Day 5 ~ August 6, 2006 ~ Exploring the Cirque of the Towers                

I knew the 1:00am time for my star trail shot was going to arrive quickly, but my alarm went off in what seemed like minutes. I had been sleeping very deeply and had not moved from my original sleeping position. I slowly got my wits about me and started to climb out of my tent when I noticed that there were clouds in the sky. That's not going to work for a star trail image! Bummer. I set my alarm for 2:00am, one hour later, and tried to fall back asleep. I tossed and turned and had problems getting comfortable again. I finally fell asleep sometime after 1:30am. The alarm woke me at 2:00am and peeked out of the tent. It was clear! In fact, it was really clear, and dark. The milky way was bright and there were billions of stars in the deep black sky. I climbed out of the tent, slipped on my boots and setup the camera. I started the 2 hour exposure and returned to my tent and sleeping bag. This time I set the alarm for 4:00am. And again it took a long time to fall back to sleep. Up again at 4:00am - and ended the timed exposure. After packing up the camera and stumbling back to bed, I hoped that all this was worth the image. And as it turned out, it was! I was lucky enough to catch and early Perseid meteor in the frame just above the Wolf's Head.

But 5:00am came all too soon. This was going to be a long day.

Jack had already left for the morning. I quickly packed my bag for the entire day. I'd made plans to hike all around the cirque. But first things first - sunrise. I donned my headlamp at 5:30am and made my way down from Camp 3. I bushwhacked across the Climber's Cutoff trail, over a small ridge and navigated through a boulder field before finally reaching the basin full of willows and small tarns. This was our designated sunrise shoot location. I could see Jack parked next to a tarn under his darkcloth. I chose a spot about 40 yards away with a nice collection of boulders at the edge of a tarn with all the peaks of the cirque looming above. I framed the Watchtower and waited for the light of morning. The light was stunning this morning. At first it looked like it might fizzle, but then orange light began to appear across all the peaks. I shot the Watchtower and Pylon Peak. Then moved locations and composed Pingora and Wolf's Head Peaks. Two deer skirted across the far side of the tarn and I wondered if they'd be recognizable if I caught them in one of my exposures. The morning was incredible and it was not over yet.

I'd informed Jack of my plans the night before. This being my only day in the Cirque of the Towers, I wanted to make the most of it. After shooting sunrise at the tarns, I moved down the valley about 1/4 mile to a waterfall along the North Popo Agie River. The morning light was still warm and I took several shots of the Watchtower and Pingora Peak with the waterfall in the foreground. After the nice morning light began to fade, I filtered water, had some breakfast and headed down the trail towards Lonesome Lake. It was 8:30am.

When I reached Lonesome Lake, the floor of the cirque, the clouds had built up, especially in the North. And a rain squall was moving across the Camel's Hump and towards Lizard Head Peak. It began to rain lightly on me, so I stopped and donned rain gear. Well, the rain lasted about 10 minutes and much of the sky turned blue again. I continued my circumnavigation hike of Lonesome Lake, starting at the Southwest shore. The trail is faint along the Northwest shore and I lost it at one point crossing a boulder field (the second time I've had issues route finding in a boulder field), but then the trail resumes as you approach the drainage leading up to Texas Pass. At the mouth of this creek, where it drains into Lonesome Lake, there was an abundance of wildflowers. I spent 15-20 minutes shooting the wildflowers with my digital camera before moving along the trail to the Northern shore. Along the North side of the lake the trail enters a nice thick forest with large trees. I saw many fresh moose tracks in the mud along the trail. The forest was cool and moist and I kept an eye watchful for that moose, but never saw him/her. I emerged at the outlet of Lonesome Lake, the Popo Agie River, on the West side. It was around 10:00am. I took some large format images of Pingora Peak and the rest of the cirque from Lonesome Lake with the intent of converting them to B&W. Unfortunately, I had not brought B&W film with me on the trip - next time, for sure. Then I continued around the Southeast side of the lake and passed the "official" Jackass Pass trail junction. I began working my way Southwest back up into the higher basins of the cirque. It was time for a break and a snack. I found a soft spot in the shade of a fir tree with a grand view of Pingora Peak. I took off my boots, ate my snack, sipped on some water and laid my head back on my pack for a rest. You can see where this is heading, can't you? Yep, nap-time! Taking a mid-day nap in the fresh air of the backcountry is one of my favorite things to do. It is such a simple luxury - an escape from today's modern, fast-paced society.

I was back on the trail around noon and headed up to the North Popo Agie River waterfall. Then I headed past the tarns we shot this morning and up to Hidden Lake. Little did I know that Jack had hiked far above me to Cirque Lake and even higher up one of the minor peaks in the cirque - talk about some vertical elevation! Hidden Lake is a gem, surrounded by large boulders and located right at the base of Warrior Peaks, Pylon Peak and the Watchtower. What a setting! I took another break and filtered water before heading back to Camp 3 around 2:30pm.

Back at Camp 3, I had a leisurely afternoon. As the day wore on, I took a couple images of the Wolf's Head and Pingora. The Wolf's Head is my favorite of peaks in the Cirque of the Towers. It's ridge seems impossibly thin and jagged. And it's form certainly reminds me of the Big Bad Wolf of nursery rhymes.

Jack rolled into camp around 4:30pm and told me about his day-trip to Cirque Lake and his climbing adventures. It made my day of hiking seem like a stroll in the park. We were both starving hungry from hiking all day (and me with little sleep), so we cooked up dinner and ate our fill. A dark storm rolled in to the North and thunder echoed across the Cirque of the Towers. From our vantage, we could see the cumulonimbus clouds towering into the sky. We were glad that we were not under that cloud enduring the storm's wrath. It looked like it could be dumping a lot of rain and hail.

Around 7:30pm we climbed back up Jackass Pass ridge for our final sunset shoot of the trip. This ridge, like most of the rest of the cirque is dotted with boulders and rock outcrops. It's a good place to inspect the rock that the Wind River Mountains are made of... granite. And much of the granite is coated with various species of lichen growing in interesting patterns. We were hoping for one big grand finale of light. And we got it, for the most part. On this evening, we finally got to see alpenglow on East Temple and Temple Peaks, even if it was from a distance. There were some beautiful and interesting clouds over the Deep Lake basin. And the light was great for the entire evening. The Cirque of the Towers had some high wispy cirrus clouds that momentarily turned orange, then pink, then quickly faded with the setting sun.

I hit the sack at 9:00pm and slept very hard, catching up from the night before.

Total distance traveled: 5.2 miles, Total vertical: 830 feet   ~   Download Route: GPX, Google Earth