Tight-lines and Timelines, a Wyoming and Montana Wandering

[40tude]

Here we go again...

Days 1 and 2

On June 29th we headed out west again. After the usual amount of preparation which always seems unending we packed up the cruiser and hit the road. The old girl had just hit 225,000 this week and we were hoping all would be well (foreshadowing? impending doom?).

I believe this picture is Mrs. 40tude talking about the huge tracts of land we were headed towards.

As is our custom, we decided to drive straight through the night, and were lucky enough to be able to meet my cousin in St. Louis for a lovely meal at a greasy diner at 6am. It was good to do some catching up, and then we hit the road again.

The destination for the night was Denver, and to stop in and stay with cousins there.

After 30 hours of driving it was good to hang out, crash, shower, and stay in their old camper, aka "The Libertarian".

 

[40tude]

Day 3

Will we ever make it to a dirt road?

After waking up and hanging out a bit we headed off to our all time favorite restaurant, El Jimador (we used to live in Denver). It is seemingly impossible to get truly great Mexican food where we live, and the culinary delights of El Jimador may have justified the 30 hour drive...bliss.

Next stop before heading out of town was Slee Off Road where I needed to pick up a few little things for my bumper. As usual, the customer service was fantastic. I walked out with the parts I needed, and my wallet was no lighter.

OK Wyoming, here we come.

Eastern Wyoming certainly has earned its well deserved nickname of the "Big Empty". It was beautiful and desolate. We took about 7 hours to get across to the western side of the state. Our fuel stop did provide me with some Jimador takeout (I love that fridge), and an unexpected meeting with a trucker who decided we looked like good people to talk to. After judging our character, he introduced us to his new pet.

The day ended in the usual fashion, chasing daylight, no campsite... you know the routine.

Dirt!

We found a little pulloff, threw the tent up and had a good nights rest, the trip has officially started.

 

[skrillah]

Ready for more!

 

[40tude]

Day 4

The day started with a pleasant drive through the Flaming National Recreation Area, on Flaming Gorge Rd. It felt like we were finally on an adventure again. The terrain was different than I expected it to be. It was a big dry desert, much like western Colorado (should have known). We took a few little pulloffs down by the reservoir, and enjoyed a much different terrain than we get here in Florida.

We even got to put the cruiser in low range for a while, on some very seldom used roads, especially with one wrong turn that was made.

Next we headed for Quaking Aspen Mountain, in all honesty this was nothing to write home about, but the place was littered with pronghorn.

On the way in to Rock Springs I pulled over to air up the tires, and an old Indian guy pulled up to make sure we were ok. He inquired as to what Floridians might be doing out here, after I let him know that we were just out exploring, he informed me that he had ridden on horseback all over the state as a sheep herder for 60 years. (He certainly one upped us)

While fueling up in Rock Springs we inquired as to the best place to eat in town. The lady behind the counter told us that the best restaurant in town was Applebee's (shock and a little judgment). We next asked our smartphone for more pertinent information. There was a sushi place directly next door to the gas station, and it had great reviews (sushi in Rock Springs, Wyoming?). We decided to give it a go, and it really was good sushi, but fresh I doubt.

After eating we headed for the Wild Horse Loop Road. The horses out here are actually wild, but to keep the population in check there is a periodic culling. We were not fortunate enough to see any horses, but we did climb to the top of Pilot Butte for a nice little shot of physical activity. The views of the desert were great.

There was also some cool fungus growing on the rocks at the top.

 

[40tude]

Next we headed to Kemmerer for fuel before heading to Emigrant Spring off of Hams Fork Cutoff for the night. Emigrant Springs was an important point along the Oregon Trail, between 1844-1864, thousands of wagons would have passed through this area.

As the sign says, the water is now used for the livestock.

We found a nice little campsite near the spring, and up by the Aspen. We kept saying to each other how cool it was to be camping on the Oregon trail. Luckily our fears of dysentery turned out to be unfounded.

Soon after making camp I discovered some fly covered deer hides in the woods, which were very near to the car. Laziness won over prudence, and it the decision was made on my part to ignore them as best I could.

This was harder said than done, through the night there were plenty of noises and my mind kept rushing to BEAR, which did a good job of interrupting sleep. Through the night we had all sorts of cows and horses (many with bells) moving very near the camp, as it turns out, the spring is actually used for livestock (who knew?).

 

[Stitebunny]

Great trip! Thanks for posting it!

 

[40tude]

Day 5

This was easily one of my favorite days of the trip (my favorite will come later).

Upon waking and packing up, we discovered some of the crew from the night before.

The day started with a drive through some beautiful ranchland. At one point it looked to me like we were driving through the Masai Mara (a bit less diversity). This was a really pretty area.

Right before entering Bridger National Forest, we came upon a large herd of sheep, with a very perturbed sheep dog alongside. This dog meant business and I wouldn't want to be anywhere near him.

We entered Bridger National Forest from the South, and drove up the Smiths Fork to the start of the Greys River. This area was alpine splendor at its finest, and beautiful to say the least. I very much want to revisit this area.

At this point I had not yet purchased a fishing license, and I think it was literally making me sick to my stomach not being able to fish these waters. EVERYWHERE looked like perfect fishing.

Someone showing off...

...and someone falling over.

Now we have to dry the shoes.

 

[40tude]

We came upon the horses in the NF, and for some reason one of them came up and nibbled on my fender. I laughed...haha...until I got home and found a little dent with missing paint.

After a long painstaking drive next to a gorgeous river, I couldn't take it any longer. We decided to go into town get licenses and some flies and drive back on up for the night. The town we came to was Alpine, Wyoming, and we were quite taken with it to say the least. There was no real fly shop around, but we did find "Bananas" sporting goods store, where I grabbed some caddis and some parachutes. Before we left we were able to restock our groceries too.

The drive up Greys River Road is uber dusty (enough so that I have since ordered a pre-filter) and to make things worse, there were a lot of vehicles due to being the week of Independence Day, but we managed it, and were able to find a nice campsite.

The fun then started ensuing. I have to say that I was really looking forward to fishing on this trip, but before this I had only fly fished a handful of times (literally), so I was fearful my lack of skills could be a problem. When we were setting up camp, I saw a few rises across the river, and nothing was going to prevent my getting to them.

STOKED! I ended up catching about 10 medium sized cutthroats that night, again bliss.

One weird thing about camping here were the constant screams of demon cows that were traversing the hillsides, and crossing the river. These we no ordinary bovine. Eerie.

I couldn't wait to wake up in the morning.

 

[indianporfavor]

nice, shoulda brought a horse home so we could ride him to the shop to get parts

 

[RugerTrailer]

Nice! I've been meaning to explore WY being so close to where I live...maybe next trip.

 

[40tude]

Day 6

Well, day 6 started out pretty well, and as it turned out, it ended well too. My pre-trip trout trepidation was starting to look unfounded, I managed a few more (and bigger ones at that) to start the day.

Driving down Greys River Road we came upon MANY 18 wheeler trucks that were trucking in sheep to the NF apparently to let them graze. This seemed really strange to us, but hey, what do we know?

Some frollicking.

Upon pulling into Jackson, we booked a float trip at High Country Flies, and then headed for the laundromat. Yay!

Tetons in the background.

That evening we headed up the Gros Ventre to try to find a suitable campsite (in the rain). We managed to find one that was mildly picturesque. (There were actually three rainbows here, but we couldn't manage them all in the frame.)

The rain basically blew out the Gros Ventre, it looked like chocolate milk...bummer...no fishies tonight.

 

[grogie]

More!

I spent plenty of time in Wyoming as a youth on my grandparent's ranch. A lot of people think Wyoming is just wasteland from crossing I-80, but there are plenty of beautiful areas to see and get lost in. I love it there, and I use to camp in an area that at times there probably wasn't another human within an hour's drive.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[redear]

Glad to see this started up!

 

[40tude]

Thanks for the replies guys, its good to know it's being read.

 

[40tude]

Day 7

The morning started with quite a lovely (and muddy) drive up to the top of the Gros Ventre River Road. Beautiful alpine scenery abounded, as did buildings from a bygone era.

The destination for the day was Grand Teton NP. On the way there we stopped at the Mormon row, and got the obligatory Mormon barn photo. Just as in Utah, it seems the Mormons chose some gnarly places to live.

Grand Tetons was more akin to Disney World than to being in the woods. We chose to do the Jenny Lake Loop hike, and while the scenery is astounding, it is difficult to enjoy in the middle of a horde.