Wyoming Side Trips

Everyone knows that the main goal of my summer project was to learn to ride and care for horses. The trips I planned have certainly helped me to do that, but they have also given me some other unexpected opportunities. During my travels, I have tried to have an "all in" attitude, meaning that I am not passing up any special opportunity that comes up.

During my stay at the Bitterroot Ranch, I had three special opportunities. The first was to go to the Dubois Tuesday Night Summer Square Dance. The square dance is held at the Rustic Pine in the Frontier Room. It's a rustic looking room with wood plank floors. It felt like we were really in the Old West! It was fun to watch the people get together for a night of fun square dancing. The room was packed with people of all ages, from newborns to people in their 80s! They were all having fun learning the square dances and dancing with each other. My friends and I joined in for one of the last dances. It was the Grand Square. Let's just say that our dancing wasn't too "grand!" We had great fun and lots of laughs, though, and nobody cared that it wasn't perfect.

On Wednesday, I went with some friends to see a couple of lakes and search for the Wind River petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are carvings on rock from long, long ago. This is what we found:

The petroglyphs are sort of mysterious. They were carved several thousand years ago. No one really knows what they mean. They were probably carved by the Sheep Eater Indians, who are related to the Shoshone tribe. If you want to learn more, click here:
http://www.duboismuseum.org/sheepeater.htm

While we were looking at the petroglyphs, I saw this rock that I thought was really cool because it had so many colors.

After we were done admiring the petroglyphs, we drove on to Brooks Lake. It was so nice to see green! The area around the lake had lots of green grass and trees, something the landscape around the ranch did not have. It was a beautiful place to visit.

Yes, it's true, not everyone goes to Wyoming to ride horses!
Fly fishing is a popular sport, too. 

The last event of the week was the Friday Night Rodeo. Many of the guests at our ranch went to the rodeo so we could see what it was like. It was actually a lot of fun. There were events for kids and for adults. Some of the things we saw were barrel racing, bucking broncos, calf roping, bull riding, and kids trying to ride sheep. If you want to read more about the rodeo events, you can go to http://www.duboisrodeo.org/events.htm

This kids were actually competing in the rodeo! They aren't much older than you.
Can you imagine competing in a rodeo?

 

I have some great memories of my side trips in Wyoming! Even though I hadn't planned to go to these places, I am so glad I did. In my next post, I'll tell you about an even bigger, unexpected side trip I got to take before I left Wyoming. I'll give you a clue: it was to a very famous national park.