I think i've been here before

I spent June 21, the longest day of the year, traveling from Grand Teton NP to Sinks Canyon State Park, just outside of Lander, WY.  I arrived at Sinks around 3, and had finally left all the snow behind me.  I'd also finally found the warm weather, as it topped out around 75, with nothing but blue sky in the park.  Sinks Canyon is a neat place, a little crack in the foothills that opens up to the Wind River Mountains beyond.  From the canyon itself, you can look up the canyon to snow covered peaks, turn around, and look down to the dry,desolate sagebrush wasteland that composes most of central wyoming.  The canyon itself is somewhere in between.  It's dry and snow free, but forested, and temperatures are definitely cooler.

My little baby, in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming

Sinks Canyon State Park

But the funny thing is, I've been here before.  6 years ago, I went on a church retreat to Ethete, WY.  During a day in between repainting a house for the Arapaho living on the Wind River Indian Reservation, we had time to travel to this park and take a hike as a group up the canyon.  I remember that day, thinking it would be neat to come back and do the same hike on my own time, and then some.  I got to relive that dream today.  I hiked the exact same trail as I did 6 years ago.  I took some of the exact same pictures as I did 6 years ago too.  Weather was nearly identical, so I'm sure things looked just the same, especially since rock formations don't usually shift too much in half a dozen years.

I wanted to climb up to that rock so badly

So I did, and this was the result

I did a little more hiking than last time too.  A rocky outcrop at the rim of the canyon beckoned me to top it 6 years ago.  Alas, I was forced to stay with the group on that trip.  This time, I was going to find my way to the top of that rock face, no matter what.  After a hour of grueling uphill climbing, I finally reached the peak, which afforded views of the valley probably a few 1000 feet below me.  I got some nice pictures, and got pretty close to the edge too.  Long fall from where I was.  Wouldn't want to be clumsy or anything.  I was safe enough.  I soaked it all in, then made the hike back down.  A wonderful climb up was capped off with views of a male Williamson's Sapsucker on the way down, as well as White-throated Swifts coarsing along the cliff walls.  I didnt make it back to my car til 7.  Originally my plans had been to continue on to a state park about an hour east.  But I was ahead of schedule, and it was a beautiful location, and the cheap rate of $11/night persuaded me to stay.

I had a great night in Sinks Canyon.  Great hike, great birds, and I even met the camp host, the person who is a permanent camper and makes sure that you pay for your site.  His name was Oliver I think.  Really friendly guy.  So much so that at the end of the night, as I was getting ready for bed, he came up to my tent, and asked if I was still hungry.  I said I'd already eaten, but would take anything he had to offer!  He had just had his fill of baby back ribs which had slow cooked for 8 hours.  Lucky for me, he had some leftovers- a whole rack in fact!  Perhaps it helped that I was just some scruffy looking kid trying to make my way cross country and he knew I'd be hungry.  A huge smile came across my face, as I havent had real meat in some time.  He was only worried I was a vegetarian.  Hell no! I said.  I will now be eating like a king for a dinner quite soon.