Road Trip 2014 - Rock Springs, Wyoming

The second leg of our road trip to Chicago would take us from Boise through the Utah pan handle to Wyoming. We had hoped to get well into Wyoming but there aren't many towns and the ones there are didn't have hotel rooms for travelers. We had hoped to get to Rawlins, about 1/2 across the state, but all the rooms were given over to mining and natural gas workers. So, we settled for Rock Springs.

Leg 2: Boise to Rock Springs, WY

On the way we passed through Green River, WY - just  a few miles west of Rock Springs. We stopped there a few minutes for a driving break on our last road trip. The river was nearby and it was a nice little town. Much nicer, it turns out, than Rock Springs.

After checking into the motel we went downtown for a walk. The town was built on top of a large coal mine. We saw a funny little sign that says the streets are laid out like "they were surveyed by a drunk miner on a dying mule".

Most of the town is closed up; it's just this side of being a ghost town. But it wasn't always that way; they were big enough to have a Woolworth's 5 and dime back in the day

Woolworth's used to have a store here.

I know mining is a tough, dangerous business but we saw a monument that drove that point home.

Monument for miners who died at work.

The Union Pacific founded the town back in the day as a place to get coal for the cross-country trek. The depot is closed but plenty of trains roll by.

UP auto rack rolling through town.

 We did find a very nice Mexican food place for dinner: Casa Chavez. I usually order a cheese enchilada, a tamale, and refried beans when first visiting a cantina in order to judge its quality. The sauce on the enchilada was excellent and the beans were fantastic. Much, much better than some chain eatery on the interstate.