Sinks Canyon, July 9, 2014

The Sinks

About 2 hours south of Thermopolis is Lander, WY, home to Sinks Canyon State Park. This is a rugged canyon at the base of the southern Wind River Mountains. Located on the eastern slope of the mountains, the canyon is named for a unique geologic formation where the river vanishes underground near the mouth of the canyon (the Sinks) and reappears above ground a short distance away. 

Here we hiked a poorly marked loop trail that took us through fields of what were now faded flowers that looked like they might have been black-eyed susans. We must have missed the grand display by a week or two. Because the trail was very poorly marked, what should have been a 4 mile trail turned into at least 5. We overshot our turn in the trail, and had to backtrack. Then when we found the trail again, we lost it one more time, and had to backtrack again. 

We stopped for lunch, and then Ray decided that he really wanted to hiked the trail in the park that led to a waterfall. I was concerned that that trail was almost completely (as we had been warned) in the sun, with little shade. By that point, I was already cooked by the sun. Ray pressed his point, and I relented. We hiked up at least 1.25 miles, when I was running out of water, and my knee was yelling at me, and I decided to call it quits. We returned to the car, and stopped at the Rise-- the place where the river reemerges from the ground. Hundreds of large trout were basking in a large pool there. The trout went upstream to that point, and could not go any further. That area is protected from fishing, so the fish are safe, so they stay in that area. Pretty cool.

By then, we were ready to chill out (literally) in some AC with a beer, so we checked into our motel. It's an older motel, and before I had booked it, I read reviews that said not to judge a book by its cover. So right! The outside looks like a 60s throwback. But the inside of our room was large, ultra-clean, and modern with a fridge and microwave, and a nice view out the windows.