Thermopolis, the town we are in, says their hot springs are the largest in the world. Do not know about that, but the town sure has marketed this commodity. The amazing thing - while in town - you cannot smell the sulphur of the springs at all. The state park has a couple of 'pay to swim' parks within it and they regulate the temperature to cool it down. There is also a free bath house run by the State, you are only allowed to soak for 20 minutes because the water is really warm (137 degrees).
 |
| Big Horn River flows through Hot Springs (in foreground) |
Drove through the park to see what there was to see, there are 2 separate herds of buffalo that roam within the park and the attraction right now is there are a number of babies that were born recently and the awe, cute, factor is in place. Did see them but they were quite a distance out grazing and they are not friendly animals - do not approach!
 |
| Tatonkas with babies |
Found the White Sulphur Springs and hiked to it, it flows into the Big Horn River. It is white! And HOT! At the same area we saw a couple of boys having fun - leaping from a rock ledge of about 40 feet above and jumping into the Big Horn River, swimming over to where the White Sulphur Spring dumps into it and coming back out and doing it again. Looked like a blast.
 |
| At bottom of spring where White Sulphur comes out of ground |
 |
| White, hot, smelly! |
 |
| Boys will be boys! |
 |
| Looks like fun - jumping 40 feet from a cliff! |
Along the scenic route of the park you come to an area where it looks like they used the ravine as a dumping ground - only this is from 100 years ago. See antique cars, trucks, old washing machines, appliances just chucked over the edge. Photo op
 |
| Lots of junk from many years ago! |
 |
| At entrance into park - built in 1909 |
 |
| Mineral deposits - what it looks like now |
We got back to campsite just in time for a thunderstorm to come in. It has been in the high 90s all week and late in the afternoon a storm comes in, cools it down for about an hour, then the temperature climbed back up.
No comments:
Post a Comment