Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
800/455-3466,
www.wyodino.org
,
8am-6pm daily May-Sept., 10am-5pm daily Oct.-Apr.)
is a 16,000-square-foot complex that houses more than 200 displays. In addition to 20-some
full-size dinosaur skeletons and casts from the local site and from around the world, there is
also a preparation lab on-site. Visitors can watch technicians cleaning recently discovered
fossils. One of the special features of the museum is its proximity to the
Warm Springs
Dig Site.
Excavations still take place here each summer.
During the summer, visitors can take a tour of the site, or participate in the
Dig for a Day
Program
(307/864-2997 for reservations, $150 adults, $80 children with a paying adult),
which allows you to work at the actual dig site, learning about the process and the science
involved. There are also specific days throughout the summer set aside for the
Kids' Dig
Program,
which caters to budding archaeologists.
Admission to the museum is $10 adults and $5.50 children and seniors. The dig site tour
is $12 adults and $8.75 children and seniors. The best option is to purchase the combination
package, which includes entrance to the museum and the tour, for $18.50 adults and $11.75
children and seniors. Families of four can pay a flat rate of $50, which includes both the
museum and the tour.
Legend Rock Petroglyph Site
Although it may seem like a small adventure just to find the prehistoric drawings at
Legend
Rock Petroglyph Site,
21 miles outside Thermopolis, the sheer number and variety make it
a worthwhile visit. The easiest way to visit the petroglyphs is first to stop at the Hot Springs
State Park office (located at the corner of Park St. and Hwy. 789, 307/864-2176), where you
can pick up a gate key in non-summer months and a map to the site (the unmarked route can
be difficult to locate). Once at the parking lot for Legend Rock, you can choose to hike the
0.5 mile to the petroglyphs or drive down the hill (in the non-summer months when there
is no host at the site, you will need the key to unlock the gate). A host is on-site 8am-6pm
daily in summer. Etched along the sandstone cliffs are numerous animal and human figures
that have been linked to different time periods throughout history, some dating back 2,000
years. Unfortunately, not all visitors to the site have treated the paintings respectfully, and
it's important not to touch or try to remove the petroglyphs.
The
Gift of the Waters Pageant
is held during the first weekend in August and re-creates
the selling of the hot springs by the Shoshone and Arapaho Indians to the U.S. government,
based on a play written in 1925. The pageant suggests it was a fair transaction between