Painted Horse
08-27-2014, 09:16 PM
I spent last week packing into Hawks Rest Wyoming. This are claims to be the most remote site in the lower 48 states. I'm not sure about that, Seems I've seen some pretty remote areas in Southern Utah. But who is to argue their claim.
We parked at Turpin Meadows, which is about 20 miles east of Moran Junction in Grand Teton park. From the trail head it's about 25 miles into Hawks Rest by most GPS devices. The Forest Service volunteer at the cabin at Hawks Rest claims it's closer to 30 miles because most GPS's don't have points close enough to track all the twist and turns and up and downs of the trail. Regardless, it was about 7 hours riding on our horses to cover the distance.
Hawks Rest is just a mile or two south of the South Boundary of Yellowstone. So you are in the Teton Wilderness and not the park. We took several day rides into the South East corner of the park. But you are not allowed to take pets into the park and one of my friends didn't like leaving his dog tied up in camp while we explored the park, So we kinda limited the amount of riding we did into the park.
Camp is basically on the Upper Yellowstone River. I understand we were about 20 miles upstream from where the lake enters into Yellowstone lake. It's a big meadow type area and the river just meanders down throw the meadow. Most of the Cutt's had spawned and returned to the Lake, But there were still a few of the big spawners hanging out in the undercut banks. I caught enough on a grass hopper pattern to keep things interesting.
The storms moved in Wednesday night and we had a wonderful display of Lightening over the mountains. It rained most of Thursday and we decided to head out Friday and had some rain on our trip out. The trails were really sloppy and muddy from Thursdays rain.
The volunteer who lives in the cabin and has been working this area for 30 years ( how do you get a job like that where you get to live in a forest service cabin in such a beautiful area) had some interesting numbers. He said beck in the 70's they would see about 1200 visitors in a two month window that they manned the cabin. He say the last few years they have been lucky to see 300 visitors in a three month season. I wonder if the Grizzly population has scared folks out of this type of back country camp out or if folks are just too busy to pack in that far. Too many soccer games that they need to be home for,.
Any way, here are a few photos of the area.
This area burned in 1988 in the big Yellowstone fire. Still lots of dead timber standing. Be careful where you place a tent, so that a tree doesn't come crashing down in a strong wind.
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2014/IMG_3072.jpg (http://s130.photobucket.com/user/Painted-Horse/media/2014/IMG_3072.jpg.html)
Most of the tail is along the edge of big meadows. But there were two passes you climb over and few rocky areas
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2014/IMG_3059.jpg (http://s130.photobucket.com/user/Painted-Horse/media/2014/IMG_3059.jpg.html)
We had 4 people and 8 horses. So each of us rode one horse and packed our own gear on the second horse. We ate real food, Steaks Pork Chops, had cobblers and cakes in a dutch oven. One of the advantages of using horses to pack is no dehydrated camp food.
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2014/IMG_3069.jpg (http://s130.photobucket.com/user/Painted-Horse/media/2014/IMG_3069.jpg.html)
Lots of Beaver ponds in the meadows, I can imagine how the old trappers liked this area when they first found it.
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2014/IMG_3097.jpg (http://s130.photobucket.com/user/Painted-Horse/media/2014/IMG_3097.jpg.html)
This is a view from the top of Hawks Rest looking up the Thorofare valley towards Cody
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2014/IMG_3160.jpg (http://s130.photobucket.com/user/Painted-Horse/media/2014/IMG_3160.jpg.html)
And looking up the Yellowstone valley towards the headwaters of the Yellowstone river
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2014/IMG_3063.jpg (http://s130.photobucket.com/user/Painted-Horse/media/2014/IMG_3063.jpg.html)
You pass the "Parting of the Waters" where one stream divides and part goes East to the Atlantic Ocean ( Atlantic Creek) and the part goes West to the Pacific Ocean ( Pacific Creek)
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2014/IMG_3083.jpg (http://s130.photobucket.com/user/Painted-Horse/media/2014/IMG_3083.jpg.html)
We parked at Turpin Meadows, which is about 20 miles east of Moran Junction in Grand Teton park. From the trail head it's about 25 miles into Hawks Rest by most GPS devices. The Forest Service volunteer at the cabin at Hawks Rest claims it's closer to 30 miles because most GPS's don't have points close enough to track all the twist and turns and up and downs of the trail. Regardless, it was about 7 hours riding on our horses to cover the distance.
Hawks Rest is just a mile or two south of the South Boundary of Yellowstone. So you are in the Teton Wilderness and not the park. We took several day rides into the South East corner of the park. But you are not allowed to take pets into the park and one of my friends didn't like leaving his dog tied up in camp while we explored the park, So we kinda limited the amount of riding we did into the park.
Camp is basically on the Upper Yellowstone River. I understand we were about 20 miles upstream from where the lake enters into Yellowstone lake. It's a big meadow type area and the river just meanders down throw the meadow. Most of the Cutt's had spawned and returned to the Lake, But there were still a few of the big spawners hanging out in the undercut banks. I caught enough on a grass hopper pattern to keep things interesting.
The storms moved in Wednesday night and we had a wonderful display of Lightening over the mountains. It rained most of Thursday and we decided to head out Friday and had some rain on our trip out. The trails were really sloppy and muddy from Thursdays rain.
The volunteer who lives in the cabin and has been working this area for 30 years ( how do you get a job like that where you get to live in a forest service cabin in such a beautiful area) had some interesting numbers. He said beck in the 70's they would see about 1200 visitors in a two month window that they manned the cabin. He say the last few years they have been lucky to see 300 visitors in a three month season. I wonder if the Grizzly population has scared folks out of this type of back country camp out or if folks are just too busy to pack in that far. Too many soccer games that they need to be home for,.
Any way, here are a few photos of the area.
This area burned in 1988 in the big Yellowstone fire. Still lots of dead timber standing. Be careful where you place a tent, so that a tree doesn't come crashing down in a strong wind.
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2014/IMG_3072.jpg (http://s130.photobucket.com/user/Painted-Horse/media/2014/IMG_3072.jpg.html)
Most of the tail is along the edge of big meadows. But there were two passes you climb over and few rocky areas
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2014/IMG_3059.jpg (http://s130.photobucket.com/user/Painted-Horse/media/2014/IMG_3059.jpg.html)
We had 4 people and 8 horses. So each of us rode one horse and packed our own gear on the second horse. We ate real food, Steaks Pork Chops, had cobblers and cakes in a dutch oven. One of the advantages of using horses to pack is no dehydrated camp food.
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2014/IMG_3069.jpg (http://s130.photobucket.com/user/Painted-Horse/media/2014/IMG_3069.jpg.html)
Lots of Beaver ponds in the meadows, I can imagine how the old trappers liked this area when they first found it.
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2014/IMG_3097.jpg (http://s130.photobucket.com/user/Painted-Horse/media/2014/IMG_3097.jpg.html)
This is a view from the top of Hawks Rest looking up the Thorofare valley towards Cody
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2014/IMG_3160.jpg (http://s130.photobucket.com/user/Painted-Horse/media/2014/IMG_3160.jpg.html)
And looking up the Yellowstone valley towards the headwaters of the Yellowstone river
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2014/IMG_3063.jpg (http://s130.photobucket.com/user/Painted-Horse/media/2014/IMG_3063.jpg.html)
You pass the "Parting of the Waters" where one stream divides and part goes East to the Atlantic Ocean ( Atlantic Creek) and the part goes West to the Pacific Ocean ( Pacific Creek)
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/2014/IMG_3083.jpg (http://s130.photobucket.com/user/Painted-Horse/media/2014/IMG_3083.jpg.html)