We left Cody and drove about 80 miles south-east to Thermopolis WY. The town is home to the world’s biggest hot spring. In 1896, a treaty was signed by Chief Washakie of the Shoshones and Chief Sharp Nose of the Arapaho, at Wind River Indian Reservation headquarters in Fort Washakie. The tribe sold the parcel of land (almost 10 square miles) on which the Hot Spring sits, to the United States for $60, 000 worth of cattle and food supplies. Chief Washakie stipulated a portion of the water had to remain free to the people. In 1899, the Wyoming legislature set aside the park and one quarter of the water from the Big Spring to be free for public use.

So, to our delight, we went to the State Bath House and soaked for about 20 minutes in 104F, undiluted, 100% pure mineral water, for free!

Bear soaking in mineral water

That’s not all there is to do in Thermopolis, there is also a world class dinosaur museum, where you can see rare specimen that can only be found in Wyoming or in only a few other places in the world. You can also observe workers cleaning bones and piecing them together. If you feel like it, there is a “dig site” tour available, where you can go visit a dig site and even try your hand at finding fossils.

Talk about stepping back in time, we found this little A&W diner, where you still have to order your food by picking the orange phone from the wall, like it used to be when I was a kid. We really did get a kick out of that, the diner was also attached to a bowling alley, so we played a game, Bear discovered he can still play bowling, I found out I can’t LOL LOL. 😀

Then we went to see Legend Rock, which is about 20 miles west of Thermopolis. You have to obtain a key and a permit in order to be allowed to go see it. An archaeological survey found there are about 283 pictures on 92 rock panels. The oldest work dates back 10, 000 years while the newer ones were carved after the arrival of the white man.

There were more things to do in the area, but we needed to move on, so we left with a promise to come back one day and finish our visit.