It’s about a 400 mile trip, so we left around 6:30 a.m. (MDT) (My bad, we should’ve left earlier but I had a rough night with my foot).Our kids safely landed back in SC (thank You, Lord). This is a beautiful drive from Cody to Cheyenne. We weren’t on the road 30 minutes and I saw numerous pronghorn. Of course, by the time my brain reacted I didn’t get any good pics. But this drive takes us through Thermopolis. The town itself isn’t all that great (but they do have hot springs!). The main thing I like is the scenery. The mountains are awesome with the river flowing along and they have a lot of Petroglyphs.
Petroglyphs are rock carvings (rock paintings are called pictographs) made by pecking directly on the rock surface using a stone chisel and a hammerstone. When the desert varnish (or patina) on the surface of the rock was chipped off, the lighter rock underneath was exposed, creating the petroglyph.
Legend Rock State Petroglyph Site is a 400 meters long (1,312 feet) near vertical cliff with more than 92 prehistoric petroglyph panels and over 300 petroglyph figures. While the site is not extensively promoted, Legend Rock is already a world-renowned petroglyph site. Legend Rock has been a sacred site for Native Americans of this region for thousands of years. Local concern for the preservation and protection of the site led to acquisition of the property as a Wyoming State Petroglyph Site in 1973. During the same year, the site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Legend Rock Petroglyph Site is one of the most fragile in the Wyoming State Parks system.
Legend Rock is located 29 miles northwest of Thermopolis. Completed in 2011, Legend Rock now has a visitor center, interpretative trails, and picnic shelter. During the summer, the visitor's center will be operated by volunteer site hosts.
(No, I’m not that smart I have mastered the “cut & paste” option in lieu of the “screen shot” LOL!
Here’s some pics of the ride here:
I love “Wowoming”! They have all those cool art pieces along the way. The “Elk”, the “Marlboro Man”, the “Jackalope” along with the “Cowboys and Indians” give a history lesson all through the state. It was a long, but nice ride. We stopped and had a picnic at one of the rest areas and took a little break. We got into the campground around 3:00. I didn’t realize this was “Frontier Days” in Cheyenne. It’s pretty busy here!
Luckily we have a short drive tomorrow.
Have a good one everybody.
You should have stopped in Thermopolis and used the hot springs. I am sure your foot would have felt better.
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