Wind River Hike - Fiddler's Lake to Upper Silas Lake

Today is our last full day in Lander, Wyoming, and it was our last chance to go hiking in the Wind River Range.  We chose today to try a hike from Fiddler's Lake to Upper Silas Lake, a 7.5 mile out-and-back with lots of forest, lakes, streams and views of the largest mountains in the range.

We rented  car to drive the back-mountain gravel roads to get to our trailhead.  As we drove up, we had a great view of the most notable mountains in the range

We parked at the trailhead for the Christina Lake Trail, at Fiddler's Lake and began our hike along Fiddler's Lake, which is a beautiful mountain lake popular with local campers:

The first part of our hike was high mountain forest, with the trail covered in fir needles and glacial moraine rocks.  Many of the trees had suffered from various blights, one of which produced outsized burls on the trees.  Here's Kathy with one of her burlfriends:

David, on the other hand, likes the boulders.  Here he is boulder-leaning again:

We had over half a dozen stream crossings.  The most difficult and striking required walking across old trunks that stretched across the roaring Silas Creek:

We stopped for lunch at a boulder field along Silas Creek.  The elevation was almost 10,000 feet, and in the shade, large patches of snow remained.  Here's a selfy at the boulder field:

Kathy took the opportunity to gather some snow and make a little snowman guy to stand guard on the boulders:

The last time we hiked at 10,000 feet was at Cedar Breaks National Monument, and the time before that at Augustborg Pass in the Swiss Alps.  When we were in the Alps, the elevation made the hiking very difficult for her.  Less so at Cedar Breaks.  Today she didn't have much trouble at all.  Here's a photo of Kathy celebrating the BIG TEN THOUSAND:

Our biggest reward, however, was Upper Silas Lake, which is very remote and up among glacially carved mountains.  The lake was surrounded by slopes with snow.  Dave was awestruck and couldn't stop looking at the mountains, which were about 12,000 feet.  Kathy caught him mountain-dreaming:

As we paused at Upper Silas Lake, the weather grew threatening and very windy, so we hastened our return, but no sooner did we set off back down the trail then the clouds blew away and the sun came out.  We celebrated with a shadow photo on the forest floor, somewhere between Tomahawk Lake and Lower Silas Lake:

We're sad to leave here.  We want to get deeper into the Wind River Range, and we really like the Lander community.  The hillsides around the town are gorgeous.  We think we'll be back!