SUNFLOWERS
We got up early the next morning and broke camp. I finished off my oatmeal and instant coffee,
which was a bit disappointing considering that we were only a few miles from
Dubois. Since we finished our
backpacking trip a day early, we had a full day to kill. We decided to make the most of the
opportunity. First on our agenda was
another attempt at finding some of the Torrey Creek petroglyphs. I’d gotten some information from my friend
Dave in Lander, and we thought we had a better chance of finding them. It still took a lot of wandering around, but
Larry finally stumbled upon a rock art panel.
I caught up with him, and we found a few more in the immediate area. The sunny morning wasn’t ideal for photos,
but it was neat to see them.
We drove into Dubois, made a quick stop at the store, and then headed
back out towards Brooks Lake. Our main
plan for the day was a dayhike to Holmes Cave. Holmes Cave is a limestone cave with a stream
running into it. The stream drops over
several waterfalls shortly after it enters the cave. The cave hasn’t been fully explored –
apparently it is unstable and is considered too dangerous for a thorough
exploration. Despite that, I still
wanted to see the entrance.
I parked the rental car in a large pull off well short of the actual
trailhead. The forest road leading to it
had a deep mudpuddle just beyond the highway, and I wasn’t sure if the car
would make it through. Fortunately it was just a short walk from the parking spot
to an old cabin and the actual trailhead.
We started our hike late that morning under sunny skies. It didn’t take us long to find the real
highlight of the hike – a massive field of sunflowers. They were a little past peak bloom, but there
must have been thousands of them. Aside
from the flowers, there were some great views.
The best scenery was the rugged cliffs of Breccia Peak.
We climbed to a minor pass near Angle Mountain. We had lunch there before continuing down
through another incredible wildflower meadow to a small pond. From there it was short descent to a meadow
where several small streams come together.
The combined stream runs directly into the side of a hill. We checked out the entrance of the cave,
which is guarded by extremely slippery rocks.
I thought about scrambling in there to check out the first waterfall,
but it was so slippery that I didn’t think I could get in and out of there
without a fall.
We returned by the same route.
Dark clouds were building on the way back, but once again the storms missed
us. We drove through storms on the way
to Lander, but the weather had cleared by the time we reached town. We checked into the Holiday Inn Express
before heading to Cowfish in downtown Lander for dinner. We had a great meal there, and I enjoyed a couple
of beers before heading back to the hotel.
The next morning we met Dave at Mamaw’s Kitchen
for breakfast. The meal and coffee were
good, and we enjoyed catching up with Dave and telling him about our trip. We had some time to kill, so we took the
scenic route out of town. We stopped at
Sinks Canyon State Park, and then drove up the Louis Lake Loop Road. We stopped at Frye Lake to check out the view
before continuing on to the trailhead for Blue Ridge
Lookout.
We did the ½ mile hike up to the lookout.
At the top we found a small meadow and several impressive rock
towers. I somehow missed the sign for
the Blue Ridge Lookout and scrambled up the wrong tower. That was kind of fun, and it provided a cool
view of the actual lookout. I worked my
way back down, and then climbed the steps of the true lookout. The steps were the best part of the
experience. They were very colorful, due
to lichens on the rocks. The view of the
Wind River Range from the top was nice, too.
We continued on the loop road afterwards. We met a couple as we were leaving the
trailhead that had just seen a moose. We
kept a close eye out, but we didn’t spot the moose or any other wildlife of
note. We drove the rest of the loop road
before heading back towards Lander. We
passed the Red Canyon overlook and then continued on
toward Rawlins. Our next stop was dinner
at Vern’s just outside of Fort Collins, CO.
The rest of the drive to the Denver airport was smooth, and the flight
home went well.
I definitely plan to revisit the Teton and
Washakie Wilderness areas. I need to go
back to see Ferry Lake, since I missed it on this trip. I’m also interested in visiting Tri County
Lake, and I want to make another attempt at Younts Peak. The South Fork of the Shoshone River valley
is intriguing too, as is the headwaters of Thorofare Creek and Open Creek.
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