Wind Rivers Eclipse

[texasbb]

I'm a little late with another totality report, but it took me a while to get out of the Winds (as planned, of course!), so here it is. I've been planning to view the eclipse in the Winds since 2011, and conditions were almost perfect. I entered at Elkhart Park (just above Pinedale) but crossed over to the east side of the Divide to avoid the crowds--and boy, were there crowds. Getting to Camp Lake was enough work to filter out the fly-by-nights, and in fact I had the whole lake to myself on the 21st:

Camp Lake

During totality:

Total eclipse over Camp Lake

I'll do a more thorough report on the whole trip when I get the pics in order.

[Webfoot]

Nice vantage point. Well done.*





*No condescension intended.

[texasbb]

Nice vantage point. Well done.*

*No condescension intended.

Thanks, webfoot! (Not sure how that could have been interpreted as condescending, but I guess this is the Internet. )

Anyway, I had researched the angle (azimuth) in the sky where the sun would be and looked for a good view-full valley situated at about that angle. My initial plan was to go to the head of the Alpine Lakes area, which was positioned just about right (see map here), and exit over Alpine and Indian passes. But after getting there and getting over one east/west pass, my fears about dangerous snow lingering on Alpine Pass (a north/south) pass gave me too much uncertainty about getting out in time to avoid my son's chopper call. Camp Lake wasn't turned exactly the way I wanted, but it was good enough and made for an easier back-out.

I wish now I'd taken the time to shoot a second pano of four vertical shots for the totality pic, since the two horizontals above didn't leave me enough room to crop the top flat. But I didn't even know if I could make anything work with my hand-held LX-100, was scrambling to make the best use of my 1:45, and wanted to spend plenty of it just looking. One of the most amazing natural phenomena I've experienced.

[Webfoot]

Just making sure.

It really was amazing, wasn't it? Here was the beautiful, if somewhat less dramatic, vista over which I experienced totality.

[texasbb]

Just making sure.

Ha! I'd forgotten about that.

[Water]

texasbb I was really wondering how your trip panned out, thanks for sharing. The winds are where I too would have planned, maybe being around Long Lake/south of Golden Lakes.. like Europa Basin/valley if I could.. I think that was in totality still. But kiddo's arrival this year made such a plan too ambitious, by far.

So how busy really was it like in titcomb basin? hundreds? kind of hard to imagine even.

looking forward to the next installment. My mind dreams of the area around alpine lakes.. what an environment!

[texasbb]

Water, I keep hoping I'll hear something from someone who was in the Titcomb area, but nothing so far. Based on the number of vehicles (how many will fit, parallel parked on two sides of the road for a solid mile?), and my quick glance at the trailhead registry, I'd guess the Titcomb and Island Lake areas were a rave. The east side was busier than usual per conversations with a couple of veterans I met over there, but still largely vacant. I planned my whole trip to try to find something close to solitude; didn't really expect I'd get a whole lake to myself!

[turtle]

Sounds like an awesome trip. I haven't been to the Winds in years, something I plan to correct in the second week of September. How was the drive? 900'ish miles is a long haul. How did you store your food? Eagerly awaiting your TR.

[sparklehorse]

What a great place to view the eclipse! And having that lake all to yourself must have been the icing on the cake. I love the Winds, and had considered them for the eclipse, but thought the weather there might be more of a gamble. You sure lucked out though. That lake might well have been the prettiest place in the entire path of totality with only one human present.

[texasbb]

Sounds like an awesome trip. I haven't been to the Winds in years, something I plan to correct in the second week of September. How was the drive? 900'ish miles is a long haul. How did you store your food? Eagerly awaiting your TR.

For me the drive was "only" 700 miles. I guess it's what you'd expect of a 700-mile drive. If you turn onto US20 at Mountain Home to get to Idaho Falls, you get to go through the Craters of the Moon National Monument, which is cool. Coming back I took the interstates, which I think is faster (at least it will be once they finish all the road work), but less interesting. They let you drive 80 mph in Idaho.

I kept my food in an Ursack. First time I've used one of those. When I had trees, I just hung it as usual, but a couple of nights I tied it to a limb or trunk as per the Ursack instructions. Saw no bears. Saw almost no wildlife at all, save the rodents. I think I saw two whole deer prints.

It took me about three days to acclimate. I was really dragging before that. I haven't hiked at those elevations since I was 21.