Wyoming Trip Report 2024

[Hang Williams]

Last year I did a trip to the Wind River Range and was hooked by the spectacular beauty of the mountains. This year's trip was intentionally set at a slower pace to take more time to soak it in, relax, and fish. In total, I spent 9 days solo in the backcountry with 4 different camps. The weather cooperated fantastically, no bears were seen, elks bugled me to sleep (ok, startled me awake) most nights, and I even heard a wolf pack in the distance. The fishing was excellent and most trout caught were in excess of 15”. Four species were caught in total: brook, tiger, cutthroat, and lake trout. As always in the Winds, the scenery was breathtaking and my pictures don't do it justice. Detailed accounts to follow for each day (spoiler alert: it was a fishing trip, so I'm going to talk a lot about fishing).



Camp Night 1:



Camp Night 2:


Camp Nights 3 & 4:


Camp Nights 5-8:

[Hang Williams]

Day 1 - 6 mi, 2318’ climbing elevation

The story of day 1 really starts with day 0 when a casual conversation while purchasing bear spray and fuel revealed that the weather the morning of Day 1 included potentially 3” of snow on my route and that Days 2 & 3 would be windy. I was fully prepared to hang back in town the first day, but the people at the outdoor store looked at the radar in detail and said that if I just got a slow start I should be fine and I could always camp short of my first pass if it was yet to be clear of snow. Well, it sure was a slow start and I didn't start my hike until around mid day. I then proceeded to take the wrong trailhead which I didn't realize until a half mile in, so I then went cross country to intersect with the correct trail only to a mile later realize I'd left my bear spray sitting on top of my car. Holy cow, what a nightmare! I dropped my pack, hung the bear bag, and started hoofing it back to the car. After about a quarter mile, the group I'd been talking to in the parking lot came up the trail and asked if I'd forgotten something. Thank goodness for them. The rest of the day was an uphill slog to the first pass where I regretted packing 10 days of food, the extra gear for spin fishing, and most importantly my lack of pre-trip commitment to a good exercise routine. The only redeeming qualities of the trail that first day were the sweeping views from the first big meadows and the pass, other than that it was quite the ugly trail. Starting at the first meadows, I began seeing snow still hanging out in the shade and talking with others on the trail, they had indeed received around 2” of snow the night before. It was all melted by the time I got there, though, lucky me. After reaching the pass, the trail dove sharply to a small creek next to a meadow where I set up camp the first night utterly exhausted. That night was filled with elk bugling at first then the sounds of a wolf pack somewhere in the area.

[Hang Williams]

Day 2 - 7 mi, 4071’ elevation gain
I woke early to tend to breakfast, break camp, and get back on trail. My legs were still tired from the first day's hike and my pack was still too heavy. Once on the trail, the miles did not come easy. This section of trail seemed to feature pointless steep elevation gain and loss. Around the second major creek crossing, the forest seemed to open up a bit and there were some interesting meadows and rock formations to keep things interesting. The third major creek crossing was the outlet creek from the lake I'd be camping at. Upon crossing this creek, I didn't see any distinct use trail so continued on the “official” trail. After another steep climb, the trail to my first lake branched off and immediately lost itself into a slew of game trails and use trails. They did all seem to merge back into a more coherent trail, but I must admit that I was pretty fed up with the trails at this point and was ready to get to the lake and start fishing. The weather forecast had called for gusts up to 30 mph and upon reaching the lake it was apparent I was going to need to find a more sheltered site. I set up way back in the woods to tuck in as best I could. With camp setup, I attempted fishing but had no bites. I suppose the wind had pushed them too deep even for my spinning gear, now I really was cursing bringing it! It was a beautiful lake, though, and I had it all to myself. My camp did indeed end up being very sheltered as I heard howling wind all night that barely fluttered my tarp. The stars were wonderful, but cell phone camera technology isn't quite capable of getting me to capture those details yet.

[Hang Williams]

Day 3 - 3.3 mi, 391’ elevation gain
The next day involved a small off trail section to climb up to some lakes on a bench above the lake I had stayed at the night before. I expected these lakes to be sheltered from the wind direction; however, the wind ended up shifting during the day so I waited to set up camp until 5pm, but still dealt with 40 mph gusts through most of the night. My research had shown these lakes to contain plentiful small cutthroat trout and I was hoping this would be a good warmup for what was to come. I found only small brook trout in the outlet stream and a lake that required a great deal of effort to produce 3 tiger trout on foam beetle dry flies of all things (and I had tried nearly all things). Then like a switch around dinner time, the brook trout in the lake started biting on spinners and I caught 30 between 10-13” over the next hour or so. Then like a switch it went off again. In the downtime between bites, I settled for sitting in the shade and watching the wind gusts blow across the scenic lake. The highlight of the day was the dessert I'd brought.

[Hang Williams]

Day 4 - 3.7 mi, 972’ elevation gain
I woke to relatively calm conditions after a breezy night of the tarp being bandied about by sudden gusts. I packed a day pack and started eyeing the wall of rock I'd have to climb to get to my target lake for the day. It's steeper than the picture makes it look.


Scrambling up revealed a truly impressive lake surrounded by towering granite.



My lack of appropriate warmup to alpine fishing for the season yielded some pretty embarrassing rookie mistakes from clumsy approaches/casts, breaking off flies on hooksets, etc but I still brought a respectable number of good sized cutthroat to hand before the day was through.


I'd boulder hopped and fished my way to the inlet and back, stopped to take a swim, and had a leisurely late lunch before deciding I needed some shelter from the sun and it was time to head back down. This was the route down from the upper lake. My camp is at the lake on the left. The entire route I took is visible in this picture. I slept well that night.

[Hang Williams]

Day 5 - 4.3 mi, 388’ elevation gain
Today was the day to move camp to another basin which, judging by the relative use of the trails at the split, I expected to be more popular. I hadn't seen anyone since early in the morning of Day 2 so I was looking forward to at least the presence of other humans. As I made my way down to the lake where I had stayed on night 2, I came to a spot where I had to squeeze between some scrub timber. It caught on my pack so I gave a mighty push and popped out the other side just for my right foot to go right through the ground cover into a gigantic hole I hadn't seen. My left leg on the other hand was stuck on the other side of the scrub timber and somehow both the top of my foot and the bottom of 3 of my toes ended up touching the ground simultaneously during this unceremonious fall on my face. I heard so much snapping and popping that I was certain that I was going to need to be testing the functionality of my garmin SOS button, but miraculously I was able to get up and walk albeit with plenty of pain. I tested it out for a few steps and surmised that I'd be able to continue. I eventually made it to the shore of the lake and stopped to sit on a rock with my foot in the water while casting with my spinning rod. Low and behold this was the trick and I caught my first ever lake trout. See, bringing the spinning gear was totally worth the weight!


I ended up catching another before re-shouldering the pack and carrying on to the other drainage. It was a short jaunt with many teasing meadows that fooled me into thinking I'd made it to the lakes below. When I finally did, my scouting revealed a pristine stand of trees that seemed like they'd serve well for a few nights of camp and a nearby point where I could sit and enjoy the views.


I explored the lakes nearby and found better than expected size to the fish. I lost count of the number caught and didn't catch a single one less than 15”. This was probably the fastest action I've had for 15-18” cutthroat. What a pleasant surprise! I even harvested one for dinner.


The wind died that night and was dead calm. Too calm. It made it difficult to fall asleep, but when I did it was a blink of my eyes and the sun was bright in my face. I'd somehow slept clear through to 9 am and was missing a sock on my hurt foot. I must've slept HARD.

[Hang Williams]

Day 6 - 4.7 mi, 1312’ elevation gain
A groggy start and I had zero ambitions for this day. I ended up heading to a lake I thought would have fast action for 12” cutthroat. The fish seemed oddly spooky until I realized that there were some fishermen moving through the talus at the head of the lake. Shucks, blame the late start. I found some fish they hadn't fished to and made quick work of a dozen or so trout up to 16” before moving back to the main lake where I managed to catch a 17” lake trout on a dry fly! Never thought that would be a thing. I had him for lunch and then dozed off watching the clouds go by. I took another swim in the afternoon and did my best attempt at washing out my clothes and hanging them to dry. Another dead calm night followed with the only interruptions being the frequent bugles of elk. I again slept HARD. My foot was pretty much better by now too, so all good.

[Hang Williams]

Day 7 - 7.8 mi, 1329’ elevation gain
With the forecast looking good for the day, I decided today would be the day to go chase trophy cutthroat. On the trail by 8 am, up and up I went. It seemed egregiously steep, maybe my legs were tired, maybe I'm just fat and out of shape. The views were amazing, though, and my target lake was stunning.





The fishing at this lake was out of this world. At one point in time, I caught three trophy trout on back to back to back casts. I sat down, filtered some water, texted my wife from the GPS device and then caught a 16” trout 2 casts later. I moved sides of the lake for no other reason than I felt I was spoiling it too much where I was. Being solo, I find it nearly impossible to wrangle the big trout and get a decent photo and release so I opted for decent releases. This one had the most vibrant red stomach though that it had to pose for a picture. Another dead calm night where I'm sure if there was anyone else at the lake I was camped at (there wasn't), they would've been kept awake by my bear-like snoring.

[Hang Williams]

Day 8 - 4.7 mi, 451’ elevation gain
The bonanza the day before was worth the trip, but the goal for this day was to up the numbers caught. Something that, at the outset, seemed like an easy accomplishment but given that I hadn't caught a fish under 15” except on Day 3 and 6, I was still hoping to get a good numbers day under the belt. There was another lake in this drainage I'd yet to fish so I bushwacked my way to it and sat on a large rock overlooking a good bit of the lake. From that vantage point, I saw no cruising fish or rises and the color of the lake itself seemed to indicate it was dead. Oh well, back down to a lake that held 15-18” cutthroat.


I fished it hard, but wasn't having a ton of success until a switch turned on around lunch. In quick succession, I caught a handful of fish on the larger side of the range for about a 30 minute window until the bite switched off again. I made my way to another area of the lake picking off a few single fish here and there, including another lake trout on a dry fly, until I got to a final cove I hadn't fished. It was shallow, so I intended to lob the flies into the middle and wait, but as I was midcast I noticed the movement of a fish cruising the shoreline. A sloppily redirected cast perfectly led this 16” trout and he beelined for my dry fly. Yes, he ate the dry. What's this? There's an 18” trout chasing after him and he eats the chironomid dropper! Now he's the anchor in this equation and that allows the 16” fish to work himself loose of the dry fly. Will this count as two fish or one? I don't care. I managed to net the larger of the fish and settle that that's the peak of fishing.


That's as good as it gets, right? No sane person would make another cast on the trip, right? Well, unfortunately I did.

As I was sitting there contemplating the glory that is life, I just happen to see an absolute bruiser of a trout practically at my feet. I let out a cast out of pure instinct, which is followed by a quick eat and a drag peeling run. I can't help but chuckle and laugh as I let it run rather than getting a knuckle buster from trying to brake the reel. This is amazing! I start working my way down off the rock to get into a position to net the fish. It makes another run with drag screaming, but this time darts right and down. Oh no! There's a rock I didn't see, the line gets caught on it and suddenly there's slack and silence. I'm in shock. For all the fish I've caught, to make such a rookie mistake is unbelievable. I quickly tie on some fresh tippet and flies. I fish hard for another two hours without so much as a glance from a fish. As resignation finally sets in, I sit down by the shore to make a sullen dinner. A perfect symphony ruined on the final note. As I'm waiting for my mountain house meal to rehydrate, I hear a splashy rise just behind me. I scramble for my rod and let out a cast, a few seconds of pause and there's a take! It's small, but it's a fish! I bring it to hand and it's a… brook trout!?!? Yeah, it's a 12” brookie which is good by any standard for that species but in a lake where I'd caught nothing but large cutthroat save for one odd lake trout, that's a poetic cymbal crash of a finish. I couldn't have written it up any better if I'd planned. Time for dessert.

[Hang Williams]

Day 9 - 11.1 mi, 1927’ elevation gain
Now, I'd accounted for two days for the trip back to the trailhead, but the weather forecast indicated thunderstorms in the afternoon of Day 9 and all of Day 10 so I got up early with a mindset of “if I can make it over the pass before the thunderstorms, I'm having a cold beer in town tonight” and damned if I didn't do it without a second to spare. I made it to the pass with thunder rolling a ridge behind me and made it to treeline just in time to be pummeled by hail.


I was absolutely gassed by the time I got to my car, but pizza and beer is an enticing reward. I also get to see some cool things with an extra day to drive around.