Sweeping Changes

As a bit of a postscript to "Geo-RoadTrip 2011," we present one last parting gift from the road.


The giant Chimney Sweep Statue greets people on I-135 between Wichita and McPherson, Kansas. He's a striking site that comes out of nowhere while you're in the middle of nowhere. His roguish smile and Dick Van Dyke-esque demeanor conveys a sense of old school chimney sweepery that is sadly missing in our modern world of dirty smoke stacks.

However, as many people do, he started out in a different industry before his career change:


Happy Chef is/was a chain of restaurants in the Midwest that each had Happy Chef statues out front greeting hungry travelers with a smile and a spoon. They also had a button you could push to hear the Happy Chef give you, what I assume was, a happy message.

Sadly most chefs are gone but some have been re-purposed like our friend here. If you're one the road in the middle of Kansas, stop by and say "hi."

Geo-RoadTrip 2011: Prairie Dog Town

At this point in the trip we went south through Colorado and cut back across Kansas to return home. We were exhausted but you're never too tired to skip a classic roadside attraction and so that's why we stopped at the Prairie Dog Town in Oakley, KS:


Like any good roadside attraction they have a pit full of rattlesnakes:


Devin made friends with a donkey. He wanted to take him home with us but we couldn't figure out how to fit him in the car.


So this is what a five-legged cow looks like:


And of course this is also the home of the World's Largest Prairie Dog:


The prairie dogs had the run of the grounds and they didn't mind stealing the other animals' food:


Well that's the last set of pictures from "Geo-RoadTrip 2011"! Thanks for coming along with us. We'll post the short film of the trip soon!

Geo-RoadTrip 2011: The Fossil Cabin

Not far from Medicine Bow, WY, near the Como Bluff area, stands the fossil cabin! It was built and 1932 and claims to be made up of 5,796 different dinosaur fossils that were excavated nearby.



Here's a closer look at some of the fossils:


They also make the claim that Como Bluff is the "Geological Loction of Petrified Life"...whatever that means.


There is a house next to the cabin had some pretty big fossils on display out front but they also had a sign saying that they were gun owners and did not appreciate trespassers. So we got this quick shot and got right back on the road.


Video coming soon!

Geo-RoadTrip 2011: The Medicine Bow Museum

We made a stop in Medicine Bow, WY to see the Medicine Bow Museum but unfortunately it was closed at the time we got there so we had to make due with getting pictures of the outside:


Including this monument to local cattle ranchers and their brands:


There were also some monuments to author Owen Wister (author of The Virginian) who was known as the father of western fiction:


This Wister monument us made of petrified wood (which pleased the geologists in our group):


And just across the street is the historic Virginian Hotel, thought to be named after the novel Wister wrote in Medicine Bow.

Geo-Road Trip 2011: Shell Falls

Our next stop along the Bighorn Scenic Byway is the beautifully majestic Shell Falls:


The massive, raging waterfall pours over steeply pitched granite and into a flowing creek:


Here's one of the smaller falls that can be seen in the area:


It was a great location to take the EMI group picture:


Video coming soon!

Geo-Road Trip 2011: Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite

Today's stop is at the Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite near Shell, WY. They've got a nice little area to view some preserved dinosaur tracks:


One of the tracks of a three toed Theropod:


Devin gets a closer look at one of the dino footprints:


Another three-toed track:


As usual, video coming soon!

Geo-RoadTrip 2011: Petroglyphs

We're still tooling around in the Big Horn Mountains at this point in the trip and we decided to check out one of Wyoming’s premier archaeological sites.

Here are some pictures of some of the petroglyphs (Native American rock carvings) that are found at Medicine Lodge Archaeological Site (they are easier to see if you click the pics for the larger image):





Video coming soon!