Rock Springs is the fifth largest city in Wyoming with a population of just over 23,000. We’ve noted that towns along the highway are small and clustered by the interstate and sparsely spaced. Rock Springs is no exception.

We stopped at Stinker’s Plaza for lunch, and were delighted to find that the staff all wore shirts embroidered with a cute skunk.

Rock Springs boasts a great view of the mountains, but the downtown historic section appears to be struggling, with many empty, abandoned shops, some slated for demolition.

Unfortunately, one of the latter was the Rose Petal, the lingerie and “extras” shop. It looked intriguing from the outside, and certainly unique. Some of the older public buildings were made of stone and were imposing. We did find one apparently thriving boutique, called Lovely Chaos. A wooden cow advertised Holy Communion in front of the Catholic church.

We stayed at the Motel 8, whose sign can be seen clearly in the photo below. It was clean and neat and the office staff was friendly and welcoming. Everyone seems interested to hear that we are on our way to California having begun our trip in Florida. The clerks apologized that the central heating had just been turned off (in July, we wondered?) but they offered us extra blankets and a space heater, which we wound up needing, as the temp dropped to 47F that night.

We got veggie pizza for dinner and turned in early and explore the historic downtown as described above. After our walking tour, we ate a quick breakfast at iHop (apparently there is one everywhere) and hit the road.