Wyoming

[John H]

In 1992 I was flying to the east coast and from the plane window I saw a rocky range of mountains with a ridiculous number of lakes. My thought was what is that and why am I not going there? I later figured out it was the Wind River Mountains. I went a couple times in the '90's and recently decided I needed to go back.

I did a 10 day hike from Green River Lakes to Big Sandy and got a car shuttle so I could do it as a thru hike. I followed The Highline and Fremont Trails which parallel the crest of the range and broke away from that route a few times to get up into the higher areas. Very few of the lakes have viable spawning streams so they are reliant on stocking. My guess is the stocking has diminished since I was there in the '90's because it seemed like there were a lot of barren or nearly barren lakes. I caught some brook trout, cutthroat and some small goldens but the fishing was not great. I have had much better in the Sierra. The hiking on the other hand is pretty fantastic so you need to go primarily for that. There are a lot of off trail routes that take you to high passes, peaks, plateaus, snowfields, etc. People do some real serious climbing there but that is not my cup of tea. I draw the line on anything that requires a helmet, ropes or crampons. It was a solo trip so safety was a priority as it always is. I saw a few moose and a porcupine that had been killed and picked pretty clean. Hikes like this are getting harder as I get older. Oddly I find that I am becoming a more ambitious hiker as my ability to hike is diminishing. It might be that I am pushing the limits and just now learning what I am capable of or that I am just trying to do what I can before I no longer can. Either way you have to follow your passion every day and see where it takes you.

I took a bear can and my pack was pretty heavy so there was only room for a point and shoot camera. I got a few nice panorama shots. The camera does a good job with those. It is a big day of driving each way but with self serve gas it is pretty easy to stay away from the evil covid virus. Needless to say, there are far fewer masks being worn in Wyoming than here in California. Good trip. It is nice to be home sweeping up the ash and breathing smoke.


Old timey trail signs


My shadow at the first campsite


The problem with this picture is there are no fish rising.


This is called Billy’s Lake and it had some brookies. That ridge is the continental divide.


This is the Cirque of Towers looking down from Texas Pass. The highlight of the trip was walking through here. There is a beautiful lake at the bottom with two great spawning streams and plenty of cutthroat cruising the flats.


Mr. Brook trout


Mr. Cutthroat


The release