Imagine Our RV Dreams: How to Spend 32 Nights in Rock Springs, Wyoming

While we wait for Kyle from Lippert to return to Rock Springs and fix our trailer, we tried to find more things to do.

We visited the town of Green River, about 12 miles west of Rock Springs and went for a walk on Expedition Island and then along the river.

Nearby where we parked the car was this park with a water park for the kids. It looks like so much fun on this warm day.

We were surprised to learn that John Wesley Powell and his party set off from this area.

John Wesley Powell (1834-1902), active in the second half of the 19th Century, was one the most important American explorers. He led exploratory expeditions into some of the most inhospitable parts of the American West, notably including the first documented descent of the Grand Canyon. Two expeditions he led, including the one that entered the Grand Canyon, were formally launched from Expedition Island. The first was in 1869 and the second in 1871. These two expeditions are generally considered to have covered the last large land area in the continental United States left unexplored by European-Americans.

Lake Powell, where we go houseboating, was named for Major Powell.

We took a nice long walk along the river for several miles to a sports field and pavilion before turning around and walking back. That was some good exercise for the day.

Yea, there is another event at the Sweetwater Events Center. This time it was horse racing.

We didn't bet on any horses although it was offered at this event. It was still interesting to watch and occupied us for a few hours.

Some other days we hiked on the hills behind the campground. Al did more hikes back there then I did. There was no shade so on hot days it was no fun.

That's us

Running out of things to do locally, we expanded our search area. One day we drove north of Pinedale to hike the Sacred Rim trail (4.2 miles) with views of Freemont Lake and smaller lakes.

After our hike we hung out on a bench at Lakeside Lodge to kill some time before our dinner at Pitchfork Fondue, a western outdoor Cookout in Pinedale.


Our meal started off with fresh potato chips, bread, and sausages.

Then we had steak, potatoes, and salad

Well, that was fun and delicious.

Over Labor Day weekend, we headed west on I-80 with first a stop at Little America for a 75 cent ice cream cone advertised on many billboards we saw for miles and miles before arriving at the exit.

Little America, is in the middle of nowhere along the side of a dusty highway, a Williamsburg-esque Neoclassical set of buildings emerge out of the rocky landscape. And a green dinosaur. And all the hospitality you can imagine.

According to Atlas Obscura, This penguin was presented to Little America many years ago by Captain LyStadt, a member of Admiral Byrd's expedition to the South Pole. It was originally intended that it should arrive in this country alive but climatic change was too severe and the penguin died en route to Boston. It was stuffed in the east.

After our ice cream pit stop, it was on to Evanston, Wyoming where we first went to Bear River State Park.

This park had some resident bison and elk.

Then we went over to the 84th Cowboy Days for the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) Rodeo.

Rodeo Cattle

This guy looks pretty mean!

The Rodeo Royalty were the first riders to enter the arena.

2020 Evanston Cowboy Days Queen ~ Aubrey Reynolds

1st Attendant ~ Savannah Ogden

2020 Princess Royalty
Princess - Makinsy Huntington

Look at this cute Clydesdale in training

The advertisers were announced and flags presented by the rodeo royalty.

The Wyoming state Flag

The honorary guests where the health care workers from the local hospital

The first event was bareback bronc riding. How exciting! I've never seen this live before. The guys try to stay on the horse for 8 seconds.

Then two well-trained riding horses ridden by "pick up men" are tasked with assisting fallen riders and helping successful riders get safely off the bucking animal.

This horse and rider fell on it's side for a nano second before it was back up and bucking.

Look how many white cowboy hats in one area. No social distancing in the pen.

Then we watched steer wrestling. Also known as "Bulldogging," is a rodeo event where the rider jumps off his horse onto a Corriente steer and 'wrestles' it to the ground by grabbing it by the horns. This is probably the single most physically dangerous event in rodeo for the cowboy, who runs a high risk of jumping off a running horse head first and missing the steer, or of having the thrown steer land on top of him, sometimes horns first.

This guy was the rodeo clown

Next was younger cowboys riding smaller horses for bareback bronc riding.

This poor little guy didn't have such a good ride and was crying when he got up after falling off the horse.

Team roping, also called "heading and heeling," is the only rodeo event where men and women riders compete together. Two people capture and restrain a full-grown steer. One horse and rider, the "header," lassos a running steer's horns, while the other horse and rider, the "heeler," lassos the steer's two hind legs. Once the animal is captured, the riders face each other and lightly pull the steer between them, so that both ropes are taut. This technique originated from methods of capture and restraint for treatment used on a ranch.

Calf roping, also called Tie-down roping, is based on ranch work in which calves are roped for branding, medical treatment, or other purposes. It is the oldest of rodeo's timed events. The cowboy ropes a running calf around the neck with a lariat, and his horse stops and sets back on the rope while the cowboy dismounts, runs to the calf, throws it to the ground and ties three feet together. (If the calf falls when roped, the cowboy must lose time waiting for the calf to get back to its feet so that the cowboy can do the work.) The job of the horse is to hold the calf steady on the rope. A well-trained calf-roping horse will slowly back up while the cowboy ties the calf, to help keep the lariat snug.

Mutton Busting

In the event, a sheep is held still, either in a small chute or by an adult handler while a child is placed on top in a riding position. Once the child is seated atop the sheep, the sheep is released and usually starts to run in an attempt to get the child off. Often small prizes or ribbons are given out to the children who can stay on the longest. There are no set rules for mutton busting, no national organization, and most events are organized at the local level.

The vast majority of children participating in the event fall off in less than 8 seconds. Age, height and weight restrictions on participants generally prevent injuries to the sheep, and implements such as spurs are banned from use. In most cases, children are required to wear helmets and parents are often asked to sign waivers to protect the rodeo from legal action in the event of injury.

It was getting dark so my photos didn't come out so great but we also got to watch more events.

Barrel racing - is a timed speed and agility event. In barrel racing, horse and rider gallop around a cloverleaf pattern of barrels, making agile turns without knocking the barrels over. In professional, collegiate and high school rodeo, barrel racing is an exclusively women's sport, though men and boys occasionally compete at local O-Mok-See competition.

Bull riding - an event where the cowboys ride full-grown bulls instead of horses. Although skills and equipment similar to those needed for bareback bronc riding are required, the event differs considerably from horse riding competition due to the danger involved. Because bulls are unpredictable and may attack a fallen rider, rodeo clowns, now known as "bullfighters", work during bull-riding competition to distract the bulls and help prevent injury to competitors.

Some short videos from the event:

We really enjoyed our first rodeo and will look for similar events in the future in other locations.

On Labor Day, it was so warm in Rock Springs we had the air conditioner on in our trailer. The next day the temperatures dropped so dramatically that we had snow and very strong winds! This is what we woke up to.

We noticed two motorcycles parked at the cabin nearby. We knew they didn't have any cooking facilities inside and probably no heat so Al walked over with some hot water, tea, and hot chocolate mix. The older guys were from Georgia and were traveling from the Grand Teton area when they got caught in the storm. They were thankful for the hot drinks. He found out there was a heater inside the cabin but they asked if we had a better heater they could borrow. We have our "fireplace" and propane heater so we loaned them our electric space heater. They called us their "angels".

Al made us a nice big pot of soup so we stayed nice and warm in our trailer.

The storm was so bad that I-80 was shut down almost the whole width of Wyoming except for the 12 miles between Rock Springs and Green River.

The next day we still had some snow on the truck to clear before we ventured out.

At least our view of the mountains behind us changed with the addition of the snow.

Within a couple of days the temperatures were above freezing and the winds died down. The repair of our trailer was scheduled for Thursday. Would Kyle be delayed due to the storm?

Thankfully Kyle showed up at our door at 8 AM right on schedule on Thursday. He asked that we tow the trailer to a parking lot with a firmer surface so he could fix our trailer. We got all packed up in a hurry and towed the trailer a couple of miles to a parking lot of a closed K-Mart in town.

That hole in the metal of the axle is supposed to be horizontal on the top and not vertical. A pin goes in that hole and holds the leaf springs in position. It's all held together with the U-bolts.

Our new Dexter Axles

Kyle got right to work.

These are the parts of the frame that were bent and needed to be replaced and welded before the new axles and parts could be installed.

At one point we went to a tire store and purchased two new trailer tires to replace the bad ones which alerted us to this problem in the first place. While there we had the truck tires balanced and rotated too. This way Kyle could install the wheels with the new tires.

Old parts

After 6 hours of almost non-stop work, Kyle was done with the welding, sanding, painting, installing new axles, leaf springs, U-bolts, and the wheels! Hallelujah!


Al helped Kyle load the old and heavy axles into his truck and off he went to the next repair!

We spent one more day in Rock Springs where we washed the truck and trailer before making our exit.

While washing the truck and trailer, Al noticed some balancing weights came off the rims so before we left Rock Springs we went back to the tire store and had them fix and check all our tires.