Wyoming Boondocking - Day 25: West Firehole Canyon, Blacks Fork River and other rock formations

 Sunday, September 20

A sunny day today, a bit cool until about 3 PM as the temperature was not forecasted to be higher than yesterday.  But the sunshine made all the difference!

Soon as it hit 50°F (10°C) I hit the road on Yagi heading towards that promising looking trail I'd spotted the day before.  It seemed to lead straight into the gap created by the west portion of Firehole Canyon and this time I had the right motorcycle for the job!

It was 23 miles from camp to the entrance to Lost Dog Road and while it was a brisk ride, there was very little traffic so I didn't have to go above 50 mph to get there and so avoided some of the wind chill factor.

The first trail I tried proved a dead end but the picture below shows you the trail conditions on a lot of the road I would end up taking.

Soon enough, I found the right trail and not too long afterwards, was at the furthest point which provided a high overlook of the reservoir and the canyon walls on this side.

A rock formation near the overlook that I found interestingly carved

by the wind.

Returning back to Lost Dog Road, after negotiating some side sloping trail portions that almost gave me pause, I turned left and went to the end of the road to the water's edge.  It proved a disappointing spot for scenic views so no pics.

However, as I returned north on Lost Dog, I spied this glimpse of water and stopped:

Back on WY 530, I turned south and got off at the BLM gate just south of the bridge which goes over the Blacks Fork River.  I followed a trail which can take you to the top of a nearby mountain where some telecom antennas are located.  

I crossed the river using the gravel passage provided by whomever maintains this trail to the telecom gear but it started getting steeper and sandier pretty fast and soon I came to a stop:

This is as far as I got, not a good idea to try for the top

when riding alone.

The river crossing point

Back on WY 530 again, I kept heading south until some distant rock formations caught my eye as I approached the vicinity of Brinegar Crossing where I'm camped.  I found a gate that allowed me access and I rode further west towards the Wilderness Study Area.   I wanted to get a closer look at the rock formations I'd seen from the highway.

First time seeing such a combo of rocks atop a lighter

sandstone type material

This is the portion of the rock formations that caught my eye from

the highway, perhaps a half mile away.

Making my way back, I checked out this dry lake bed....it must have dried recently as the surface mud was still "moist".

OK, so enough of that, it was getting warm by now and I was getting hungry as it was almost 3:30 PM at this point.  Made it back to camp and after a late lunch I just hung out at the URRV enjoying the warmish weather.  It had risen to 68°F (20°C) from a low of 39F overnight so it was quite comfortable.