Big Sandy Lake Trailhead, Bridger Wilderness, Wind River Range WY September 2, 2005

Posted January 6, 2007

I’ve spent a fair amount of time up in the Wilderness Areas of Wyoming. Great state and great country north of Colorado. One particular wilderness that I’ve spent time in is the Bridger Wilderness Area. Most of my time has been in the northern part of the wilderness. I decided to head to an area in the Bridger wilderness that I had never seen.

Before I go any further in the trip’s description, here is my standard comment. Please check my photo galleries here for all the larger and higher quality photos for this trip. In addition, you can view a topo map of the Sandy Lake TH here and a topo map of Sandy Lake itself here. A Google Earth map can be found here (you may need to adjust the scale bar on the left side of the Google map). All links open a new browser window.

First off. A little background on the wilderness area (see here for a Wikipedia entry for more information). The Bridger Wilderness (in the Wyoming Wind River mountain range) is what I call a “medium” continental USA wilderness. So, much bigger than most anything that Colorado has, but not quite as large as some wilderness areas found in other parts of Wyoming, Montana, or Idaho (Canada and Alaska don’t count : ). But, as the pictures will try to show, the feeling you get when you drive up to it is that “..that’s a LOT of country in there.” Here is a view of the wilderness as I drove up on the gravel road.

Also, all the land around it that you drive through (or, 99% of it) is either BLM or National Forest. And most of that area is pretty empty.

Day 1

I arrived at the Big Sandy Campground, which is just a 100 yard hike from the Big Sandy Lake trail-head, at 5-6pm on September 2, 2005. It had been a 6-7 hour or so drive from Fort Collins, CO of which the last couple of hours were on a gravel road (with lots of stops for picture taking : ). While the drive up the gravel road had been very pretty with awesome views of the mountains I would be hiking in, I was not prepared for what I saw at the trail-head.

Hmmm. Lots of cars. But, were are all the people? I very quickly found that while there were a very large number of vehicles present (almost all of which were from states other than Wyoming), pretty much all the people were up in the wilderness. So, it was actually very quiet and peaceful. The campground itself was a little past all the parking areas and ended up being rather vacant. Since I was returning to my camp each night, I was allowed to stay in the campground and had the pick of the best campground to myself.

So, the moral is, this trailhead is one of the most (if not the most) popular jump off points for hiking into the Bridger Wilderness. But, that said, the Big Sandy Lake campground is NOT what you would call a popular “lets take the kids camping for the weekend” destination. It’s just too far from any city/town. In addition, if a family is headed towards this area of Wyoming, it is almost guaranteed that they will be going to the Jackson/Yellowstone National Parks. That said, YMMV : )

One thing I noticed on the drive through the BLM and National forest roads is that it was hunting season. Now, if I had been in Colorado that meant that I could expect to see a hunting camp probably every 50-100 yards along the road. This being Wyoming (which does not allow non-residents to hunt without a Wyoming guide), it meant I saw a hunting camp every couple of miles or more. Big difference. Here is a particularly rustic one (but not unusual).

Note that I did not encounter one hunter while hiking. The area is just too big and the number of hunters too small. No guarantee as your mileage may vary. If you worry about running into hunters, then you might want to visit prior to the hunting season.

Anyway, I setup camp and hiked around making sure I knew where the facilities were and the trails started. It was, as I stated earlier, very quiet. There is quite a bit of horse travel in the area (as there is in most large wilderness areas), and some people were out letting their horses grab a few bites to eat before being put in the corral for the night.

Day 2

Got up early enough the next day to get on the trail by 8 am or so. My destination for today was Big Sandy Lake. Roughly a 5 mile (one way) hike if I remember, but the trail consisted of only a gradual gain in elevation. I’m not sure if the earliness of the day is the reason I did not see anyone else on the trail, but the fact is I saw no one else on the trail all the way to Big Sandy Lake. The day started off mostly cloudy (and I had to hike through one rain shower right before reaching Big Sandy Lake), but still T-shirt weather. Fairly mild for this time of year I would think. One thing I noticed during the trip is that the insects were pretty much non-existent. I don’t know if that is due to a dry season or because it was early fall. But, I wasn’t going to complain : )

The trail wound itself along the Big Sandy Creek most of the time. And the scenery was extremely picturesque. Lots of meadows along the way with views of the mountains in the background.

Right before you get to Big Sandy Lake, the trail gains a quick rise in elevation. Eventually though you come out into a very large open basin with Big Sandy Lake being the centerpiece. Approximately half the lake is skirted by forest, and the other half runs along large meadows. The mountains are evident in almost all directions and you can see that the timberline is not much higher than the lake itself.

There is a major split in the trail here at Big Sandy Lake. One trail goes off in a southerly direction to some more lakes (and more trail divisions) and can lead you all the way to the southern end of the Bridger Wilderness Area. The other trail heads in a northerly direction and quickly begins a steep ascent to cross the Continental Divide. The hikers on that trail would then drop down into the Popo Agie Wilderness Area. The temptation to go a little further in either direction was strong, but will have to wait for another trip. I had to make it back to my camp before dark. Here is an attempt to show you just how nice this place was. Panorama of 4 photos stitched together (I’m still learning : )

So, I enjoyed the fact that the sky was clearing and the sun shining, and loafed around taking pictures. Aside from the astounding scenery, I did see hikers (who finally caught up with me) and horse packers. So, there was just enough other people activity to make it interesting, but not destroy the feeling of being “away from it all.”

After an hour or more I decided to head back down the trail. One reason for leaving Big Sandy Lake sooner than later was because I was considering taking a slightly different trail back to the campground. It would allow me to go past a few lakes but did not look as if it would add much more than an additional mile of travel. I did indeed take the turn off which was located around 1/2 mile back down the trail from Big Sandy Lake. It was a very good decision.

This new trail allowed me to see 3 lakes and a multitude of meadows. Not to mention some spectacularly different views of the mountains.

If anything, the trail was just a little bit less used that the main Big Sandy Lake trail. I saw two people on that section of the trail from the turn off to where the trail intersected with the main Big Sandy trail. I have to say, I was a little tired by the time I made it back to camp, but it had been very worthwhile. I made myself a quick dinner and caught the last rays of the sun. Tomorrow would bring more great hiking.

Day 3

Due to some rather incompetent vacation scheduling on my part, I needed to get back to Fort Collins today. But, I figured that I had 3/4 of the day to do another hike. I did not care if I arrived in Fort Collins after dark. If I could get back on the road again by 4 pm, that would be good enough. It did mean that I would need to take a slightly shorter hike than that of Big Sandy Lake.

This posed a problem. Because there were 3-4 other hikes in the area that looked very nice. O well, they will be there next time I visit. At least I had some nice company to share my cup of coffee with.

Took me a while to see the moose’s calf hiding in the deep grass.

I decided to hike to Twin Lakes and then as far past it as I thought I had the time. Again, I got an early start (packed up my camp) and got on the trail as soon as I could find it : ) Yah, the area has lots of trails, so making sure you get on the correct one can be entertaining to say the least. While they have made a good attempt to keep the trail signs current, some of the “side trails” have lost their signs. So, I recommend having a good map with you and knowing how to use it. Not so much as to keep from getting lost, but just to make sure you get on the right trail and stay on it. Anyway, as it turned out, I did get on the right trail to Twin Lakes and, again, it turned out to be another great trail.

This trail was a little more varied than the other one. More up and down, smaller meadows, aspen groves, little streams, hidden valleys. And, fewer people (as if I was overrun by people the day before : ) A very different type of environment. I liked it.

I got to Twins Lakes and stopped to eat and enjoy the view. The day was sunny, but there was a slight breeze that could be “almost” considered chilly at times. But only if you were up on a point where the breeze could reach you. I hiked a half a mile or so past Twin Lakes just because the country and the trail were such that it was hard to stop. I really wanted to just keep going down the trail. But, I’ll be back.

Got back to the truck by “almost” the same trail and took off down the road back to civilization, my job, etc. But, this trip had been extremely enjoyable. Part of that, of course, was that for some reason the weather had been just about perfect (and, remember, no mosquitoes, flys, etc.). I found out just how big a part the weather can play a month later when I tried to go to Yellowstone for a long extended trip, but had to change plans due to a snow storm that blew in from the north. But, that’s another story.

- Geoff Weatherford