I spent a month in July Backpacking and Fishing the Wind River Range. I came here to escape the Dalllas heat and BPL inspired me to go to Wyoming instead of Colorado this summer. I entered the east side of the range from Dubois (hiked the Ross Lake area) and the west side of the range from Pinedale and the Elkhart trailhead. I saw some amazing scenery, but I had to do a lot of last minute changes to my hiking plans because of the high snow, which made it nearly impossible to cross the continental divide. The fishing was amazing if a person was willing to go a little bit off trail. On most of the lakes on the trail, the fish were smaller and more “educated”. This is a link to a collection of videos and pictures from the trip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMpLLone6Sw
Wind River Range Backpacking Video
First, I experienced some great fishing for Rainbows on Ross Lake (big rainbows)and cutties from Hidden Lake. Hidden Lake can be reached by bushwacking 2 miles from Ross Lake. The meadow before the trail drops to Ross lake so muddy that it stopped the horse packers, so I only saw 2 groups at Ross Lake the whole time.
I saw some great territory in an off trail basin off the Pole creek trail.
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Here I caught my first golden trout. The outlet was full of giant golden trout that I caught on basically every other cast mainly on spinners and a large green copper John.
These fish were definitely the best fish that I’ve ever tasted……fatty and red meat like Alaskan salmon:
I just had to go to Titcomb Basin even though I normally avoid crowds. It really is that beautiful. Here is upper Titcomb Lake from a ridge of Mistake Lake:
This is lower Titcomb lake:
However, Titcomb and Island Lake are the first places that I’ve ever seen 2 days into backcountry that have such serious abuse issues. I avoided filtering water from the main lakes since you see so much soap in the sandy areas of these lakes.
On the way back from Titcomb Lake I camped at Island Lake. I avoided the crowds by camping at the inlet and its many waterfalls
And this is the view of the peaks near Photographers Point about 4 miles away from Elkhart Park:
Here are some time lapses done with my gopro hero 3 silver addition of sunrises on a number of basins:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i6Rh-dbvkY&index=2&list=UUntAbFS5jsqgid6Ybqc0Izg
Still have a lot more to see and lakes to fish……I’ll definitely be back and hopefully it’ll be a lower snow year!
