Just after midnight, I was awakened by my dear wife who told me she couldn’t sleep for fear that we would be blown over. I then became aware of the blustery winds outside, winds which pummeled the side of the RV, causing us to shake rather significantly. It roared and screamed over the hilltop with nothing to slow it down and made for quite a racket. And I would have slept through the whole thing.
After figuring out what her fears were, I asked her if she would like me to move the RV. This hilltop seemed like a great idea; it had a commanding view of the entire area, and those views were nothing short of spectacular, but we were finding out the downside of life on a hilltop. Deb told me that if we didn’t move, she wouldn’t sleep.
So I groggily got out of bed, put on some additional clothes as the temperatures were dropping rapidly, and got in the driver’s seat. I drove slowly over the grassland, hoping I wouldn’t drive into one of the many makeshift fire pits that were scattered about, and drove to a space in the trees that we had seen earlier. I angled the RV so that it faced the prevailing wind, so the wind was no longer hitting us broadside. Then I went back to bed. Deb said I was her hero. I guess I earned some points for this one.
It started to rain as we were having breakfast. And the sullen skies looked like the rain could last a while. Since it really isn’t pleasant to hike in the rain, especially when it’s 37 degrees outside, we decided to drive west until the weather got better, and if we drove all the way across the Bighorn Mountains and it still wasn’t better, then we would address the overflowing laundry bag in the closet.
It was the real deal: snow sticking to the roads, the wipers freezing up, very little visibility at times. Once we started descending out of the mountains, the snow turned back to rain and it started to lighten up on the horizon ahead. The rain eventually stopped just a few miles outside of Ten Sleep. Seems too bad we didn’t explore more of the Bighorn Mountains, but we don’t do blizzards. We’ll just spend the time west of here where the weather is better.
US-16 into Ten Sleep is a beautiful road, goes through Ten Sleep Canyon. We’ll have to come back here when the weather is better.
We found a laundromat in Worden and after loading up three washers with clothing and depositing nine dollars in quarters, I left Deb there and drove across town to the Cenex station, which had a free RV dump station. Even in the off-season, there are a lot of people camping, as I had to wait in line to use it. No fresh water, we’ll have to find that somewhere else. Seems to be hard to fine, and some of the water sources that do exist have been turned off for the winter.
We then headed south to Thermopolis. Thermopolis State Park is the location of the world’s largest mineral hot springs, so we have a new item to add to our World’s Largest collection. That’s two on this trip so far.
Maybe the sulphur smell is so strong that it makes you forget all about these other conditions. It certainly is a very interesting olfactory experience. It did feel good, though, especially after driving through a blizzard.
We walked around the natural hot springs pools for a bit. You can’t soak in these, they are too hot, but it’s cool to see the unique terraces formed by the mineral water.
The state park is large and not only about hot springs. It also pastures a herd of bison which can be observed from a loop road through the park. We met a couple who who were looking over how our kayaks and bikes were mounted to our RV, and they had just ridden the loop on bicycles, so we took out our bikes and rode the loop.
After picking up a few groceries, we had dinner in town at the One-Eyed Buffalo Brewing Company. We both had bison burgers. Seemed appropriate. They were very tasty. First time I ever had a bison burger.
While we were eating, several groups of people came in that we saw earlier at the state park. We must have picked the two popular spots in town: the state park and the One-Eyed Buffalo as it seemed that everyone else did the same.
After dinner we headed south again towards Shoshoni and our camping spot for the night. The route leads through the Wind River Canyon, a beautiful drive that hugs the Wind River through this narrow, deep canyon for quite a few miles. The camping spot itself is about 10 miles off route, down one of the most desolate-looking roads I’ve ever seen (but it was paved!), and next to Lake Cameahwait. Four spots right along the lake, only one occupied by an old pickup with a camper on top. Our 16-year-old RV looks brand new compared to this.
Along the drive and especially after parking the RV, we noticed the wind, sweeping across bare terrain, buffeting the RV. Could be an interesting night as I have nowhere to move the RV that would make the wind better. There might not be any points for me tonight.
As it got dark I noticed a bright spot on the horizon, and was able to watch a beautiful moonrise. It was soon obliterated by the clouds but I was able to take a picture or two.
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