First part of last stage of the Wilds of Wyoming tour.
I’d never heard of Thermopolis, but just from the name… can you guess what it’s known for?
The “smoke” Joe noted and memorialized in this sign was steam from hot springs, which now is one of Thermopolis’ main claims to fame. https://thermopolis.com/attractions/hot-springs-state-park-bath-house/
Smoking waters … THERMOpolis… get it?
Here’s a hot springs pool in which I soaked. It was indeed hot. No therapeutic benefits that I could tell, but not a bad way to spend 15mins.
Lots of other things too… history
… budding spring (and flowery public art) after a long, cold, snowy winter
… and, of course… bison. Or buffalo as they’re know in these here parts.
Kirby is home of my now fave distilled spirit… Wyoming Whiskey. Sadly, Butch’s Place was no longer open for business, and all they had at WW was cookies.
Just south of Thermo is the Wind River Canyon, which is just north of the Wind River Reservation. You might recall the film from a few years ago. A resident of the reservation (further south) said that some parts of the film were actually (!!) filmed there. Here’s the moon over Wind River, just north of the canyon.
The canyon is spectacular, especially as you see the Wind River (yes, that’s its name) flowing through it.
Continuing south you see lots of signs and markers pointing to the heroism and bravery of the “emigrants” on the “Push West,” aka the “Westward Expansion.” No mention of the “Manifest Destiny” that was helping fuel that expansion… along with dreams of great fortune, prosperity, independence, freedom, and more elbow room than elbows. Except when there were actually people living and providing for themselves there
To the settlers and their descendants, they were “Plains (as in just?) Indians.” You probably know what these folks thought of those emigrants. Probably a lot like what US “natives" of today think of the "alien invasion” coming across the border.
The land is beautiful but rugged and hardly inviting, and you have to wonder… how did so many survive?
Things must have seemed far better in front of them than behind, yet
many of course did not make it all the way.
Next up, part 2b of the last stage of the Wilds of Wyoming tour.. Lander, Sinks Canyon, Sacajawea cemetery, Mountain Man Museum in Pinedale, and Green River, which was the last stop before heading down to Utah.