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My birthday is in early July so every year I like to try to plan a nice trip to the high country over it. Typically it's been a trip to the Uintas but ever since my first trip to The Wind River Range last August, I've been dreaming of The Winds.
To further change things up, I was able to recruit my wife, Audra, to join me on this outing. She has been working on her MBA the last couple of years and hasn't gotten out on a lot of my trips, but she just finished up so I felt it was time to get her back in a pack and on the trail. I was a little concerned that this would be her first trip in so long. She's always been more of a desert girl and I'd heard stories about how bad the mosquitoes can be this time of year in The Winds.
We hit the road for Pinedale on Thursday morning. I was impressed by how quick and easy the drive up there is. The last time I went up that way we were heading to the Big Sandy trailhead which was much more remote. It seemed like we were on dirt roads for 60+ miles on that one. Meanwhile, The Elkhart Park trailhead is just 20 or 30 minutes out of Pinedale on a nice, paved road. One of the reasons it's the busiest trailhead in The Winds.
After stopping for a few things in Pinedale, we made it to the Pole Creek Trail parking lot in Elkhart Park and were on the trail by about 2pm. The forecast for the next several days was dismal. 80% chance of thunderstorms that first day and then 50% each day afterward. The monsoon pattern had just arrived and it looked like it was going to be an active weekend for it. Fortunately, the wet weather largely held off for the hike in. It remained mostly overcast, cool and quite comfortable to hike in. We had a few brief sprinkles but nothing major and we kept hiking through all of it.
Here is a map with my GPS tracks and camp locations.
The first 5-6 miles of the trail is pretty uninspiring. It just goes on and on through a thick forest with an occasional clearing with a view. Oh and the mosquitoes were awful through here. Not sure why they were so much worse in the forest but they were.
But thankfully, after a bit less than 5 miles of hiking through the trees, we arrived at Photographer's Point for one of the finest views I could imagine. The dramatic skies made for some nice photos.
Gorge Lake
Another half mile or so Past Photographer's Point we reached Eklund Lake. The trail splits here, one direction is the Seneca Lake trail which is used to access the extremely popular Titcomb Basin area, the other heads towards Pole Creek which was the direction we were headed.
I didn't stop to take many photos of them but there were some beautiful wildflowers all over on this trip.
Beyond Eklund Lake, the trail passes by many other small lakes. Two Top Lakes is just above and is quite scenic but I don't recall seeing signs of fish. Mary Lake looked like a great place to camp which was about 6.5-7 miles from the trailhead and I'm sure it had fish. A little further along there was a small, unnamed lake that was long and skinny that had fish rising like crazy and some good camp spots. Something to keep in mind if you're heading this way but don't have the time to make it all the way to Pole Creek the first night.
After just shy of 10 miles, we found Pole Creek and the largest of the Pole Creek Lakes.
We poked around for a nice campsite for a while and eventually found a nice one near a great waterfall that pours into the small lake just above the big Pole Creek Lake. It took a little boulder hopping and bush whacking to get there but it was worth it. As evening set, the sky kept glowing in small spots, giving me hope of a nice sunset, but it never came.
The next morning we had to ford Pole Creek to make it over to the actual trail. We crossed at a wide section near our camp. This turned out to be the only time on this trip that we needed to cross anything that we actually had to get wet for. Hooray for crocs!
The hiking was outstanding that first morning. Nice fluffy clouds, beautiful scenery and easy terrain.
After a while we came across this unsigned junction. If you stay on the main trail here, you'll end up approaching Cook Lakes at the center of Upper Cook Lake. We wanted to approach from the side so we took the faint trail to the right. There was one tricky crossing beyond that but we were able to stay dry through it.
After intersecting the Highline trail, we continued on the sometimes very faint trail to Cook Lakes. Travel was much more rugged from this point on.
Lower Cook Lake
The inlet from Bald Mountain Basin into Lower Cook Lake was swift. Like everywhere else, there was no foot bridge so we hiked up the falls a ways looking for the easiest crossing.
Approaching Upper Cook Lake as the thunderheads start to build.
Shortly after arriving at Upper Cook Lake, the storms began so we decided to camp where we were having a break. It was a nice spot on the end of the lake with great views of the peaks. We spent a few hours hiding from the storm, reading and relaxing. It was also a nice break from the mosquitoes.
Later that afternoon the storms cleared out and we had some great light and clouds for a while.
But that didn't last long. Abou an hour and a half before sunset, this nice storm moved in from behind camp.
Audra on our lounge rock with the storm coming in. Our camp was back there in the trees behind her.
I was intent on not getting into the tent until I really had to. I hate when a storm his this time of night because then you end up being in the tent for so long. And by the way, that rock I'm laying on in this shot; super cozy!
A little bit of light as the storm obscured the sky.
Our spot in the trees above the lake.
The next morning I was up around quarter to 6. It had rained much of the night. I believe it stopped between around midnight and 4am, but trickled the rest of the time. Can you tell I didn't sleep well that night?
The sky was looking nice that morning so I went down to the lake to take some photos and eat some breakfast. After a few minutes, Audra pointed out that we had company at the lake. There was a lone photographer just a few hundred feet away taking photos. Surprising as we didn't see anyone up there the previous night. I remember thinking that it looked like Dan Ransom but how that's totally impossible because I had just been talking to him about his weekend plans earlier that week.
After a bit of breakfast, we went back up to the tent to start packing up. As we started to fold up the rain fly, I heard someone yell "Nick!". What the hell? So of course I say, "What!?". The voice responded, "Where are you?". I wandered out of the trees to see none other than Dan Ransom standing there with his pack on. Apparently he had wandered right past our tent the previous evening and heard voices, but didn't see my typical orange tent and assumed it wasn't me. Nice sharing the lake with you, Dan. Next time come help with the whiskey!
Dan headed off towards Wall Lake and Audra and I continued to pack. And lucky for us, as soon as we broke the tent down, it started to rain again! We frantically threw everything in our bags and hit the trail with ponchos on. As is often the case in this area, the trail disappeared on us and we had to do quite a bit of route finding but eventually found the large outlet river where we knew trail should rest on the other side.
Now it doesn't look like much in this photo, but that river was kind of a bitch to cross. The widest sections looked very swift and deep so we opted to cross at wide section with a bit of a waterfall on boulders. There were some sketchy moves through there, especially for Audra since she doesn't do this stuff as much and doesn't have the long leg reach that I do. But after a bit of work, we were on the other side and dry.
From there we hiked down to the intersection with the Highline Trail where we turned towards Lester Pass. Audra was pretty sick of the mosquitoes so we were contemplating hiking all the way out and skipping the last night. It was my birthday and it sounded like it would be kind of nice to go have a nice meal, some beer and a bed. I didn't want to commit to the idea since I knew it would be a very long day so we just kept hiking.
We passed by a couple of lakes on the trail up to Lester. One of the unnamed Cook Lakes next to the trail, labeled 10175 on the USGS quad, looked like it would have made a great place to camp. Lots of fish too. Tommy Lake was above treeline and was quite scenic but wouldn't offer a lot of shelter for camping. A little further up, Nelson Lake looked really cool but had zero shelter. I was told along the way that there are Golden Trout in it though.
The overcast skies stuck with us until just below Lester Pass. This just happened to be where we came across a series of beautiful alpine waterfalls.
Lester Peak in the background
Approaching Lester Pass, it's the one on the right. The snow field doesn't look like much from this angle but it was huge.
Almost to the snow.
Kicking across the snow field was easy. The thin, center section was maybe 150 yards across but not very steep.
We could have gone around up that way and avoided the snow altogether but it would have been a lot more work.
Lake Nelson down below the pass.
On top of Lester Pass. I was so happy through this part of the hike. One hell of a great birthday when you can wander at 11,100 feet with views like this and skies like that.
Audra on top of Lester Pass
The view down the other side of Lester Pass towards the Seneca Lakes area was epic.
Audra and I
See that little pink spot in this pic, that's Audra. Kind of gives you some scale for the place.
This whole section of the hike was a total joy. It was just like walking in a park for miles.
As we approached the Seneca Lake trail, I remembered that we weren't the only humans in this vast wilderness. At the junction to the Island Lake trail there were probably 20-25 people, all headed towards Titcomb Basin. Aside from seeing Dan up at Upper Cook Lake, we hadn't seen anyone in over 24 hours.
At this point we needed to make a decision; keep hiking to the car or camp along the way. It was still pretty early and we felt good so we decided to just keep on hiking. This is Little Seneca Lake.
The trail construction around some of these deep, glaciated lakes is interesting. At times it will run along the shore to the point that you're skipping on rocks, and then a moment later you'll climb 50+ feet to get over another cliff band. Lots of up and down.
Seneca Lake from the upstream side. This is one big lake but it seemed like a challenging place to find a campsite due to the steep, rocky shoreline.
The trail cuts away from Seneca Lake and drops way, way down. For a while we were losing so much eleveation I thought we might have taken a wrong turn. But then you climb way back up... then down... then up... in and out of deep, glaciated cuts through the granite. It's amazing the route they had to pick to get the trail up to Seneca.
At least a mile after leaving the lake, the trail crosses the outlet stream from Seneca Lake. It really surprises me that even on a busy trail like this, there are no footbridges. Luckily it wasn't too hard to pick across on the rocks.
Hobbs Lake. This place looked like heaven as we hiked through. The fish were rising, the light was nice, campsites were plentiful. I wanted to stop. I suggested it but Audra really wanted to keep going. I still felt pretty good and so I agreed. We would keep going.
Within a mile of leaving Hobbs Lake, my energy level plummeted. We had logged nearly 13 miles that day and I had slept at the very most 2 hours the night before, probably less. It also occurred to me at this point that I had consumed no more than a two or three hundred calories in food this day. We had just been so busy hiking and each time we took a break there was something so awesome to take photos of that I just never ate.
We stopped to grab some water out of Barbara Lake (near Eklund). The thought of hiking another 6 miles out to the trailhead at this point sounded awful. I knew it was mostly easy and downhill but the lack of sleep and food had caught up to me. But as we filled up the bottles and got bombarded by clouds of huge mosquitoes, the thought of staying didn't sound that great either. It was overcast again and Barbara Lake isn't quite as scenic as some others along the route. So on we went...
Those last 6 miles of the day were painful. With about 4 to go, the rain started. And it rained... and rained... But on the bright side, the bugs were gone. It was also very cool to see the trail underfoot turn into a solid stream of brown water and deep puddles. I was kind of delirious and I enjoyed seeing the similarities to the puddles in the trail to the oversized puddles, aka lakes, we had been hiking through for the past 30 miles. Glaciers, erosion, water... fascinating to see it in action. Fun to see how well built some sections of the trail were for sending the water off into the trees. I came across a woodpecker at chest level next to the trail. It just stood there with us just feet away, looking at us, pecking away. It was an interesting walk in the rain.
And finally, after nearly 18 miles of hiking that day, we were back at the trailhead. We logged just shy of 32 miles total in the three days. Notice how empty the parking lot is...
From there we drove down to Pinedale and checked into a hotel. We figured if we got back to the trailhead by 5pm that we might just drive back to Salt Lake, but it was 7 and I wanted nothing more than to go to sleep. It was a good day, not what I had expected and probably not what I would have ever planned, but good nonetheless. The experience over Lester Pass was absolutely the highlight of the entire trip. Plus, I got to milk my birthday for a whole extra day since I was too tired to enjoy it that night.
The full set of photos can be viewed on Flickr.
Some thoughts I had on this area of The Winds compared to my trip last year out of Big Sandy...
This is extremely rugged country, far more than the southern end of the range that I saw out of Big Sandy. Despite the big parking lots and easy access to the trailhead, this place isn't built for the novice backpacker. Yes, some parts of the trails are well maintained but there were many places where trails completely disappeared. Route finding skills and equipment are mandatory. And like I said before, plan on fording lots of rivers. We got away with only getting our feet wet once but that took some seriously careful footwork and it would have been very easy to slip in on many of those crossings.
Also, it seemed that off-trail travel in much of this area would be a lot more difficult than the Big Sandy area. The countless tarns, rivers and ponds along with thick brush and boulders make it uniquely challenging. It's much better once you get up above treeline, but definitely something to consider.
And last, don't bother unless you really have the time to do it right. You might be able to get out to Titcomb and back with 3 or 4 days, but you'll spend almost all of that time hiking out and back through the most uninteresting parts. Unless you get an early start and hike fast, the 'goods' take more than one day to even scratch the surface. It was sad to have to start heading back as soon as we got to them, leaving so many things unexplored. This is a place where it would be very, very easy to spend a week.
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To further change things up, I was able to recruit my wife, Audra, to join me on this outing. She has been working on her MBA the last couple of years and hasn't gotten out on a lot of my trips, but she just finished up so I felt it was time to get her back in a pack and on the trail. I was a little concerned that this would be her first trip in so long. She's always been more of a desert girl and I'd heard stories about how bad the mosquitoes can be this time of year in The Winds.
We hit the road for Pinedale on Thursday morning. I was impressed by how quick and easy the drive up there is. The last time I went up that way we were heading to the Big Sandy trailhead which was much more remote. It seemed like we were on dirt roads for 60+ miles on that one. Meanwhile, The Elkhart Park trailhead is just 20 or 30 minutes out of Pinedale on a nice, paved road. One of the reasons it's the busiest trailhead in The Winds.
After stopping for a few things in Pinedale, we made it to the Pole Creek Trail parking lot in Elkhart Park and were on the trail by about 2pm. The forecast for the next several days was dismal. 80% chance of thunderstorms that first day and then 50% each day afterward. The monsoon pattern had just arrived and it looked like it was going to be an active weekend for it. Fortunately, the wet weather largely held off for the hike in. It remained mostly overcast, cool and quite comfortable to hike in. We had a few brief sprinkles but nothing major and we kept hiking through all of it.
Here is a map with my GPS tracks and camp locations.
The first 5-6 miles of the trail is pretty uninspiring. It just goes on and on through a thick forest with an occasional clearing with a view. Oh and the mosquitoes were awful through here. Not sure why they were so much worse in the forest but they were.
But thankfully, after a bit less than 5 miles of hiking through the trees, we arrived at Photographer's Point for one of the finest views I could imagine. The dramatic skies made for some nice photos.
Gorge Lake
Another half mile or so Past Photographer's Point we reached Eklund Lake. The trail splits here, one direction is the Seneca Lake trail which is used to access the extremely popular Titcomb Basin area, the other heads towards Pole Creek which was the direction we were headed.
I didn't stop to take many photos of them but there were some beautiful wildflowers all over on this trip.
Beyond Eklund Lake, the trail passes by many other small lakes. Two Top Lakes is just above and is quite scenic but I don't recall seeing signs of fish. Mary Lake looked like a great place to camp which was about 6.5-7 miles from the trailhead and I'm sure it had fish. A little further along there was a small, unnamed lake that was long and skinny that had fish rising like crazy and some good camp spots. Something to keep in mind if you're heading this way but don't have the time to make it all the way to Pole Creek the first night.
After just shy of 10 miles, we found Pole Creek and the largest of the Pole Creek Lakes.
We poked around for a nice campsite for a while and eventually found a nice one near a great waterfall that pours into the small lake just above the big Pole Creek Lake. It took a little boulder hopping and bush whacking to get there but it was worth it. As evening set, the sky kept glowing in small spots, giving me hope of a nice sunset, but it never came.
The next morning we had to ford Pole Creek to make it over to the actual trail. We crossed at a wide section near our camp. This turned out to be the only time on this trip that we needed to cross anything that we actually had to get wet for. Hooray for crocs!
The hiking was outstanding that first morning. Nice fluffy clouds, beautiful scenery and easy terrain.
After a while we came across this unsigned junction. If you stay on the main trail here, you'll end up approaching Cook Lakes at the center of Upper Cook Lake. We wanted to approach from the side so we took the faint trail to the right. There was one tricky crossing beyond that but we were able to stay dry through it.
After intersecting the Highline trail, we continued on the sometimes very faint trail to Cook Lakes. Travel was much more rugged from this point on.
Lower Cook Lake
The inlet from Bald Mountain Basin into Lower Cook Lake was swift. Like everywhere else, there was no foot bridge so we hiked up the falls a ways looking for the easiest crossing.
Approaching Upper Cook Lake as the thunderheads start to build.
Shortly after arriving at Upper Cook Lake, the storms began so we decided to camp where we were having a break. It was a nice spot on the end of the lake with great views of the peaks. We spent a few hours hiding from the storm, reading and relaxing. It was also a nice break from the mosquitoes.
Later that afternoon the storms cleared out and we had some great light and clouds for a while.
But that didn't last long. Abou an hour and a half before sunset, this nice storm moved in from behind camp.
Audra on our lounge rock with the storm coming in. Our camp was back there in the trees behind her.
I was intent on not getting into the tent until I really had to. I hate when a storm his this time of night because then you end up being in the tent for so long. And by the way, that rock I'm laying on in this shot; super cozy!
A little bit of light as the storm obscured the sky.
Our spot in the trees above the lake.
The next morning I was up around quarter to 6. It had rained much of the night. I believe it stopped between around midnight and 4am, but trickled the rest of the time. Can you tell I didn't sleep well that night?
The sky was looking nice that morning so I went down to the lake to take some photos and eat some breakfast. After a few minutes, Audra pointed out that we had company at the lake. There was a lone photographer just a few hundred feet away taking photos. Surprising as we didn't see anyone up there the previous night. I remember thinking that it looked like Dan Ransom but how that's totally impossible because I had just been talking to him about his weekend plans earlier that week.
After a bit of breakfast, we went back up to the tent to start packing up. As we started to fold up the rain fly, I heard someone yell "Nick!". What the hell? So of course I say, "What!?". The voice responded, "Where are you?". I wandered out of the trees to see none other than Dan Ransom standing there with his pack on. Apparently he had wandered right past our tent the previous evening and heard voices, but didn't see my typical orange tent and assumed it wasn't me. Nice sharing the lake with you, Dan. Next time come help with the whiskey!
Dan headed off towards Wall Lake and Audra and I continued to pack. And lucky for us, as soon as we broke the tent down, it started to rain again! We frantically threw everything in our bags and hit the trail with ponchos on. As is often the case in this area, the trail disappeared on us and we had to do quite a bit of route finding but eventually found the large outlet river where we knew trail should rest on the other side.
Now it doesn't look like much in this photo, but that river was kind of a bitch to cross. The widest sections looked very swift and deep so we opted to cross at wide section with a bit of a waterfall on boulders. There were some sketchy moves through there, especially for Audra since she doesn't do this stuff as much and doesn't have the long leg reach that I do. But after a bit of work, we were on the other side and dry.
From there we hiked down to the intersection with the Highline Trail where we turned towards Lester Pass. Audra was pretty sick of the mosquitoes so we were contemplating hiking all the way out and skipping the last night. It was my birthday and it sounded like it would be kind of nice to go have a nice meal, some beer and a bed. I didn't want to commit to the idea since I knew it would be a very long day so we just kept hiking.
We passed by a couple of lakes on the trail up to Lester. One of the unnamed Cook Lakes next to the trail, labeled 10175 on the USGS quad, looked like it would have made a great place to camp. Lots of fish too. Tommy Lake was above treeline and was quite scenic but wouldn't offer a lot of shelter for camping. A little further up, Nelson Lake looked really cool but had zero shelter. I was told along the way that there are Golden Trout in it though.
The overcast skies stuck with us until just below Lester Pass. This just happened to be where we came across a series of beautiful alpine waterfalls.
Lester Peak in the background
Approaching Lester Pass, it's the one on the right. The snow field doesn't look like much from this angle but it was huge.
Almost to the snow.
Kicking across the snow field was easy. The thin, center section was maybe 150 yards across but not very steep.
We could have gone around up that way and avoided the snow altogether but it would have been a lot more work.
Lake Nelson down below the pass.
On top of Lester Pass. I was so happy through this part of the hike. One hell of a great birthday when you can wander at 11,100 feet with views like this and skies like that.
Audra on top of Lester Pass
The view down the other side of Lester Pass towards the Seneca Lakes area was epic.
Audra and I
See that little pink spot in this pic, that's Audra. Kind of gives you some scale for the place.
This whole section of the hike was a total joy. It was just like walking in a park for miles.
As we approached the Seneca Lake trail, I remembered that we weren't the only humans in this vast wilderness. At the junction to the Island Lake trail there were probably 20-25 people, all headed towards Titcomb Basin. Aside from seeing Dan up at Upper Cook Lake, we hadn't seen anyone in over 24 hours.
At this point we needed to make a decision; keep hiking to the car or camp along the way. It was still pretty early and we felt good so we decided to just keep on hiking. This is Little Seneca Lake.
The trail construction around some of these deep, glaciated lakes is interesting. At times it will run along the shore to the point that you're skipping on rocks, and then a moment later you'll climb 50+ feet to get over another cliff band. Lots of up and down.
Seneca Lake from the upstream side. This is one big lake but it seemed like a challenging place to find a campsite due to the steep, rocky shoreline.
The trail cuts away from Seneca Lake and drops way, way down. For a while we were losing so much eleveation I thought we might have taken a wrong turn. But then you climb way back up... then down... then up... in and out of deep, glaciated cuts through the granite. It's amazing the route they had to pick to get the trail up to Seneca.
At least a mile after leaving the lake, the trail crosses the outlet stream from Seneca Lake. It really surprises me that even on a busy trail like this, there are no footbridges. Luckily it wasn't too hard to pick across on the rocks.
Hobbs Lake. This place looked like heaven as we hiked through. The fish were rising, the light was nice, campsites were plentiful. I wanted to stop. I suggested it but Audra really wanted to keep going. I still felt pretty good and so I agreed. We would keep going.
Within a mile of leaving Hobbs Lake, my energy level plummeted. We had logged nearly 13 miles that day and I had slept at the very most 2 hours the night before, probably less. It also occurred to me at this point that I had consumed no more than a two or three hundred calories in food this day. We had just been so busy hiking and each time we took a break there was something so awesome to take photos of that I just never ate.
We stopped to grab some water out of Barbara Lake (near Eklund). The thought of hiking another 6 miles out to the trailhead at this point sounded awful. I knew it was mostly easy and downhill but the lack of sleep and food had caught up to me. But as we filled up the bottles and got bombarded by clouds of huge mosquitoes, the thought of staying didn't sound that great either. It was overcast again and Barbara Lake isn't quite as scenic as some others along the route. So on we went...
Those last 6 miles of the day were painful. With about 4 to go, the rain started. And it rained... and rained... But on the bright side, the bugs were gone. It was also very cool to see the trail underfoot turn into a solid stream of brown water and deep puddles. I was kind of delirious and I enjoyed seeing the similarities to the puddles in the trail to the oversized puddles, aka lakes, we had been hiking through for the past 30 miles. Glaciers, erosion, water... fascinating to see it in action. Fun to see how well built some sections of the trail were for sending the water off into the trees. I came across a woodpecker at chest level next to the trail. It just stood there with us just feet away, looking at us, pecking away. It was an interesting walk in the rain.
And finally, after nearly 18 miles of hiking that day, we were back at the trailhead. We logged just shy of 32 miles total in the three days. Notice how empty the parking lot is...
From there we drove down to Pinedale and checked into a hotel. We figured if we got back to the trailhead by 5pm that we might just drive back to Salt Lake, but it was 7 and I wanted nothing more than to go to sleep. It was a good day, not what I had expected and probably not what I would have ever planned, but good nonetheless. The experience over Lester Pass was absolutely the highlight of the entire trip. Plus, I got to milk my birthday for a whole extra day since I was too tired to enjoy it that night.
The full set of photos can be viewed on Flickr.
Some thoughts I had on this area of The Winds compared to my trip last year out of Big Sandy...
This is extremely rugged country, far more than the southern end of the range that I saw out of Big Sandy. Despite the big parking lots and easy access to the trailhead, this place isn't built for the novice backpacker. Yes, some parts of the trails are well maintained but there were many places where trails completely disappeared. Route finding skills and equipment are mandatory. And like I said before, plan on fording lots of rivers. We got away with only getting our feet wet once but that took some seriously careful footwork and it would have been very easy to slip in on many of those crossings.
Also, it seemed that off-trail travel in much of this area would be a lot more difficult than the Big Sandy area. The countless tarns, rivers and ponds along with thick brush and boulders make it uniquely challenging. It's much better once you get up above treeline, but definitely something to consider.
And last, don't bother unless you really have the time to do it right. You might be able to get out to Titcomb and back with 3 or 4 days, but you'll spend almost all of that time hiking out and back through the most uninteresting parts. Unless you get an early start and hike fast, the 'goods' take more than one day to even scratch the surface. It was sad to have to start heading back as soon as we got to them, leaving so many things unexplored. This is a place where it would be very, very easy to spend a week.
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