Across the Plains

I crossed the plains today, from St. Louis to the feet of the Rockies.  Kansas is a long-ass state!  As I was driving across the plains today I thought about the emigrants in the mid 1800s making the 2000 mile trek to California and Oregon essentially on foot. 

Those plains are so open and empty...what must it have felt like to be walking across them.  For those settlers heading west, just making 20 miles was considered a very good day.  It took them the better part of 2 months to get from the Missouri River to the Rockies, a trip I made today in about 9 hours.

Today, you can see windmill farms across parts of the prairie.

As I entered Colorado, I could see a storm in the distance with sunlight shining down through the clouds and rain making triangular patterns.  Unfortunately, the storms prevented me from seeing the Rockies until I was almost to Denver.

Kansas Prairie

Sun and Rain

Windmills

Tomorrow I'm heading to Grand Junction, but I haven't decided whether its via Rocky Mountain NP or Mt. Evans.