Hello from Rawlins, Wyoming

 Watercolor sketch of Mirror Lake in Medicine Bow National Forest.

I spent this week with my extended family in Rawlins right off Interstate 80 in southeastern Wyoming.  My grandmother's brother on my Mom's side, Leonard Page, lives out here with his wife Jo Ann.  They did a great job showing me around and helping me understand the history and extremes of Wyoming.  As you can see from the photos below, the terrain is extremely varied.  Rawlins is located in one of several valleys along the Rocky Mountain Chain and is pretty close to the Continental Divide.  The famed Oregon Trail crossed through these valleys during the 1800s.

Before the discovery of oil and natural gas in the hills of southern Wyoming, agriculture and herding were the primary industry.  Carbon County had one of the largest wool productions in the United States and even the world.  The sheep feasted on  thirty-nine types of sagebrush that you can make out in the greener portions of the above photo.  The division of the land into private ranches and claims for mineral rights killed the nomadic lifestyle of the sheep herders.

Yes talk about wide open spaces!

Medicine Bow National Forest is located southeast of Rawlins.  The tallest peaks in these mountains reach about 12,000 feet.  If you click on the photo to make it larger you can still see some patches of dirty snow in the upper peaks.  The snow pack allows for plenty of freshwater lakes and streams.  On the day I visited the mountains were a comfortable 70 degrees while down in the valley it was closer to 95.

On first glance you would think these are deciduous trees in winter, but in fact they're conifers that have been devastated by the Pine Beetle.  The western conifer forests are reeling from their exploding population and the mild winters have only helped their numbers expand.  The beetles attack trees from the inside out and by the time the tree is in visible distress the beetles have moved on.  So far there's been little that can be done, but there are some species of pine, the Colorado Blue Spruce that appear to be resistant to the beetle.