Bicycling Montana, Wyoming,
Colorado and New Mexico - 2006

Thermopolis to Riverton, WY

June 16, 2006
Distance 55.8 Miles
Climbing Elevation: 1,700 feet

We ate breakfast and started riding out of Thermopolis. The sky was a bright blue without a single cloud showing. As we left we looked back and saw a hill made from red rock.

From Thermopolis we heading south and in a short time we entered the Wind River Canyon, named after the Wind River Indian Reservation, however the river in the canyon is the Big Horn River. The scenery in the canyon was fantastic and we stopped a number of times to take pictures.

We even got to go through three tunnels on the south end of the canyon.

When we left the canyon the scenery was completely different. We even saw some cactus growing near the road. We stopped for about 20 minutes in Shoshoni and enjoyed a cold drink as we sat in the parking lot of a gasoline station. We were both very tired today and it seemed that we would never get to Riverton; sometimes it looked like the road would go on and on for ever.

When we arrived in Riverton we checked into a motel and then called the motel that we planned to stay in tomorrow night only to find out that the phone number was disconnected. As it is over 120 miles to the next motel we are going to rent a U-Haul truck to take us and our bicycle to Rawlings, WY. From there we will continue following the route we had planned. Today was also laundry day.