was located. It is in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, a little over 30 miles away from me. I do this because the presence of a Walmart indicates at least halfway decent shopping: reasonably priced groceries, specialty stores, etc. I didn’t want to be stuck in a town with only local general stores and pharmacies to make everyday purchases. I have to do it occasionally when I don't feel like driving to Scottsbluff, but it gets expensive.

 

That being said, I’ve made several trips to Scottsbluff (several to Walmart, I’m sad to admit). Sometimes Family Dollar just doesn’t cut it. It’s cheap and great for the everyday things, but not if you really need a thorough shopping trip with lots of choices. On my drive across the border, I kept passing a sign labelled “Agate Fossil Beds National Monument.” I love fossils and I love free/cheap things. It's a good bet that "National Monument" usually means free. It’s the state and privately owned stuff that you have to worry about charging. I added the Agate Fossil Beds to my to do list, so when I had a day off but didn’t want to drive outrageously far, I made a trip to see it. And of course I wore my Utah Utes shirt my friend got me, because there's nothing confusing about a girl from Indiana living in Wyoming visiting the Nebraska fossil beds while wearing a Utah Utes shirt... Nope. Not confusing at all. If you haven't seen Tropic Thunder, you should. Right now I feel like RDJ: "I know who I am! I'm a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude!" Except I'm a chick, and I'm just wearing my usual random choice of clothing.

The drive was a little longer than I expected, and the reception was horrible. I kept thinking, “Oh I meant to call this person. I’ll just do it on this long, straight boring stretch of highway,” and picking up my phone to dial, only to discover that there was not even a semblance of a bar of service. Naturally, that makes me nervous. In Indiana, I spent a majority of my cell-phone possessing life within cell service. It was odd to discover an area where I couldn’t at least send or receive a text. Since moving out to Wyoming, I’ve seriously had to redefine my idea of “remote.” I didn’t know what “remote” was until I moved out here. And I don’t think my definition will change until I visit Alaska (I WILL visit or live in Alasaka at some point in my life, and I’ll probably try to blog about it if I have service). So I dropped out of coverage a few minutes after turning off the highway and mostly stayed out of it until I returned.

The positive thing is, I saw a lot of tumbleweeds. As mentioned in a previous post, I think tumbleweeds are hilarious, and they don't get any less hilarious the more I see them. I actually whacked one with my car and it stuck to it. I’m laughing as I type and remember this, that’s how funny they are to me. Well, they aren’t nearly as funny when you’re trying to pry one out from your grill. They are basically little dry, dead shrubs that the wind has torn from the ground and bounced across the landscape, picking up other dead weeds and shrubs as they go. They stick themselves to your grill they've been growing there. Of course I tried to catch one as it was bouncing across the road. I saw a big one coming from a long way away, and managed to stop and get a fairly decent picture of it. Anyway, plenty of wide open, desolate, tumbleweed-filled space. The only town I went through only had a couple houses, a barn, and a "Love Jesus" sign.

So when I finally made it to the turn off for the fossil beds, I was a little discouraged. If anything, the landscape had only gotten less colorful and more desolate as I went along. The wind threw my car around the road like a toy, and the best the radio could pick up was Jesus stations and static. Pure emptiness. I don’t know how the Jesus stations possibly stay open. I’m just not sure what customers they are appealing to out there.

Anyway, I turned in and drove a ways until I came upon a building. There were plenty of signs saying to watch for rattlesnakes. The snow had melted, and it was still a little chilly, but I kept a close eye out. I went in the building and picked up some brochures for other stuff to do. It’s not too promising when all there is to do when you walk in is pick up brochures for other places. It got a little better when I watched a free movie.

Basically, a man bought this land a long time ago. I don’t remember dates. I’m just not good with remembering dates. I’m more a concept and visual person. It was in the 1800’s (late 1800’s maybe?). He started digging on his land and found some odd stuff. He called in some more people from a college to dig, and one man found these odd spiraled, corkscrew shapes in the ground. They were fossilized. He thought they were something created by the devil (must’ve been listening to too much Jesus radio, eh?). Well, of course he was wrong. They found fossils of these odd creatures nearby that had created spiraling burrows. The burrows had filled in and fossilized. Over the course of decades, various teams from different universities came in to dig and found skeleton after skeleton of various prehistoric animals. There had been a mass death there. The working hypothesis is that they all gathered around a water hole but died out when it dried up. The odd thing is (and this is why I love geology), you have to hike up the hill quite a bit to get to the ancient water hole. It’s amazing how landscapes change over time. I don't want to repeat everything about the place, just enough to give you an idea and peak your interest. Check out their website for more detailed information and facts. Just look for Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in Nebraska (not the more famous Wyoming location). I don’t want to say a name and get it wrong, so I’ll just mention that a very famous Native American (the most photographed Native American of all time, I think I remember reading), also gifted a lot of items to the owner of the property, who then turned over the property to the United States. This now resides in the exhibit at the visitors center. I got to see lots of animals skins with stories painted on them. I’ve never studied these topics closely, so I’m not sure of the term for everything, but it was a great, extensive exhibit with clothing and various items from the time period. They said they allowed pictures, but I didn't want to post them since I'm not familiar with Native American culture enough to know if it's okay to post that stuff. And I thought it was weird that they allowed pictures, and I'm not sure I believe it, so I don't want to get in trouble by posting them. I've never been in a museum that allowed them, so I'm suspicious.

A met a man who was working there when I came out of the theater room. He asked where I was from, which led me to discover that he is from about 20 minutes away from my hometown and moved out here about the same time as I did. It's a small world! That's for sure. It was nice to talk to someone who could compare things to back home and appreciate how different it is out here.

Agate Fossil Beds, NE, 2 Mile Loop

He told me about the two paved trails they have that go to different dig sites on the property: a 2 mile and a 1 mile loop. The two mile was nearby, so I went with that one after I chatted some more and added to my postcard collection. I was excited to see some of the spiral fossils, but I was disappointed. After seeing who knows how many "Warning: Rattlesnakes" signs I was jumping at every noise I heard, which was a lot since it was so windy I couldn’t walk straight. I got to the top of the hill expecting to see some kind of display (some building or covering housing the spirals since that’s what I was led to believe), but there was nothing. Just some layers of rock that I stared at for far too long trying to understand the sign they had posted in front of it. Overall, the hike was nerve-wracking and unproductive. I didn’t do the 1 mile loop since I’d worn myself out with the 2 mile. I went ahead and drove back to Torrington.

Agate Fossil Beds, NE, 2 Mile Loop

Overall, this isn’t one that I would recommend. If you live nearby or are passing, have a few hours to spend, and are into the things I’ve mentioned, then this could be your kind of place. If you’re looking for Native American exhibits, this one could be good for you. It wasn’t huge, but it did have a wide range of items, and it was completely free other than the gas used to get there.

Fort Collins and La Poudre Canyon, Colorado

I have a list of place that I want to go (everywhere), and places that I’ve been. Just this month so far, I’ve been able to add Iowa (technically I just drove through the corner so I’ll have to give that state a proper destination visit sometime, not just a drive-through visit), Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado.

My trip to Colorado only lasted a day, since I wasn’t prepared for an overnight stay, but it was a full, amazing day. I paid Fort Collins a visit. My first order of business was to stop in at the visitor’s center. If you ever go to Fort Collins, I highly recommend this unless you have someone with you to serve as a guide. They have detailed maps of downtown and the surrounding areas, as well as racks and racks full of brochures for the city, surrounding area, and entire state. Then they are further divided into the type of activity. This really appealed to my overly organizational self. There was an entire rack just for microbreweries. I skipped that rack, though I’ll have to do a microbrewery tour when I am staying the night or have a driver. Since I was planning on doing some driving and hiking and going back that night, I didn’t think it wise to go on a beer tour. I know I just talked a lot about a welcome center, but they helped me find some places I never would've found on my own and that weren't super crowded and touristy.

I’m glad I stopped because the worker was able to point me in the direction of La Poudre River, which runs through a canyon. But first, I found a parking garage ($1/hour) downtown and explored a bit. I spent WAY too much time in the rock shop. THEY HAD CLEARANCE!! I love rocks, and I love clearance. I was in cheap rock nerd heaven! Anyway, I decided on a small decorative pot and an owl. I hesitate to call the pot an “urn” because that’s depressing, and there is no possible way to fit the ashes of an entire person in it, which is what urns are for. So it’s a small, decorative pot made of a red onyx (it was on clearance for under $6). The owl was a type of green onyx as well. I also stopped at a touristy shop to add to my postcard collection and not buy an expensive shirt. Nothing else really impressed me so I asked around about food. I ended up choosing Spoons, which is a soup and salad shop that lets you taste before you buy, and it is super cheap. I got a large helping of focaccia bread, chicken pot pie soup, a large salad, and a drink for around $8. I was full for very little money, and the food was great. I then found a local chocolate shop called Nuance, a bean to bar in-house chocolate factory. The chocolate was almost as much as my entire lunch, but it was worth it. I tipped the man behind the counter well for telling me about how they make the chocolate and choose the products, and for helping me select a chocolate. He asked me questions and narrowed it down to two bars. I picked a fruity dark chocolate that was delicious. They also offer a “chocolate flight” that includes several different chocolates across the wide spectrum of flavors they have. It was a quick stop. Highly recommend it.

I was tired of walking and anxious to see some sights, so I hit the road with my maps from the Colorado Welcome Center heading toward La Poudre Canyon. I immediately lost cell service because of the sheer rock on each side. It was beautiful. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, but I’ll just tell you that there were camp grounds at every corner as part of the Roosevelt National Forest, and there were white water rafting tours putting in the water at various points.

The one picture I feel the need to explain is the animal in the middle of the road (to the immediate right). It was a mountain goat, and I feel bad for scaring it off, but at least I got it out of the roadway. There were a herd of them hanging out on the cliff on the left side of the picture. When I spooked it, it just hopped up the nearly vertical cliff face to join his buddies like it was nothing. It was sure-footed when I would have expected it to fall on all the loose rock.

I drove through the canyon and topped out at just over 7,000 feet in elevation at a restaurant/convenience store/whatever you need it to be in the mountains. I would have continued on, but the trip so far had taken me a long time because I kept stopping to look at everything and I was going slow because of the hairpin turns. I would love to go back and go camping there so I could spend more time in Fort Collins. I’m adding it to the list of possible camp sites, because there was definitely no shortage of them in La Poudre Canyon.

Since I left Torrington a lot later than I intended, I had to head back after that, but, like I said, I need another full weekend trip to visit Fort Collins again and explore properly. I also got a very odd request from my dad to not visit Estes Park, that I was to save that for visiting with my mom. It was odd because she’s never been to Colorado that I know of, so I wondered where she’d heard of it. But I dutifully jotted it down and didn’t think twice. Until I asked a friend who’d lived in Fort Collins for a while what I should do....

“Go to Estes Park! The hotel where the Shining was filmed is there!” Turns out the Stand was filmed there, too.

My mom is a giant Steven King fan. I see where you’re going with this, mom...

The Big City

Cheyenne: capital of Wyoming; founded in 1867 with a population of 60,000 covering 25 square miles at over 6,000 feet in elevation; also the birthplace of Wrangler jeans…

There is a military base in Cheyenne, which was the reason for my visit, since I have a cousin stationed there. It was great to see family and have someone to show me the town. The center of activity in Cheyenne seemed to be the downtown area, which has plenty of restaurants, shops, and bars. We hit several shops, starting with the Wrangler store since it is Wrangler country.

It says a lot about me that I went into a store specializing in boots and jeans, and I came out with postcards and a clearance wooden sign. I just can’t make myself buy a $500 pair of boots that are only that expensive because an alligator died for them. Not saying whether I’m for or against it, but I definitely don’t see that as a valid reason to pay extra for it. Also, it seems the more expensive they get, the tackier they become. And they’re going to sit in the closet because I’m not wearing any pair of shoes that was $500, no matter what they’re made of. Unless they’re astronaut boots and I’m on the moon, because those are probably expensive for a reason. But I have vowed that I’m buying a pair of cowboy boots (they have be functional, though). Business on the bottom, party on the top. That way, I can wear my jeans out and look slightly dressy and presentable, or I can tuck them in and be completely outrageous. And also because I’m cheap, and if I can get one pair of shoes that does the work of two for a reasonable price, you best believe that’s the route I’m taking.

Anyway… so we went to the Wrangler store, which was worth seeing, even if I didn’t buy anything that actually said “Wrangler” on it. We then wondered around to various shops. This is again where you will see that I do not fit the mold of a “typical” girl (I don’t believe there is a standard, but some people do, so I’m going to use that standard to showcase that I’m a little weird without actually saying that). There were fancy boutiques with clothes in them, and there were outlet stores. The Wrangler store had rhinestone-encrusted belts and buckles. There were all these stores that, if you went by the definition most people accept as “girly,” I would have went into said stores. Well, I don’t, and I didn’t. I went straight for the rock and fossil shop. Then the thrift stores. Kudos to my cousin for putting up—and dare I say, enjoying?—the rocks and fossils with me. He didn’t shuffle away from me when I shouted things like “Trilobites,” “Petrified trees,” and “Onyx!” I could spend all day and all my money in a shop like that. But this one was rather expensive, so I’m proud to say that I did not spend a fortune on rocks at that store. But I did spend a lot less on the rocks in the thrift shop next door :)  It was not a mineral or fossil like I want (I WILL add fossils to my collection eventually, but that wasn’t the day for it). It’s made of sandstone. I suppose it could even be fake sandstone, but really if you turn colored sand into a sold shape then that qualifies as sandstone in my book, especially if it looks as real as this possibly-fake sandstone does… And it has a turquoise guy on a horse. Because, as much as I love authentic rocks, I love me a good tacky souvenir almost just as much. And this one involves rocks! Remember what I said about one object serving two functions for a reasonable price? Exhibit A...

We also went out to eat at Sanford’s Grub and Pub in the downtown area. I would tell you where, but I was a little lost. Google it (verb). Every square inch of the walls was covered in… stuff. Signs, pictures, etc. It was a busy, eclectic, cozy place, and the food was AWESOME! I got some sort of Cajun burger (Big Country Burger, maybe?). It said it came with onion rings, and we had mushrooms as an appetizer. When he asked me what side I wanted, I was thinking, “Well, no onion rings I guess.” Wrong. I got garlic parmesan fries as a side, and the layer of onion rings on the burger made the whole concoction over six inches thick. I don’t take pictures of food for the most part since I’m usually too busy enjoying it. This was no exception. Everything was delicious. I had to remove a few inches worth of onion rings and smash it down to be able to eat it, and even then I was struggling. And the burger was just under $10. Definitely a good deal in my book, a great compliment since we’ve already established how I am with money. Once I was done stuffing myself with the heart attack on a bun, we headed out (I starting adding some cardio into my routine the next day. Coincidence? I think not

We took a short tour over to the capital building, which had more of that beautiful red sandstone out front. You’re probably going to be hearing a lot about stones, rocks, fossils, and things of that nature, so get used to it now. By this point, it was getting late, and Torrington is about 1:15 from Cheyenne, so I started my drive back. But first I got a quick tour through all the random stuff my cousin has collected from being stationed various places. And he added to my postcard collection! Thanks, man! I also learned about this thing called Frontier Days, a week’s worth of rodeos, concerts, food, and various Western things. I believe another one of my cousins will be paying me a visit during that time, so we’ll have to check that out. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I have a lot of cousins. In fact, if you’re reading this, odds are you’re probably a cousin. Cousin or not, thanks for reading!

Oh, and here's a rainbow I saw on the way back: