Lander, Wyoming: Gateway to The Wind River Range

This month, we celebrated our one year anniversary of living on the road in our RV. I can’t believe we actually made this dream into reality. Pretty cool. We have had good days, bad days, and excellent days, not much different than life anywhere, huh?

We picked Lander and The Winds as our next destination primarily because the Tetons and Yellowstone areas are so dang expensive and crowded. Knowing nothing besides Wind River Country being a good alternative to Yellowstone, we were blown away by this place. So peaceful, quiet, tons of wildlife, great hiking and even some great cycling routes. Lander is an excellent summer destination.

My first bike ride here, I self-named the Three Leaf Clover route because it makes 3 loops that each come back to town. Winding country roads with hardly any traffic. White-tail deer and pronghorns sightings. And a close-up of a blue heron in the wetlands. Red rocks, views of the tips of The Winds in the distance. Rolling green hills. An excellent, scenic ride. Even a stretch on the highway was not bad because of a 6 foot wide shoulder. Encountered one traffic jam — a heard of cattle crossing the road — you don’t see that in the city 🙂

Sinks Canyon State Park is a must-see. The Popo Agie River goes into a cave, travels underground for about a mile, and pops back above ground — a truly unique geologic occurrence. Even more bizarre is the water stays underground for about 40 minutes, traveling through a long network of limestone caves and cracks. They call it “The Sinks and The Rise.” At The Rise, the water seems to just seep out of the ground and quickly becomes a raging, whitewater river again. The biggest brown and rainbow trout I have ever seen! Since the fish can go no further upstream they just gather here and grow and grow and grow.

Emi and I rode together on the Squaw/Baldwin Creeks Loop route. Elk herd and white-tail deer sightings. This route is super scenic and serene. The best leaf of The Three Leaf Clover. Pit stop at Lincoln Street Bakery for some pastries. Food during a ride just tastes so good 🙂 Another great day in Lander.

The next day was not a good one. We were driving up Sinks Canyon for a hike when the 4Runner started making a horrendous sound like a bolt rattling in a coffee can. We decided to head back down slowly — if I kept it around 5 mph on dirt the noise would go away. On pavement it seemed fine even at higher speed. Turned out the parking brake fell apart inside the rear rotor; unfortunately, that repair requires a lot of parts from the dealer and the shop would not have them in time for us. So we decided to continue on without the parking brake. I rarely used it anyways and I guess I’ll just have to put a chock in front of the wheel if we ever have to park on a steep hill.

The next day we were able to make it to the trailhead to hike to Upper Silas Lake. A better name for the hike is “Attack of the Mosquitos!!” We used a whole bottle of bug juice and they were still swarming like crazy. Emi looked like Pig Pen from The Peanuts with so many mosquitos swarming around her. I thought it looked funny. She did not 🙂 Despite the bugs, the hike was amazing; a bit uneventful (well except for the large marmot) until we arrived at the lake’s edge where you had an incredible view of the Winds Mountains. We crossed paths with some fishermen of few words: “Hike Good; Bugs Bad.” I couldn’t have summed it up better.

Popo Agie Falls Hike — loved this one. Great views of the canyon cliffs. We could hear and see the river for most of the hike providing a very zen-like feel. The falls payoff is a good one. Multiple tiers of waterfalls. The falls even split around a large rock island. Includes several viewpoints to see the falls at many angles.

My next solo ride was a big climbing day up to Sinks Canyon Summit. The climb and descent was so cool. Very few vehicles. I should have headed back to camp but instead added on about 30 more miles and the temps kept rising. My Garmin registered 96 degrees eventhough the official temp was low 80’s. The sun here at higher altitude is way more intense than what we are used to at sea-level in the Northwest. Regardless, I was able to refill my water bottles, stay hydrated, and finish the ride. I really like riding around Lander, the scenery and low traffic country roads are spectacular.

Another drive up Sinks Canyon — definite trend here 🙂 Whenever it is warm in Lander, we just head up the Canyon, gain a few thousand feet in elevation, and the temps drop about 15 degrees. Nice! We kayaked Frye Lake. Very dark blue water. A brief thunderstorm got us a little wet but the sun came back out making for a pleasant day. First paddle with the new kayak seats ordered from Amazon. They are going to work out well 🙂

Last full day in Lander, last hike in Wind River Country. We hiked to Sheep Bridge in Shoshone National Forest — a nice, well-built bridge for backpackers over the Popo Agie Middle Fork. Not very eventful until we reached the bridge — nice spot for lunch sitting next to the river. On the way back we reached an overlook with wonderful views of the Wind River Mountains. Nice way to finish this leg of our journey.

That’s a wrap for Lander — next stop Grand Teton National Park!!