Busy weekend ahead

This coming Saturday and Sunday is an enormous weekend for Thermopolis and Hot Springs County.

You’ll want to start your day early downtown with a trip to the Farmer’s Market on the corner of Broadway and Fifth Street.

Starting at 8 a.m. you can take home a variety of freshly grown, local produce, jams and jellies, breads, cookies and all kinds of delicious goodies.

Take a walk through the downtown businesses as you wait for the Pageant Days Parade which will begin at 10 a.m. Natives from the Wind River Indian Reservation will be doing traditional dances at the flag pole after the parade.

Pop over to Hot Springs State Park after the dancing to spend time at the Big Horn Basin Folk Festival and the Kiwanis Craft Fair and Trading Post.

There you will find artists of all kinds, music, food and demonstrations throughout the day as well as lots of crafts by local and regional artisans.

But the fun isn’t over yet.

Saturday evening at 6 p.m. you can attend the Gift of the Waters Pageant, a play recounting the Native’s gift of the healing mineral waters to the white man. It is presented at the Big Spring in Hot Springs State Park.

If you’re in the mood for a spooky time, there will be ghost stories told at the pavilion in the park Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.

After the pageant, you may want to attend the Ranch Rodeo at the Hot Springs County Fairgrounds, featuring teams from local ranches competing against each other for top-hand honors.

The rodeo starts with a calcutta at 7 p.m. followed by the rodeo at 7:30 p.m.

The Folk Festival and the Kiwanis Craft Fair and Trading Post continue on Sunday in the park and a second round of the Ranch Rodeo begins at 1:30 p.m.

If you missed the Gift of the Waters Pageant on Saturday, you can catch the second performance of the play at 6 p.m. at the Big Spring.