MOUTH FULL OF DIRT : Super D's Blog: Rocks and Rivers

Our Curt Gowdy riding extended into the weekend. Saturday was our third day in the park. This time we focused on the east side, the area filled with rocks and steep canyons. This side has a totally different landscape as compared to the west side. I went out alone for some hard efforts early in the morning, riding both sides of the park before meeting up with Dina and heading onto the Canyons trail. I put in another good effort on Stone Temple to go for the KOM, but there was way too much traffic out there to hit the rock sections like I needed. I felt so much slower, but my time was just a single second off the previous day's PR.

Granite Reservoir Dam from the Canyons trail

Dina is riding well enough now that she enjoyed the technical descents on Canyons. There are some nasty rock gardens and a few very tight turns that you must get right or pay a big penalty for going off the trail. Most of the trail is on the edge of the canyon and going off the trail to the left is not an option. She may have been scared, but I couldn't tell. We climbed up Middle Kingdom in search of a different view of Granite Reservoir and we got it.

Me on Middle Kingdom

Dina on the big rock slab

Granite Reservoir from the opposite side than all my other pictures

We found bones lying around everywhere in the park. Dina was fascinated by these vertebrae and ended up carrying them out in her Camelbak. I asked her if she wanted to do a night ride and she said "Heck no! Did you see all the bodies laying around here?!"

A rider on Middle Kingdom

Two more riders climbing by our lookout point

Middle Kingdom play area

We played around on the trails at the bottom of Middle Kingdom. I hit a few jumps, but really you need a bigger bike than an Epic to enjoy all of the Middle Kingdom features. Then it was off on Crystal Ridge for more climbing and some good views of the other lake in the park, Crystal Lake Reservoir.

The Crystal Ridge trail crosses the main road through the park and provides a few views of the Crystal Lake Reservoir. There's also plenty of prairie dog holes to dodge on this trail.

Crystal Lake Reservoir

We also did the Highline trail as I couldn't allow Dina to miss the big canyon behind the reservoir. Highline takes you around the edge of big rock hill with plenty of views of the canyon and reservoir, but it isn't quite as deadly as the Canyons trail could be. You can get hurt bad in several spots on Highline, but you can die on Canyons if you make a wrong move. Dina survived the climb to Highline and again rode bravely around the edge. We stopped for lunch at the mouth of the canyon with one awesome view of the Crystal Lake Reservoir and Dam.

Highline takes you to the edge of the canyon

Dina on Highline. Love this shot!

Crystal Lake Reservoir and Dam

After lunch, we finished the Highline loop, then cruised back down to the shore of the reservoir and through the lower campground before heading back up to the upper campground where we were staying. We took Cliffhanger and Mahogany to the top and then spun the easy Shoreline trail right to our tent. We ran into an angry goose along Shoreline. At first I couldn't tell from it's crazy look if it was injured or protecting something. I figured it must be protecting eggs or babies. As I am checking out the goose, this kid comes running up and tells us the goose is indeed sitting on a nest full of eggs. He then tells us this story about how he and his sister were playing with a ball earlier and the goose took their ball and put it with the eggs in the nest. The two kids were probably about 10 years old. They got their ball back all by themselves without harming the goose or eggs. The sister distracted the goose with some bread while the brother took the ball back. They were funny kids and obviously pretty smart too.

Kayaks in the Crystal Lake Reservoir as we ride Cliffhanger

Granite Reservoir from Shoreline

Video: Footage of our riding and waterfall exploring at Curt Gowdy State Park

I only had 3 1/2 hours in for the day, but I was really tired. I think the elevation was starting to catch up with me. I opted to stop for the day. We decided to go back to Vedauwoo and do some hiking in the afternoon. We wanted to get up onto the rock ledges we had seen people walking on the day before. When we started the hike, you could go to the left or right side of the huge rock formation. We chose to go left first. We found some beautiful trails, but they all ended without going up to the actual rocks we wanted to climb on.

Stopped by the Lincoln Monument on the way to Vedauwoo. Those black specks inside the fence are pennies, you know because every Lincoln Monument needs more Lincolns.

Vedauwoo trails

Rock climbers on the cliff wall

Duck!

Back out to the split after our failed attempt to get on the rocks

Next we took the right side and found a lot of trails leading to the rock formation, but everything we found on the main formation required climbing gear to get up to the level spot we wanted to get to. We searched the entire east side of the formation and came up empty. Then we started to explore the smaller rock piles near the main formation, which are still huge. We finally found our way up onto one. It was a bit sketchy with some gap jumps to get to the good spot, but we came out with only a few scrapes from climbing the rough rocks. It thundered most of the afternoon, but the dark clouds seemed to split around us, half going through Laramie and the other half going over the mountains to the south, coating them with a fresh blanket of snow.

Storm dumping snow to the south

Bright pine cones on that tree

Nice view to our north

Got up on this one

Those cracks look small, but we were about 15 feet above the bottom of those cracks

On the drive back to the campground, we took a dirt road detour to see the North Crow Reservoir. It was a nice little place. The views at the marshes along the dirt road were nice as well.

North Crow Reservoir

Back of the reservoir

Marsh along the road leading to North Crow Reservoir

Nice campfire on our final night at Curt Gowdy. It was a warmer night staying in the 40s. Can't believe I'm celebrating 40s on a night in the middle of May.

We were up early on Sunday morning to hit the road for Gma's. We had hoped to spend a full Sunday with her, but delaying the start of the trip for a day ended those hopes. We still had a long drive ahead of us. We broke up the car time with a stop at the Wilkins Peak Trails in Green River, WY. I rode here with my Dad in 2014 and really enjoyed it. Green River is truly green in the spring. They have had a lot of rain recently and it showed with a green tint to the normally brown hillsides. The trail was rutted up and washed in many places so you know it has been wet for a while. Today it was dry with the exception of a few stream crossings. We did a long climb to start the ride on Nomojo and Brent & Mike's trail, then gradually working our way back down the mountain on a variety of flowing trails. We had a good time in a totally different landscape from what we rode at Curt Gowdy.