Wind River Range Day3 no.2

Wild flowers

Going through the meadow was nice. There were so many, SO MANY wildflowers, and so many kinds of them. Since the meadow was wet and sunny, it must be a perfect place for flowers. 

In the vast meadow, no other hikers, only two of us. There is a true peace in deep wilderness.

Meadow

Looking back the way we came is in the right picture. It would be nice to spend a night here. It is very remote. I couldn't believe just off the trail 1 meter (3.2 feet: for those Americans) took us to the completely silent world. 

Wall Lake

Then we descended to the level of Wall Lake. Wall Lake is a very big lake. Now we hike along the lake, but need to hike up on the hill along the lake. Because it is difficult to walk on the level of lake geologically, and we eventually needed to go up to meet the actual trail later. 

Surprisingly we saw a tent on the hill near the Wall Lake. There was no person around. Probably really hardcore hiker is hiking in the area. Maybe s/he was climbing nearby mountains or scouting mountains for the future attempt. 

Wall Lake

 

Then we again climbed the hill and looked down Wall Lake. Wall lake is beautiful from any direction. Rocks, lakes, mountains, snow, green, blue sky, clouds were all at 360 view. What a gorgeous place!

Surprisingly, there were cairns occasionally. Those cairns are clearly on the path to our destination. Mr.N and I were talking this might be an abandoned trail. It used to be a trail a few decades ago, but it no longer is. Mr.N told me that Ms.L has 1930's Glacier National Park map, and there are many more trails written on the map. Actually people like those maps because they can no those hidden secret trails. I really like the old map stories and now I am very interested in old maps of every National parks and wilderness! Secret trails sound super exciting. 

Then we came back to a real trail! It felt good to find a trail after off-trail. I felt some achievement. Real trail appeared on the edge of Cook Lakes. We ate lunch at the lake shore. It was a nice view, but there were tremendous amount of mosquitoes. I immediately put DEET (100%) everywhere on my body. Mosquitoes are evil. I felt good when mosquitoes were blown away by breeze, even though I felt cold by the winds. Maybe I am evil, too. 

After we passed Cook Laks, it got cloudy and started drizzling and some raining. I put my rain gear on and carried on walking. It was cold.

Wyoming is cold at night even in summer (I knew that it is very cold in winter). Because Wyoming is very very dry, temperature drastically drops once sun sets. 

When I moved to California where it is much drier than Japan, I noticed how different the temperature is between daytime and night. After I moved to humid Boston, I forgot how quickly temperature goes down after sunset. 

Wyoming is extreme version of California. In the evening after sun hides behind the mountains, temperature drops really quickly. My experience of West mountains is more based on Sierra Nevada, so it was a little unexpected. Luckily it was cold, but not freezing cold. 

Morning in the Winds starts chilly and once sun shows up above mountains, temperature goes up sky rocket. I felt cold to super hot quickly. My comfortable zone is very narrow, so I was busy to put on/take off jackets during trip. In contrast to me, Mr.N's temperature zone is much wider, so he was less busy and curious why my optimal zone was so small. hahahaha.

To be continued...