east of Bonneville hike

Part of the fun of living in Wyoming is being able to explore an area without being required to use predetermined paths. Today we didn't know exactly where we were going, but it was an adventure for my wife and me.

When we visited Bonneville a few days ago, we were informed by a friendly couple of a canyon about a mile east of town on the other side of Badwater Creek which we might find interesting. So we drove to Shoshoni and took Bonneville Road to the creek. Here is a satellite view of this road.

Along the way, we stopped at a cluster of buildings which caught my eye because of the unique fence:


In the distance (below) is Bonneville, but the only bridge across Badwater Creek is the one used by the railroad. This cattle guard is where Fremont County ends its maintenance of the road. Even though this is the case, we were able to travel down it for about a mile.

Eventually we came to this overpass, and this is where we parked to begin our hike.

I took the two photographs below standing in the same spot and pointing the camera in the same direction. The first is a standard shot, and the second is using the zoom lens. The canyon in the distance is where we eventually ended up.

The problem, however, was that we didn't know where we were going. We wanted to head for what looked like a canyon in this satellite view of the area, but we were unsure of the exact direction from where we were parked. We decided to head south and climb the ridge by following the paths made by the dry creek beds.

Getting to the top, we experienced the Wyoming wind so many people talk about. Then we walked east.

Finally we came to this canyon.

For our return to the car, we just followed another creek bed back to the railroad tracks. In the shot below, you can see that sometimes our path was blocked by tumbleweeds.

There were unexpected delights along the way. Here is one of them:

In case we want to do this hike again, I took the shot below to remind me about how far along the tracks we would have to walk until we came to the creek bed that would take us back to the canyon.

This is the railroad overpass where we parked.

Below is a shot of the road we took back to Bonneville Road:

Along the way, we stopped to take this picture of where the railroad divides (below). To the left is Shoshoni, and to the right is Bonneville (and on to Thermopolis). This must be the meaning of SHOBON.

Then we continued on toward Shoshoni.

Eventually we came back to the end of Bonneville Road:

link: index to photographs