The Wind River Range

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hbcWGORVaY

On July 28th, I took my son and his cousin up to Denver for a computer coding summer camp. Since I was heading up North anyway, I decided to keep on driving for another day or so up to the Wind River Range in Wyoming. I arrived on the 29th and started hiking from the Big Sandy Trailhead. Starting at noon, I hiked in six miles and made my camp at Big Sandy Lake. Along the way, I came around a corner and came face to face with a young buck mule deer. It's antlers were still in velvet, and they were just barely forked. I also saw numerous trout jumping in the river that ran closely to the trail. It was a fairly flat and easy hike into the basin. The wildflowers were in their full glory, and I just knew that it was going to be a great trip.

I set up camp and hung my food as there were reports from the forest service at the trailhead that there was bear activity in the are. I camped just over 200 ft from the lake. There was a rock outcropping that descended gradually into the lake close to camp, so I went down and snapped some pictures and enjoyed the view. It was right next to the outlet stream of the lake. The fish were jumping, but I couldn't fish yet because my license did not begin until the next day. Soon, I went back to camp and whipped up some salmon chowder for dinner. I ate on my rock so that I could enjoy the view. I watched the sun go down, and the mosquitoes became voracious, so I turned in for the evening. Getting into the tent without letting in the cloud of mosquitoes that was following me was a little bit of a difficult task. The few that followed me in quick got flicked onto the tent wall. It was a bit gross but effective.

A thunderstorm rumbled through the area at about 2:00 that morning. It wasn't very strong, and I was soon back to sleep. I woke up before sunrise at 5:00 to get my fishing gear ready. It was soon light, and I was down on my rock throwing lures into the lake. Nothing. I decided to hike down along the river for a little ways where it spilled into another lake. This lake didn't have a name, but it was rather scenic. I fished just below a waterfall in the river where it entered the lake. There was a tall rock face on the opposite side of the pond. I caught two small brook trout here and quickly threw them back. OK, I decided, enough with the fishing. Today, I was hiking to Cirque of the Towers.

I started my day-hike around 8 AM. The weather was perfect. I really enjoyed the views of the impressive peaks all around Big Sandy Lake as I hiked around to find the fork in the trail that would take me North to the Cirque. It wasn't long before I found the junction, and the trail began to switchback up the hill towards Jackass Pass. I found a rock outcrop along the trail about three quarters of the way up the switchbacks where I enjoyed a spectacular view of the mountains across Big Sandy Lake. These mountains included Temple Peak and East Temple Peak. From there, I continued the climb until the trail leveled off at a meadow. Of coarse the meadow was filled with beautiful flowers of all varieties, and the views were excellent. Ahead of me I could see War Bonnet Peak. At the end of the meadow, I crossed a rocky creek as trout darted away in every direction. Here is where the trail began to get rough.

Again, it switch-backed up the hill, but this time it was on solid granite. It continued over a rock outcrop above North Lake and then dropped down beside the lake on the North end. It continued along the back side of the lake until it began to climb steeply on the far side of the lake. I saw several yellow bellied marmots on this section of the trail, including one that looked huge, even from a distance. The trail leveled out through an alpine meadow as I was now above timberline. There was a junction with the climbing route to Arrowhead Lake at the far side of this meadow. I continued to hike the main trail towards Jackass Pass.

The trail hear was mostly a matter of following cairns across glacially smoothed alpine granite. I scrambled over another rock outcrop and down towards a stream that was melting off some snow fields. Across the stream, I found many alpine flowers including the most vibrant lupines I have ever seen. It was another short climb to Jackass Pass.

Jackass pass was the perfect place to enjoy the view of Cirque of the Towers. Pingora rose up above me from the center of the Cirque surrounded by rugged pointy peaks and 2000 ft granite walls from the surrounding mountains. It was impressive. I could see a waterfall, and Lonesome lake below me. I took a video of myself standing by the sign at Jackass Pass, and a deer photo bombed me. I didn't even know it was there until I watched the video a week later. Here is where I snacked for my lunch. I sat there for about 45 minutes as the wind became very strong. I decided to just climb the hill above the pass and take some photos, and shoot some video before turning around back to camp. The wind was really howling through the pass at 40-50 mph.

I hiked back down the way I came, except for a detour to Arrowhead Lake. From the top of the pass, I notice that there was some snow overhangs just over the lake, and I wanted to take a closer look. They were pretty impressive cornices for that time of year. I arrived back at my camp at around 3:00 where I retreated into my tent for a nap.

I got up around six, and I made myself some ramen and tai chile tuna for diner. After dinner, I went fishing right at the outlet to the lake, and I caught two small trout that I cleaned and cooked over the fire for a second dinner. The wood there burned wonderfully compared to the wood here in the southwest. The night was clear, and I tried to take a night-lapse video of the stars, but it didn't turn out that well. The next morning, I slept in until almost seven. I must have been tired.

Again, at 8:00 I began hiking. This time, I was heading South from my camp to go check out Deep Lake and Temple Lake. The fist stop was Clear Lake. It was a beautiful spot. I stopped for a little while and tried the fishing without any luck, so I continued on my way around the lake. At the far side of the lake was a reletively gentle slope of granite with a shallow stream flowing down like a water slide. I followed the creek up to Deep Lake as it showed on the map. There were several pools and small waterfalls between water slides on this section of creek. When I turned around, I had views all the way to Cirque of the Towers. It was almost more awesome to see the Cirque from a distance than close-up. Finally, I made it to Deep Lake.

Deep Lake was one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been to. East temple peak rose above the Lake for at least a thousand feet vertically. It was just a massive rock face. A smaller granite spire rose up right next to it. One the western side of these peaks was an even taller specimen, Temple Peak. I stopped here to eat, and I really enjoyed the view.

After my break was over, I continued around the western side of the lake and up over a small pass to temple lake. Temple Lake was truly alpine. There was almost no tree cover except for some majorly stunted growth. There was a waterfall across the way, and Temple Peak rose so high above the lake that my video camera didn't have a wide enough lens to capture the entire scene. The only issue that I had with this lake was a swarm of mosquitoes the likes of witch I have not seen for many years was chasing me and attacking me whenever I stopped moving. I decided to continue on, and I didn't spend much time there.

I was soon back at camp. My feet and legs were sore, so it felt really good to get into camp shoes. I built a nice fire to keep the mosquitoes at bay, and I ate another round of Salmon Chowder. I group of two ladies with kids and dogs and mules proceeded to camp right behind me. Dogs and kids were traipsing through my camp, but I was too tired to care. The ladies were very nice, and one even offered to loan me her paddleboard for fishing. However, I didn't accept because I had never used one before.

It clouded up quickly and began to rain. I soon retreated back to my tent for the night. It continued to rain steadily for the rest of the night. I did awaken once just before dark, when a gentleman asked me through the tent walls if I cared that he camped next to the lake because he was really tired. I told him that I didn't care, and he camped in the no camping zone (within 200 ft of the lake). The next morning it stopped raining, and I packed up my camp to head back to the trailhead. I stopped to fish once along the way, and caught another small brook trout, but the trip quickly came to an end. I wasn't ready to go, but I was ready to meet my family in Denver for a couple of days of fun. It was a great trip!