Wind River Range | Cirque of the Towers | Hailey Pass, Bears Ears Trail, Jackass Pass

This 40-mile backpacking trip was both spectacular, and at times, a bit scary! This challenging loop in the Wind River range goes through the Popo Agie and Bridger Wilderness areas of remote Wyoming, and it is truly one of the most off-the beaten paths we have visited in our backpacking adventures to date. Another plus--no permit required since this is outside of Grand Teton NP, with scenery, views and peaks that give its more widely known park neighbor a run for its money for sure.

Day 1: Fly into Salt Lake City, drive to Big Sandy Trailhead, WY (6 miles to Dad's Lake)

Lots of wide open space in WY...and cows!

This was a very long day. We started with an early flight out of Houston, getting into Salt Lake City mid-morning. We stopped in Park City to grab the last and most important of our supplies-- bear spray, fuel, wine, meat and cheese! We then continued on for another 4 hours of driving to get to Big Sandy Trailhead. We stopped in Farson for a bathroom break and for some Huckleberry ice cream at the Farson Mercantile. Well worth the stop!

We made it to the TH around 5 pm, and our goal was to hike to Dad's Lake that evening. We were on our way shortly thereafter and had the most beautiful evening hike. We had lots of daylight left given the long summer July days this far north, and we cruised into the lake area about 8:30 pm just as dusk was setting in. There were a few other campsites with tents at Dad's Lake, but Ryan found us a great site tucked in some trees up on the hillside and we were able to get our tent up just as it started to rain.

I forgot to take my altitude sickness medication that morning and started to pay for it a few miles into the hike. By the time we got to camp, I was largely just following Ryan with my eyes closed and trying to survive the pounding headache and nausea that was ensuing. Once we set up our tent, I took Advil and Diamox, and laid in my sleeping bag waiting for it all to kick in. I started to feel better about 30 minutes later and was able to help Ryan hang our bear bag and get settled in for the night. We were so tired from the long day of travel and driving that we dined on chips, snacks and M&Ms before falling asleep in our cozy sleeping bags. It was the best night of sleep I have had yet!

Day 2: Dad's Lake to Graves Lake (10 miles)

We woke to a beautiful morning and lots of mosquitos, and prepared for what we planned to be about a 10-mile hiking day. Our destination was Grave's Lake, which was accessible by climbing over Hailey Pass. It was a stunning morning hiking through this valley, passing Marms Lake and then stopping at Skull Lake for a quick snack before the climb up to Hailey Pass. We hit our first major water crossing that morning, and passed several groups of hikers on this day, with the last group of 3 passing us just as we were making our ascent up to the pass.

The climb up to Hailey Pass was a slow steady climb. As we got closer, our trail gave way to boulders, and eventually we made it to the Twin Lakes, where we stopped for lunch and a another break. As this elevation (about 11,000 ft) we discovered several large snow fields still remained despite it being late July.

The descent down was hard. Other hikers had given us a heads up that going down the other side would be hard, and they were not joking. To give you an idea, the AllTrails app said the descent was between 30-50% grade. Super steep for the first mile down, and mostly loose gravel and pebbles. We had to slide our feet down a few inches at a time and use our trekking poles as a brake to keep from sliding. We both lost our footing once, but each time we were able to stop ourselves, although Ryan did end up on his bottom once. We also had to cross a few snowfields about midway down, but thankfully they were soft and slushy and so we could step through them fairly easily.

Graves Lake

We crossed a second wider and swifter water crossing in the late afternoon and started to make our way up and around on a ridge trail below Pilot Knob. This part of the trail gave us great views overlooking the lake until we dropped down into a flat area with a few visible campsites about mid-lake. We made camp near the mid-point of the lake and enjoyed a relaxing evening sitting in our Helinox chairs with our mosquito head nets on. The mosquitos were bad! Ryan brought his mosquito head net, but I didn't have one. Luckily, I just happened to find one next to the trail earlier that morning, apparently left behind accidentally, but their loss was my find!

Day 3: Grave's Lake to Bears Lakes (12 miles)

This day started out just perfect--except for the mosquitoes! The morning light was breaking over the mountains, and as we left our camp, we passed two guys who were fishing along the lake and were camped nearby. As we discussed our intended route this day, taking Bears Ears Trail and heading up and over Lizard Head Trail, their final words "Whew--good luck!" kept playing in my mind that morning. It was like they knew something that we didn't know---yet. We had to cross several water crossings that morning, crossing one at a time since Ryan had discovered that day before at our first big crossing that he didn't have his water shoes. We found them later in his duffle bag that he used to hold the backpack for checking it as luggage when flying. Somehow, the waters shoes had fallen out of his side pocket unbeknownst to him when he grabbed his gear two days earlier. We had 25 ft of paracord to hang our Ursak food bags each night, so the process at each water crossing went like this: Ryan put on my Teva sandles, I clipped paracord to Ryan's pack, he crossed the water first, he would then unclip the paracord and clip it to the Teva sandles and then give them a toss while I pulled them back to me on the other side, then I would put them on and cross after wrapping up the paracord and stuffing back in my pack. Rinse and repeat at all the water crossings!

We stopped mid-day at a campsite near Valentine Lake to have lunch. It was sunny and getting hot, and the mosquitos were very persistent, so we didn't lounge around for very long. The sun was still shining and white fluffy clouds building, and we knew we had a grind of a climb to get out of this valley and up to the pass. As we started making our way up, we passed a young couple coming from the other direction. They said there was no one behind them at the moment, and two girls way ahead of us. We continued on, and as we climbed and climbed, we could see a storm rising on the horizon. At one point, it did start to drop small hail, and so we climbed into a rock cave and waited it out about 10 min. Once it stopped, we continued on because at that point the dark storm clouds were still way off in the horizon and despite some light thunder in the distance, and we thought the clouds were moving on. About a mile later, and about 500 ft from the first high point, the wind picked up and the rain started. Then we started to see more lightning in the distance and decided to take refuge under a very large rock formation just below Cathedral Peak. We ended up waiting out the storm for over half an hour, hunkering under the rock ledge. The lightning was close--we were measuring the flash to sound in seconds. The temperature also started to drop, and we pulled out all of our layers at this point: fleece, puffy jacket, rain jacket, gloves, hat. While we were a little unnerved with all the wide-open space and lightning all around us, we were still in good spirits despite our legs being pelted with hail! We were still able to laugh about it. It was about 3:30pm, and the weather appeared to break, and the storm looked to be passing on. We still had 4 miles to go to our destination for the night. So, we decided to make a break for it, and hope that the weather would hold out for us to get through the next 3 miles above 11,000 ft. It was still raining, but we continued on. We kept our eyes on the horizon, and it looked like we were going to have the storm front at our back.

And then all hell broke loose.

The storm that was behind us was now circling back around, coming at us from the south now (our intended direction). It started to rain, hail, rain, hail and the sky lighted up all around us. We were crossing large boulder fields above 11,000 ft, with nothing around us to take shelter. We knew we were in a very precarious (and I must say now, dangerous) situation, and we had a choice to make---put up a tent to take shelter or keep moving? At this point, we had rationalized that our chances of getting hit by lightning were about the same. We could put up a tent in 30 mph winds and try to wait it out, and hope that lightening doesn't strike within 200 feet of us up there, or we could keep moving and also hope that lightening doesn't strike within 200 feet of us. I was freezing and my shoes and pants were completely soaked (I didn't think I needed to bring my rain pants on this trip-big mistake), and so we decided to push on. As we crossed to the next high point, we met another couple coming from the same direction who, like us, were facing the same decision--hunker down or keep moving? Our quick conversational exchange led to the same conclusion--we both were going to keep moving until we could get down to a lower elevation. We traded route information as best we could, wished each other safe travel (boy did we both need it) and kept going.

Making the second high point and beginning the descent down

We did make the next high point and could start to see the lakes below us, meaning we were starting to make the long climb down. Somewhere along this last couple of miles, I started to lose my trail bearings and not be able to think clearly. Ryan asked me if I wanted to stop, but I said we have to keep moving, we have to keep moving. It was still raining and hailing on us this entire time, by the way. My teeth were chattering, and I was shaking hard. I was starting to show signs of hypothermia. And this is the moment when you know you have chosen the best husband and hiking partner--He helped me sit down, take off my pack, take off my wet pants (right there on the trail) and helped me put on his rain pants. I was shaking so uncontrollably, he had to help dress me and get my shoes back on. But that minor upgrade to dry pants was enough to help me preserve a little heat and energy to get us down to the Bear Lakes, our destination for the night.

We cruised into a campsite about 7:15 pm and pitched our tent in the pouring rain, not another soul around. We blew up our air mattresses, shed our wet clothes as we climbed inside the tent, put on dry clothes and climbed into our sleeping bags. At this point, it was raining so hard outside that water was streaming under and around our tent like a river. Ryan was concerned that we would soon have a river inside too, but we just made sure to stay on top of the air mattress and in the sleeping bag. The rain did eventually stop, and Ryan was good enough to climb out and make hot chocolate and hot tea to help warm us up and hung up a drying line for all of our wet gear. He is truly a keeper. :)

Day 4: Bear Lakes to Big Sandy Lake (6 miles)

Sitting next to the shore of Bear Lake

The morning of day 4 brought warmth, glorious sunshine, blue skies and dry clothes! The night before was a bit rough for both of us. While we were utterly exhausted when we climbed into our sleeping bags from the events of the day before, we did not sleep well. We both struggled to get warm and continued to shiver most of the night. Once the sun was fully up that morning and warming our campsite, we were able to dry out almost everything as we packed up for a hopefully less eventful day of hiking.

We left camp and the lake and headed back on the trail headed to Lonesome Lake. It was a beautiful hike this morning down into the valley and to the lake. It is an absolutely stunning lake, with the view of Pingora Peak rising above. We also saw lots of other hikers nearby, taking mid-morning breaks and naps.

Pingora Peak above Lonesome Lake

We made our ascent up towards Jackass Pass, which after the day before, was relatively easy and uneventful by comparison! As we made our way down, we passed several hikers coming up and headed towards Lonesome Lake. As we approached Arrowhead Lake, we had a choice--we could climb back up about 500 feet on the trail going to the left on a ridge above the lake, or we could go down around the lake.

We saw hikers on both sides but decided we would go down and around. This sounded like a marvelous idea until about halfway around we discovered that the trail disappeared into a large boulder field that we had to climb over and jump between large boulders in order to cross. The trail was partially visible, but mostly it was just picking a path and following other hikers ahead. This definitely slowed us down, and we got off trail several times by accident, but we eventually made it through the boulder field and back on the main trial.

Never-ending boulder field around Arrowhead Lake

We started to descend down towards another lake that we initially thought was Big Sandy, but soon discovered it was North Lake. As we approached the shore, the trail follows the north shore crossing a creek running into the lake and continued southward around the other side of the lake. This again brought some more climbing over boulders, and we got off trail yet again, but eventually dropped down into a valley with gorgeous fields of wildflowers around us and a large lake peeking through the trees below us.

We made it to the shores of Big Sandy about 4 pm in the afternoon and spied a great campsite up on the rock bluffs. Two other hikers were in the midst of taking down their tent after a day of hiking in the area and were on their way further into the Cirque. So, we scooped up this awesome sight overlooking the lake, with an established campfire ring and a wood pile that someone already cut for a campfire. We set up camp and took it easy this afternoon, sharing our last wine and cocktail hour together watching hikers go by on the path below as we relaxed in our camp chairs. We later walked back down to the Lost Creek and soaked our feet in the ice-cold stream and chatted with passing hikers. Ryan built a campfire later in the evening and we sat (in our mosquito nets) mesmerized by the flames. We could even start to, I daresay, laugh a bit about the comedy of errors the day before had become as well.

Day 5: Big Sandy Lake to Big Sandy Trailhead (5 miles)

The hike out was easy. We made it back to the trailhead in just over 2 hours, as most of the trail is a gradual slope all the way back. I was lamenting the entire week that we didn't see any big game --bear, elk or moose-- and then about 2 miles from the trailhead we finally saw a moose! I heard a loud crack behind us, and just as I turned and looked uphill into the trees, I could see the large moose pass by. I thought Ryan had missed it, but he said "No, I still see it. Its looking right at me". Thats when we realized there were actually two moose! I had spied the mom and he saw the calf behind her. It is always a treat to see wildlife at a safe distance, and this rounded out our week of backpacking on a high note. We were back in our car about 10:30 am and on our way back towards Park City Utah, our destination for the evening. It still took us almost 2 hours before we got into range of cellular service, and we could then check in with our family.

Some Final Thoughts....

I would like to start out by saying that we are moderately experienced hikers and have done a reasonable amount of hiking and backpacking in a variety of terrain and weather extremes. We are also very astute when it comes to considerations regarding our safety in this type of activity. But every now and then, you are just going to make a poor choice. And that is what happened on Day 3. I would like to say that we didn't know what we were getting into, but that is not completely true. Sometimes, you go into a situation hoping for the best, which is what we were hoping once we realized that in crossing that traverse, we were committed. Most of the time, it works out. So, with that said, I offer you some hard-learned advice after lots of reflection about this hike:

• Get an early morning start when climbing mountain passes. We should have got on trail earlier since we already knew that we 6-7 miles to go before we made it to the first high point. In the summer, you have to always assume that there could be a mid-afternoon storm pop up in the high mountain elevations, and so ideally you want to be up and over the pass before a storm rolls in. We left camp about 8:30 am, but we should have left more like 6:30 am. We would not have avoided it completely, but we would have likely been on the descent before it really got bad.

• Sometimes the best decision is to go back down. In hindsight, we probably should have made a decision to go back down on the trail and make a base camp in the tree line. It would have been the most conservative approach, and it would have meant a longer hikes over the remaining 2 days, but it would have been the smartest thing to do. We let our confidence get the best of us here, and if I had to do this again, we would have punted on that day and backtracked down a bit to set up camp and wait it out.

• Always bring rain gear! Okay--to be fair, I do always bring a rain jacket and pants. I didn't bring my pants this past summer in CO and so I thought--hey I made do just fine with only a rain jacket. How bad could it be? Well, folks, it can get really bad, and I personally learned that lesson on this trip. I won't make that mistake again!

• Lightning--to stop or not? In any safety information and hiking discussion groups, the proverbial advice is to stop, take shelter, and ideally, squat down on your feet to minimize the area of contact on the ground in case of a nearby strike. The rubber on your shoes may offer some grounding depending on how close the strike is. But, if you look at the statistics of lightning strikes, the chances of being struck are really about the same. We were not the highest point in the boulder fields (the Cirque Towers were all around us), and lightning could easily strike anywhere in the field. We did have the wherewithal to spread out, and we tried to maintain about 100-yard gap between us as we moved across the top just in case. In hindsight, I think we made the right choice to keep moving to get down to a lower elevation since the storm continued to rain and hail on us for hours. The other couple we passed also made the same decision and continued on to lower elevations (side note: by chance, we happened to make the connection on a hiking FB page the following week and so were able thankfully confirm we both made it down safely). Ultimately, it's your choice, but be sure you think through your plan should you find yourself in this situation.

• Carry a safety GPS Satellite Communication Device. We NEVER go hiking without this! We have a GARMIN InReach Explorer, and while its primary purpose is a safety device, it also allows us to send texts to family to check in regularly. More and more people carry a GPS device when they hike nowadays, and it really is a cheap insurance policy. No one ever thinks anything bad is really going to happen, but as we crossed that mountain in the hail and lightening it did occur to me that if something happened to one of us, we could push a button to try to get help. If you really are serious about hiking, make sure at least one member of your party is carrying a satellite communication device. Remember the American Express commercials? Don't leave home without it!

For a full recap, including the glorious hailstorms, check out our video below!