Our family member located in Wyoming takes a lot of scenic photos while traveling from one place to another. It’s a long way between locations of civilization through beautiful country. It’s easy to get great photos.

This one is of Hell’s Half Acre also known as The Baby Grand Canyon. HHA is located in the middle of the Wyoming desert between Riverton/Lander and Casper, about 40 miles west of Casper. The canyon’s 320 acres are made up of deep ravines, caves, rock formations and hard-packed eroded earth.

The Power River Nation resides here along the 120 miles between Riverton and Casper on the two-lane State Highway Route 26. There are a couple of town signs along the route but no real towns until you reach Shoshoni, population 644, where you can continue on to Riverton/Lander or take off into the Wind River Canyon. This is a main tourist route in the summer and very busy. One needs to just relax and not worry about passing vehicles because it can be impossible to do so.

However, it is worth the trip. Hell’s Half Acre is unique and worth a stop at the location of what used to be a restaurant and major tourist stop. Here you can still view the canyon from behind the fence screening. Remember this is desert so it is very dry. You may see antelope along the roadside but not much else other than the rattlers that reside in the canyon.

Hell’s Half Acre was a major location for Native Americans hunting buffalo. They would drive the herds over the edges of the canyon as a means of harvesting meat. HHA is most famous for being the location of the alien bug planet scenes in the 1997 movie “Starship Troopers.” Locals were hired as extras but they must have gone a ways to find them because no one lives here for miles around. They were hired mostly as dead bodies. You can still find blank shells at the bottom of the canyon from the movie and old buffalo bones. That’s not snow you see in the canyon. It’s alkali!