A true adventure!
It is truly amazing how things tend to work out! I visited Riverton RV in preparation for some warranty work on my 5er in a few weeks (more on that soon!) Upon leaving Riverton (and perhaps Riverton RV is the best thing about Riverton), I headed north, with my ultimate goal of Buffalo Bill State Park, about 9 miles outside of Cody, Wyoming.
I planned to stop over in Thermopolis for a couple of days, but the RV park I wanted to stay in was just too small for me to “fit” in – and since the owners were not there to guide me to a spot, I opted to continue driving. Cody was another 90 miles or so up the road. Between my current location and Cody? Not much, or so I thought!
A few miles north of Thermopolis, I drove through the Wind River Canyon…spectacular! The only signs for a town closer than Cody were for “Meeteetse” (I thought it was a tropical fly – but I was later corrected!) As I drove into town, I saw (literally) most of the town crossing the street to a FREE community dinner! About 100 feet beyond the town firehouse was (and still is) the Oasis Motel and RV Park. An older place, the ground is not “completely groomed” for RV’s and the trees give cause for a few moments of raised blood pressure, but, overall, a good place, great inn keepers, and an ambiance of its own.
My plan was to stay 1 night and then hit the road, upon checking in, I learned of the Ghost Town of Kirwin… and since ghost towns and history are a fascination of mine, I opted to stay an extra day and use it to drive off to Kirwin – 34 miles southwest of Meeteetse (a metropolis of 367 people!)
What follows is a video I created mostly while on site in Kirwin…
A few more thoughts –
The drive took well over an hour – the road deteriorated the farther into the forest I traveled. There were even 3 rivers (see photos) I had to cross to get to Kirwin! One of the passages had flowing water that was probably OVER 18 inches deep. In fact, at that crossing I waited about 20 minutes before another soul came by and drove right through it – he gave me the confidence to continue the journey (which was only another 6 miles or so…but a climb of at least 2000 feet from that point!)
As I climbed, the temperature fell (remember, this was Sept 25) from about 41 to 34 and the rain changed to SNOW. My arrival at Kirwin was ok, just a bit chilly and wet (after all, it WAS 82 the day prior!) But, in the short time I was there (see the video) conditions deteriorated quickly – and being no stranger to mountains, mountain roads and snowstorms, I did not hesitate to get moving back! (There are some photos of the road and surrounding trees – note the signs of EARLY autumn in the leaf colors.) I am quite sure this area received AT LEAST a FOOT of snow after I left! Kirwin is located at about 9500 ft. elevation and is surrounded by 12000 ft. peaks.
The next day, I drove on to Cody and Buffalo Bill State Park. I will post some photos of the park AND a drive I took on Sept 27 virtually to the entrance of Yellowstone (on U.S. 20) in the next few days – and I will admit this, when I left my campsite on the 27th (again of SEPTEMBER), it was SNOWING at my site (5500 ft elevation) – so… I tossed my cross country skis into the back of my truck – just incase there was enough snow as I approached the National Park entrance.
As it turned out, there was not. The sun was emerging, and the temperature was already rising into the 40’s. So… the skinny skis will have to wait another couple of months or so…but thats ok!
Captions can be found below the images… (mostly in order!)
