August 1-4, 2023 – Shoshoni, WY

While we were getting the motorhome ready to leave Tuesday morning, Ann stopped by with a loaf of freshly baked banana bread.   It was delicious – thank you Ann! We stopped in Riverton at a very nice Smith’s grocery store and picked up some much-needed groceries.  We didn’t think there would be much in the way of shopping in Soshoni, and we were right – just a gas station and convenience store.

We are staying at Cross Roads RV Park in Shoshoni.  This is a really nice well-maintained park.  Like Solitude in Dubois there is no office or restrooms.  We called Mike, the owner, when we arrived, and he told us to park anywhere, and he would be over shortly.  The sites are very nice, and we finally have grass again.

Tuesday night we had a thunderstorm with lots of thunder and lightning.  Mike told Rex Wednesday morning that we had 1½ inches of rain overnight and that was very unusual here.

It was still raining Wednesday, so we decided to drive back to Riverton and visit The Wind River Heritage Center.  There were many wildlife mounts.

One room was a wax museum with displays depicting the history of this region.  We were a little disappointed as we were expecting much more from a heritage center.

The rain let up some while we were in the Heritage Center, so we drove to the 1838 Mountain Man Rendezvous Site at the confluence of the Big and Little Wind rivers.  This is the only site of an original trapper’s rendezvous that has not been developed.

The 1838 Rendezvous site, which stretches 100 acres along the Wind River, looks much like it did in 1838, the last year a “big” rendezvous was held.  One week every July a re-enactment of the rendezvous is put on by the 1838 Rendezvous Association.

We woke Thursday to more rain, so we decided to take a drive to Boysen Reservoir and the Wind River Canyon.  

Boysen Reservoir was created in 1951 to provide irrigation water to farmland in the Bighorn Basin.  The entire reservoir is now a State Park.

We then drove down Wind River Canyon.  A beautiful 14-mile drive following the Wind River to Thermopolis.

There are 3 tunnels along the highway.  We made sure to note the height of these tunnels as we will be driving the motorhome down the canyon next week.  The tunnels have a 14’ clearance so we will be fine.

There are also railroad tunnels – we saw three but may be more.

This was a beautiful drive on a rainy day.

 

Friday was another rainy day, so we stayed at the motorhome and watched it rain.