Adventure Is Out There: Ten Sleep, WY

We rolled into Ten Sleep, WY on Sunday afternoon after a great day of driving. We stopped for gas and a trunk lunch break in the middle of nowhere, but at the fanciest, nicest gas station/rest stop/100 varieties of coffee and soda/cleanest bathrooms with the best smelling soap. If you ever roll past The Coffee Cup and need a break, I recommend it!

We rolled through Ten Sleep canyon and went straight to the brewery to get a guidebook. Then we found camping at Leigh Creek, to date it's my all time favorite campsite. Right next to a rushing creek with a nice picnic table. The sound of the creek was awesome and so relaxing. The canyon was really pretty, made me wish I knew more about geology. The rock was really cool, striped and layered.

We climbed at lower and upper Psychoactive walls after getting camp set up. The climbing was different than what we're used to in Kentucky. The rock is much sharper and blocky. The climbing style more techy and balancy. It was a fun change of pace. We had a good time climbing a few routes before the day light was gone.

Monday we climbed The Cigar and at the Downtown area. I had never heard of The Cigar until I saw a featured picture of it on NatGeo's instagram feed- had to climb it, and we did! It was fun and had all grades from 10a to I think 12d. We met a nice couple from Arizona who were also on a long road trip and they recommended stopping at the hot springs in Thermopolis, WY on our way to the Tetons. Free showers, that's all I needed to hear. Word. There were no showers in Ten Sleep.

I learned that the pockets in the wall, much like in the Red, are spidy holes. Spideys. Everywhere. In all of the pockets! Which was cruel because of course that spidey lair is the only hold that's gonna get you from here to the next hold! I practiced mind control on those moves- both to keep the spidey from moving and to get my princess ass over it.

Tuesday morning we packed it up and headed to the Tetons. On our way out of Ten Sleep we stopped at the one and only coffee shop in town and ran into Dave and Julia from West Virginia. The climbing world is so small! They were there to climb for a week or two. Then we stopped in Thermopolis at the hot springs and had a nice soak, and yep, a free shower! As part of the agreement, or was it a treaty? between the Native American tribe whose land the hot springs were on and the US government, the Natives wrote into the agreement that the hot springs and bath house would always be free to the public. Thank you!