Wyoming

We are spending the 4th July Holiday weekend in Casper Wyoming. Not quite as exciting as our previous DC Independence Day parades and fireworks! It is hot, hot, hot...34C (93 F) but supposed to cool off on Sat & Sun. The drive from Cody to Thermopolis was pretty ho hum as far as scenery was concerned. Thermopolis itself is home a famous hot spring site which was bought from the Shoshone Indians in 1868. The waters are supposed to be therapeutic and are channeled to feed into a few nearby bath houses. The actual spring itself (pictured) bubbles away at 57 C (135 F), smells of sulphur and dotted with algae. On the southside of Thermopolis is the beautiful Wind River Canyon and on the other side of that we drove past a lovely big Reservoir (Boysen ). In hindsight, it would have been a nice place to stay for a night or two. No hookups though.

The rest of the drive to Casper, Wyoming was lovely. We lost count of the number of antelope we saw in the fields beside the road. Our Casper campground in at the back of Fort Caspar which was established around 1862 as a military post to protect the Oregon and Mormon Trails and the Pony Express from Indian attack. It is on the banks of the North Platte River and the wagons crossed here. As we arrived yesterday an inquisitive white tail rabbit came to check us out - Murray caught him (and the dusty campground) with the camera. Around 9pm last night, when it had cooled down nicely, we went for a stroll along the river and saw rabbits eveerywhere. There are supposed to be deer around too, but we haven't seen any yet.