Day 7 turned out to be THE BIG DAY of this trip. I hadn’t expected it to be. I had seen it is mostly as a travel day (over 5.5 hours on the road, according to Google Maps), with some good scenery in Wind River Canyon. To quote a former president, I misunderestimated Wyoming’s potential.

I left the hotel in Lander fairly early in the morning and took one of the “alternate routes” suggested by Google maps, bypassing the towns of Arapahoe and Riverton in favor of even more wide-open country. Along the way, it struck me that driving across the central Wyoming plains was like being in a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. It seems like the same background endlessly rolls by over and over again. Fortunately, I didn’t have too long to drive before the scenery changed. I don’t remember how I originally heard about Wind River Canyon, but somehow I got it into my head that it was something not to be missed, even by old bald guys who’ve seen hundreds of canyons throughout the western states. I was not disappointed. There was an abundance of colors and forms that I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere else. I drove north through the canyon – the same way the river flows. At the head of the canyon is a hydroelectric dam; we’ll start there:

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Now that we’ve seen the damn dam, let’s enter the actual canyon, shall we? Starting at the head of the canyon, here’s some of what I saw along the upstream (south) end:

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About halfway through the canyon, the road goes through a quick series of three short tunnels. Just before that, you can see the remains of the old Boysen Dam (which was replaced by the current dam in 1951) as well as some sort of cable-based river crossing mechanism:

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And now, here’s some of what I saw along the downstream (north) end of the canyon:

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Regarding the last pic above, the railroad cars seen here are at one end of a long chain of similar cars. The presence of both BN and ATSF cars probably indicates this train was slapped together some time after these two railroads merged. It couldn’t have been too long after, though, because I’m thinking the resulting mega-railroad tried to repaint all their active cars with the new company colors and initials (BNSF). So…I’d guesstimate these cars have been sitting on a siding here since 1995 or ’96. Does that mean this rail line was abandoned at that time? Well, I didn’t see or hear any trains during the three or so hours that I spent in the canyon, but the line looked well-maintained, and the rails were still shiny on top. I’m thinking it still sees occasional use, but I could be wrong.

Getting back to the point, this is definitely one of the prettiest canyons I’ve ever seen! The pictures above may not demonstrate it, but that’s probably due to the fact that I was using my Old Cheap-n-Crappy^(TM) camera. (Curious as to why I wasn’t using my Good Camera? Click here.) So, you might just have to take my word for it: – Wind River Canyon is definitely worth going out of your way to see!

But soon, the views would change again…

[end of part 1]