Wyoming is so famous for its national parks, its towering mountain ranges, its spectacular canyons, and amazing river systems. Wow, what a place.
But to me, the place I might just love the most is our vast Red Desert.
I have always called this 5.5 million-acre place the loneliest place in the loneliest state.
Ghosts Of Friends
The ghosts of longtime friends Jimmy Smail and Bill Crump were hovering over us as Nancy and I made a trek to the vast Red Desert south of Lander and north of Rock Springs and Rawlins.
This gigantic place will devour you. It is so big and stretches out so far in all directions. I had forgotten how deep it is. That’s right, the word “deep” comes to mind as you venture farther and farther into it.
Much like a vast jungle, this huge swath of open space just takes over. It stretches from one horizon to the other. It is like being in the middle of the ocean.
A handy new map was developed a few years ago by the Wyoming Outdoor Council which makes driving the desert much easier and much safer. It is available all around the desert.
I remarked to Nancy how native peoples roamed this area for 12,000 years. And for all but about the last 350 years, they did it on foot!
From South Pass, you travel south for 10 miles to the magnificent Oregon Buttes. They are so named because when the Oregon Trail emigrants reached these buttes on South Pass, it meant they were entering the state of Oregon. They stand tall next to Continental Peak and are major landmarks in the north portion of the Red Desert. We love the buttes.
The area is known as a place to find Eden Valley petrified wood. In our early years in Wyoming, we hauled our share of the beautiful wood home. Now removing the wood is restricted.
Right Or Left?
Southeast of Oregon Buttes we pass through the Honeycomb Buttes country and then come to a T-intersection. If you go right, you see all the sights.
If you go left, you literally drop off the end of the world. You feel like you are Columbus sailing off into the vast horizon. We turned left. As we ventured deeper into this gigantic basin, you just feel overwhelmed by the distances. There were few landmarks. Just emptiness all around you.
The roads are well maintained and most cars would do fine, but I would recommend a SUV or pickup.
We stopped once and I found a survey marker indicating the border of Sweetwater County and Carbon County. Also photographed a tiny horned toad.
There were lots of wild horses roaming the area. Stallions had clearly marked their territory with piles of road apples in the road at strategic locations.
This area is considered the largest unfenced region in the lower 48 states. It also is a place where the Continental Divide splits, going east and west and creating a basin. Water entering this basin does not leave.
After 90 minutes, we turned west and headed back to see the sights. We could see two buttes off in the distance and knew that the Killpecker Sand Dunes and the Boars Tusk were on the other side of them.
The sand dunes were busy.
We love the Boars Tusk. This rock formation can be seen for a long distance all around. You can almost see it from Rock Springs.
Just south of there is one of the state’s best petroglyph sites at White Mountain. These are ancient rock carvings created by native peoples centuries ago. There are even rocks believed to be “birthing rocks,” into which handholds have been carved. Women over a millennia would grip these when having babies.
The area is sheltered from that perennial western wind that occurs in this part of the state and was probably a wintering site for indigenous peoples.
The site is well marked, well maintained and well worth the short hike.
Last summer, I fulfilled a Bucket List item by visiting the Adobe Town area south of Rock Springs thanks to John Vase, Kurt Hensley, and Paul Ng. It lived up to all my expectations.
A Half Century Ago
It was over 50 years ago that a local game warden named Bill Crump introduced me to the desert.
Bill died a few years ago at the age of 95. Lander named the day in his honor. At 6 feet, 5 inches, he may have been the tallest sailor in the history of the submarine service in World War II.
What a wonderful happenstance to have had a brilliant outdoorsman like Bill introduce me to the desert. I am so grateful for that.
In recent years, my late friend Jimmy Smail showed me all sorts of secret places in the desert. Jimmy also died a few years ago.
I could feel good vibes from both of these wonderful Wyoming icons while we were tooling around in their favorite place – the vast Red Desert.
Wyoming is full of all these sites. If it were a meal, I could see the parks and mountains being the main course. But to me, the dessert would be the desert.
