On Saturday, August 29, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Hot Springs State Park, and a roster of community organizations will turn a stretch of Thermopolis into an outdoor classroom for kids. The free Kids Outdoor Day will offer more than twenty hands-on stations — from bear-safety practice on a "robo-bear" to archery, air rifles, kayaking and paddleboarding on the Cooling Pond, rock climbing, and guided birding walks. Registration opens at the pavilion at 9 a.m., activities run from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and most stations rotate on half-hour loops, so families can drift through at their own pace with an activity map picked up at the booth. There is no preregistration and no fee. The day is aimed at children ages six and up, and a parent or chaperone must stay with the young participants throughout.
"This is a wonderful opportunity for kids and families to explore the outdoors, have fun and gain new outdoor skills," said Tara Hodges, information and education specialist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. "Throughout the day, families will have the opportunity to visit a wide variety of hands-on learning stations designed to enhance outdoor skills and knowledge."
For Hodges and the Cody regional office that coordinates the program, the day is about more than a pleasant Saturday in the sun. Kids Outdoor Day is an established fixture of the Big Horn Basin, a summer event that has spent recent years at the Medicine Lodge State Archaeological Site near Hyattville, where Game and Fish and Wyoming State Parks have teamed up to gather families for a full day of rotating stations. Last year's edition drew 76 children and their families, with roughly 35 staff members and volunteers guiding them from the archery range to a mock wildlife crime scene and a shotgun station. Sponsors such as Devon Energy, the Paintrock Hunter Mentor Program, chapters of Trout Unlimited, and Walleyes Unlimited have helped underwrite the events.
Now the program is making its way to Hot Springs State Park in Thermopolis, where the park's geothermal pools and bison herd provide a scenic backdrop for the day's activities. The bison herd is itself one of the day's scheduled lessons — a chance to see and learn about these animals up close.
Among the personalities in the lineup is one with a special role: Jupiter, a great horned owl, will be on hand to teach kids about owls.
Alongside the great horned owl, visitors can practice bear spray technique on the "robo-bear," an animated target that lets children safely test their aim and reaction time; paddleboard or kayak across the calm water of the Cooling Pond; take a guided mountain bike ride or birding walk; build a fire; keep a nature journal; observe the sun through a solar telescope; and climb a rock wall. It is an eclectic menu designed, as Hodges put it, to inspire a conservation ethic and an appreciation for the natural resources of a state that still rewards the outdoorsy. Between stations, families can wander the park's green stretches and pause to watch the bison.
Whether a child leaves as a budding birder, a marksman, or simply a young person who learned to trust the water and the trees, the organizers' hope is that the day plants a seed that will keep them returning to the outdoors for a lifetime. No registration, no charge, no experience required.
For more information, contact the Cody Game and Fish office at 307-527-7125 or Hot Springs State Park at 307-864-2176, or follow the park's Facebook page for the latest updates.