Wyoming
There’s A Whole Other World To Explore Under Wyoming’s Sinks Canyon State Park
For years, visitors have been intrigued that the Popo Agie River disappears deep beneath the Sinks Canyon State Park.
It turns out that over the eons, the river had formed a network of caves through the Madison limestone that then lay undiscovered for hundreds of years and can now be explored by a lucky few.
“The state park staff actually discovered the cave system decades ago,” State Superintendent and Interpretive Ranger Jessica Moore said. “It was a fluke that one of the staff noticed some water coming out of the side of the hillside. They started poking around and found a hole in the ground.”
Curious, the employee squeezed into the hole and discovered an entire cave system that was beneath the canyon. Over the years, for safety, the entrance was gated and closed to public access. Visitors could only explore the cave system if they knew someone working at the state park and could arrange a tour.
When Moore arrived in 2022, she said she was intrigued by the cave system and started working with Skylar Sargent, the primary cave guide, to build a safe public tour so that more people could experience the wonders that had been hidden beneath the earth.
Descending Into An Underground World
Moore had been hired specifically to create interpretive programs at the state park, and she saw the cave system as a perfect opportunity to build a unique experience for park visitors.
She soon discovered that September through April is the only time it is safe to explore the caves and planned accordingly since in early spring, the runoff fills the system with water. Once it is dry enough to descend into the cave, groups of 10 people, twice a month, are brought to a nearly hidden hole in the boulders.
“The cave is unique because the entrance to the cave is not a big gaping hole in the side of the cliff,” Moore said. “It’s called Boulder Choke Cave because the entrance is in a pile of boulders which comes to a choke point.”
Visitors first go through this small opening and then drop down a few feet to the first platform underground where the gate to the cave is located. From there, they drop down another eight feet and crawl over a big boulder on their hands and knees about twenty feet to the main cavern.
“When you come into that first big room you can walk upright,” Moore said. “This is where the river channeled underwater and so it is essentially walking down a tube.”
The tour will take participants through various limestone caverns and Moore cautions that crawling is required as you maneuver through certain sections.
“For the most part, you can stand up and walk through,” Moore said. “We will stop in several different rooms to look at various features, whether it’s shell fossils from ancient oceans or the scalloping in the limestone from the water that scours through this channel every spring.”
One unique feature is the snottites dripping off the ceiling, a bacterial formation that resembles slime.
“The shining star to this cave experience is the underground river,” Moore said. “This gives us a little glimpse of where the river disappears to when it drops into the sinks.”
In the back of the cave, fish swim in a pool of water and strange fungi grow. Visitors are often in awe of the opportunity to stand in the cave and soak in the surroundings, a balmy 57 degrees year-round.
Since opening these three-hour tours to visitors age 10 and older, hundreds of people have been able to experience the geology and hydrology in the park in a way that has never been offered before, Moore said.
The tours also give Moore an opportunity to talk about protecting both the participants and the cave.
“It is really important we follow decontamination protocols for protection against white-nose syndrome,” Moore said. “We want to make sure we’re not bringing anything into the cave, or bringing anything out of the cave that might impact our bat populations.”
Moore’s favorite activity is when they plunge the cavers into absolute darkness.
“We do a little bit of sensory exploration and talk about how our brain works and how our brain fills in when we can’t see things and just give people that unique experience,” Moore said.
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A popular interpretive program offered at the Wyoming State Parks statewide center on the black-footed ferret, a species that nearly went extinct and is being rescued through cloning. (Courtesy Sinks Canyon State Park) -
At the Sinks Canyon State Park, rattlesnake researchers and others have offered visitors an opportunity to meet and learn about the parks many reptiles lurking about. Right, a whole other world of life grows under Sinks Canyon. (Courtesy Sinks Canyon State Park) -
At the Sinks Canyon State Park, rattlesnake researchers and others have offered visitors an opportunity to meet and learn about the parks many reptiles lurking about. (Courtesy Sinks Canyon State Park)
Keeping Sinks Park Dark, Wild And Accessible
For those who are unable to join in the cave explorations, Moore offers other programming to celebrate the unique features of Sinks Canyon State Park. Another program she is passionate about is the dark skies.
In 2023, Sinks Canyon was designated as the first international dark sky site in the state of Wyoming. To keep that status, Moore offers at least four different dark sky programs each year, from photography to astronomy.
“We have this amazing natural resource above the canyon,” Moore said. “And we want to make sure people are doing what they can in their own personal lives to protect the dark skies around them, as well as enjoying the dark sky within Sinks Canyon.”
A local group called Sinks Canyon Wild has teamed up with the state park to protect the resources and still develop ways for people to be able to enjoy the park.
“It’s our vision to make sure that we are providing for the users, but also protecting the space,” Moore said. “Having well-planned recreation experiences for guests is one of the ways to do that.”
From Snakes to Ferrets
Deputy Director Nick Neylon said that five years ago there were no interpretive programs at any of the parks and that has changed drastically.
“Just this summer alone, we held almost 400 interpretive programs across the state,” Neylon said. “Last year, we saw roughly 25,000 people attend our programs so it’s having a big impact.”
Neylon said that programs like the cave exploration and dark sky programs are the main ways that the park staff can interact with visitors.
“You can go to a state park and walk down a trail on your own,” Neylon said. “But by taking part in an interpretive program, you are taking the opportunity to interpret the landscape on a completely different level.”
Moore is currently working on new programs including bringing back a rattlesnake expert.
“One of the things that I’m working on right now is having someone come in and talk about the peregrine falcons that nest in the canyon,” Moore said. “They’re a great success story of recovery of endangered species.”
Another crowd favorite is the programs on the black-footed ferret which had almost gone extinct before being discovered in the wild.
“We’ve had an amazingly positive reaction to the programs,” Neylon said. “Our interpretive rangers are also people who help build community.”
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Five years ago, Wyoming State Parks started offering interpretive programs and one such opportunity is a cave tour at the Sinks Canyon State Park. Cavers are each given their own equipment and escorted through a network of caves, sometimes on their hands and knees, to view the rare sight of an underground river. (Courtesy Sinks Canyon State Park) -
Five years ago, Wyoming State Parks started offering interpretive programs and one such opportunity is a cave tour at the Sinks Canyon State Park. Cavers are each given their own equipment and escorted through a network of caves, sometimes on their hands and knees, to view the rare sight of an underground river. (Courtesy Sinks Canyon State Park) -
The Future
To help build this community, the state parks are looking beyond just offering programs and are planning to build up the infrastructure of the parks. Two projects under consideration are new visitor centers, one at Sinks Canyon and the other at Keyhole State Park.
“We get a lot of visitations at Sinks Canyon,” Deputy Director of State Parks Chris Floyd said. “The current visitor center is rather small, and so it’s difficult to get a school group in there, especially in the wintertime, to do educational programs.”
Floyd said that a community town hall will be held on December 1 to hear the thoughts of the Lander community on what their needs are. He said that the Keyhole State Park doesn’t even have a visitor center currently and its town hall will be in January.
As Floyd considers the logistics of providing adequate bathrooms and parking, Moore is excited for the opportunity to offer more programs such as a video tour of the caves for visitors who cannot visit in person.
“Wyoming can be a little bit brutal in the winter,” Moore said. “So, I’m really excited about the opportunity to have usable teaching space inside.”
“Our mission is to improve communities and enrich lives throughout the state of Wyoming,” Neylon said. “Our focus is on trying to find ways to make it easier and more enjoyable for people to experience our parks, historic sites and trails.”
Moore said that she is just grateful to be entrusted with this unique and special place and can’t wait to get more visitors both underground and beneath the dark skies.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
It’s Week 11 in the 2026 Wyoming prep girls’ basketball season. That means it’s the end of the regular season. 3A and 4A schools have their final game or games to determine seeding before the regional tournament, or if a team is locked into a position, one last chance to fine-tune before the postseason. Games are spread across four days.
WYOPREPS WEEK 11 GIRLS BASKETBALL SCHEDULE 2026
Every game on the slate is a conference matchup. Several rivalry contests are part of this week’s schedule, such as East against Central, Cody at Powell, Lyman hosting Mountain View, and Rock Springs at Green River, just to name a few. Here is the Week 11 schedule of varsity games WyoPreps has. All schedules are subject to change. If you see a game missing, please email david@wyopreps.com.
CLASS 4A
Final Score: Laramie 68 Cheyenne South 27 (conference game)
CLASS 3A
Final Score: Lyman 40 Mountain View 26 (conference game)
CLASS 4A
Final Score: Evanston 41 Riverton 39 (conference game)
Final Score: Natrona County 42 Kelly Walsh 38 (conference game) – Peach Basket Classic
Final Score: #4 Thunder Basin 64 Campbell County 32 (conference game)
CLASS 3A
Final Score: #1 Cody 77 Worland 33 (conference game) – 5 different Fillies with a 3, and Hays led the way with 34 points.
Final Score: #2 Lander 49 Lyman 34 (conference game)
Final Score: #4 Wheatland 51 Douglas 40 (conference game)
Final Score: #5 Powell 48 Lovell 42 (conference game)
Final Score: Burns 56 Torrington 43 (conference game)
Final Score: Glenrock 78 Newcastle 30 (conference game)
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CLASS 4A
Rock Springs at #2 Green River, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
#4 Thunder Basin at #5 Sheridan, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
#1 Cheyenne East at #3 Cheyenne Central, 6 p.m. (conference game)
Jackson at Star Valley, 6 p.m. (conference game)
CLASS 3A
#3 Pinedale at Mountain View, 4 p.m. (conference game)
#1 Cody at #5 Powell, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
Buffalo at Glenrock, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
CLASS 3A
Newcastle at Buffalo, 12:30 p.m. (conference game)
Glenrock at Rawlins, 3 p.m. (conference game)
Torrington at #4 Wheatland, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)
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Gallery Credit: David Settle, WyoPreps.com
Controversy has engulfed Wyoming’s state legislature after a conservative activist was photographed handing checks to Republican lawmakers on the state house floor, in an incident that has highlighted intra-conservative divisions and the role of money in the Cowboy state’s politics.
The political storm started on 9 February, when Karlee Provenza, a Democratic lawmaker, took a photo showing Rebecca Bextel, a conservative activist and committeewoman for the Teton county Republican party, handing a check to Darin McCann, a Republican representative, on the legislative floor. Marlene Brady, another Republican representative, stands in the photo’s background, a similar piece of paper pinched between her fingers.
“You have a person from the richest county in the country coming down to Cheyenne to hand out checks on the house floor,” Provenza said. “I have never seen something so egregious.”
Questions around the checks were soon swirling, and answers weren’t forthcoming. When asked what Bextel gave to her, Brady told a reporter for local outlet WyoFile: “I can’t remember.”
Then Bextel herself addressed the incident. “I raised $400,000 in the last election cycle for conservative candidates, and I will be doubling that amount this year,” Bextel wrote on Facebook on 11 February. “There’s nothing wrong with delivering lawful campaign checks from Teton county donors when I am in Cheyenne.”
Since then, it has emerged that the checks came from Don Grasso, a wealthy Teton county donor, who told the Jackson Hole News and Guide that he wrote the checks for Bextel to deliver to 10 Freedom caucus-aligned politicians. Grasso said the checks were intended as campaign contributions, and were not tied to specific legislation. It is unclear how many checks were ultimately delivered, but two of four confirmed recipients include the speaker of the house, Chip Neiman, and John Bear, the former head of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
The Wyoming house has formed a legislative investigative committee, and the Laramie county sheriff’s office said they’d open a criminal investigation.
Bextel declined to answer questions from the Guardian. Brady, McCann and Bear did not respond to requests for comment.
Neiman said he considered the criticism a “wraparound smear campaign”. He said: “It never once crossed my mind that this was bribery.
“These legislators, myself included, are now guilty until we can prove that we’re innocent. How is that right in this country? Isn’t that a little bit backwards?”
The scandal has highlighted long-standing divisions in Wyoming’s Republican party, which in recent years has seen a growing divide between old school, more moderate conservatives and a harder-right Freedom Caucus.
Several former Republican lawmakers forcefully condemned their colleagues for accepting the checks, and a local Republican party branch called for the lawmakers’ resignations.
Ogden Driskill, a Wyoming Republican senator, told the Guardian he does not consider Bextel’s actions to be illegal, but that “just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should”.
Bextel has spent years pushing against housing mitigation fees in Wyoming, and Driskill noted that she distributed the house floor checks just days before a bill she had publicly supported was set to be heard. Bextel was registered as a member of the press, not as a lobbyist when she delivered the checks.
“Ethically and morally, it’s bankrupt to a massive degree,” Driskill said.
Neiman said that he and other legislators who received checks have supported similar bills in the past: “Bribery is paying somebody to do something they would not otherwise do.”
Nationally, the 2024 election cycle saw record-spending from the mega-wealthy, as well as dark money groups. Wyoming followed the trend, in a tense red-on-red primary season.
For those gearing up to campaign this year, Teton county, the richest in the US, and Bextel’s picturesque home turf, is an essential stop. Its extreme wealth gives it a foothold on the national level as well. Palantir chief executive Alex Karp and Donald Trump attended an annual Republican leadership fundraiser at Jackson Hole in 2024, and JD Vance attended the same one in 2025.
Bextel pulls dollars from Teton county into the Freedom Caucus side of Wyoming’s conservative split. She hosted no-press-allowed meet and greets earlier this year benefitting leading candidates for Wyoming’s governor and open US House seat.
In an interview with the Open Range Record, a media network she co-founded, Bextel said controversy around the checks was solely because she was making “even playing field” in Wyoming against the state’s more moderate Republicans, who she calls “George Soros” candidates. She said that she will be sure to keep raising money – just away from the legislative floor.
“I guess I’m gonna ask all the gentlemen and gentleladies to step outside the Capitol while I hand them a check,” Bextel said. “Let me be clear: I’m doubling down.”
But it’s not just wealthy local donors putting their weight behind the factions. Last election cycle, out of state groups spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on anonymous and often inaccurate mailers.
“These actors, especially from the far right, they like to push the bounds of the norms,” said Rosa Reyna Pugh, an organizing and advocacy consultant at Western States Center, an Oregon-based non-profit focused on democracy in the western United States. “They like to see what policies they can kind of push, and see where they can play a piece,” Reyna Pugh said.
While Neiman and Driskill fight politically, they do agree on one thing: summer will bring an expensive and brutal campaign season.
“You’re going to see more dark money than you’ve ever seen. We’ve done absolutely nothing to enforce it. Our secretary of state has not even made a slight attempt to deal with it,” Driskill said. “You’re going to see lots and lots of outside money and I think you’re seeing it on both sides.”
As national questions swirl around pay-to-play politics and profiteering in the Trump administration, Provenza wants better for the Cowboy State.
“We should not be aligning ourselves with how the federal government is conducting itself or how federal elections conduct themselves,” Provenza said. “We owe something far better and more honest to the people of Wyoming than that.”
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