2017, August 21 - Total Solar Eclipse

On this date we got up early (5:00am) to leave the motor home in Cody by 6:00am and drive down to Shoshoni, WY which (among many places) is in the direct line of Totality for the eclipse. Its not like it won't happen again for so many years that we just won't be around to see it again, but it was there now and we were so close to it that a 100-mile (1.5-hour) car drive seemed pointless to not go... so we did.

The scenery of the drive alone was well worth the drive through Meteetse, the Wind River Canyon, Thermopolis and down to Shoshoni. In town we used the rest rooms at a gas station / convenience store that was just jam packed with other people with the same idea. Then we drove just north of town and found a country dirt driveway to a field that appeared not to be used much, so we backed the truck into it (just outside the fence) and a good 40-50 feet from the highway. A Wyoming Highway Patrolman drove by several times and did not seem to mind our presence there, so we stayed.

We turned the bed of the truck toward the sun, opened the tailgate and put two deck chairs on the bed, and tied a beach umbrella to the step handhold for some shade, then waited for the grand event to unfold.

When it did we took photos with all three cameras... Mary's Lumix, Bill's Canon and Iphone7 (with solar glasses over them) except when the total sun was blocked. Then with the show over, we went back home.

 Entering Wind River Canyon, just north of Boysen State Park

 Leaving Indian River Canyon (in Wind River Indian Reservation) 

and entering Boysen State Park

 Dam at Boysen Reservoir Recreation Area

 Entrance to Shoshoni WY

Everyone was coming into Shoshoni and no one was leaving.

This guy wanted to watch the eclipse too...

 (The above 8 photos got turned. The moon came in from the NE moving to the SW)

 The above taken with Iphone7 and a solar lens.

This one above taken with Bill's Canon with no solar filter

The black ones below taken with Mary's Lumix

The below pan photos were taken with Iphone scanning as the eclipse reached totality. It was weird... it was still light outside though it started cooling fast. Then, as if someone had pushed the dimmer switch and lowered the lights to just before total darkness, though that darkness only lasted seconds then it started to return to light just as fast as it went dark.

   

 People camping out some from the night before, now leaving.

Shoshoni was one of the best locations to watch the eclipse on the line of totality, so a lot of people came here. After it passed, everyone that came to watch the eclipse is going home (like us).

At this spot in 1903 a rock dugout facing south, near a fresh-water spring in the hillside, was established as a stage "noon stop" where horses were changed and meals served. The primitive accommodation was a halfway between Corbett Crossing on the Stinking Water River and the bustling frontier town of Meeteetsee. In 1904 Halfway Stop had a new fangled telephone, complete with a large "Public Tele-phone" sign. The station was abandoned in 1908 after auto-mobiles began to use the route, but the spring remained in use for many years, a favorite watering place in this arid country. This marker commemorates early station keepers and travelers who passed this way.

In Florida Mile Markers are measured with one decimal. In Wyoming and Montana we have seen two digit decimals and sometimes even a mile marker sign at each end of bridges and culverts, but more than that, sometimes a mile marker about 30 feet away from another.

 One of the seldom birds we see in flight that is not a vulture or a raven.

NEXT POST...

Old Trail Town (Re-creation of a historic frontier town) Cody WY

Happy Trails!