I Had a Great Day

Fremont County, WY

31st July, 2009

Today I did most of the things I came to WY to do.

I slept as late as I wanted, read a little from two different books. I ate a healthy breakfast and packed a healthy lunch. I left my hotel only half an hour later than I originally intended, and I put gas in my little rental car. I had my walkman plugged into the car radio and my Wyoming map folded to the appropriate section on the seat beside me. I was ready for a day on the road.

I had two potential road trips in mind. One, a Circle Tour all the way around the Wind River Mountains, part of the greater Rocky Mountain chain, would take at least six hours, much too long given my late start. Also, it would mean I would spend a lot of my time away from the mountains and behind the wheel. Finally, the day’s forecast suggested that roads along higher elevations would be subject to high winds, something I was not eager to deal with. I decided to put this off until Saturday, which seemed likely to be warmer, and which also gave me another try at a truly early start.

Instead, I decided to make two smaller trips. First, I would travel to Lander, WY, which is the gateway to Sinks National Park. This park is interesting because a local river, the Popo Agie, “sinks” into a series of underwater caves and openings only to emerge at the “Rise” several hundred feet downstream. Additionally, it serves as a gateway into the Southern Wind River Mountains which form the Continental Divide in about half of Wyoming.

Later I would drive southeast down part of US 287, which runs from Yellowstone to Laramie, WY, then north on WY 135 back to Riverton. The attraction of this drive was that it would take me along and over Beaver Rim, which has both geological and historical interest.

So I headed down WY 789 to Lander, then up WY 131 into the park. It was a great day for this; the weather was very sunny, with some fluffy clouds to accent the clarity of the blue sky. I drove in a leisurely fashion as far up the canyon as the road allowed. Then, in a moment of inspiration, I decided to walk a short way up the foot trail to the Popo Agie Falls. This mountain path runs along the river for about one and a quarter miles, climbing about 600 feet before it reaches the falls.

I didn’t feel brave enough – nor was I properly equipped – to walk all the way to the falls, but I wanted to at least get around one bend to see what another part of the valley looked like. I intended to spend only about half an hour doing this because I wanted to stop at the Sinks and the Rise on the way down. However, I had to force myself to turn back after 25 minutes or so, and the round trip ended up taking practically an hour.

Nevertheless, this was a particularly exhilarating part of the day for me, because instead of becoming increasingly short of breath, I seemed to breathe more easily as my walk progressed. I experienced a liberating sense of adventure and a correspondingly keen awareness of the natural world around me. By the time I returned to the car, I was in possession of twin feelings of self-accomplishment and a keen appetite for my lunch.

Driving down the park to find a picnic table at which I could consume my sandwich, fruit and water, I ended up in the upper campground of the park. After all, it’s a logical place for a picnic table. I spotted the table – at the same time I also spotted the bighorn ram standing beside the road! I quickly decided this was not the table for me, but less than five minutes later I found myself forced to pass the ram again, this time in HIS lane. He gave me the “are u invading my territory or just passing through” stare as I drove by in as non-aggressive a manner as possible. I did, however, manage to get one decent shot of him once I had gone by.

This, as u can imagine, was a major highlight of the day…..

I did eventually leave Sinks Park and make my detour drive over Beaver Rim. This was really an enjoyable drive with lots to look at and even a few places on the road where one could pull over to snap a few photos of the breath-taking landscapes.

Unfortunately, as I began to drive up WY 135, I got rained out for the second time this week (the first was on Monday afternoon, when I drove from Casper to Riverton). The views of the Wind Mountains would be spectacular, if one could only see them instead of some intervening rain showers. This was my only disappointment of the day.

I got back to Riverton in lots of time to enjoy the third part of my day, which was the Rancher’s Rodeo. Unlike the earlier PRCA competitions, the Ranchers’ Rodeo is a team competition, with teams from local ranches (ten this year) taking part in a variety of events. Each event has individual winners, and points are also accrued so that at the end of the evening an overall winner is selected. Tonight’s rodeo also differed from the PRCA events because men and women competed equally as part of the teams. Best of all, though, there were novel events like Wild Cow Milking and Team Branding which were hilarious and exciting. Even the wild bronc riding was different from the norm because each team was expected to come up with some unusual costume idea as well as have a good bronc ride. One team had a feather trail; another had a bride and groom, with the groom as the bronc rider!

In terms of what I got to do today, this was probably the best day of my trip so far.