Summer Sojourn: day 4

Anyone else ever have difficulties getting all their kids to cooperate and smile for a picture?  Here are the kids at Green River Lake with Squaretop Mountain in the background. 

On this day we drove north from Hams Fork and southwest Wyoming for northwest Wyoming (but not as far northwest as Yellowstone).  Instead, we headed for the Pinedale area and the upper Green River region.  I came here once when I was in college on a field trip and wanted to share the experience with the rest of the family.

After driving over high elevation sage expanses, we reached the Wind River Range which really is phenomenal; and the Green River is sourced here so we drove right up it.  After about 20 miles of rough dirt road, we reached Green River Lakes where I had wanted to go on a three mile hike.  Alas, folks weren't up for that, so we went on a much shorter version of the hike, found a great beach, and started fishing.

After a little bit of me casting and the kids wading, I hooked a nice fish and quickly passed it off to Zoë who was the most excited about fishing.  She reeled it in and held on to it for a few pictures.  She was so excited about how slimy it was.  In her words: "It feel like lip gloss, but don't worry, dad, I won't put it on my lips!"

We would have stayed to fish longer, but the kids were getting pretty fried.  So we packed up and hiked back to the rig.  We drove a few miles down the river and did pull over at another spot that looked promising.  It was right at the mouth of Roaring Fork which was dumping cold water right into the Green River.  I fished for a bit and nothing.  Eventually I crossed the Green River and parked myself at the mouth of Roaring Fork.  Here I could see probably about 80 fish (cutthroat, rainbow, and brook trout plus white fish) all resting.  But nobody was biting.  I had crossed the river with Zephyr in hopes of hooking into something.  With nothing biting, we both left frustrated.

 Confluence of Roaring Fork and the Green River

We got back to Pinedale right at dusk and checked into our hotel (I was unsuccessful in getting folks to camp for a third day in a row).  Pizza for dinner and swimming afterwards.