Monday was a driving day. It was rainy and we did most of our driving on the interstates. I avoid the interstates unless I'm eschewing the pleasures of the drive and resigned to just getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible. We needed to cover a lot of ground to ensure we could make it to Grand Teton National Park early enough on Tuesday to acquire a campsite for the week. It shaped up to be a dull day but it didn't end that way. I'd never experienced a flash flood before. By the end of this day, that would no longer be the case.
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| La Veta, CO |
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| Greater Short-horned Lizard |
There's not a lot to say about most of the drive. It took us nine hours or so to get to Rock Springs. It rained on and off. We stopped in Pueblo to grocery up. Heisenberg country, from the looks of it. Still, if you have to drive on an interstate you could do worse than I-25.
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| Greater Short-horned Lizard -- La Veta, CO |
We stopped at a rest stop in Wyoming that had a nearby town of prairie dogs. It made for an easy photo opportunity of unsurpassed cuteness.
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| White-tailed Prairie Dog -- Bitter Creek, Interstate 80, WY |
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| White-tailed Prairie Dog -- Bitter Creek, Interstate 80, WY |
As we approached Rock Springs, we were discussing whether or not to stop there or go on to Jackson Hole. I was feeling pretty good and wouldn't have minded driving a couple more hours and we still had plenty of sunlight. We dashed that thought when we saw the dark clouds over Rock Springs.
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| Interstate 80, WY |
As we neared the storm we started see the lightning. We saw at least one strike a minute over the next half hour, some grounding very close to the road. The rain came fast and hard, as hard as I've ever seen. Jim was seeing side roads and gullies turned into raging muddy streams. We fishtailed at one point. It was clearly time to end the journey for the day. We took the first Rock Springs exit, which also happened to be the turnoff to Grand Teton and our fallback destination. We thought we were out of the worst of it.
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| Rock Springs, WY |
When we pulled into the Outlaw Inn parking lot there was a small mud puddle in the parking lot. We were impressed by its size but didn't think anything else of it at the time. By the time we'd checked in and unpacked our things, that puddle had surrounded the motel and encroached on the nearby highway. We were in the midst of a full on flash flood.
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| Rock Springs, WY |
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| Rock Springs, WY |
I watched as the water rose higher and higher. It eventually started to wash into the outer rooms as the occasional car drove through it. I was parked in a high spot, but the water kept on encroaching until the rear tire was in the water. I was getting nervous, but it eventually stopped rising then it began to fall. By the time the sun set there was still plenty of water in the parking lot and highway but it was slowly receding and would be mostly gone by the time the sun came up the next morning.
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| Rock Springs, WY |
Soundtrack:
- Sebadoh -- Harmacy
- Bill Cosby -- Revenge
- Elvis Costello -- Secret, Profane & Sugarcane
- Damian Marley -- Welcome to Jamrock
- Sufjan Stevens -- Illinois
When we pulled into the Outlaw Inn parking lot there was a small mud puddle in the parking lot. We were impressed by its size but didn't think anything else of it at the time. By the time we'd checked in and unpacked our things, that puddle had surrounded the motel and encroached on the nearby highway. We were in the midst of a full on flash flood.
I watched as the water rose higher and higher. It eventually started to wash into the outer rooms as the occasional car drove through it. I was parked in a high spot, but the water kept on encroaching until the rear tire was in the water. I was getting nervous, but it eventually stopped rising then it began to fall. By the time the sun set there was still plenty of water in the parking lot and highway but it was slowly receding and would be mostly gone by the time the sun came up the next morning.
Good thing you didn't wash away. Nice shot of the short-horned lizard and the prairie dogs are cute.
ReplyDelete:-) I was worried there for awhile.
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