July 14, 2014 Hot Springs State Park

Today’s adventure took us to Hot Springs State Park.

First some information:

We parked the car and took the trails around the hot springs, mineral terraces, swinging bridge, and bath houses.

One of the springs:

Flowing into one of the pools:

Check out the birds keeping warm – LOL:

From the pool to the swinging bridge:

Views from the bridge – notice the mineral deposits:

Further on down the river – it was flowing fast:

Notice the origin of the Chugwater name:

And the terraces from the hot springs:

Beautiful!

We stopped in the State Bath House where you can soak for free two times a day – 20 minutes each.   The reason - there was a stipulation in the “Gift of the Water Treaty” between the Northern Arapaho and Shoshone Native American Tribes which specified that one-quarter of the water from the Big Spring that feeds the park’s pool would be free to the public.  (We did not partake today.  Somehow sitting in 104 degree water on a 90 degree day did not really appeal to us – )

The outside State Bath Pool:

We continued on to another hot spring:

Where we could see it bubbling to the surface:

And flowing to the terraces:

This is at the bottom of the terraces – WOW! – they were incredible:

We also noticed that the river is overflowing its banks here:

And then we went looking for the buffalo herd and found them relaxing on one of the hills in the pasture.  They are HUGE!:

The bison herd was originally established in 1916 with 15 cows from Kansas City and 1 bull from Yellowstone.  In 1973, the Grace Warner family donated the Spearhead brand and 98 cow bison.  This herd is part of the Central Wyoming herd.

We also found the Smoky Row Cemetery by the buffalo.

“The cemetery contains seven graves.  Four were former residents of Thermopolis.  Molly Koshear fell to her death over the falls below the hot springs into the Bighorn River while washing clothes.  Jack Berry dove into the first swimming pool built in Thermopolis and hit his head on the bottom and died.  Nobody knows how Augernose Jane died but judging by her name, it was probably a very interesting story.  The fourth grave marker is for a woman whose name has been lost to history, but stories say she was very large and extremely strange.  Another grave is Ralph Gallerno.  He was warned to cool his water before taking a bath.  His failure to do so resulted in his death.  His coffin was made out of his wagon.”

Our last stop in the park was the TeePee Fountain:

What a great visit.  We will be back in the cooler weather to try out those Hot Springs –

Enjoy today.