I woke up in the Moose Cabin at Eagle RV Park in Thermopolis, Wyoming. “Let Your Wings Rest” read the sign at the front. Across the highway was the Bighorn River. There wasn’t really access from were we were, on the outskirts of town, but I could see four White Pelicans were drifting lazily over it this morning. A Nighthawk flew into the tree behind the cabin when I first walked outside. While the Pelicans were at the river, the Nighthawk — which reminded me somehow of a cat — would likely stay there much of the day. It was forecast to be in the high 90s again.
While the birds were heading for the shade, we were set on going to the hot springs. Thermopolis has the worlds largest' mineral hot springs. The state’s Hot Springs Park was a neatly laid-out expanse along the Big Horn River, with a suspension bridge and an interpretative path through the terraces from which the springs flow (there was even a bison herd though we don’t see it).
While there were several other private, hot springs hotels and themed parks along the river, we preferred the public pool for its no-frills, straightforward approach, even if there was a a 20-minute time limit on soaking. According to the bath-house website, the native Shoshone and Arapaho tribes gave the state of Wyoming the hot springs in a treaty in 1896, with the provision it remain accessible to the general public.
So there we were. The water coming out of the springs is 128 degrees but the pools are maintained at 104 degrees. Plenty hot and as it turned out, twenty minutes is plenty enough time when its more than 95 degrees outside.
The only other people in the public pool when we went on the day we arrived, mid afternoon, were a couple from Israel and their toddler. Our morning soak was a different scene.
“You gonna go to that pig roast?” An older man was asking a woman neck deep in the waters as I waded in.
“Yeah, I’m working it,” she answered back. These appeared to be the local regulars, stopping in to soak before their day got going.
Over my 20 minutes in the water, new people filtered in and out of the water. Toward the end of my soak, another man regaled two women from Louisiana about his faith. Bible study seemed a given between all of them.
The woman had remarked that they were pleased to be visiting ‘God’s country,’ and he opined that it “wasn’t God’s country but where he took his vacations.”
“Or where she takes her vacation,” he added. “I came up with the name Naomi for God,” he went on (no one was asking, but it didn’t seem to matter). “Because of the ''O’. It’s the middle initial of God. ‘Om’ is the sacred Sound of the universe…and the second syllable of ‘Wyoming’. But you can’t define God in words.”
As the woman nodded, I took notes in my head. I was reminded again, that we were a long ways from the West Coast.
After soaking, we found The Wyoming Dinosaur Center. Shell, Thermopolis, most of Wyoming is a geologic and paleontological wonderland. The Dinosaur Center exceeded my expectations: while it was a tourist attraction, it was very much an educational and research institution. A dig site was a 10 minutes away – visitors could sign up to work a full day at the dig if they so chose. The exhibits about earth’s evolutionary record and displays of many ancient fossils and even more of dinosaur species found in the area were mind blowing. Diplodocus, Allosaurus, Apatosaurus and Camarasaurus, oh my! Thousands of dinosaur bones have been found in the area.
They even had one of dozen Archaeopteryx fossils yet to be discovered on display, known as the “Thermopolis Specimen” though it was discovered in Germany. All Archaeopteryx, which are about 150 millions years old, show impressions of feathers and are considered to be the link between dinosaurs and birds.
I thought of the ancient-looking White Pelicans I saw in the morning and the many birds I’ve been geeking out on our trip. If I ever saw him again, I’d ask that man at the hot springs if he knew there was an ‘o’ smack in the middle of Archaeopteryx.