Our 2020 Wind River Range Fall Foliage Tour: Day Three/Part One

10/6/2020:

After two nights at the Best Western Pinedale Inn, Doug and I packed up, and after another fine breakfast in the small dining area, of the Pinedale Inn, we headed to Fremont Lake and Elkhart Park. Another local fall-foliage “hotspot” that my brother had targeted, this lake is only a few miles from our lodging. There were several good aspen viewing points along the way.

Having filled the gas tank or our car, we were on the road by 9 AM and heading north by northeast. The first destination on today’s journey was Fremont Lake via the Fremont Lake Road, which becomes Skyline Drive.

After traveling about three and a half miles we had our first view of the lake named for famed explorer John C. Fremont. Guided by Kit Carson, Fremont climbed to the 13,743-foot summit of, what would later be known as, Fremont Peak during an 1842 expedition. This tall mountain, the third highest in Wyoming, behind only Gannett and Grand Teton Peaks, towers over the lake originally named for Sir William Drummond Stewart of Scotland but was later changed to Fremont Lake after the future senator from California made his, first, trip west in 1842.

Fremont Lake is nine miles long, one mile wide and 600 feet deep, which makes it the second largest natural lake in Wyoming. Through Senator Thomas Hart Benton, a high-ranking United States Senator from Missouri, Fremont was given command of an expedition, in 1842, to explore the Wind River Range of the Rocky Mountains as well as to examine the Oregon Trail through the South Pass. Fremont was able to secure the services of the famous scout, Kit Carson, but never actually visited this lake. On the other hand, William Drummond Stewart of Scotland attended every summer rendezvous from 1833 to 1838. Artist Alfred Jacob Miller accompanied Stewart in 1837 and painted the first picture of this region. Stewart and mountain man William Sublette returned in 1843 and camped here for ten days in August. Four of the aforementioned rendezvous were held at the confluence of Horse Creek and Green River near present-day Daniel, a small town of barely 100 citizens, a little over ten miles west of Pinedale.

Despite its size, this glacier-carved lake is not visually impressive. There are very few trees near its immediate shoreline. After a brief stop, we pressed on to Elkhart Park. We saw a pronghorn buck grazing right by the roadside a short distance past the turnoff to Fremont Lake.

We began to encounter aspen after traveling eight miles, many of which were, once again, largely devoid of foliage. The Half Moon Lake turnoff is on the right, as viewed in transit to Elkhart Park. A large stand of aspen is located on the hillsides above Half Moon Lake, which are not heavily exposed to wind, and thus fully clad in foliage and near peak color. In fact, many of our best fall-foliage views on this expedition to Elkhart Park were those overlooking Half Moon Lake. The pull-off from which Doug took his notes is located at trip meter 8.8. I was able to get some nice shots from this spot.

Shortly before we passed the White Pine Ski Area and Resort, I was able to snag a few nice photos of aspen in near-peak color. This was a couple miles before reaching the zenith of our trip, Elkhart Park. As we continued to gain altitude, the road to Elkhart Park passed through nice stands of aspen, many of which currently carried little foliage. We found out why, at the end of the pavement.

With the trip meter reading 11.3, there was no formal pulloff, but its altitude and location allow you to look down upon much of the length of Fremont Lake, with roadside aspen as attractive foreground elements. Traffic was light so I pulled over as far as I could and took a few photos. The weather today was absolutely perfect: brilliant blue skies without a visible cloud.

After driving fifteen and a half miles we reached the Elkhart Park guard station/visitor information center. This is in the Bridger National Forest. With nobody at the station, we continued the last two-tenths of a mile to the Pole Creek trailhead parking area, which has a nice bathroom incidentally. It was here that we found out the true devastating consequences of the Labor Day “wind event.”

There was a sign posted on a message board at this (Pole Creek) trailhead, which reported that a “massive wind event” impacted the Pinedale Ranger District and much of the Wind River Range on Monday, September 7, 2020, with gusts in excess of 60 mph. This event was responsible for much of the downed timber and trail obstructions on Pole Creek Trail, Lakeside Trail at Upper Green River Lake, plus ALL OF THE STRIPPED ASPEN that we encountered in that particular area.

In fact, this notice indicated that the aforementioned wind event severely impacted trails in the Green River Lakes, New Fork Lake, Spring Creek Park, Elkhart Park, Boulder Lake, and Big Sandy areas. With respect specifically to trails that emanate from Elkhart Park, this notice states that the “first four miles of [the Pole Creek] trail to Photographer’s Point was completely obliterated.”

Incidentally, the Pine Creek and Pole Creek trailheads are nearby but accessible from different parking lots. The Pine Creek trailhead lot has one unisex pit toilet. Finally, the elevation at Elkhart Park Trailhead and Trail’s End Campground is 9280 feet.

As we started back down Skyline Drive, from the Pine Creek trailhead parking lot, the trip meter read 16.3 miles. After reading the US Forest Service report of the damage done during the Labor Day “wind event,” Doug noted that “for future planning purposes and inclusion in a publishable article on this topic, it would be wise to inquire about recent wind events in areas that one intends to visit; this strategy would facilitate acquisition of a more realistic perspective of potential fall-foliage viewing conditions.”

About a mile after we started back down, we saw a pullout with an interpretive sign that depicts the profile and identities of peaks in the Wind River Range that are visible from this point. I had not noticed it on the way up. The view is absolutely stunning. From here, you can see the spine of the Continental Divide at a distance, including Mount Sacajawea (13,607 feet), Fremont Peak (13,730 feet), and Jackson Peak (13,400 feet) as part of the skyline. This vantage point may afford as good a glimpse into the heart of the rugged Wind River Range as any paved road can provide.

As we descended from Elkhart Park toward Fremont Lake, there was a pulloff, about four and a half miles, on the right side of this road. I took many photographs of various stands of aspen from this vantage point utilizing perspectives that looked across the road, back up the highway, and emphasized specific concentrations of aspen in sequestered locations on mountainsides, ones that are at peak color and still retain most of their foliage.

A mere three tenths of a mile brought us to another, although very small, pulloff on the right side of the road. This vantage point affords views of most of the length of Fremont Lake, with nice-sized aspen groves near the shoreline at its very head. On the slope beyond the White Pine Ski Resort turnoff is a stand of aspen that is absolutely on fire, electric yellow to brilliant, almost Tennessee orange.

Another seven and a half miles brought us back to where we began, at the “Naming of the Lake” sign. A few minutes and four miles later, and with the trip meter reading 32.9, we left Pinedale for the final time in 2020, at 12:24 PM and headed northwest up US Highway 189/191 to the census-designated place, or CDP, called Hoback Junction, a quick one-hour drive through some really nice country along the southern portion of the Wyoming Centennial Byway. In Laurence Parent’s Scenic Driving MONTANA, It is Scenic Drive #7; Wyoming Centennial Scenic Byway (South). This US Highway, from Pinedale heading north toward Jackson and the Teton Mountain Range, is a nice fall-foliage drive in its own right, particularly before reaching the Hoback Canyon. As an arterial highway, however, pulloffs are uncommon. Aspen and, in river valleys, cottonwoods accentuate the landscape, in some areas, as islands, and in others as narrow ribbons of color or sentinels that high-light ridgelines. There just weren’t many places to pull over for photo ops.

Fremont Lake was originally named after Sir William Drummond Stewart of Scotland, who attended six of the fifteen annual Rocky Mountain Rendezvous between 1825 and 1840, including four at the confluence of Green River and Horse Creek near present-day Daniel, Wyoming.