Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Aside from its geological and scenic attributes, Sinks Canyon is a fantastic place for
hiking, rock climbing, fishing (but not in the trout-laden waters at the Rise, where vending
machines dole out food for these lunkers), and wildlife-watching. Keep your eyes peeled
for transplanted bighorn sheep, moose, and any number of bird species.
Loop Road
Among the most scenic drives in the region, and perhaps the state, is a roughly 75-mile
round-trip seasonal route known locally as the
Loop Road.
From Lander, follow the signs
to Sinks Canyon State Park via Highway 131. Just beyond Bruce's Camp parking area, the
32-mile Loop Road climbs past Frye Lake, Fiddler's Lake, and Louis Lake to a junction
that leads south to South Pass City Historic Site or north to Atlantic City and Highway 28,
which brings travelers 35 miles back to Lander. Along the way, the Wind River Range un-
folds in all its majesty, and hikers will have no shortage of trailheads to amble down. Be-
cause of its extreme altitude, the road is often not open until July due to snow, and it closes
as early as September again because of snow.
PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE: THE SHOSHONE AND THE ARAPAHO
The Treaty of Fort Bridger, signed in 1863, designated 44 million acres as “Shoshone
Country.” This large parcel of land not only included territory in Wyoming but also
crossed into Colorado, Utah, and Idaho. However, there was no formal demarcation,
and settlers and migrants continued to settle the land in the south, up into the Green
River Valley, forcing the Shoshone into Arapaho territory in order to hunt. Further-
more, gold was discovered near South Pass, and coal near Rock Springs, and both
mining towns and farms were popping up along the Wind River drainage.
In 1868, another treaty was signed, establishing the much smaller 2.2-million-
acre Wind River Reservation. For a variety of reasons, land continued to be ceded
to the government, including the Popo Agie Valley and the present-day towns of
Shoshoni and Thermopolis. Shoshone Chief Washakie bartered determinedly to im-
prove life on the reservation for his people. He asked for specific physical improve-
ments, goods, and protection from their Indian enemies. (Fort Brown, renamed Fort
Washakie in 1878, resulted from this bargaining.) Today the reservation stretches 70
miles west-east and 55 miles north-south and is home to about 2,500 Eastern Shos-
hone and 5,000 Northern Arapaho Indians.
