Our 2020 Wind River Range Fall Foliage Tour: Day Two

Our 2020 Wind River Range Fall Foliage Tour: Day Two

After a good night’s rest and a top-of-the-morning breakfast at the Pinedale Inn, it was off to the Wind River Mountains, a new favorite of mine, in Wyoming. Unlike our journey through this region the previous year, Monday, October 5, 2020 started bright and sunny and remained that way. Sometimes, in fact, the sun was more problematic in taking good photos. From Pinedale, it is right at fifty miles to Green River Lakes, and as you get closer to the mountains, the scenery really opens up with some of the most spectacular views of fall-foliage vegetation one can imagine.

Having filled up late the preceding day, our trip meter read 61.0 miles, with a total mileage of 170,430 as we left our Pinedale accommodations at 9:40 AM and headed west on US Highway 191. After about five and a half miles we turned right onto Wyoming State Route 352 and proceeded toward the Upper Green River Lakes area. Another four miles brought us to the waypoint named Cora, a census-designated place, or CDP, of well less than 200 souls as of the 2010 census. For trip purposes, we consider this the starting point for our journey to Squaretop Mountain and the Upper Green River Lakes area. In Laurence Parent’s Scenic Driving WYOMING, this is Scenic Drive #11; Green River Lakes: Cora to Green River Lakes.

From Cora, it’s about forty miles to the Green River Lakes Campground situated on the northern end of Green River Lakes. The first half of the trip is traversed by the paved WY-352. The rest of the journey is over Green River Lakes Road, an unpaved, gravel road that is, in many places wash boarded. This effect can produce a bone-jarring, teeth-rattling experience. It also, produces the painful urge to urinate rather frequently (LOL).

At the 86.2 mile mark, according to the trip meter, or about twenty-five miles into our drive on this approach route, the aspens were absolutely on fire, with peak color ranging from electric yellow to light orange. There were large concentrations of aspen north of the highway and at the same altitude. According to Laurence Parent, Scenic Driving MONTANA, these were at the base of Black Butte. We ran out of pavement about six miles further down the road. This is the boundary to the Bridger-Teton National Forest. From here, the track becomes Forest Road 10091, otherwise known as Green River Lakes Road, and takes the adventurer to Green River Lakes, one of the most beautiful sites in all of Wyoming.

About a mile prior to the end of the pavement, there were a large number of mailboxes on the right side of the highway. Looking back to the southeast, or right side of the road, we saw a large concentration of aspen. Last year, I was able to photograph them and got some very nice shots of these deciduous trees. This time, however, taking a photo of this area was very problematic due to the bright, shining sun.

Our trip meter was sitting on 92.0 miles, which meant we had traveled exactly thirty-one miles since leaving our hotel, in Pinedale, when we entered the Bridger-Teton National Forest. From this point, we traveled over a gravel road which pretty much followed the Green River, the final nineteen miles, to the Green River Lakes. Fortunately, there were (pit) toilets at this spot, where we transitioned from paved to an unpaved surface. Considering the rough travel ahead, I highly recommend using this pitstop even if they are only pit toilets.

This was a great shot. After traveling less than a mile (0.7 miles) over the rough Green River Lakes Road, we found this small pocket of aspens off to the left, or west side, of the gravel road. They were in just about, the perfect fall color stage, or as my brother put it, they were “resplendently clad in their autumnal cloaks of yellow and orange.” Being located in a slight depression, they were well protected from the wind, and thus retained the majority of their leaves. Their location, relative to the road, also provides viewers enhanced perspective and a greater sense of visual depth. You may notice that many trees further up the slopes have lost their foliage, and even a few of the aspen, on the right side of this grove, have shed their leaves due to high winds. These are the Populus tremuloides and are the most widely distributed tree in North America, being found from Canada to central Mexico. In Utah, it is the state tree. And there is a reason they are often referred to as “quaking aspen.” Their leaves are very fragile, and even the slightest of winds will “rustle” these appendages. When autumn winds, rain and snow arrive, the leaves will quickly drop. So, the window of opportunity to get that really great fall-foliage snapshot is extremely limited.

Thickets consisting of willow and/or alder bushes line the narrow corridor on either side of the Green River. They provide a different foreground color and compositional element to photographs of this stand of aspens.

After about ten miles, we came to a beautiful spot, from which we could have taken some magnificent fall-foliage photos if only mother nature had been playing fair with us. The upper slopes of the foothills on the north side of the Green River are carpeted with aspen but almost entirely stripped of leaves. These aspen stands parallel the ridgelines of these foothills and are quite extensive. We later learned that a “massive wind event” heavily impacted much of the Wind River Range on Labor Day (Monday, September 7, 2020), which almost certainly is responsible for this effect. An extremely early winter storm, and remember it was still summer, tore through much of the Rocky Mountain west.

According to meteorologist Don Day’s weather forecast from September 7, a shot of very cold air coming down from the arctic plus warmer moist air coming up from the south made “a perfect setup for heavy precipitation.” That meant heavy rain in some areas, heavy snow in other regions, and even record breaking low temperatures throughout portions of the Rocky Mountains. Computer models were predicting up to 17 inches of snow in the Wind Rivers, 13 inches in the Big Horns, and a foot of snow in the Snowy Range. Even I-80 and I-25 were projected to be heavily impacted with possible closures. Temperature forecasts called for lows of 12 to 50 degrees below normal temperatures for that time of year. And this was only the first week of September. Those beautiful, glorious creations of God, the Rocky Mountains, can brew up some really intense weather at the drop of a hat.

As we would find out, these data were confirmed by a notice that was posted at the Elkhart Park Trailhead and the following online statement: “A massive wind event occurred on the Bridger-Teton National Forest on Monday, September 7, 2020. Wind gusts were 60 mph+ throughout the Wind River Range, in the Pinedale Ranger District causing trees to cover roadways and trails. All Forest roads on the Pinedale Ranger District have been cleared and you can drive to trailheads in the Pinedale District. There are hundreds of trees across the trails.”

Squaretop Mountain first became visible, beyond the foreground border of conifers, after forty-eight miles of travel. Another two miles would see us pulling into the Green River Lakes Campground.

Just before arriving at the Green River Lakes Campground, we found this great view of Squaretop Mountain. You have a good vantage point to shoot across a bend in the Green River to Squaretop Mountain at the head of the valley.

After traveling 49.6 miles (with the trip meter reading 110.6) from our home-away-from-home, the Best Western Pinedale Inn, we pulled up to the entrance to Green River Lakes Campground.

The Green River Lakes Recreation Area is on the northern bank of Green River Lake. There are toilets (although of the “pit” variety) at this spot and a decent-size parking area, and we were actually able to find a shady spot by some trees. This is where we ate lunch. The Green River Lakes are considered the headwaters of the Green River, the chief tributary to the Colorado River. The Green River runs 730 miles through Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and eventually terminates into the Colorado River.

We were going to hike around, at least part of Green River Lake, on the Lakeside trail. However, as we were to find out, there had been, what they called a “wind event” in early September. There were so many trees blown over, that we turned around after only a few hundred yards. These trees completely obstructed the trail and necessitated our turning back. Two local hikers informed us that, as previously noted, the area had been hit hard by a windy snowstorm early in September of this year, and trail crews haven’t returned to the area since then. This information was confirmed, the next day, by a notice that was posted at the Elkhart Park Trailhead. Although disappointed, we knew there will be other times to visit Green River Lakes.

After spending several hours at Green River Lake, we left, a little after 5 PM, and headed back to Pinedale. As a general rule, on the second half of the Forest Service portion of this route, slopes on the south side of the highway are predominantly clad in conifers, with relatively few aspen. The lower slopes of foothills on the north side of the Green River are more sparsely vegetated but, as previously noted, large stands of aspen occur near their respective ridgelines. I did not take many photographs on the way back. With the setting sun and twilight as a backdrop, the photographic opportunities were not the best. All of my better shots were from our journey out to this magnificent spot of earth in northwest Wyoming. With the exception of the pictures of the elk and deer, below, the earlier photos are the ones I have included.

We did not notice little Dollar Lake, a small and unimpressive body of water on our way out but it is right at ten miles from Green River Lakes and serves as a geographical indicator that you’re almost exactly halfway between Green River Lakes and the beginning of paved highway. It is, also, this point where the Green River starts to curve eastward, forming a “U” before turning south into what becomes Green River Lake. Just a couple miles past this small body of water, we sighted two bull elk and five cows at approximately 6:20 PM. A short four miles down the road, we saw three female mule deer right next to the road. It was 6:35 PM and the sun was rapidly losing its race to stay above the horizon. I got a couple of decent photographs of them before they demonstrated their Pogo-stick gait in departing the area.

After a full day of back-roads driving, we stopped by the local Subway to pick up dinner before retiring to our hotel room for the night. We knew the next day would be a long one. After visiting other local fall-foliage hotspots, our plan was to transition to Jackson Hole and the Teton Mountains via US-189/191, otherwise known as the Wyoming Centennial Scenic Byway. In Laurence Parent’s Scenic Driving WYOMING, this is Scenic drive #7; Wyoming Centennial Scenic Byway (South): Hoback Junction to the Rim. So, we wanted to hit our beds early, for a good night’s rest, in order to get a timely start on the 6th of October.

As my brother noted, the four days that bracketed our Wind River and Tetons trip, October 4 thru 7, 2020, had weather forecasts that called for daytime highs around 69-71°, with sunny conditions, and overnight lows from 30-32°. Those 40-degree temperature differentials are absolutely perfect for bringing out peak color, so long as you don’t have early, hard freezes, heavy snow or, as occurred in this situation, high winds that prematurely strip aspen of their foliage.