Thermopolis, Wyoming
Sept 18, 2020
From our campsite it was about an hour drive down highway 120 to Thermopolis.
Thermopolis promotes itself as having the World’s Largest Mineral Hot Spring. I’m not sure how they measure that. The ride was through the flat desert and rolling hills. Eva was commenting that she didn’t realize that Wyoming was such a pretty state, even beyond Yellowstone/Teton area. Most of our exposure to Wyoming is along I-80 from Evanston to Rawlings. Just desert and wind. The north half of the state has been very nice to travel in.
We arrived in Thermopolis around 10 am and stopped at the State Bath House. They have a couple of hot mineral pools to soak in for free. They only give you 1/2 hour to soak in the 104 degree water. That was plenty of time for us and it felt pretty good. It was also nice to take a real shower and get cleaned up.
After showering we walked around the park, through the terraces and across the Swinging Bridge that crosses the Bighorn River. We also took a drive through the Bison Pasture, but the bison must have been on a different schedule as we didn’t see a single animal.
From Thermopolis we drove for two hours into the Bighorn National Forest to find our camping spot. The road rose to over 9500’ as we crossed the top of the mountains. Fortunately, the road went down the other side and we found a camping spot at about 8000’. Not as cold as the top of the mountain, but we expect it to be cold tonight. The drive through the mountains was beautiful with lots of mountain peaks and forests. Our camping spot was on Circle Park Creek, just before Buffalo, Wyoming. You can see from the picture that the smoke is still filling the skies and blocking the sun.
Corey & Eva's Travels 