Day Twenty Five, about 12 miles outside Lander, WY: Hike and Drive

On Tuesday, I did a short and easy hike in RMNP, as I was planning to get on the road to Yellowstone at a decent time. I chose the East Inlet Trail, which walks along the East Inlet Creek. I only hiked the first 2.5 miles of the trail and back, which is generally flat and easy going. The first leg of the trail goes through Adam’s Falls, which is a fantastic sight.

Again, there is not much to talk about but there are a lot of cool pictures. Be sure to check the Picasa Album for more pictures; there are a ton of great pictures that I couldn’t fit into the post.

I left for Yellowstone at about 1.30pm. Having been told the park was about 500 miles away from Grand Lake, I allowed two days for it, but had planned no specific course. The route to Yellowstone from RMNP is only on the interstate for a few miles, the rest of the time through winding state roads that, very, very occasionally, run through small, (pop. 500, tops) towns. After the hike, I avoided getting something to eat in Grand Lake because of the high cost, and in an episode of ill planning had thought I would just grab something from McDonalds further down the road. Having not seen a McDonalds for several days should have set off some bells; it did not.

This northern part of Colorado is barely inhabited, and this sparse inhabitation makes for a great driving experience. CO-125 winds on for 53 miles through soft mountains and dense forest. The curves of the road hug the ridges of the hills, and there are hardly any cars around – a driver’s dream. The one frustrating moment occurred when I hit construction; you would think this would not be a big deal on a road where you might see one car every 10 miles. I had just pulled up to a flagman when he let the car in front of me go. He told me that I had just missed the pilot car, and he would have to drive down the length of construction and make the next trip back before I could go. 10-15 minutes was his guess, (but it was kind of cool to drive right by a road being actively repaved.)

It wasn’t until I had gone 70 miles from Grand Lake that I found a town with a restaurant and a gas station. Walden, CO, is a nice town of 734 people. When I stopped at the Moose Creek Cafe, I was well rewarded with a delicious 1/3lb Bacon Cheeseburger. The next customer was a man with cowboy spurs. A few minutes later came a large black lab named Ace. Apparently the dogs walk through the town freely, as the waitress told me Ace didn’t normally come up onto the porch, but so-and-so’s Beagle would.

I drove another 232 miles through Wyoming, into Lander. Surprisingly, (to me) Wyoming has a lot of interesting geology and the drive is thus quite scenic. I had never given much thought to Wyoming outside of its gross lack of population. There are, again, a lot of pictures on the Picasa album to check out.

When I arrived in Lander around 8pm, it was the first town of more than 5,000 that I had been in for five days. I stopped at a gas station and got directions from someone there to the nearest forest access road. The trip up through the forest was interesting. Lander itself is at about 5,400 feet, (probably the lowest I’ve been since Kansas, 13 days ago) but my campsite was at 8,500 feet. The road through the forest is a back and forth gravel switchback directly up a large mountain. It was quite surprising to look at this mountain when driving in, and then find myself on top of it in short order. My campsite was on a nice lake, and I got there just as the sun was setting.

This was my fifth straight night camping. I am getting very good at lighting fires quickly, but I sure wish I could find a shower around here…

(A lot) more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/reidksmith