Anyways, about a week ago I decided to firmly initiate Katelyn into the family and make her a Wind River's widow. That's right, I left her...for the longest amount of time that we've ever been apart since we've been married. Every first weekend in August it has been a tradition since I was 13 for my family to go to Wyoming and go camping in the Wind Rivers. If you have never heard about it, it is just about the most beautiful, serene, best fishing area in the world. So much so in fact that I encourage none of you to go there because I want it to stay that way for me. I will admit, I am selfish...
So to start things off I went up on Wednesday to Green River, WY, which is where my aunt and uncle live, and we met up with some of the others coming up from Colorado. I'm about to give directions on how to get there, so follow them closely. First, go to what pretty much everyone would call the middle of nowhere...which is Wyoming. Second, go to the middle of no where Wyoming, a place called Farson. Third, go on an 1-1 1/2 hour drive on a dirt road and get to the trailhead. Lastly, hike in 6 1/2 miles or so to the oh so famous camping site. No, I will not provide a map.
Anyways, the "interesting" thing about this trip is that my dad, my brother, and one of my uncles "conveniently" decided to come up a day later than the rest of us. This left me, a 3 uncles, and one older cousin to bring up everything while the horde of younger cousins brought up their pillows and possibly a sleeping bag in their packs. I say packs but they were more like school backpacks. So after packing my bag like I normally do, thinking I had a fair share of the load, I then proceeded to take on another trashbag full of food, a big metal pot full of food, a couple of the propane canisters, and half the time carrying a duffle bag full of additional food. Needless to say we didn't go hungry. Although the fruit roll ups did disappear rather quickly. For packing their bags full of helium and feathers, my cousins sure had a knack for squirreling away the food...
Okay, in all seriousness now this was the first morning that we got there. It decided to thunderstorm that night and early morning, which is never a good sign, but it actually wasn't too bad. The sun came out and we were able to find enough dry wood to have a fire so life was good. And besides, we were in the Wind Rivers, what could be better? This picture is of my Uncle Stephen at the main rock where we kept most of the cooking stuff. I thought it was pretty, it was just as the rain was breaking and the sun was starting to shine.
This is me pretty much in the same spot from a different angle. Man, that place is beautiful. Just a little background, I was only trunky at one point on my mission. That was when my family wrote me about when they went to the Wind Rivers. That was pretty much the only time that I ever thought...dang I wish I was home for that. So pretty much, there are a couple places that are my favorite in the world and this is one of them.
Well, one of the days we went on a hike called the loop...or at least that's what we call it, because we go in a big loop go figure. Anyways, while I explain this you also have to realize that we are pretty much non stop fishing. I mean seriously, I paid $28 for an out of state fishing license, I was going to get the most out of it. But also, there are some amazing places to fish up there. Take for instance my cousins, who had never fished before and were learning how to fly fish. They would smack the water with their poles and lets just say the fly never softly landed in the water at any point...but they were still pulling fish out left and right. Some of these fish were monsters, I mean huge 3-4 feet...I mean inches. So it's not a place to go for huge fish but quantity is definitely a plus. Anyways, this picture is overlooking a meadow that is another amazing and beautiful place to fish, located near the Big Sandy lake. It is right before a killer climb that would lead up to some more lakes/streams. Oh, that's pretty much how it works in the Wind Rivers. It's a ton of lakes connected by streams, and if I hadn't made it clear before, they also have AMAZING fishing.
So I have no clue what this lake is called but it was one of my favorite lakes. We were fishing a stream all the way up to it but the fish were all tiny, until I got to where the mouth of the lake was. I was able to stand on a rock out in the water and cast out into the lake. I was using a fly pole so the fly was floating on top slowly drifting to where the lake emptied out. Anyways, why it was so great was a little further out there was a huge rock where there must have been a ton of fish hiding underneath. So I would cast it out and when the wind died down and the sun was out I could see the fish swim out from underneath the rock and strike the fly. It was so much fun. I probably caught at least 10 just right there. The best part was that since they were in the lake and not the stream they were actually decent size. For all you worrying about these fish we would catch them and then release them. We only started keeping them till the end when we were almost back to camp.
This picture has temple peak in the background...one my dad said we could climb the last time I had come but then he chickened out when I reminded him about it. This is the whole group minus whoever is taking the picture. Yep...no girls allowed!
This is back at the camp, showing the days catch that we kept. There's nothing greater than fresh fish while camping. Katelyn might disagree with that but I also believe she can honestly say she's never tried it. Anyways, that's my dad and my Uncle Stephen there as well. All in all I fished for 2 days and probably caught around 70 fish. I'm not the greatest fisherman either. So I must admit it's a ton of fun.
Oh, so I can't not embarrass my little cousins. All the first timer's have to swing out on the rope swing into the lake that we camp next to. We had 3 newbies this year and this one is my cousin Sam in his underwear right before he made the plunge. So there you go Sam, I doubt you'll ever see this but now you can know that you're on the internet for the whole world to see in your underwear!
This picture simply shows the main area of the campsite. We have the fire pit and then the rock in the background which is in other pictures. This was the last morning. I woke up to what I thought was rain and guess what...it was snow. Snow...in August. That's the one bad thing about the Wind Rivers. So that made it the second time that I had been snowed on in the Wind Rivers. Don't worry though, the snow stopped long enough for us to pack up and start hiking down. Then the hail came...and the rain. Oh yeah, gotta love it.
This is the best fishing hole in the whole world. It is right next to where we camp and is the waterfall at the end of the lake leading to a stream. Anyways, over the course of 3 days this hole probably gave up around at least 50-60 fish by itself. Most of my cousins can attribute a lot of the fish they caught to this hole. This is where you can picture my cousins slapping the water with their poles and still pulling up a ton of fish. This spot is amazing.
And last but definitely not least, this is just to give you an idea of what the streams looked like. Such a beautiful spot and such amazing fishing. Man, I could go on for hours about how much I love the Wind Rivers. But I won't. So I would say you have to see it yourself, but actually don't bother because I love going up there and don't want you to ruin it. I would be pretty pissed to get up there one day and find our "secret" camping spot full of other campers. It has only happened one year and luckily I was on my mission for that. So yeah, that's about it. The Wind Rivers, pretty much one of the most amazing places on earth. I leave a little part of me up there every time I go.
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