Pyramid Lake Panorama
Popo Agie Valley Panorama
Cirque of the Towers panorama
Wind River Backpacking Trip 2003
We spent our summer vacation in the vast Wind River Mountains in western Wyoming. This is one of Chris's favorite locales which prompted trips previously in '94, '96, and '98. One million acres of federal wilderness protects a land of a thousand lakes, soaring jagged peaks and hundreds of miles of trails to explore. A perfect place to leave the busy world behind and enjoy nature on its terms. We did a 37 mile loop. Hiked 4 days and had 2 layover days for extra exploring and R&R. If interested, you can download the route topo map here. 500KB.
| After a 10 mile hike, we camped the first 2 nights at Skull Lake which had
a nice skyline in all directions. Lots of fish too.
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We took a day off from carrying the packs and day hiked a couple miles up
to Pyramid Lake which had great 360 views.
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Pyramid Lake Panorama
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| A knoll just a short hike from Skull Lake provided a birds eye view of the
valley.
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On the third day we hike over Washakie Pass to the Atlantic side of the
Continental Divide. Even more lakes provided scenic views for our trek.
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| We caught a glimpse of Washakie Glacier and its turquoise lake.
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We then reached the first of 3 rivers that we would encounter during the
trip. This was the Wind River and it wasn't flowing too high this late in the
summer.
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| That night we camped at Valentine Lake. Here's a shot from our camp
of the sunrise.
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Day 4 found us taking the Lizardhead Trail which traversed a vast plateau
and gave us unhindered views of another glacier and a large view up and down the range.
This was the highest point in our trek.
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| Coming down from the Lizardhead Trail was a steep decent into the Popo
Agie (pronounced po-po-zsha) River valley. Here we saw for the first time the peaks
of the famed Cirque of the Towers.
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We camped for 2 nights in the tranquil Lizardhead Meadows where we had a
great view up valley to the Cirque headwall
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Popo Agie Valley Panorama
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| On our day off we hiked up to the Cirque and Lonesome Lake which sits in
the middle of the valley.
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This late in the summer there aren't too many flowers left. But
there were some nice pink monkey flowers along some of the creeks.
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| We bumped into a momma moose and calf.
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Sunrise on our final day had excellent color.
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| We then hiked back into the Cirque where we had to climb up and over
Jackass Pass. The views got awe inspiring. Here is Chris gawking at some of
the towers. This is a rock climbing mecca and we saw lots of people up there for the high
altitude challenge.
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The final part of the loop followed the Big Sandy River for several miles
back to the trail head and civilization.
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Cirque of the Towers panorama
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