Beyond the Expected: Legend Rock Petroglyphs

Thermopolis, home of Hot Springs State Park, is a favorite for Wyomingites as well as visitors to the Equality State. The day-use park is home to mineral hot springs with boardwalks skirting several terraces for visitors to enjoy. A free state-run bath house allows visitors to sit in 104-degree mineral water for therapeutic purposes. Two mineral hot spring pools with waterslides also operate within the park’s boundaries. While the Thermopolis area boasts hot springs, the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, fishing and rafting opportunities and Wyoming Whiskey give visitors plenty to do in and around town, history buffs will find a Wyoming gem in nearby Legend Rock State Petroglyph Site, 29 miles northwest of Thermopolis. 

Like several historic locations in Wyoming, Legend Rock seems to appear just when visitors may feel like they have taken a wrong turn. The site, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is isolated but worth the drive to walk the path looking for the more than 300 prehistoric petroglyph figures adorning a low cliff face. 

The area is quiet, and Wyoming Parks has updated the site with a visitor center, picnic shelter and trails with information about the petroglyph figures. A petroglyph is an image made by pecking at rock to leave a picture or rock art. Legend Rock has a trail at the base of the cliff that visitors can follow to view the well-preserved petroglyph panels. Visitors’ imaginations can roam lost in ideas of what the figures and panels stand for and take them back to prehistoric times and what the area may have been like. 

· Open year-round, weather permitting 

· October through April, key required, can be picked up at the State Bath House in Hot Springs State Park, Thermopolis Chamber of Commerce and Hot Springs County Museum 

· May through September, no key required, open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

All content and images courtesy of WeKnowWyo contributor, Shannon Dutcher.