Into the Wind River Range

(July 30th) There was a sadness in me that I had seen all of Yellowstone that I would for this year, but I was looking forward to our next stop - the Wind River Range. This is a part of the Rockies south of Jackson Hole - most of it is enclosed within the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Virtually all of it is above 9000 feet in elevation. We were going to hike, fish, photograph, etc. in a series of trails that we were told would be devoid of other people.

On the drive down we passed a large wildfire burning the northern portion of the range (more than 30 miles from where we were going). When we got to where we were entering the range, two things became apparent. First, we were far from the only people there - the excellent fishing conditions brought many people there at this time of year. Secondly, I am an idiot. After hiking in 3 miles, I realized I forgot my camera tripod. Since I am incomplete without it, Alex and Andy patiently waited while I walked, ran, and stumbled back to the car to retrieve it. The trails in Wind River are breathtaking, albeit in a different manner than the Tetons. The mountains have a character of their own and the forest is full of gorgeous streams and mountain lakes.



After about 15 miles (including the 6 extra for my stupidity), we arrived at our campsite. We were nestled in amongst one of the alpine lakes, between two mountains. But to Alex and I, one of the essentials was that the mountains were running mostly west to east here, meaning that we would have some light in both the morning and late afternoon. We were treated to our first view of a pika that evening before dinner. These adorable creatures have enough personality for something the size of an elephant. Any resemblance to a rodent is purely superficial as they are not taxonomically related to rodents. They spend their lives in alpine areas, living amongst the rocks and feeding off nearby vegetation. From what we saw, they do quite a bit of feeding...



Towards the end of the evening, we scaled the cliff on one side of us and were treated to the colors of the late sun bouncing off the rocks of the mountains surrounding us. We survived the wind buffets and managed to snap off a few shots.