OUR 2019 WIND RIVER RANGE TRIP Day 3

October 5, 2019 from Pinedale to Riverton (via Farson and Big Sandy Lodge)

Although we had a very brief, but intense, snow shower just before sunset last night, the weather for this Saturday’s journey was nice. Once again, it was partly cloudy, but no sign of precipitation.

We spent the previous night at the Best Western Pinedale Inn. I would highly recommend it to anyone staying in the Wind River area. It would make a great base of operations. The rooms have a microwave and mini-refrigerator plus one of those single cup coffee makers. And when they say “full breakfast” they mean it, not one of those so-called Continental ones that are just coffee, juice, and rolls. They had a buffet that included bacon, sausage, eggs, biscuits and gravy and even a pancake or waffle machine (I can’t remember which one). The syrup was even warm.

Incidentally, we met a former Pride of the Southland Band member under Dr. Julian’s direction; she is a seasonal park ranger in, I believe, Alaska, who winters in Texas. The lady and her husband were in the dining room and had noticed our University of Tennessee orange jackets.

Before heading out for another round of the Wind River Mountains, we stopped at the Museum of the Mountain Man, in Pinedale. I’m glad we did. I though we would spend maybe thirty minutes, in this piece of excellence in, what some people would call, the middle of nowhere. Three hours later, we finally hit the road. This museum is a wonderful place, full of information as well as artifacts from a bygone era. I took over two hundred photos (no flash is allowed) inside the museum. Two wonderful ladies, named Colleen and Jamie, were up front and an absolute joy, as was the director of the museum, Clint Gilchrist.

Just a few of the many notes that Doug took from this delightful, not so little as it turned out, museum:

“Museum of the Mountain Man (Pinedale, Wyoming): ‘of the sixteen annual rendezvous, six were held in a ten square-mile section of the Green River Valley, eight miles to the west of here.’ (1833, 1835, 1836, 1837, 1839, 1840)”

“Many quilled, painted and beaded ‘objects are on loan from Women of the Fur Trade, unless otherwise indicated. Objects on loan are reproduction.’ Examples include superb feathered-circle robe with magnified quilted rosetta as a centerpiece.”

“‘Caught off guard’ by David Wright (1942-present): painting of mountain man being charged by a huge grizzly. Giclee print, which was inspired by the legendary accounts of Hugh Glass’s near-fatal attack by a grizzly.”

“David Wright is ‘a highly acclaimed artist from Tennessee who has been painting for over forty years. He has earned numerous awards and recognition in the art and museum worlds for his scholarly portrayals of American history and rural landscapes.'”

“Ashley introduced the rendezvous system. Beards were not in fashion during the mountain man era. Ten of the sixteen rendezvous were held in Wyoming. Museum of the mountain man opened in 1990.”

“***Sheephorn bow, c. 1690-1730. ‘Sheepeater’ Shoshoni. This powerful, composite reflex bow could drive an arrow completely through a bison at close range. Coveted by other plains tribes, such bows were made from the outside curls of mountain ram horns and backed with sinew.’ Acc. No. 1999. 01. 0596. Note: the director of this museum is: Clint Gilchrist; his e-mail address is: director@mmmuseum.com”

“***They had a book entitled ‘Wyoming Range,’ that is an excellent photo tribute to one of Wyoming’s lesser-known mountain ranges; this volume shows some truly huge concentrations of aspen for fall-foliage excursions; look online for used volumes of this book.”

It was well after noon before we left the Museum of the Mountain Man, but that morning’s diversion was well worth it. I heartily recommend a visit by anyone with a hankering for the history of the “old west.” But all good things do come to an end, and so we finally set out for some more good views of the Wind River Range, this time the southwestern portion of those mountains.

Our destination for the afternoon travels was the Big Sandy Lodge and Campground. The first leg of our journey took us to the small town of Boulder, Wyoming. Traveling southeast along US Highway 191, we covered the twelve miles in a little less than a quarter hour. Just past Boulder, we turned left onto Wyoming State Route 353. The first eighteen miles of this back highway were paved. At this point, it becomes a Sublette County Road, known as Big Sandy Elkhorn Road. Although it was packed dirt/gravel; the road was in fine condition, and we made good time covering the eighteen miles to the waypoint called Big Sandy. Continuing southeast, we covered the nine miles and turned left at the junction with  the Lander Cutoff Road (23-132 Sublette County Road). There was a sign indicating that Big Sandy Opening was twenty-three miles away.

Traveling eastward for seven miles we passed Little Prospect Mountain on the right, or south of the road, before coming to an all-gravel Big Sandy Opening Road. There was a sign pointing to the right (Big Sandy Opening, Lodge & Campground). From this point on, aspen (which were currently nearing their peak) become more visibly prominent in area immediately adjacent to this section of their route and more distant slopes that provide foreground composition to the snowcapped southwestern portion of the wind River range. After traveling about one mile there was a nice pull off large enough for one car to stop for photo ops. I got some great shots from this place. Another mile brought us to an N-shaped fork in the road. From here, we took the road to the left. Big Sandy Lodge and Campground are nine and ten miles away, respectively. The final ten miles were much rougher and slower slogging but took us through the heart of aspen country. After a few miles openings in the timber began to appear, which provides spectacular compositions of aspen-carpeted foothills, with the rugged snowcapped peaks of the Wind Rivers towering, seemingly immediate beyond those aspen groves and conifer-bedecked ridgeline.

The aforementioned photo op was just shy of the Dutch Joe Guard Station and Campground sign.

After about nine miles we came to a final fork: Big Sandy Lodge was to the left; and Big Sandy Campground was to the right.

Travelers on this road will find all but the last ten miles to provide better road than the Forest Service portion of the Green River Lakes Road from our previous day’s journey. Use your own discretion on whether to traverse the final five miles (or so) of this approach route to Big Sandy Lodge; it leaves aspen behind, enters coniferous forest with few clearings. The Big Sandy opening is a large clearing of grassland, an island in a sea of conifers, but views at this point are not particularly impressive. Warning: there are no bathrooms on this route, except for the Big Sandy Campground at its terminus. As for myself, I doubt if I will be traveling this part of the road again.

It was shortly after 3:30 pm when we departed from the Big Sandy Lodge area. We never did see the lodge. The gate was closed, due to a hunting party that had reserved it. There was a nice sprinkling of orange aspen in these groves. On the whole, this area is at the peak of color and, as slightly lower altitudes, most aspen are still fully foliated.

We returned to Big Sandy, and from there we drove south, along US 191 until we reached the town of Farson at the junction with Wyoming State Route 28. We turned left onto WY 28 and headed northeast toward Riverton, Wyoming, our destination for the night. Part of this route traverses what Laurence Parent, in his Scenic Driving WYOMING calls Scenic Drive #12 South Pass City: Lander-South Pass City Loop. With one hundred miles to cover and darkness rapidly approaching we did not stop or turn off for any sideshows. South Pass City, a historic site, was well known along the Oregon Trail and is just off this route. When gold was discovered in 1866, this town had a short-lived boom period. Although it became a ghost town, the small way point on the route from the eastern United States to Oregon became famous for something else. While Wyoming was the first state to grant suffrage to women, two years after the founding of the city, Esther Morris became the first female judge in the United States.

From Farson, it is about seventy-five miles to Lander, a small city of approximately 7,500 souls,   where we picked up WY-789 N and continued the final twenty five miles to Riverton, Wyoming. It was fully dark when we arrived there, and though we spent the night at the Riverton Motel 6, I cannot recommend it to anyone else. Taco Bell provided us supper and we went to bed in anticipation of an early start the next day.