Day 1, August
13
Locations: Home to Lander, WY
Miles driven: 450
Click map to enlarge
Last night, after getting off work at 6:00, I severely
underestimated the amount of time I would need to finish packing. I wanted
to get to bed around 11:00, but I didn’t get to sleep until well
after midnight. Of course, I am a night owl anyway, so I probably would’ve
gotten to bed at the same time even if I had everything finished up earlier
in the evening. My destination for the first day would be Lander, Wyoming,
in the western-central part of the state where I would be meeting with
K.C. O’Connor, a guy whom I have conversed with a number of times
on a couple of internet message boards. K.C. built and maintains the CorpsOfDiscovery4x4.com
site, which is a growing resource for some back road adventures in Wyoming.
I was counting on a six-hour drive to Lander, so I had planned to leave at 6:00 and arrive at noon. Well, after the night’s short rest, it was rather difficult to wake up. I ended up getting up around 6:00, and finally left home at 6:24. The morning was unseasonably cool and saw a light and steady rain. Little did I know that these two things would continue to be a storyline throughout most of the trip. The rain had let up about 45 minutes north of Denver around Longmont, but it continued to be gray with low clouds, which would also be an ongoing theme. I couldn’t even see the mountains immediately to the west. I reached the Wyoming border at 7:45, 96 miles from home, and the rain had picked up again and the clouds lowered even more.
I reached Cheyenne and turned west on I-80 at 7:55. Descending The Summit (the high point between Laramie and Cheyenne) and heading into Laramie, the sun was shining on a big patch of land for the first time off to the west. I was hoping the clouds would clear, or at least lift higher by the time I reached Lander so I could have a good look at the Wind River Range. I had only seen the Wind Rivers from afar during trips to and from the Jackson area when visiting the Tetons, so I was really looking forward to seeing them for the first time as I knew this to be a wonderful range. I passed through Laramie at 8:30 and was in Rawlins at 9:48, where I fueled up and called K.C. to let him know I was two hours away. I left Rawlins at 10:10 and I drove Highway 287 for the first time which was a nice change of pace. I arrived in Lander at 11:55, five minutes before my intended arrival, so I still wasn’t late after getting a late start. I pulled into the McDonalds’ parking lot where we’d meet, and as I was pulling in, I heard the truck make a whining noise at lower RPMs. It had me a bit concerned, but figured I’d give it the day to see if it was temporary. K.C. pulled in about two minutes later.
During the introductions, he handed me a bag that had a cool Wyoming hat and some Wyoming tourism literature and some 4WD magazines. That was just what I needed—more stuff to pack in the truck! I found a spot easily enough for everything and passed along my appreciation. I hopped in his truck and rode along with him as we toured the town for 20 minutes or so. We went back to McDonalds and I got back in the 4Runner and we headed out immediately east of town to the Governor Draw area and drove around the adjacent BLM land for about three hours. We went back into town to fuel up and stopped at K.C.'s place so he could pick up some items to camp that night. This would be his first time sleeping in his '85 pickup that he purchased in 2004 (and has since sold and has kept his Toyota T100). We listened to my whine again, but couldn’t diagnose what it was. I would continue to ride it out, but wanted to stay in the area until Monday when a dealership would be able to check it out. K.C. has a friend who works at the dealership, so it was nice to have that connection.
The cloud cover remained low all day, but was finally clearing as we left town, and I finally had my first look at a section of the Wind Rivers, albeit brief. We drove up to Sinks Canyon State Park, which is in the Wind River foothills six miles southwest of town. We made our first stop at The Rise at the lower end of the park where the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie River comes out of a limestone wall into a pool of water where rainbow and brown trout feed. Being that there is an overlook right above this pool, the fish are often fed. The rainbow trout are the largest I have ever seen! I even had to go back to the truck and get my camcorder to get video of this spectacle! You can't fish from the deck, but man, it sure would be tempting to throw out a line and have to fight some of those bad boys! We then drove on up to the visitor center and took a short walk to get a view at The Sinks, which is a quarter-mile upstream. The Sinks is where the river enters into a limestone cavern and remains underground until it comes back out at The Rise.
After stopping long enough to take a couple of snapshots, we continued up the Loop Road for about six miles where we stopped along the switchbacks that ascend Fossil Hill which provides a good look back down Sinks Canyon and out into Lander. The fog was obscuring the higher peaks and was rolling back into the canyon. We continued another five miles to Blue Ridge which is the highest point along the Loop Road at 9,900 feet. There is a short, high clearance spur road that leads to some nice out of the way campsites which K.C. had scouted out a couple of weeks prior. We ended up making camp in a meadow below the Blue Ridge lookout rock outcropping. It was foggy and nearing dark when we arrived.
K.C. started a campfire and we proceeded to clear out and organize our trucks for their respective sleeping configurations. I then heated up my first-ever bag of tortellini, and amazingly enough, I didn't even burn it! One of my photo buddies, Brent Doerzman, had turned me onto this meal that is easy to prepare and clean up during our fall trip in 2004. I ended up sharing half of it with K.C. and this really hit the spot on a rather cool night, which was probably in the upper 30s. In fact, I asked him what he did with summer, for it had been rather nice at home the days prior. After sitting at the campfire for awhile, we could hear what sounded like ATVs off in the distance somewhere on the main road below. Their annoying sound slowly grew louder. And sure enough, wouldn't you know it, we had lights beam up the area and they stopped near the head of our driveway into our site. They were followed by a pickup and possibly another vehicle if memory serves. I began to get a little anxious not knowing what the heck they were doing driving around this time of night, which was probably nearing 11:00. They just sat there for a bit. Finally, they all got out and walked up to the overlook and my tension was eased, but only a little because the fog was still thick and they were definitely not able to see a thing from the top. After a good while, they finally departed. A short while later, the fog cleared and the stars were as bright as can be. Well, not for long as another fog front covered the skies. It cleared off and came again. It was pretty cool to watch it all under full moonlight. We turned in for the night.
7:45 AM —
Wyoming state line along I-25
9:23 AM —
Between Laramie and Rawlins on I-80
2:22 PM —
Rolling hills in the BLM land east of Lander
2:36 PM —
Looking to the Wind River foothills
3:36 PM —
The wide open west
5:17 PM —
The biggest of the trout on the bottom right, probably close to 24"
and who knows how many pounds, taken at The Rise, Sinks Canyon State Park
5:37 PM —
Middle Fork of the Popo Aggie entering The Sinks, Sinks Canyon State Park
5:56 PM —
Looking back down Sinks Canyon from the switchbacks
5:56 PM —
Our motels on wheels
7:10 PM —
Our camp at Blue Ridge
7:23 PM —
Tortellini cooking away in the back of the 4Runner Cafe
10:40 PM —
Myself and K.C. sitting around the campfire