I'm Just Here For The Potty
A blog dedicated to those necessary and anticipated features of travel in the West. . . the highway rest stop.
Saturday, October 26, 2024
State of Wyoming Rest Stop, Diversion Dam Rest Area.
Saturday, July 27, 2024
Wedding of the Waters
Another Game & Fish facility, this one conveniently just after you pass through Wind River Canyon between Shoshoni and Thermopolis. A good location, and scenic.
Wednesday, September 13, 2023
Little Outhouse on the Prairie. Walker Jenkins Lake
These are the facilities at Walker Jenkins Lake, a fishing hole that was, originally, an open pit Uranium Mine.
We'll let you ponder that for a second.
Fairly typical rural facilities for Wyoming, and a nice example.
Friday, April 21, 2023
State of Wyoming Rest Stop: Shirley Rim Rest Area.
I should really have started this blog with this entry, as more than any other Wyoming rest stop, it's the one I've stopped at the most.
It's a small, but typical, rest area of this type. The Wyoming Wildlife sign has suffered from the elements heavily over the years, and the weather in this area is frequently bad. Isolated when first built, and largely still pretty isolated, a small village now exists across the highway from it, housing Wyoming Department of Transportation crews who keep the highways open, or try to.
In that sense, this is one of the more rustic, in terms of atmosphere, Wyoming rest areas. It has picnic benches and the like, but I never see them actually used. It's old enough that I can recall it having a pay phone, and there was an area rancher who had never had a phone put in at his headquarters as late as the 1990s, who used the phone at the station if he needed to.
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
State of Wyoming Rest Stop, Sheridan Wyoming.
One of the nicest of the WTDOT rest stops, it has a great geologic and archeological display inside, and attendants who have tourist information. It's clean, and hte back side of it has a commanding view of the City of Sheridan.
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
State of Wyoming Rest Stops, Interstate 80, between Wamsutter and Rock Springs, Wyoming.
This actually depicts two WYDOT rest stops, the two probably being the two busiest in the state. They're on a long stretch of Interstate 80. Offhand, I think these are the first rest stops, going west, since the one at Ft. Fred Steele.
That's a long ways.
This is two, not one, rest stops, as the highway is divided. The two rest stops are likely 1/4 mile distant from each other, on opposite sides of the highway.
They aren't in a scenic location, which no doubt is besides the point. Dedicated to the Dwight D. Eisenhower Highway, they're on part of the path of the old Lincoln Highway and near the Union Pacific Railroad's location. In some ways, they're the closest thing a modern traveler will experience to the old stage stop. No food, of course, but a place to briefly stop in the middle, more or less, of Wyoming's Red Desert.
Indeed, on the day I took these photos, a traveler from out of state was taking his horses out of his horse trailer for a break.
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
Lex Anteinternet: Lincoln Highway Redux?
Lincoln Highway Redux?
Gen. Luke Reiner[1] head of the Wyoming Department of Transportation, has stated that WYDOT is proposing to reroute Interstate 80 along the path of Wyoming Highway 30.
Eh?
Okay, this is the stretch between Laramie and Rawlins, which is notoriously bad during bad weather. For those not familiar with I80 in that area, or Highway 30 between Laramie and Rawlins, observe below:
“If you look at a map, you’ll see that the old highway, Highway 30, goes further to the north, and then sort of comes down from the north into I-80. Rumor has it that when they went to build I-80, that the initial route followed the route of Highway 30. And somebody made the decision, ‘No, we’re going to move closer to these very beautiful mountains,’ to which the locals said, ‘Bad idea,’ based on weather. And it has proved to be true.”
Sunday, August 2, 2020
Ft. Halleck, sort of. Near Elk Mountain Wyoming
Of course, by that time the Union Pacific was also progressing through the area, and that would soon render the Overland Trail obsolete. While not on an identical path the Overland Trail and the Union Pacific approximated each others routes and, very shortly, troops would be able to travel by rail.
As that occured, it would also be the case that guarding the railroad would become a more important function for the Army, and forts soon came to be placed on it.
Our suggestion to the federal government is to say, ‘If you want to do something for the nation’s commerce along I-80, reroute it. Follow Highway 30 — it’s about 100 miles of new interstate, the estimated cost would be about $6 billion. So, it’s not cheap, but our estimate is that it would dramatically reduce the number of days the interstate’s closed, because that’s the section that that kills us.
State of Wyoming Rest Stop, Diversion Dam Rest Area.
This much welcome and nicely maintained rest area is between Riverton and Dubois. It's large, in addition to having the regular WYDOT a...
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These are the facilities at Walker Jenkins Lake, a fishing hole that was, originally, an open pit Uranium Mine. We'll let you ponder tha...
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Lex Anteinternet: The Cruel Indignities : The Cruel Indignities Put up just this morning: Lex Anteinternet: Steady Rain : We'...
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Some Gave All: The Sundance, Wyoming Rest Stop Memorials. : The Sundance, Wyoming Rest Stop Memorials. Memorials at the Sundance Wyoming ...