We struck out on bighorn sheep sightings one final time at Sheep Lake, stopped at a specific visitor's center gift shop at Zadie's insistence, then went to check out Estes Park, CO. We followed a cute Riverwalk path with lots of stores, visited a cafe with yummy vegan options for lunch, got the girls some ice cream, then hit the road.
After several hours of driving, we stopped in the small town of Saratoga, WY to visit the “Hobo Hot Springs”. The city has a free bathhouse and several outdoor pools heated by the hot springs, all located next to a river. In the river, which was generally a cooler temp and nice for wading, there were shallow pools sectioned off with rocks where the natural hot springs warmed the water slightly (similar to a bath that’s been cooling down for 10 minutes, comfortable but definitely not hot tub warm). Ruth and Zadie spent some time looking for pretty rocks in the water while we relaxed and soaked in the shallow water, leaning back on our stone pillows.
The pools were unbelievable! We could only go into the coldest one, which was hot tub temperature, smelled like sulfur, and was coated with green algae – the pool stairs were slippery with it. Over at the medium-hot pool, I sat on the edge but it was too hot to even soak my legs in. I was surprised to see another person jump in all the way. The hottest was a sectioned off area called the “lobster pot.” 119 degrees? 😲 No thank you.
We finally got to Rawlins around dinner time and hit a drive-through for the girls while Bill and I made dinner from our groceries. Our hotel had the worst wifi of all time (Zadie ended up down in the lobby trying to watch and download some shows), but at least we all finally got to shower again!