Sinking and Rising in Wyoming

Sinks Canyon State Park

One of the real appeals of traveling for over three months is the ability to change plans.  We had originally discounted the idea of traveling to South Dakota to see the big faces, but realized that we did, indeed have the time to include them in our trip. So, no we are heading through Wyoming, across the state, to SD.

We found a state park that seemed like a good place to stay the night…and ended up staying two! Sinks Canyon was wonderful  First of all, the geography.  It seems that the Popo Agie (pronounced poposhoe) River which is quite a fast flowing narrow river, flows into a limestone cavern and mysteriously disappears.  That is the Sink.  Then, it mysteriously appears two hours later and ½ mile down the road into a wide pool filled with trout.   That is called the Rise.  Then the bed narrows and it once again becomes a noisy, quick flowing river. Our campsite was right on the river above the Sink.  It was so noisy that the first night, half awake, I wanted to tell David to turn off the fan because it was making too much noise.  And to make matters even better, when we walked the few feet from Celeste to the river after setting up, I found 12 cans of Corona beer just waiting for us, cooling in the pools.  Then, the state ranger told us when we went to the Visitor’s Center, that he would DELIVER firewood to us that evening. David took this photo our campsite from across the river.

Our full day at Sinks we had a beautiful hike through a sagebrush meadow, then through town and onto the Wind River Indian Reservation to visit a cemetery that contained Sacagawea’s grave and the grave of Chief Wasachkie.  There is some controversy about the location of Sacagawea’s grave, whether it was in Wyoming, or South Dakota. Either way, we were able to find the monument, but not the grave, even though there was a plaque directing us to the site. The cemetery was a bit unkempt but quite colorful since all the graveshad plastic flowers on them.

That evening we had a campfire and shared our beer with another camping couple from New York. Great fun.