Sunday, September 9, 2007
Eagle RV Park, Thermopolis, WY - Aug 1
We decided to spend one night at this Passport America park despite a less than glowing review from our friend Lloyd. Our space was a little tight, and the manager was obsessively fanatical making sure we didn't park on her grass, but the electricity was adequate for our very much needed A/C (Lloyd's main complaint was inadequate electric). 
Since we were only in town for one day, we decided to pack as much sightseeing in as we could, so first we drove back through Wind River Canyon, an absolutely gorgeous stretch of road between Riverton & "Thermop" (as the locals call it) that we were unable to fully appreciate the first time since we were pulling the trailer, and all the scenic pull-offs were on the wrong side of the highway. For whatever reason, the Big Horn River is what flows through Wind River Canyon.
We then grabbed our swimsuits & headed off to Hot Springs State Park. In 1896, a treaty signed with the Shoshone & Arapaho nations specified that the water from what turned out to be the world's largest mineral hot springs would be available to everyone free of charge. The State Bath House at Hot Springs SP continues to honor that agreement, although there are two other water parks on the SP grounds that do have entrance fees -- and lots of tourist activities like water slides and niftier pools which of course leads to lots more kids and horsing around. 
The State Bath House was just perfect for us. There is an indoor and an outdoor pool, both maintained at around 104F. It was enjoyable soaking, but we both got out before the 20-minute time limit -- it was more enjoyable to walk around the thermal features in the state park. Also, we remembered to get a key to allow us to get into Legend Rock State Petroglyph Site, which was our third activity. Legend Rock is located about 30 miles west of Thermop. 
The petroglyphs here, classified as the "Dinwoody" tradition, are some of the most bizarre that we have seen -- weird plant-looking things with teeth, men with horns, an upside-down guy -- almost psychedelic. Some of them date back over 11,000 years. Click here for More Legend Rock Petroglyphs.As we drove back to town we noticed the sign at the fairgrounds featuring "pig wrestling" that evening. As tempting as that sounded, we decided we were just too tired to enjoy one more activity. We did enjoy large flocks of common nighthawks circling over the road as the sun was setting!
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 10:05 PM 
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