Cirque of the Towers

I was in an unbelievably swanky coffee shop with free internet in Missoula Montana when I started poking around in my road atlas. You see, I bought the “Adventure Atlas” with blurbs on national parks and descriptions of about 100 popular destinations around America. I looked at what was described near my route when I came across the Cirque:

Cirque of the Towers, Wyoming
Begin the most classic hike in the Wind River Range at the Big Sandy Opening trailhead. Pack in eight miles and make camp in the cirque – a wonderland ringed by soaring tabletops, fins and spikes of gray granite. You’ll be smack in the middle of award-worthy calendar photo.

After a bit of Googling, and some reading I knew:
1) It’s only 525 miles away.
2) The last 40 miles are along a dirt road “with sections of washboards which will rattle your teeth.”
3) I want to go.

Awesome. It was already late so I crashed in a campground and decided to get an early start the next morning. That whole early thing never really works out. I ended up eating breakfast in Pinedale around noon (at Stockman’s Restaurant and Drive-Through Liquor Store) and then heading off to the Big Sandy trailhead.

After a few hours of driving I saw my destination:



There were some clouds but I had good rain gear. Then it started hailing. Then these guys got in the way:



When I got to the trailhead, it was already 2:45, and it was snowing. I still hadn’t even packed my backpack. I packed in record time, forgot a few essentials, changed a few clothes and was underway by 3:10. I had 9 miles to go if I wanted to sleep on anything but granite. The sun goes down at 7PM

I won’t go too much into the hike but it was hard. The first 5-6 miles are easy and flat. Then in the last 3 miles you go up from 7,900 feet, up through Jackass Pass at 10,790 and then back down to about 9,000 feet. In three miles, that’s a lot of elevation change. The last few miles are through rocky terrain so it isn’t fun to do on tired legs. I lost the trail, did some accidental rock climbing to get back on track (not fun with a pack) and made it up the pass. I was happy to finally get over the pass. It was all downhill from there.



When I finally made camp with about 20 minutes of dusk left I was exhausted and cold. All I wanted was a hot meal.

That’s when I learned that my stove’s pump had given out. Cold freeze dried chicken and mashed potatoes sucks. I ate it while hearing coyotes (or some animal) howling in the darkness.

The night was cold. It hailed and snowed more. I’ve never fully used the mummy features on my 15 degree bag but I used them that night and still felt the cold all the way through my body. In the morning when I finally crawled out of my bag, everything was frozen solid. I only noticed the cold until I saw what all the hype was about. The Cirque is incredibly beautiful once the clouds get out of the way.



Breakfast was a frozen Cliff Bar. As the sun broke through to the valley floor, I dried everything out and threw on my boots to hike out. The day before had not allowed a lot of rest so my feet were surprisingly sore and blistered. My boots are good but probably not a good match for my feet.

I climbed back out and down to the trailhead. It was a chore to get out (the last 5 miles are flat, boring and long) but my trip didn’t even compare to these guys’.



I met them at the trailhead. They’d been in for 8 days doing 10-15 miles a day with 9 days of food. After arriving at the trailhead a day early, they wanted to be back to civilization. From experience I knew that all they wanted was a good meal. We’re talking hot dogs, chili and fritos (a favorite post trek food at Philmont). They gave me a number to call to get them picked up early then jokingly said, “But if they can’t pick us up tonight, have ‘em send out some chips and salsa.”

“Chips and salsa?”, I asked.

“Dude, all we’ve been talking about for 8 days is chips and salsa. That’s what we’re all dreaming of right now.”

When I moved out of my apartment, I cleaned out my fridge and pantry. I think I gave away almost 50 pounds of food I couldn’t store or take with me. One of the last things to go in the car was a bag of chips and an unopened jar of habanero lime salsa. I had the feeling that somewhere across America, I would run into a party or some occasion where chips and salsa would be the perfect addition to a situation. This was the time. I paused, looked at ‘em and smiled. I’ve been on long 2 week treks before and dreamed of particular foods while begrudgingly stuffing down backpacking food. 50 miles from the nearest town, I just happened to have exactly what they wanted.

I laughed and walked over to my car, pulled out the chips, salsa, and the (still) cold 22 oz bottle of Heineken I’d been saving in my cooler.

“Get your cups out and dive in guys.”

I threw the bag of chips on the picnic table, opened the beer and popped the lid on the salsa. You wouldn’t believe the look on their faces. The entire mess was gone in 3 minutes of blissful gorging.