Backpacking Wyoming’s Wind River Range – Gear List & The Basics

The topographic map of Wyoming shows the Wind River Range slash across the state’s northwest corner like a bear got hold of it with a claw, like a boxer’s brow split open by a good left hook. The ragged mountain range encompasses over 2.25 million acres, holds over 1,300 named lakes, and is home to the tallest peak in the state (Gannett Peak, at 13,804 feet).

Three designated Wilderness areas help protect the Winds, with the Bridger Wilderness (over 426,000 acres) covering the area south of the Continental Divide and the Fitzpatrick Wilderness (over 198,000 acres) occupying the area to the north. The Popo Agie Wilderness (over 101,000 acres) covers the southern foot of the mountains, bordering the Wind River Indian Reservation – which itself is over 2.2 million acres and is shared by the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes.

Over 600 miles of trails cross the Winds, which are home to 19 of the 20 tallest peaks in the state. Still, despite their presence just south of Jackson Hole and both Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park to the north, it feels as if the Winds sit as something of a secret to most who live outside of the Rocky Mountains.

While backpackers, hikers, and mountain climbers around the world know the Winds, it’s their lack of a ‘status’ as a National Park or National Monument that keeps their greatest features devoid of the crowds that flock to their northern peers. You can’t just see them to ‘see them,’ as it takes a damn long drive down dirt and rock roads just to dump you at a trailhead that will require your diligent hiking thereafter. As a result, they house an opportunity to experience unmatched alpine and subalpine expeditions without the strict regimen of red tape needed to get that at the parks, making it both a paradise for adventuring outdoors and for route planning altogether.

Here’s what you can expect from the Winds, and what you’ll need to make a trip there successful.

Weather

I was lucky enough to spend 5 days backpacking the northern section of the Winds this past week, and on the day we entered from Green River Lakes the temperature topped out at 95 degrees in nearby Jackson – the single hottest day on record there since 2003. By the time the thunderstorms halted and the clouds cleared after sunset on our final night of camping, I was huddled fully-zipped in my 20 degree sleeping bag with two base-layers on as temperatures dipped into the 30s.

Those thunderstorms? They erupted despite our GPS-pinned weather forecast suggesting we had just a 30% chance of storms.

The moral here is that any trip into the Winds requires you be prepared for weather that will run the gamut. It could be 85 degrees and 35 degrees in the same summer day, and trips done in both spring and fall bring fast-developing snow squalls into the equation (as well as the existing snowpack, which often reaches 10 feet deep at its spring peak). It could very much be colder than that, especially if you’re camped above 10,000 feet at one of the range’s high alpine lakes. Storms also develop and roll in fast, with conditions changing seemingly on a whim.

Terrain

7 of the 10 largest glaciers in the Lower 48 states reside within the Wind River Range, and there are over 40 named peaks that climb past 13,000 feet within the park. Those numbers, while impressive, don’t even include the likes of Squaretop Mountain (above) and its 3,700 foot sheer cliff faces or the jagged multi-summits of Glover Peak (12,068 feet, below).

While the tallest peaks in the range are typically jagged, knife-like rock outcroppings, there are still numerous river and creek drainages that, over the eons, have carved out pleasant valleys and parks. The weak-points in between the peaks almost always have lakes that last year-round due to snowmelt and glacial melt, their cold waters the perfect breeding grounds for cutthroat, rainbow, brown, and brook trout.

There’s even word of golden trout in some of the more hard to reach lakes, though my extremely limited fishing skills haven’t yet been able to confirm such existence. The cutties in Cutthroat Lake, though, are very much as advertised.

Campfires within the Bridger, Fitzpatrick, and Popo Agie Wilderness areas are limited to below treeline. Lodgepole pines – the predominant large tree within the Winds – have a treeline that’s roughly in the 10,200 to 10,300 foot range, meaning the basins below most all of the major passes (and the area around many of the lakes) technically sits at, or below treeline. That makes for a number of great campsites near these lakes, with the caveat that you’re supposed to a) use established sites in the backcountry when you can and b) those established sites should sit at least 200 feet from water.

There’s a whole lot of water in the Winds. You’ll be crossing creeks, often walking within them for a bit to find the best crossings, and the amount of summer thunderstorms means the trails will often get muddy. Shoes that breath and dry quickly may be better bets than more rugged, waterproof ones since the latter will still inevitably get wet, too. Working up from your feet to the rest of your gear, that premise holds – be prepared for wet weather from your tent to rain shell to your pack itself – either bring a fly for your pack or make sure you pack inside it with waterproof stuff sacks.

Wildlife

There are plenty of bears in the Winds. Contrary to the belief held a couple of decades ago, there are now grizzly bears in the Winds these days, too.

With both black bears and grizzly bears calling the range home, you can probably guess what else resides in the area. Apex predators thrive where there are other parts of the food chain around, after all. Deer, elk, moose, pronghorn, beaver, and the like all serve as vital portions of the Wind River ecosystem, while mountain lions, coyotes, and wolves also help round out the predator portion of the area.

You’ll see signs of wildlife everywhere, even if they’re often privvy enough to your existence that you’ll have a harder time seeing them. Those wet, muddy trails I mentioned earlier? They’ll give you ample chance to see tracks galore, as the animals of the Winds use the paths of least resistence (trails) just like you.

Getting There

Elkhart, Big Sandy, New Fork, and Green River Lakes serve as some of the heavier-trafficked trailheads for accessing the Wind River Range, and each lies at the end of its own respective dirt/rock forest service road. Whether you’re entering the area from DuBois to the north, Pinedale to the west, or Lander to the southeast, you’re going to need a vehicle that can bebop and rocksteady with roads that often are enough to shake suspensions to their core.

You’ll also need to make sure you’ve got gas – with entry points often 20 miles off the main highways (US-191, US-287/26), you’re talking a 40 to 50 mile trip to the trailhead just from the highways themselves, and the turnoffs for many of the highways are also several dozen miles from the nearest gas stations. Fuel up when and where you can!

If you’re tryin to fly in for a trip to the Winds, you’ll be looking at flying into Jackson, Wyoming or Rock Springs, Wyoming and working your way to them from there. From Jackson to the Green River Lakes trailhead on the north end of the Winds, it’s a roughly 2.5 hour drive each way, for reference.

Gear List

The three essentials are paramount in the Winds just like everywhere else – you’re going to need food, water, and shelter.

Beginning with shelter, you’ll start with either a lightweight (but durable and waterproof!) tent or hammock system, with a sleeping pad and sleeping bag (or bivy sack) depending upon the weather you’re expecting. I’ll reiterate here that the weather in the Winds often changes on a whim, and when it storms the low temperatures you thought you could depend on will end up 15-20 degrees colder than predicted. Even in summers, a bag rated to 30 degrees (or colder) might be worth the extra weight in your pack.

Said backpack should be big enough to accommodate that trio of sleeping essentials, and the prevalence of bears in the area means you’ll need a method of keeping your food out of their bellies. Whether you opt to use a bear canister to keep your food safe, an Ursack bag that you can tie up, or attempt to find limbs high enough to hang your backpacks altogether, food storage becomes a priority in how (and in what) you pack.

As for water, it’s plentiful both in standing and running forms all through the Winds. If you are diligent in your planning, you’ll more often than not never need to be carrying more than one liter at a time. That said, a reservoir to have at camp (for drinking, cooking, and dousing any campfire) is a helpful thing to have, such as one of MSR’s Dromedary Bags. Treating it can be done in various ways, from using Aquamira drops to carrying bulkier water filters.

For a full list of the type of gear I’d recommend using in the backcountry of the Winds – including a stove, fuel, footwear, etc. – I’ll refer you to REI’s exhaustive Backpacking Gear List.

As for a go-to trail map, I’d recommend using Earthwalk Press’s maps of the Northern and Southern Wind River Range…if you can find them. Local outfitters such as JD High Country Outfitters in Jackson and the Great Outdoor Shop in Pinedale usually have them, though they’re harder to track down online. If you’re looking for one you can absolutely order online in advance, I’d point you in the direction of National Geographic Trails Illustrated #726 for the North section and Trails Illustrated #727 for the South section.