Need WY Red Desert recommendations

[rob_gendreau]

I'm considering exploring some of the South Pass area in WY, and down through the Red Desert there. I've seen some scattered info about various sights/sites, such as Atlantic City, the Sweetwater, the various trails (Oregon, etc), Kemmerer dunes, Adobe Town, and so on. Lots of LONG dirt roads. I made my way down through there perhaps 25 years ago from Pinedale with a guy from a drilling company and was quite impressed, but it's kind of hard to determine how best to spend the 4 or so days I'd have to explore it most efficiently.

Would love any suggestions.

[rionapo]

No suggestions here but if you want to know how that area came to be and get an entertaining look at WY earl 20th century life style, I highly recommend John McPhee's Rising from the Plains (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/83.R ... the_Plains). He blends essays on the incomparable geology of WY with a biography of geographer and son of Wyoming pioneers David Love. We read it during the Jackson M&G. It added hugely to out appreciation of the terrain while painting a captivating picture of Love's life, including his childhood on a Sweetwater-area ranch.

[rob_gendreau]

Thanks; put it on my list. The history of the area is one reason I want to go there. Spend time last spring following parts of the Pony Express Trail around NV; following the history makes you more conscious of what you're traveling over. Can you imagine what a forum like this would have held if it were say www.conestogaforum.com?

[macmcintire]

What a coincidence. My wife and I are planning to explore that area this coming weekend. We plan on camping in the South Pass area on Friday night. Hope to head north out of Atlantic City into the mountains. We are only staying over one night, but if I see any great spots I will let you know. I also will check with my brother and other people in Evanston to see if they have any ideas.

[rionapo]

Originally Posted by rob_gendreau

Thanks; put it on my list. The history of the area is one reason I want to go there. Spend time last spring following parts of the Pony Express Trail around NV; following the history makes you more conscious of what you're traveling over. Can you imagine what a forum like this would have held if it were say http://www.conestogaforum.com?

Love the idea--great debates on mules vs. oxen, buckboards vs. covered wagons, setting brakes on downhills, bear grease vs. who knows what else.

An eye opener for me about wagon travel was at a backcountry monument to the Mormon brigade (IIRC). Located in the Peloncillos on the NM/AZ border, it described how wagons were dismantled and lowered by rope on the steepest grades there. Then reassembled.

McPhee's book starts with a Bryn Mawr Phi Beta Kappa getting off the stage to be a school marm. You can guess her relationship to David Love but the pleasure lies in the telling.

Don

[Viejo]

An eye opener for me about wagon travel was at a backcountry monument to the Mormon brigade (IIRC). Located in the Peloncillos on the NM/AZ border, it described how wagons were dismantled and lowered by rope on the steepest grades there. Then reassembled.

To open the other eye... read about the Hole in the Rock expedition that settled what is now Bluff UT. Wagons, Mormons, and using faith to accomplish the impossible.

[rob_gendreau]

Still takes some moxie to live in some of these regions. That's why I live visiting the remote parts of the west. Real character-builder out in the desert, particularly the Great Basin.

[bphin]

If you're headed to the South Pass area then check out the Carrisa Mine. They just opened it up for tours.

http://www.southpasscity.com/carissa.html

[rob_gendreau]

Thanks. Would be interesting. I was thinking of getting to Atlantic City for one of the scotch tastings, so that would be a nice side trip (the next day, of course )

[daveb]

Originally Posted by rob_gendreau

Thanks. Would be interesting. I was thinking of getting to Atlantic City for one of the scotch tastings, so that would be a nice side trip (the next day, of course )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcYo0aaoIaw