Thermopolis, Wyoming

Oh what an interesting day we've had here in Thermopolis.  This is one of those times when my obsession with collecting and reading travel books and articles has paid off in the form of a newly discovered geological oddity.  I've decided to add "geological oddity" to my travel lexicon since that is what my obsession ordinarily presents us with.  For example, articles torn out of magazines were the way we discovered Balmorhea State Park in Texas, a place we've visited twice now because we liked it so much.  Also, we discovered Homestead Crater in Utah this way.  I knew there was a reason I was saving all that crap, and my efforts have been rewarded many times.

We came to Thermopolis because it was billed as having the largest hot springs in the world.  I tore an article from a May, 2008, Motorhome magazine.  (Yes, Motorhome.  It's the sort of thing old people read.)  As a part of Hot Springs State Park there is a modern Wyoming State Bath House which is free for visitors to the park to use.  It features a very nice locker room where you can change into and out of your swimsuit and both indoor and outdoor mineral hot springs pools.  "Free" and "hot springs pools" got our attention.  

I could spend time explaining the geology of the area, but I'll let you read it for yourself if you like.  If you click on the image, you can make it larger.

There was a board walk that allowed us to walk among the mineral springs and view the travertine mineral formations.  It's the same sort of process that creates stalactites and stalagmites in a cave.  One resource we read said that that 3.6 million gallons flow out of the spring every day, but a ranger at the bath house told us that the flow has decreased significantly, to less than half what it once was.  She attributed the decrease to drought.

The board walk also led us out to a swinging bridge originally built in 1916, but replaced in 1992.  You can see it in the upper part of the image below.

We decided to cross over, mainly so we could see the Bighorn River that flows underneath.

Here's a little information about the bridge.

Ordinarily, a swinging bridge like this will give me the heebie jeebies, especially when I can look through the slats and imagine falling to my death on the rocks below.  (Have you noticed my peculiar fascination with the macabre?)

But I tried not to think about that and instead looked out across the river.  Here is the view to the north.  You can see the red rocks that are characteristic of this area in the background.  It reminds us a lot of Utah.

Here's the view to the south:

Looking of to the left, we could see where the springs flowed into the river in the past and the large travertine deposits

Looking north again and off to the right, we could see where swallows have built their mud nests.

After cheating death by surviving our bridge crossing, we continued on the boardwalk and came to the area where the mineral water flows into the large natural ponds.  The water was very hot here.  We were told it might be as much as 125 degrees.

But what we were really interested in were the pools in the bath house.  Here is the indoor pool:

And here is the outdoor pool:

Starting with Native Americans hundreds of years ago, people have been visiting the valley here to enjoy the therapeutic benefits of hot mineral water.  The State Bath House exists in fulfillment of a treaty requirement with the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Indian tribes made 115 years ago for free use of the hot mineral water flowing from the springs.  The temperature in the pools is kept at 104 degrees and the pools are drained and cleaned every 48 hours.  There is a 20-minute soaking limit, which was plenty long enough for us.  The water is ice blue and smells strongly of sulfur, but not unpleasantly so.  

The park has been set up with lovely picnic areas, and all of this is free to visitors.  What a wonderful resource for this town of just about 3,000 people.

For such a small town, Thermopolis has a lot to offer.  Also today, we visited the Wyoming Dinosaur Center.  Dinosaurs were first discovered on the Warm Springs Ranch above Thermopolis in 1993.  That led to the creation and construction of the Wyoming Dinosaur Center & Dig Sites.  The fossils being excavated were buried 145 million years ago (give or take a million years) during the Jurassic period in a layer called the Morrison formation.  Such a variety of dinosaurs are rarely found in one place.  

The Wyoming Dinosaur Center has identified over 80 dinosaur dig sites and they are confident that these sites will continue to produce new insights.  For now, there are a lot of interesting dinosaurs and fossils in their collection.  My experience with dinosaurs is limited to the children's books I read to my sons when they were little.  This place brought a whole new group of dinosaurs into my awareness.  

I don't know about you, but if my cat had claws like this, I'd have to declaw him.  Each one was roughly the size of my foot.

And grandma.  What big teeth you have!

There were marvelously well-preserved fossils of flying creatures, swimming creatures, walking creatures, slithering creatures, filter-feeding creatures, and the list goes on and on.

This next one reminded me a little of Smitty and Gracie, Smitty being the one biting the back of the other one.  (Yes, we're working on making him be nice to her.)

There were also dinosaur mothers and dinosaur babies.

This next one is the notoriously scary T-Rex.

Also, big dragonflies.  This one was around 8 inches from nose to tail.

And small dinosaurs with feathers.  Some of the fossils are so well preserved that you can actually see the outline of their wings.

There were also windows where you could peer into their laboratory

and see them meticulously drilling away rock from the fossilized bones.

It was quite a fascinating place, especially for Mike.  We spent quite a bit of time here before moving along.  

Thermopolis has lots of things for visitors to do and see, including the Legend Rock Petroglyphs, which I would dearly love to see.  It is tempting to stay for another day, but we've decided to continue on.  It will give us an excuse to return to Thermopolis on a future trip, as if we needed another reason.  The hot springs would be enough to bring us back to this marvelous place.

Tomorrow we will be moving along to West Yellowstone.  We are going to drive straight through Yellowstone since we've spent quite a bit of time there on previous trips.  On the way we will pass through Cody, Wyoming, where I have it on good authority from Padsworth and Jacque at Lily Pad Quilting that there is a great quilt shop.  I've put the driver on notice that we will be stopping there No. Matter. What.  I'm guessing that will be my next blog post.

We're turning around here in Thermopolis.  It looks like Stanley Basin will have to wait for another time since the fires have everything pretty well obscured by smoke.  We'll continue on, taking our time, until we get to the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in central Oregon.  After that, we'll be on our way back home.  Not to worry, however.  There is still a lot of mileage to cover between here and there.