Thermopolis is an absolutely beautiful town--3200+ population along the Big Horn River just north of the Wedding of the Waters. When early explorers came across the river from different directions each named a section of the river not knowing the other had named it. The rivers come together at Wedding of the Waters where the Wind River becomes the Big Horn River. The campground is just north of this area. After getting settled in we hit Pumpernicks for lunch, the waitress, originally from Thermopolis, used to live in Tampa and has friends in Perry. Pumpernicks is a quaint place in the downtown district, which could use some fixin’. The downtown area and Pumpernicks. Pictures of Butch and Sundace standing at the bar...guess they used to hang in the area. Then we did a drive around town, up Round Top Mountain to find the best advantage point for pictures.
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| Round Top Mountain from Airport Road |
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| The Wind River Canyon from Round Top Mountain |
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| A view from a mountain |
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| The town of Thermopolis from a bird's eye view |
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| The Thermoplois Airport Terminal |
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| looking somewhat to the north down the runway |
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| looking somewhat to the south down the runway |
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| looking across the runway |
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| the first tee at the 9 hole golf course right next to the runway |
a deer we saw coming down off the mountain
Some of the sights we saw driving around town....
Park where you can
sorry the deer are blurry, the derned ole Nikon just doesn't stabilize like the iPhone does
It was decided that we would try to catch the Wind River Canyon at sunrise to get some pictures. Now, ever since we started this trip and changed time zones twice, we’ve be waking up around 5:30-6:00am mostly because the sun is shining brightly at that time in the west. Anyway, Dan gets up while I, forgetting about the picture taking excursion, want to sleep a little more. No such luck, after about 10 minutes, Dan says if we want to catch the sunrise we need to go. What!!...no coffee!! I know only a few have seen me first thing in the morning...believe me it’s not a pretty site, even for taking pictures, but we’re gonna get breakfast, so I had to at least try....
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| there were 3 tunnels for cars so they also had to have 3 tunnels for the train |
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| the water is the most beautiful shade of teal through the entire canyon |
Believe me there are about 100 more pictures but I don't want to be known as the "neighbor" who bores everyone with their vacation photos....
OK, now we’re on to breakfast at Lil’ Wrangler. Now, remember Dan got me up at O’dark thirty to take pictures, so we arrive at 7:15am to be greeted by a group of 7, 4 adults and 3 kids, having a birthday party, yes, you read that right, a birthday party. I heard Grandma say “Elizabeth, in three minutes it will be three years since you were born!” Just what I want is to celebrate my kids’ birthdays at the exact time they were born. Alex would be easy, 5:50pm. Ryan on the other hand would be a tad difficult unless we were able to find a truck stop that caters to birthday parties....back in the day things weren’t open 24 hours like they are today. In my youth the stores were open until 6pm except Thursdays where they stayed open until 9pm and they were closed on Sunday. Can you imagine that today, there’d probably be some sort of uprising or revolution or something. Gotta have things available when we want...I mean need them. Anyway, I’m pretty sure the rest of the family wouldn’t want to get up for a 2am party. Sorry no pictures...lol
Later that day we went to the Dinosaur Museum. Saw some really cool fossils and dinosaur bones. The dig site was a fer piece, so we didn’t venture there.
In case you can't read the info, this fossil was used as inspiration for the "sentinel" robots in The Matrix movies
This is a turtle shell
Sure glad we live now and not back when these guys roam the world
Left the best for last...mineral hot springs, what Thermopolis is famous for. WOW...what a wonderful thing they have captured. The Hot Springs State Park had a bathhouse that you can use for free or you can go to 2 other establishments and pay through the nose. Guess which one we chose? You’d be right, the FREE one at the state park. What a wonderful place, the water was 104 degrees and had only a slight sulfur smell. The warmth was wonderful cause it as 50 outside. Refreshed we went “home”, rejuvenated I cooked a nice pork tenderloin with parsely potatoes minus the parsley, I forgot to bring some. Oh well, it was better than most of the fare we’ve had in restaurants.
Pictures of the mineral hot springs that fill the pools
Sure wish we could import to our area...
Sunday brought rain and later in the day snow flurries, that’s right snow flurries. Good thing we decided to stay in and veg for the day and that’s just what we did. Tomorrow we leave for Cody...stay tuned
