We were in Rock Springs in October 2018 as part of Big Trip #2.

If you’ve missed our headlong rush across the country, we’re in a hurry to get to Utah. We needed a stopover between Denver and Park City, so picked a town on the way that has a brewery: Rock Springs, Wyoming. One of the two breweries in Rock Springs is open on Sundays… except it wasn’t open when we went there. Bummer.

Campground

We stayed at a strange little campground, High Desert Storage and RV Park. There were several trailers hooked up in campsites, but I didn’t see another human while we were there. It was just a five minute drive into downtown, but the absolute best thing about this weird spot was the trail leading from the back corner of the campground up the hill to a big rock overlooking town and the dusty, rolling hills leading up to the snowy mountains. Bugsy and I went up there three times in the fifteen hours we were in Rock Springs, and the last time J came with us for a picnic breakfast.

What to do in Rock Springs

Well, don’t go to breweries. Square State Brewing was closed, but it wasn’t supposed to be. Bitter Creek Brewing was closed, but was scheduled to be.

Downtown is cute, with a bit of Old West railroad town charm. We wandered around a bit and then went looking for a bar. Joe’s Liquor and Bar seemed promising, advertising “Rock Springs’ smallest and most welcoming bar,” but we are not smokers and so walking into a cloud of smoke was not welcoming to us. Next, after analyzing photos of the other bars in town online, we chose Buddha’s Bar. It was also smoky, but not nearly as offensive, so we had a beer there and then called it a night.

Had we spent just a little more time in Rock Springs, we would have enjoyed hiking along Flaming Gorge, about an hour south of Rock Springs, and posing a sunset photo of Bugsy at Killpecker Dunes, about 45 minutes north of Rock Springs.

But there was no time for such diversions. We got up early and (after our picnic up the hill) pressed on toward Park City!