Heading West Part III

Our family primitive camped in the Wind River Range of western Wyoming in June 2019. You can read Part I here and Part II here.

Exploring

We took a 4 mile hike on the Continental Divide Trail right out of camp in the Wind River Range. 4 miles was less than a drop in the bucket of the total 3,100 mile trail running between Canada and Mexico.

First we had to cross the Green River on a well made and well worn bridge.

Both Forest Service and private horsepack groups use this trail as well as hikers and backpackers. The horse shoes have worn down the center of this bridge.

Life Slows Down

I’m usually in the back of our group, stopping to take pictures of course. You can’t rush a photographer. 😉

This hike did not gain much elevation until the end, but in general it was a great “early” hike, allowing us lowlanders to get used to the change in elevation. Altitude sickness is real thing and not fun (it is even life threatening in worse cases) so we take precautions to avoid the headaches and nausea especially possible in the first few days.

I don’t think you could ask for better scenery on a trail than this! We all carried water, rain gear and bear spray. We also brought sandwiches for lunch and most of us had camera gear.

Hidden treasures are worth the effort

At this point we had gained some elevation and turned away from the lake, following a stream. Come see what we were we looking at.

A cascading waterfall. The major drop in the waterfall was directly below us and we couldn’t get into position to photograph it . But it was beautiful! Aptly named Crystal Waterfalls.

The granite cliff prevented us from getting any closer to the waterfall so we enjoyed it from this high vantage point.

We hiked on a bit but not too far. A group of 4 young men passed us equipped for a multi-day backpacking trip.

Lunch made a nice halfway rest stop on the hike.

SCORE!

This was the highlight of the hike ~ a mama moose with her baby. I’ve seen lots of moose but this was my first baby in the wild. He was pretty tenative about being out in the open, walking around and wasn’t eating anything on his own, so I’m guess he was no more than a few weeks old.

Mama was just off the picture to the right and he didn’t let her get far without catching up.

No Touchy!

Buttercup. A sunny little flower seen all over the western mountains, but hopefully the mama moose and her baby avoid eating it. It’s poisonous and causes blisters in the mouth of cattle, horses or any animal that eats it. It also causes skin irritation if you handle it so leave it as is and just take home the photograph.

Tired, thirsty and hot, we made it back to camp in time for the setting sun to cast shadows in the valley.

Fight the Good Fight, Not this one.

A pair of mountain bluebirds did not like their territory being invaded by the “other” bluebirds they saw reflected in the windows and mirrors of our truck. They spent a good portion of their days fighting them off and leaving deposits behind.

They were their own worst enemy – LOL.

Goodbyes are hard

The sad day came when we packed up and left the Wind River Range. But as we discovered, timing is everything. The day we left (June 29th), the mosquitos hatched in mass. HOARDS of them descended upon us, making the smallest outdoor task very uncomfortable. Thankfully we said goodbye at the right time!

Good-bye Squaretop. See you again for sure. Green River Lakes was a bear to get to and out of, but so worth it.

We made mini-visits to 3 other special places on the 2nd half of our trip. Stay tuned to see where we went from here.

Catch y’all later,

Carolyn

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