Wind Rivers

We were just in Wyoming for the eclipse, now we went back for a fall weekend in the Wind Rivers.

When people mention the Wind River range a few things come to mind:  backpacking, grizzly bears and mosquitoes.

Everyone I have ever met has had an epic tale of mosquitoes the size of birds that bite through three layers of deet covered clothing.  We did not have this, actually I never put deet on once.  The temperature was perfect and there were no bugs.  We saw no bears, we used no bear spray.  There were so many hikers i doubt a bear was in the entire Big Sandy Lake basin.  The backpacking and hiking was awesome.

On Thursday we decided this is where we were going to go.  We were leaning toward Wheeler Peak in Nevada for the long weekend, but Larry was excited about going into Wyoming for his fall vacation.  We went along for the start of the trip.  We woke up early on Saturday and took off.  We knew we could make it to Farson without running out of gas (see eclipse post).  We got to Farson, gassed up, and met Larry within 10 minutes.  I got a slice of Pizza at the Farson ice cream parlor/antique store.  It wasn't very good, but became a running joke as well as the carrot that hung over my face to motivate me along our big hike.   My spirit animal, the Pika, has been passed down tales of the legendary farson pizza by the slice and dreams of going to get it one day.


We left Farson and headed north for 45 miles of dirt roads.  They were well oiled and fast going...especially in the FJ.  We drove through the high desert prairie, it was remote and reminded me of the pony express route in the West Desert of Utah.  The fires scorching the mountain west gave us less than perfect panoramas, but it was serene.  Eventually we turned up the road to the big sandy trail-head.  It seemed pretty remote until we got to the trail-head.  There must've been 300 cars, some parked 1/2 mile away.  It was hard to imagine so many people drove up such a windy small road to hike in the mountains.  That takes us back to my list....what do you do in the wind rivers????? You backpack in a backpacker paradise.

We loaded our packs and hit the trail.  We found a good camp, 6.2 miles up the trail and set up shop.  We had a good view of a granite rock face and big sandy lake.  A monkey doll was left in the tree where we set up out tents.  It was his camp and it was our camp.  It was a good spot to find, we had solitude even with all the people.

The next day we woke up and had some coffee and loaded our day packs for the trek to lonesome lake over jackass pass.  It was a steady uphill, through tree covered granite surrounded by large peaks.  We passed a few lakes and trekked across a snowfield.  The smoke cleared as the day went on.  The goal of this hike is to get to the Cirque of the Towers, the famous basin surrounded by the young jagged peaks of the Wind Rivers.  A rock climbers dream.

We took a snack break at the pass and took in the beauty of the Cirque.  Then descended down to Lonesome lake.  We went to the East side of the lake and fished a little bit.  I went for a swim....actually I jumped in and out as fast as I could to get refreshed.  The water was ice cold.  We pumped some fresh water, snacked and rested.  Larry took off to start the hike back home while Kristie and I stayed and took a little different route to camp.  While changing my clothes I hooked a golden trout.  It was a good catch and interesting fight since I was half naked.   It was a beautiful fish. 

Kristie had a mountain peak she wanted to climb, which would have added ten hours of hiking into the three hours of sunlight we had left.  We did not do it, but we did bushwhack and boulder our way for a couple miles on a different route back.  I ripped my shorts pulling myself through the scree...it was a little extreme, but good to get a different view point.  It was a long day and the added boulder hopping really wore us out.  We met Larry back at the camp.   Kristie had her hippie bath and we prepped our backpack meal.  It was good to sit, eat and relax.  We were so whipped again we were in bed before 9:30.  It is nice sleeping in the woods.

We woke up, had coffee and packed up.  We payed respects to the monkey doll and hit the trail.  The six miles out are very cruisy and mellow compared to the hike we did the day before.  We made it out in about two hours, and that included a sock change.  It was hard to walk past the meadows and the big sandy river without fishing it.  I bought a two day license, which expired the day before.  I've had quite a few run-ins with the DNR lately....I figured I wouldn't risk it.

We got back to the FJ and parted ways with Larry...we felt good after 25 miles of hiking.  Larry went along to continue his vacation to the Green River lakes.  We headed out back to Salt Lake city.

Kristie found the Wild Horse Scenic road that saved us many miles and cut out driving through Rock Springs.  We took it and were rewarded for the efforts.  We traded downtown rock springs and I-80 for a mountain ridge dirt road with wild horses.  Welcome to Wyoming. 

We got back on I-80 in Green River and continued home to Salt Lake.  It was our second destination trip to Wyoming in 3 weeks.  It was well worth the effort.