Yep. Hike the Wind River/Teton Forest. Coupla weeks after a tour thru the OK Oil fields looking for birds.
With glee, I read the PadNet's Upper Snake info. I had forgotten or didn't know.
The Rendezvous is coming along with a Solstice.
Information on Wyoming/Northern Colorado waters during late summer low water ?
between Idaho
and South Dakota…
How about the Grand Ronde ?
WY is a long way from downtown. And we may find a shortage of literate low water paddlers, most given to the exigencies of bank to bank HCF from over the falls extremists.
PadNet
Overlooked…
http://www.paddling.net/places/WY/
http://www.paddling.net/places/showReport.html?1697
The usual Gates S&Trips came in early with a Bing page on Dinosaur NM.
So up CO 139.
Wyo
– Last Updated: Jul-25-14 2:33 PM EST –
I used to live in Laramie. We could run the North Platte all summer. It can be run well above Alcova. Open canoes are good from Pickaroon Campground downstream to Casper.
River Trapper Canoe Route - 1988
– Last Updated: Jul-24-14 8:10 PM EST –
Sierra Club Guide to the Natural Areas of ID WY MT
Pub 1988 from John & Jane Perry
NORTH PLATTE RIVER – TRAPPER ROUTE CANOE ROUTE
Between Alcova and Casper paralleling sr 220
The North Platte River enters WY from Colorado SW of Laramie. It flows north, then east and south east past Casper, Glenrock, and Douglas, leaving the state near Torrington. The route was used by Indians, explorers, and trappers. This entry covers 45 miles from Alcova Reservoir to Casper. The river meanders thru farm and rangeland, a quiet float trip.
Several public land sites are distributed along this route. Five have parking and other improvements. All sites are small, totaling 200 acres. Other riparian land is privately owned. Along the River, red signs mark private land where boaters mustn’t [!] go ashore without permission; blue signs, public land. Highway signs mark public areas.
River flow is regulated by upstream dams. Low water is usually in the late winter to mid-April. Thereafter depth is usually sufficient to permit use of small motors, if one is alert for sandbars. Floating the 45 miles takes about 15 hours.
WILDLIFE: Birding along the River isgood, species include waterfowel, shorebird, raptors, grouse, song birds. Mammals seen often include mule deer antelope, beaver, muskrat, rabbit, bobcat.
CAMPING: Permitted at Grey Reef, near Alcova, the upstream put in and at two BLM sites downstream. BLM closed one site because of drinking,litter, and vandalism by non boaters and may have closed the other.
PUBLICATION: leaflet with map
Perry gives Alcova reservoir and the ensuing canyon a positive write up in 1987.
Platte R
– Last Updated: Jul-29-14 11:03 AM EST –
There are plenty of places to camp on the upper part of the river on BLM land. There are no designated campgrounds. Camp anywhere you want.
The upper part to about Saratoga is US Forest Service land. There is plenty of fur around the rivers in Wyo. That includes beaver, muskrat, otter, and mink.
beaver ?
have you spotted beaver ? Perry lists beaver as a local river species.
Fur
Beaver are very common on Wyoming rivers. The best fur I have ever seen has been in that state.
Wyoming North Platte paddling
The North Platte is one of the best-developed Class I/II rivers in the West thanks to the BLM, Wyoming Game and Fish, the Wyoming State Parks and various County Parks. From BLM’s Pickaroon Campground near the Colorado Border, to Whalen Diversion Dam just below Glendo State Park near the Nebraska border almost 400 miles downstream, the North Platte is managed as a fishing, camping, and paddling resource but still has a semi-wilderness character. Portage carts or vehicle shuttles are obligatory for the Dams, but the variety of scenery is unexcelled as you paddle and portage through river forest, meadow, desert, mountains/canyons and across BIG lakes. Thanks to irrigation releases and a multitude of tributaries, the River can be paddled in this section as long as it’s not iced up. Check the Launch Sites Map on the Paddling.net website for details.
Shaping up to be a good water year
In the Tetons and upper Snake. Good snowpack so far . I don’t think you’ll have a problem with low water.
n. fork of the shoshone and snake oxbow
from a trip report this past july:
North Fork of Shoshone River, Wyoming. Two solo trips in my ww kayak. My wife took one look at the river and its speed and announced she would gladly shuttle me! Actually I concurred with her, knowing she would be out of her comfort level on a “fast” run . The river was somewhat braided and required fast decision making. The first day I paddled 7.8 miles in 45 minutes. I tried staying on the inside bends to slow the trip down, avoiding the wave trains, but that also meant dealing with some tricky eddy sheer. Day two of paddling (Three Mile Creek to Newton Springs) was 11.5 miles in an hour and 50 minutes. I carried one drop I couldn’t see the bottom of because of the bend in the river. That took between 20-30 minutes of the total 1h50m trip time. Because of the speed of the river, with some wood, you need to stay on your toes for this run. Its only class II/III but demands your full attention the entire time on the water. I was mentally tired even though the paddles were quick. You barely notice the “highway” nearby. Eagles and osprey were common. Camping is in “hard shells” only and bear boxes are required.
Snake River Oxbow, below Jackson Lake, Wyoming- up and back paddle with the wife in the double duck. Scenic, but a hassle to get the necessary permits for a short day paddle. Lots of wildlife but no moose which is kinda what I was hoping for- it seemed like the best option so we could paddle together without a shuttle with views of the Tetons. The lakes were all too windy for a ducky. I couldn’t get anyone at heart six ranch (where we stayed one night) to run shuttle on the buffalo fork, and they didn’t seem eager to have us duck along on a scenic float trip.
even when I offered to pay.
viewing the Tetons
String lake then the short portage to Leigh lake is a good way to go. The afternoon winds can be pretty stiff, but we found them not too hard to deal with in the Malicite. Skirting the windward shore kept us fairly protected from the wind most of the time. We did have to paddle against whitecaps while crossing the arm of the lake below Paintbrush and Leigh Canyons. No place for a ducky, for sure…or even a Prospector style canoe.
Wyo paddling
The wildlife in wyo is out of this world. They have lots of everything. I can remember coming around a bend below Saratoga and a golden eagle was feeding next to the river. Around the next bend was a bald eagle. We had to move the tent in the middle of the night because it upset a long-eared owl nest and the parents were unhappy dive bombing the tent all night.
You can see more wildlife in a week in Wyo than a month most other places outside of Alaska.