Green River Lakes, Summer, 2015

OK, we were there just a few months ago, on a snowmobile, but just passing through. (http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2015/02/snowmobiling-continental-divide-trail-4.html and http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2015/02/snowmobiling-continental-divide-trail-5.html.) This time we drove the washboard, pot-hole-ridden road and stayed a couple days, enjoying some crisp fall weather and great scenery at 8,000 feet. The freshly-groomed winter trails are far preferable for riding....

The Green River, having wended and bent its way out of
the mountains, now flowing south, to become the Colorado
River, and more

Our campsite in the Green River Lakes campground; there
were about a dozen other parties there, plus numerous day-
users, mostly fishing the Green

Lower Green River Lake, not frozen, with Squaretop in the
background

Up closer

Fixer-upper on the other side of the river

The local newspapers fronted stories of grizzly
predations on the upper Green, and our farthest
walk ended with news of a cow moose and
young one near the trail ahead; so we decided
not to spend the week days alone up the river,
and to head into the more populated wild... 

But we'll be back, in January or February, when the bears are
sleeping (carrying bear spray even then)

Pinedale, 2015

We were last in Pinedale, WY, in 1995, I think. We have been there a number of times, starting in 1972. It is the western gateway to the Winds, and we have stayed or passed through en route to the Green River Lakes, the big mountains in the middle of the 120 mile-long range, and also Big Sandy Opening and the Cirque of Towers in the south. We spent another day in town, waiting for snow to melt in the higher country, walking and gawking the little 2,000 person town, which has changed much over the years. Strolling down Amnesia Lane. Wyoming is a state of booms and busts, and the more recent booms have been pretty good. It is to Pinedale that the millionaires came after being driven from their Jackson mansions by the billionaires. So the locals say. Lots of drilling too, in recent years.

Gannett Peak, from where we parked our first night, out west
of town by the new elementary school

Piney Creek, right in the middle of town

The Astorians passed near here in 1811, fording Piney Creek
and a few days later found the South Pass--at the southern end
of the Winds--which became the crux of the Oregon Trail

Lots of public sculpture all around, in addition to the many
historical markers

Ditto

Every hundred feet or so one of these attractive rubbish bins,
different images, motifs, all western

The Outdoor Shop, where we have dropped a few coins, and
where, in 1983 or so an alert store employee saved daughter
Rachel from choking on a Jolly Rancher; this was before
"choking hazard" was a concept

A favorite restaurant--loved their sauteed mushrooms and
steaks--now gone

Hard hat poetry...

Decor in a local saloon; more than decor back
in the day

I love western general stores, and there was none better than
Faler's, in Pinedale; now Ridley's, and not much changed,
considering; we parked a second night in the forest service
ranger station parking lot; they said fine, just don't block
traffic...

Return To Wyoming, Again, 2015

After several days in Utah Valley, waiting-out bad weather up
north, we again hit the roads, I-15 and I-80 and then lesser
roads up to the Green River valley in Wyoming

Site of the Green River Rendezvous; major historical site if
you're into US western history; also literary, namely Guthrie's
The Big Sky and associated work

Thus

More history

View of the Winds (Wind River Mountain Range) and Gannett
Peak (highest in WY) out our breakfast window Friday
morning; snow-covered from the last few days of storms; we
haven't been in Pinedale in perhaps twenty years, although we
have been close many times; so today we'll re-acqaint
ourselves with a favorite old place (while the batteries
re-charge) and then head up to Green River lakes and
Squaretop for some fall camping and hiking

You Gotta Good Sarsaparilla?

Yeah, Sioux City, that's a good one...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R07cCydCeY

Great Basin National Park, 2015

We visited Great Basin National Park way back in 1990, not long after it opened. I climbed Wheeler Peak while the girls did the Alpine Lakes Trail. Obviously, it was much earlier in the summer, as our photos show considerable snow, even down to 10,000 feet. Thus: http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2012/02/wheeler-peak-nevada-1990.html. Among memories of that visit were the bugs that descended--at 10,000 feet--on our camper then and devoured all the bug guts accumulated in our drive from Dallas. In 2015, Vicki and I contented ourselves with a couple of 3 mile hikes from the Wheeler Peak campground. At 10,000+ feet, that was plenty for us just now.

The night before visiting Great Basin we camped at a nice,
new BLM campground at Sacramento Pass

Wheeler Peak from the east

Fall color well underway

Shorter, more rugged half of the mountain

In the bristlecone pine forest

Bristlecone pines are among the oldest living things, some in
this forest clocked (dendrochronology) at more than 5,000 years

With the harshness of location and altitude,
they have to be pretty rugged, adaptive
specimens

This one, I think, was rated at 3,200 years old

Terrain about 10,400 feet

Note the bristles

More of the terrain

Ditto

Looking down to the basin...smoke arriving from the disastrous
California fires

Artsy view from a rest stop

Next day, Lake Stella, a fragment of its 1990 self; there was
barely enough water in Lake Teresa to photograph; both will
be dry lakes in the near future

But the color was grand, especially the orange quakies

Hickison Petroglyphs

Some miles down the road and over the pass from Austin are the Hickison Petroglyphs, a BLM interpretive site. Unfortunately, the pamphlets from the self-guided trail were all gone, so we just walked the trail and gathered what we could. The petroglyphs are thought to be some 10,000 years old, which is indeed impressive.

Perhaps it all looked differently 10,000 years ago or more...
water in the lakes and rivers, abundant game, little
competition, milder climate...