Wind River Range - Louis Lake and Red Canyon

Hi Blog!

On Monday, August 14, 2017, we decided to take a drive up to Louis Lake located in the southeast part of the Wind River Range. Though we brought the kayaks, this would not be an ordinary paddle. This was our first attempt to combine kayaking with fly fishing. We've been on a number of lakes recently where the fish were just popping -- if only we had our fishing rods with us. Well, today was the day.

With fly rod safely stowed in her kayak, Kathy began paddling out into Louis Lake:

We couldn't have asked for a more picturesque location. This high mountain lake is surrounded by the Shoshone National Forest.

We started in a small bay by the lake outflow. The wind was blowing right at us making casting a bit tricky. However, the wind was also blowing food up against the right bank. We discovered a rocky ledge about 10 to 15 feet from the bank where the trout were cruising up and back. We cast our flies and then allowed the wind to blow us and the fly right into the feeding lane - fish on!

After several casts, we would paddle back out and allow the wind to push us in again. Kathy discovered she could "troll" the fly from the front of her kayak by paddling backwards. This trolling method caught three more trout.

As morning turned to afternoon, the wind ramped up and swells became white caps. The clouds began building and we decided to reel in our lines. Not counting the hits and slips, Kathy netted five trout, while Dave landed six. Dave also gets kudos for landing the largest - a 12 inch native cutthroat.

Since we still had part of our afternoon left, we decided to take the scenic route back to Lander by following Red Canyon Road. Dusty looks good in red.

The uplift of the Wind River Range 60 million years ago exposed sedimentary rocks that were eroded by streams. The canyon exposes a number of geologic formations. Oxidized iron deposits in the rocks give the canyon its name.

The closer we got, the more we could see the layer upon layer of red sandstone. The canyon slopes were littered with large red boulders which broke off and tumbled down.

There is evidence of over 10,000 years of human presence in the canyon, including the Shoshone and Washakie tribes which used it as a transportation corridor between South Pass and the Wind River Basin.

White settlers arrived during the 1870s and established farms on the floor of the canyon which provided fresh fruit and grains for nearby miners at South Pass City and Atlantic City.

Today, much of the canyon floor is owned by the Nature Conservancy which maintains the land as a working ranch. The canyon is listed as a National Natural Landmark.

Gold prospecting in Wyoming gets surprisingly little attention in comparison to some of its neighbors. At the end of Red Canyon Road, we noticed these old abandoned mines.

The first reports of gold in Wyoming were as early as 1842, by westward travelers along the old emigrant trail at the Sweetwater River. Indian hostilities made prospecting efforts difficult for several decades, which could explain why this mine looks more like a jail cell.

We soon left the wild west behind and made our way back to Lander. Tomorrow we move to Dubois and prepare ourselves for the solar eclipse.