Green River Lakes Redux

Dave

Broadcaster, formerly "ashergrey"
.
Joined
May 5, 2012
Messages
1,725
The long winter nights have my mind meandering back to warmer days, to wind rippling the surface of opalescent glacial waters.

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I can't tell this story better than @Nick already has, but enough time has now past that perhaps a new round of pictures won't seem too repetitive.

Bringing a boat into Wyoming means a bunch of red tape. You have to stop at the border for an STD check.

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Launching on the lower lake at last after the long drive. The first of many pictures of my little red boat.

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Rain threatened as we crossed the upper lake. Nick and @Cody led the way. @Christian brought up the rear.

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We alternated paddling and dragging on the shallow but awesome stretch between the lakes.

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I was surprised the skin-on-frame kayak had a shallow enough draft to slide over places where Nick, Cody and Christian had to drag their inflatables.

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I love this bridge.

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Squaretop still plenty distant.

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Drawing closer to the upper lake.

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Sunset lighting up the fleeing clouds on night one.

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The hammock camp, day two.

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Cody stayed behind as Nick, Christian and I paddled to the inlet of the upper lake.

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The views were outstanding.

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Christian mused aloud, wondering how such a beautiful place had escaped becoming a national park. I voiced my opinion that I'd rather it remain relatively undiscovered wilderness.

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We pushed upstream.

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At last the channel became too braided to continue in our boats.

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I felt at once jealous of the couple we'd met at the inlet who were pack rafting downstream from well up the trail.

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The swirling current of the incipient Green pushed us back toward the lakes. Mosquitoes buzzed and bit. Sage braved the bugs.

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Sunlight ducked in and out of the clouds. The afternoon hours were stretching on in absolute splendor.

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I could take this shot over and over. Actually, looking through my pictures in this report, it's pretty clear I did.

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We reunited with Cody back at camp. Clouds scattered as the sun slouched below the skyline.

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I borrowed Nick's Rokinon and gave a single-shot star trail a try. At one hour, it ended up a bit over-exposed.

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Imagine my surprise when, in the darkness, I pressed the button on the back of the camera to illuminate the screen and saw this.

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We stayed up for hours enjoying the warm glow of the fire.

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The morning of day three dawned much too soon.

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We packed up and departed. Moments later, wind started to blow and waves destroyed the reflections.

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Fantastic photographs Asher!
And great boat... Did they discover any STD's?
 
Did they discover any STD's?

Nope, she was clean. The inspector pretty much just rolled his eyes when I told him it hadn't been in the water for a year.
 
That was such a sweet trip and these are some awesome photos of it. Thanks for still posting a report. There's no such thing as too many trip reports, especially when it looks like this!
 
Fantastic photos! I've seen so many photos of those same scenes over the years (I haven't been to that north end of the range yet) but your photos kick ass over any I've seen before. Splendiforous.

ETA: @ashergrey , my wife wants to know what camera you're using for these shots. ??
 
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Thank you for sharing such exquisiteness that I haven't been to for far to long.

A few years back I drove over Union Pass and coming down into the Green I was bummed to learn a Grizz had been working the area at the Trailhead and frontcountry camping had been shut down, even for my hardsided pickup shell. Since they can be anywhere now I sadly became an old fart and got paranoid. I don't cowboy camp or hammock camp in Grizz country without a bear fence anymore. They've about made me poop my pants a few times as it is. Tents may be a barrier of but a millimeter but size and mystery is something I've come to value.

Of course the road over Union was far more dangerous than anything I'm likely to find beyond road's end. So hike your own hike...or paddle... and wrap yourself up like a candy at eye and snout level if you want. I'm really just trying to scare even more people away next summer than "The Revenant" already has. Thanks again, awesome pics.
 
Great photos of a beautiful place. Thanks for posting. I had aspirations to make it there last Summer. Hopefully I can swing it this time around.
 
my wife wants to know what camera you're using for these shots. ??

Canon 6D with the EF 16-35 f/4L lens pretty much exclusively in this report. There are a few iPhone shots and I did borrow Nick's Rokinon for the star trails.

Did you make the kayak by chance?

I did indeed, in two stages. The frame I built with much adult supervision when I was about 14. A couple of years ago, I tore the original canvas and fiberglass off, then reskinned the frame with ballistic nylon.

More detail on the boat were included in this GSL paddling trip report: http://backcountrypost.com/threads/kayaking-the-great-salt-lake-june-1-2013.2241/#post-24870

It also appears in a couple of my Flaming Gorge outings...
2013: http://backcountrypost.com/threads/paddlepacking-flaming-gorge-july-27-31-2013.2571/
2014: http://backcountrypost.com/threads/flaming-gorge-july-26-30-2014.3496/
 
Canon 6D with the EF 16-35 f/4L lens pretty much exclusively in this report. There are a few iPhone shots and I did borrow Nick's Rokinon for the star trails.



I did indeed, in two stages. The frame I built with much adult supervision when I was about 14. A couple of years ago, I tore the original canvas and fiberglass off, then reskinned the frame with ballistic nylon.

More detail on the boat were included in this GSL paddling trip report: http://backcountrypost.com/threads/kayaking-the-great-salt-lake-june-1-2013.2241/#post-24870

It also appears in a couple of my Flaming Gorge outings...
2013: http://backcountrypost.com/threads/paddlepacking-flaming-gorge-july-27-31-2013.2571/
2014: http://backcountrypost.com/threads/flaming-gorge-july-26-30-2014.3496/
Awesome, thanks. After I read your GSL report I found that I had already read it, commented on it, and you had responded....2.5 years later I remember thinking, man I can't wait to build me a boat. Here's hoping to sooner than later.

sent from an undisclosed location
 
Read this during lunch... sure made it hard to get back to work. It really is a gem, and there could be a dozen reports of that same area and I would gladly take time to read them.

Thanks.
 
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