Drive Home from Riverton

We all met for a buffet breakfast at 9:30 in the hotel dining room before heading out to come home. The timing probably was bad since the buffet was scheduled to end at 10 AM and almost all of the food was old that was sitting in the hot trays. Anyway, we were on the road by 10:30 and we made it a great trip home by stopping at several different locations on the way.

There is a spectacular section of highway that lies between Riverton (actually, Shoshoni) and Thermopolis and goes through what is known as the Wind River Canyon. It was a beautiful section of highway and we stopped several times to enjoy the views and we came upon a cabin that was also a small store on the river that winds through this canyon. Here are a few photos taken while at this cabin:

After leaving the cabin and enjoying a "smoothie" there, we found this bighorn sheep that was just walking and grazing along the railroad track that was on the river:

We arrived at the town of Thermopolis - remember the trip that Josie and I took to the Dinosaur Museum there a few weeks ago - and stopped at the Mineral Hot Springs that the town is known for. They have the worlds largest mineral hot spring and they have several pools within the State Park, some of which are available for the public to use. As you enter the Park, you see this giant Teepee Fountain:

The park is an area that reminded us of the Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone only people were enjoying the benefits of the mineral hot springs in this town. The pools all drained into the river at this location:

After walking around the pools on a "boardwalk", we came to this pool that was one of several that were available for the public to use:

Josie and I had our bathing suits with us, so we went into the bathhouse and changed and went into the pool to enjoy the 104 degree mineral water:

There was a strict 20 minute limit for everybody that entered the pool and we enjoyed every minute of the time in there. Karen and George didn't have their suits, so they sat on the edge with just their feet in the pool.

We then drove around the rest of the park and went to the top of the hill that overlooks the entire city of Thermopolis, and we saw these Buffalo at the top of the hill:

We then stopped at a burger place while in Thermopolis and had a late lunch before heading out for the final leg of our trip.

It was a fun trip and one that we were happy to share with Karen and George. It was near 6:30 PM by the time we reached home and we just relaxed for the rest of the evening.

It's back to work again today - it's too bad that the days off fly by so fast. We are reaching the time where the traffic at work will slow, so it will be interesting to see what happens over the next several weeks. Until tomorrow...