Evanston WY to Lexington NE
Today’s travel would be one of our longest stretches, taking us through the highest elevations on our route and through some of the most achingly beautiful landscapes. Sadly, we wouldn’t have time to enjoy much of it because we had almost bitten off more than we could chew.
The most impressive geography was through the Green River Gorge. There were striking buttes and desert vistas. I wish we had more time to explore. I didn’t even have time for photos.
Laura and I had both noticed that we seemed to be short of breath going up and down the steps of the hotel. It occurred to me that we might be at a higher than usual altitude. We were at about 6,600 feet above sea level in Evanston, and we continued to climb. We crested one ridge with views of the Rockies and of wind turbines.
We reached a point that was supposed to be the highest elevation on I-80. I asked SIRI how high we were and this was her response:
We were actually a bit higher than that.
We drove through the town of Laramie for a lunch stop, then continued on past Cheyenne. As we headed toward eastern Wyoming we descended and the land began to flatten out. Long trains paralleled our route.
We crossed into Nebraska and the flatness took on a life of its own. Much of our route ran alongside of the Platte River, which wasn’t too impressive at this point. As one might imagine, the scenery consisted of corn and irrigation equipment.
Our stop for the night was half-way through the state in Lexington. It was yet another Days Inn, but was much nicer than the one in Burns. I ordered steak dinners from a local place for take out and we enjoyed those with our meal before settling in for the night.
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