Wind River Canyon

When we drove to Thermopolis last Friday, we drove through 'the canyon' as the present campground hosts explained to us over the phone when I got explicit directions on how to find this place.  But we were not prepared for the wow factor of driving through 'the canyon'.  I knew we would be driving a scenic route based on the map and I also thought we would be driving up and over the Owl Creek Mountains.  Not so.  We drove through the base of the mountains along the Wind River in a canyon.  And it was absolutely beautiful.  Saw a couple of waterfalls.  Since the Wind River Canyon is on the Wind River Indian Reservations, you cannot fish in the water unless you have a permit.

No fishing!

Floating to Thermopolis 

At Wedding of the Waters - end of canyon

Yesterday we spent a couple of hours back at the canyon - Wind River Canyon.  At each pull off we stopped and clicked away with our cameras.  Stunning.  Every angle, every place we looked.  A train was moving through the canyon at the time and we caught the tail end of it as it moved in the S curves.

Train tracks, river, roadway

Following the train through the canyon

Breathtaking scenery

Even trains have to go through tunnels 

About 4 weeks ago there were major landslides and the road was shut down for some time while they cleaned up the debris and shored the rock walls.  At the same time on the railroad side of the canyon, landslides also took out portions of the track.  They said it cost a million dollars a day in lost revenue to the railroad while the tracks were blocked.  The same storm that caused all the landslides (also was a tremor which they think contributed to the landslides, not necessarily the rain) also dumped 6 feet of snow on the Big Horn Mountains to the east and with the road closed through the canyon and the road closed up and over the mountains, the Big Horn Basin (we are in it) was literally shut down.  No one coming in or going out for some time.

The light stripes coming down are some of landslides 

Landslides on both sides - this one took out train tracks 

What a mess that must have been!

At the south end of the canyon, we stopped at the Boysen Dam and walked over it and took pictures.  We met a family that had just launched their boat at the Wedding of the Waters area north of the canyon and the wife said that there is 5100 cubic feet of water being released each minute and that is amazing.  She said they were boating at this area last year, a week later (July 4th week) and the water flow was 2600 cubic feet.  The water levels are so high that they can only boat to Thermopolis and have to stop in town because they cannot go under the bridges, there is not enough clearance.  The water is really rushing by, right up to the tops of the bank.  Later in the day, while in town, we ran across that family, their boat on land on the trailer.

Boysen Dam on right side of picture

Boysen Reservoir

Standing on top of dam looking back at Reservoir 

Standing on top of dam looking  into canyon

The boat family from earlier