Green River Lakes, 1995: A Cautionary Tale*

And so it came to pass that in the early summer of 1995, we decided to do another Wyoming vacation, starting from our home in Dallas up through New Mexico and Colorado, and then to the Green River Lakes in the Winds, and perhaps the Tetons too. I remember marveling, as we passed through Colorado, how much snow remained in the high country. Anyhow, it was my hope to climb Square Top--it has an easy back side--and then proceed as far up the Green as we wanted. Vicki, as always, was game. We neither of us connected the dots about all the the snow.

Oh yes, Faler's, the great Pinedale general store, as it was in
1995

Interior; the daid thangs had been thinned out somewhat by
2015

Anyhow...Green River Lakes, and Square Top

The Green, a beautiful river

Looking up the valley, Stroud's Peak, I think, a bit left of
center

Part of the back side of Square Top;
I think

Vicki crawling across the "bridge"; I think I had her belayed on
the 7mm cord we always carry (not that it would have done any
good); our first and greatest mistake was simply heading up
the valley with so much snow above and a warm weekend
approaching...the second was crossing this two-log "bridge";
the third, though happily of no consequence, was ignoring the
dead horse on this side of the bridge--another story, with the
rangers--we were, and remain, suburban slickers

Further up the valley, Gannet Peak, perhaps, on the left;
glorious surroundings, great hopes

And we set up camp, just a bit beyond the bridge

It's a warm night and a warm morning and we arise to see our
little bridge getting battered by the rising torrent

Thus

And then...no bridge

Thus; it dawns on us slowly that this is a problem; after
breakfast and lunch, Vicki counts 1400 calories of food
between us--it was supposed to be just an over-nighter; we
scrap plans for climbing Square Top, and I reconnoiter up
the trail and off trail, reasoning that, surely (don't call me
Shirley), there must be other bridges over the river; but I find
none, and if anything, the river rages even more wildly; I return
to camp and we spend a worried night there

Found, a few weeks after this post, in our
storage unit in Missoula: the calculation; I was 
wrong...it was 1,400 calories per person! 
Interestingly, I described the whole episode
as "a bridge too far"; which it was

At length, next morning, we decided to walk back down the
river and to find a place to ford, I mean, swim it; at this point
we are now into high foolishness, and never mind the incident
with the bull moose, who stood in our way, and who gently
walked us back out of his territory; there was a curve in the
river where it narrowed; I stripped and crossed it, partially
on a log, and then Vicki floated our packs to me using the
trusty 7mm cord; and then, attached to the cord, she began
swimming toward me

Here she is, soaking wet, an hour later;
she was swept under a cutbank, and two
U of Wyoming hikers arrived just in time
to help me pull her out; had they not
been there, perhaps both of us would
have drowned

The Green in flood

Me, nearly back to the campground; both
of us thinking deep thoughts about what
had gone wrong, what had gone right,
and how we might avoid such fiascoes in
the future; we developed some rules of
thumb, most all violated at one time or
another since then; we've been very
lucky

And so we bade farewell again to the Winds, still a favorite
place, but a place with some more complicated memories
and affections

*from the Sherouse Family Digital Archives

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