Kline Road Trips

It was a layover type day, as we took care of life things like catch up on appointments and email, clean out the cooler, etc. We stopped to get ice and I even went to the quilt shop in town.

In the afternoon, I decided to venture out in the 95 degree heat to go explore the state park across the street and I am so glad I did! Did you ever want to experience a little bit of Yellowstone without all the people and animal traffic jams? And even be able to soak in the hot springs? Then book a stay in this town and explore!

I first saw Teepee fountain, which was actually man made, as a way of venting out some of the piping for the hot spring pools in the park. Then I walked along a boardwalk on the travertine, just like at Yellowstone. I half expected a buffalo to amble over the ridge. It smelled like Yellowstone too. There is a suspension bridge that crosses the river too, and lots of trails I didn’t take because it was a million degrees out and I was by myself and not prepared to do a hike in the back country.

I did find the hot spring though. Pretty awesome with the red rocks in the background. Long ago, there was a treaty between the Shoshone and the State of Wyoming that the hot springs would be available for everyone. Wyoming stuck to that treaty since then and so there is a public hot springs pool that is open daily for anyone who wants to use it. There are also 2 longstanding companies with hot spring pools with water slides.

I made it back to the hotel room without dying of heat exhaustion and enjoyed the AC with the rest of the family. Then we went to dinner in the hotel restaurant that is full of mounted trophy animals. The owner of the hotel had been a trophy hunter for years and years. As the ethics of trophy hunting changed, he changed with the times too. In his later years, he shot the animals with tranquilizer darts and got his picture, and then a vet would band and check the animal and then it woke up and went back to living. The tourism dollars still went to the people in Africa where he hunted, and the animals would get checked over for health and research purposes. I thought that was very interesting.

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Drive from Rabbit Ears area to Thermopolis

July 10, 2024 Amy Kline

I woke up feeling much better and continued to get better as the day went on and we traveled out of the subalpine forest. I haven’t had an allergy attack that bad for years!

As we left, we drove through another nearby campground that had some amazing views and lots of native wildflowers that I have been trying to grow in my garden at home.

During our drive, we passed Split Rock, a major waypoint for people who traveled on the Oregon Trail. In fact, we spent much of the day on highways that evolved from the wagon trails. Hours and hours of driving through sagebrush land . I can’t imagine how tough those pioneers had to be to walk and lead their oxen all that way. How did they have enough water?

At one point Waze, the GPS app we use, routed us off the bigger highways and onto local roads that were just gravel. The views were amazing and so worth it! I advise everyone to take roadtrips and get off the Interstate highways if possible. We live in such a beautiful country with a large variety of climates and scenery. So much to see!

In the afternoon, we drove through the Wind River Gorge and it is one of the most beautiful drives in the whole country. Pictures can not show the extent of the height and the depth of color in the mountains on either side of the road. Breathtaking!

We had changed course from getting a campsite in the Wind River Gorge to getting a hotel in Thermopolis due to me being potentially sick and also due to the heat. We drove past our campsite and we made the right call. Temps were 96, plus there were tons of little flies all over the campground (maybe like lakeflies). Plus we all were looking forward to showers and sleeping in a real bed.

Checking out a potential future campground.

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Rabbit Ears Pass camping

July 9, 2024July 10, 2024 Amy Kline

We left our campsite and drove into the mountains. Breathtaking views, the photos don’t begin to show the beauty of this drive. We stopped at the Continental Divide at Berthoud Pass.

The campsite at Meadows Campground in the National Forest is huge. Very rustic in that there is no water or electrical hookup, but that’s not a problem for us. Jeff just charges the camper battery during the day with the solar panels and we filled the water tank before we left the previous campground. We also have a tiny bathroom in the camper so don’t have to deal with smelly outhouses.

There are huge subalpine spruce and Lodgepole pines all around us, lots of birds, and LOTS of mosquitoes. Something else is up here that I must be allergic to, because I had a big allergy attack the whole evening.

I took some extra allergy meds and went to bed early. I didn’t sleep well and woke up with a fever of 100.6. Uh oh! Was it Covid? Will our trip get cut short? I usually just get it as a bad cold, but Jeff gets it a lot worse than I do and he is the one who is driving and does most of the camper chores.

Jeff went into town in the morning to get me more tissues and also a Covid test and some Orange Juice. The test result was negative!! Hurray! Our trip can go on mostly as planned. I did sleep most of the afternoon after going in to Steamboat Springs town to eat lunch. We were going to go on a big hike, but decided to just lay low in the shade at the campsite.

Jeff went skiing at Steamboat a bunch of times with his family while growing up so we did drive around a little so he could take some pictures of the mountain in the summertime.

We did make one adjustment to our trip. Our next camping site was going to be at Wind River Gorge. We were already debating switching to a hotel because it is going to be 100 degrees there. Plus we are all want to take showers. So we canceled that campsite and got a hotel in Thermopolis.

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