Wind River 2024 Trip 2 - August 11-18, 2024 - Scab Creek Trail Loop

[arkheel]

When we began planning our Wind River trips for this summer, Compass and I thought that it would be interesting to start from some new (to us) trail heads. For this trip, we chose the Scab Creek Trail Head. The route would overlap with some territory that we had visited in 2021 including South Fork of Bull Lake Creek, Photo Pass, and Lee Lake, but also include some previously unvisited areas including Halls Lake, Europe Canyon, East Europe Pass and Rainbow Lake/Pass.

Day 1 – August 11, 2024 – Scab Creek Trail Head to South Boulder Creek

The road to the trail head was in remarkably good shape, and there were only ten cars in the parking lot when we arrived. The trail started immediately going uphill. We saw or passed around 16 people along today’s section. All the other inbound folks were on horseback. The day grew warm, and we started to drag, with the weight of eight days of food in our packs and 2,100 feet of elevation gain for the day. We arrived at a campsite near the trail crossing of South Boulder Creek, with excellent views of distant Raid, Bonneville, Pronghorn and Dragon Head peaks. The sun set below a cloudless sky. Animals seen today included a bald eagle, marmots, red squirrels, and chipmunks.

View East From Our First Campsite

Day 2 – August 12, 2024 – South Boulder Creek to Halls Lake

The day started with light rain and ended with heavy rain, but the middle was partly cloudy. Half of the day’s miles were on the CDT, and we saw five southbound CDT thru hikers. We exited the CDT and took a use trail to Lake 9987, then hiked cross country up gullies and around lakes, following elk tracks, until we reached Halls Lake. Just as we added hot water to rehydrate our dinner, a thunderstorm fired up, and we stood under our umbrellas in the rain for 30 minutes. After all the rain that we had last year in the Winds, we were not happy to be standing in the rain again. The Halls Lake area was quite beautiful, so at least if one must stand in the rain, the scenery was good. Today we saw osprey, striped ground squirrels, red squirrels, and marmots.

Halls Lake

Halls Creek Lake

Day 3 – August 13, 2024 – Halls Lake to Europe Canyon

The forecast called for heavy rain at 8 a.m., but thankfully the forecast was wrong. The morning was still and partly cloudy. We set off across the outlet stream from Halls Lake, getting our feet wet at the crossing. We followed ravines, elk tracks and a supposed use trail that came and went. Eventually, we followed a nice use trail up Europe Canyon. Once we reached Europe Lake #6, we set up our tent after wandering around for an hour or so looking for a campsite. Our site was close to the outlet stream from Long Lake. Rain started just as we got our tent staked out, and showers continued for a couple of hours while we napped in the tent. With a break in the rain, we jumped up to make dinner, and once again ate dinner in the wind and rain. Rain ended around 8:30 p.m., and the sunset turned the scattered clouds pink. Today we saw osprey, ground squirrels, and chipmunks. During the night, we heard coyotes howling near Long Lake.

Sunset In Europe Canyon After the Rain

[arkheel]

Day 4 – August 14, 2024 – Europe Canyon to South Fork of Bull Lake Creek

We woke to heavy frost and lots of frozen rain drops on our tent. The sky was initially clear, and we were hopeful that we would be able to get over Europe Pass and East Europe Pass before afternoon storms. As we climbed the trail to Europe Pass, clouds started to form. We reached the top of Europe Pass and loved seeing Milky Lake to the north. We turned east towards East Europe Pass, passing three westbound hikers. As we started down East Europe Pass, the wind started to blow, rain fell, and the rain transitioned to light snow. Grassy ramps and short rocky sections that we were descending became slippery. We had to keep adjusting our route to find “easy” ways down so that we wouldn’t slip. A couple of times we said, “That Wandering Daisy is crazy! How did she find this route?” A few well-placed cairns helped us through the crux. Finally, we made it to one of the South Fork of Bull Lake Creek (SFBLC) headwater lakes. A snowshoe hare hopped away from us. We passed fresh bear scat. We made our way down to SFBLC, crossed over, hiked south, and eventually found a nice tent site within view of Photo Pass. Dinnertime was lovely and dry.

Frosty Morning in Europe Canyon

One of the Europe Creek Lakes

View South Down Europe Canyon

Milky Lake

East Europe Pass

Campsite Near Photo Pass

[arkheel]

Day 5 – August 15, 2024 - South Fork of Bull Lake Creek to Lee Lake

We woke to clear, blue skies and light frost. The sunlight took a long time to reach our campsite, but when it did, we loved how it warmed our cold feet. We made our way slowly towards Photo Pass trail, taking in the amazing views. The trail up Photo Pass is easy to follow, but steep and skittery in some places. We stopped at the top of the pass to take photos and eat snacks. We reached Bewmark Bench and started down the very steep use trail to Middle Fork Lake. Two golden eagles flew by. Clouds began to build in the west, so we quickly found a tent site on a bench above Lee Lake. Rain, lightening, and grapple chased us into our tent. The thunderstorm went on for a few hours, and during a lull, we jumped out of the tent, made dinner, and quickly ate. Just as we were stashing our bear canisters for the night, the rain and thunder started up again and intensified, especially to the south. In addition to the golden eagles, today we saw marmots, pikas and an American pipet.

Looking North From Photo Pass

Bewmark Lake With Nylon, Bonneville, Pronghorn and Dragon Head Peaks Beyond

Storm Clouds Over Lee Lake

Day 6 – August 16, 2024 – Lee Lake to Rainbow Lake

We were awakened by an early morning rockfall on Dragon Head Peak. The tent and our down quilts were all moist after last night’s thunderstorms and heavy rain. We waited a while to pack up, letting our tent and quilts dry in the sunshine. Today, we were day hiking toward Noel Lake, before heading to Rainbow Lake. We followed grassy ramps up the hill and picked our way through willow thickets. We made it up to a large area of talus and started picking our way among the rocks. At noon, we decided to turn back. We crossed the Lee Lake outlet and made our way over Rainbow Lake Pass. A strong wind blew straight into our faces, making the climb up the pass seem steeper than it was. Our somewhat protected campsite at Rainbow Lake was near the south shore. We did see a loon at Rainbow Lake. Today we also saw pikas, an osprey, chipmunks, red squirrels, and many small rodents (maybe voles) crossing the trail.

Pronghorn Peak and Lake Donna Viewed From Noel Lake Route

Westside of Dragon Head Peak Viewed From Rainbow Lake Trail

Rainbow Lake

[arkheel]

Day 7 – August 17, 2024 – Rainbow Lake to Divide Lake

We left Rainbow Lake, intercepted the Freemont Trail and turned southeast. Right before Raid Lake, we struck out cross country to the southwest across a wide-open grassy area towards South Boulder Creek. We stopped and looked back, admiring Halls Mountain, Dragon Head, Pronghorn and Raid peaks. The grassy route was popular with horse packers. We crossed paths with a group of horse packers which, unusually, was wearing helmets. The horse packers, Compass, and I all reached the South Fork of Boulder Creek crossing at the same time. Compass commented on their helmets, since we had never seen horse back riders wearing helmets in all our trips to the Winds. Turns out, it was a NOLS group. Of course they were wearing helmets! We continued west on dusty Scab Creek Trail. Near Divide Lake, we set up our tent at a well-used, sloping horse packer camp and jumped inside as rain started. The rain slowed and the sunset turned the clouds orange and pink. We ate dinner and watched grey jays harvesting white mushrooms. Bats flew about. Eventually, stars shone through the thinning clouds. An owl, probably a great horned owl, called during the night.

Horseback Rider Near South Boulder Creek

Day 8 – August 18, 2024 – Divide Lake to Scab Creek Trail Head

Our last day was a warm one. We passed a few groups of horse packers and hikers heading in as we were heading out. We hustled a fast as we could, so that we could make it to the Heart and Soul Café in Pinedale, WY for breakfast burritos before the restaurant closed at 2 p.m. Thankfully, the café was still open when we arrived in town. Breakfast burritos are more important than showers.

Dusty, Eroded Scab Creek Trail

Breakfast Burrito at Heart and Soul Cafe

[Wandering Daisy]

Too bad you had all that rain. Good that it was not all-day rains for several days- just typical afternoon storms. We had a fair number of afternoon storms in the Sierra this year too. It seems like there always is a mid-August stormy period including some light snow. Did you see/smell or find elk paths in South Fork BLC? I have always at least seen their tracks and smelled them. The smell of elk is quite distinctive. They also "bark" and definitely get quite noisy with bugles in the fall; I think you were a bit too early for that. There is a pretty large herd in there.

Scab Creek trail is very popular with the horsemen. Also, if you drive to the end of the trailhead parking there is a really nice free BLM campground, in case you ever need that.

[arkheel]

We did see lots of elk paths and elk poop this year in South Fork Bull Lake Creek. I don't know how we would navigate in the Winds sometimes without having elk tracks to follow. We saw several elk in SFBLC when we were there in 2021, but did not actually see any this year.

Good to know about the BLM campground.

I've got one more trip report to write up. I'll get it posted sometime this week. We took trip #3 out of New Fork.

[Harlen]

Arkheel, Thank You!

Bewmark, Lee, and perhaps Donna, are now all in our sights. I don't remember seeing photos of those marvelous peaks, though they must be here in Nancy Pallister's book. We are going to pour over the maps, and search out more photos, and land there with Google Earth, and figure out a nice route like yours. It looks to us like the scenery in that area is right up there with "Cirque of the Towers," and that other famously beautiful basin-- Oh, what's it called? The really popular route, that we still really want to get to someday, at a quiet time of year..... I'll look it up. Anyway, your route through from Photo Pass to Bewmark and on is just stunning mountain landscape! It brought to mind the "Troll Mountains" of northern Norway, with such smooth, sharp peaks! Thanks a lot for putting these inspirational rip reports together Arkheel; we are looking forward to the rest, and congratulations on such fine trips. Harlens.

[arkheel]

Good to hear from you Harlen! Yes, the area around Photo Pass, Bewmark Lake/Bench and Lee Lake is spectacular. I'm thinking that the view there is probably my favorite in all the Winds, though I have not seen all of the Winds yet!

The route we did mostly follows Route #26 in Nancy Pallister's book, so that would be a good place to start with the future trip planning.

I think that the other scenic place in the Winds that you are thinking of might be Titcomb Basin.

[Harlen]

arkheel wrote:

I think that the other scenic place in the Winds that you are thinking of might be Titcomb Basin.

Right you are; that was the place I was thinking of. Perhaps right now would be the perfect time to visit Titcomb?

We really enjoyed our trip across Jackass Pass and into the Cirque of the Towers in the early summer. It was certainly snowy, but not crowded at all.
Seems like we keep on hearing that the Winds have become super crowded?

[Wandering Daisy]

What is crowded is the CDT and a couple of "High Routes". Thru hiking seems to be very popular now. I would say the CDT thru-hikers have increased exponentially! But they pass through very quickly and do not go off-trail except for two well described variations. The High Routes are well defined and also popular. It is sort of like the JMT, PCT, and other Sierra "High Routes".

Since permits are not required in the Wind Rivers, crowds are hit and miss, even on popular routes. There is a CDT bubble of S-N and another N-S. There are plenty of off-trail areas that you can go days without seeing anyone. Early season is great if you do not mind dealing with snow. The real stopper early season are river crossings. Early September is less crowded but a bit iffy with weather. The last few trips I spent more time on popular trails, and they were crowded, particularly the CDT. I just happened to hit both bubbles. Anytime I wanted solitude I just got off the trails. You will see people if you go into Titcomb Basin - it and Cirque of the Towers are extremely popular, and for good reasons. The outstanding scenery is worth it, regardless.

Harlen, if you want solitude I can point you to some hard-to-get-to areas with grizzlies, wolves, elk, big river crossings, glaciers, and other gnarly terrain and NO trails.