Medicine Bow National Forest: Lake Marie and Lake Marie Falls

This morning we awoke in Saratoga, ate breakfast, packed up camp, and hit the road headed into the Snowy Range. I had spend a little bit of time in the Snowy Range previously, having summited Medicine Bow Peak back in 2009. I was excited to bring Noelle and Sierra back to this very beautiful area. 

It was cool and crisp as we made our way into the higher elevations. We stopped at a pullout and walked around a bit in the beautiful scenery. 

There may even have been a few snowballs thrown.

After a short time, we moved on higher up into the mountains to Lake Marie for our hike. Immediately, the scenery a jaw-droppingly beautiful!

We made our way around the south shore of Lake Marie, stopping frequently to admire the scenery.

We found a snow patch and walked over to it to see how Rosie would react to snow. She had never before seen snow in her young life and she seemed to really enjoy digging in it.

Eventually we moved on, following the paved trail higher along the shore of the lake.

Soon we reached the road that leads to Mirror Lake. We decided to walk the road back to the start of our hike. 

There were lots of great views of Mirror Lake!

There were lots of wildflowers to look at as we walked. Asters, 

columbine, 

and a flower that grew in the wet areas where snow was melting.

As we neared the parking area where we had started our hike, I noticed that there appeared to be a trail on the other side of the road. Sure enough there is a short loop trail there that leads to views of Lake Marie Falls. 

We walked the short loop and then headed down out of the mountains and into Laramie for lunch before making our way home.

South Pass and South Pass City

After our visit to the Sinks and the Rise, we headed out of Sinks Canyon State Park, through Lander and southwest on Highway 28 to the South Pass area. I was determined to find the South Pass, the actual spot where the emigrant wagons crested the Continental Divide on their ways to Oregon, California and Utah. After a few wrong turns, the directions that I got off of the BLM website finally started to make sense and we found ourselves driving the CRV on ruts left behind by hundreds of wagons headed west. 

I had my picture taken at the monument placed by Ezra Meeker on June 24, 1906.

Then I checked out the nearby monument to Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding.

After our brief visit, we made our way back to Highway 28 and South Pass City, an historic old gold mining town. South Pass City was very interesting. In the late 1860s, at the peak of the mining boom, South Pass City had a population of about 2,000 people. Today, it's a largely a ghost town, with many of the buildings protected by the state of Wyoming as a historic site. 

We walked through the town site and checked out many of the buildings,

including the old school

and the creepy jail.

We were even allowed to bring Rosie inside the buildings with us.

Besides the buildings, we checked out a small mine in the town site.

We also tried our luck in panning for gold.

Unfortunately, we discovered not a flake. On the way out of town we drove past the real money maker when town was thriving; the Carissa Mine.

It was a fun visit. We left South Pass and headed east to Saratoga, where we are camped at Saratoga Lake. Earlier, Sierra and I had a chance to soak in the hot springs. 

It was Sierra's first experience in a hot spring and she really enjoyed it.

Sinks Canyon State Park: The Sinks and the Rise

 Rosie supervised as we packed up camp this morning.

After getting packed up, we made the short drive from the campground to Sinks Canyon State Park. We would be walking the short trail from the "Sinks" to the "Rise". 

The view of the Sinks was impressive from the overlook,

but even more impressive from the mouth of the Sinks Cavern.

We enjoyed the cool air at the Sinks before making the short walk down to the Rise.

We could see some huge fish in the water there from the viewing platform high above.

They sell fish food out of vending machines there. While we didn't have money to buy any, Sierra found plenty that people had dropped on the ground. When she dropped the food into the water, a real feeding frenzy was started. After about 10 minutes of fish feeding we retraced our steps back to the car and hit the road for the next leg of our journey.

Shoshone National Forest: Popo Agie Falls

It was a long, hot drive from Thermopolis to out campsite in Sinks Canyon. After all the time we spent in the car, everyone was ready to stretch our legs with a hike. We decided to attempt the roughly 3 mile round-trip hike to Popo Agie Falls. 

We made the short drive to the trailhead and immediately hit the trail. 

A large portion of the beginning of the hike took place on a trail that offered little shade. We had to stop frequently to give Rosie water. The beautiful canyon scenery helped make up for the hot conditions.

There were lots of great views down to the the cascading waters of the Popo Agie River.

After a steady climb, we reached our first view of one of the Popo Agie Falls.

We made our way into a wooded area and ended up at the base of one of the waterfalls. 

It was here that Sierra decided to go for a swim. 

I joined her for a short time and even Rosie went into water deep enough that she was forced to swim. I think this scared her though and Noelle held her for a bit. 

After a short time swimming, I decided to go up the trail a bit to see if I could find the "waterslide falls". Sure enough I found them and had them all to myself.

I went back to get Noelle and Sierra and we all checked out the falls together. I didn't have the guts to try the waterslide, but we watched a group of three younger guys do it. 

 After a while of relaxing at the falls, we started to make our way back to the trailhead. 

Luckily the temperatures were cooler and the hike was downhill. 

Tensleep Castle Gardens

 Early this morning, Rosie woke Noelle up because she had to go to the bathroom. When Noelle took her out, she was greeted by a moose in the campsite next to ours! Noelle woke Sierra and I up and we went out of the tent to have a look. Eventually, we got out of our sleeping bags for good, ate breakfast, packed up our campsite and hit the road. We headed down and out of the mountains via Tensleep Canyon. It was a very scenic drive, but the temperature rose steadily as we descended.

I noticed a place on the map called Castle Gardens (one of two Castle Gardens in Wyoming) and so we made our way there after we drove through the town of Tensleep. The Tensleep Castle Gardens are an interesting place. Unfortunately, the rough, washboarded road into the site made Sierra feel car sick. While Noelle attended to Sierra, I had a look around.  I climbed up to the top of the bluff nearest to where we parked and found an impressive natural arch. 

The views from the top were impressive. 

I explored the rim a bit before heading down to Noelle and Sierra. I had a quick look around in the lower areas. 

Then Sierra started to feel better. The improvement of her condition, coupled with the hot temperatures, encouraged us to get back on the road again. It was a quick visit, but if we are ever headed back this way again, I might stop to have another look around.