Wyoming Warrior On the Continental Divide

We returned to camp from Joy Lake. That night we had a visitor to camp. His name was Joe (thanks for correction DM), and he rode in after dark. Joe was part of John Henry’s crew and he was leading one of John Henry’s horses. He also had a dog with him. The horse had thrown a shoe and was unable to carry anyone. John Henry was hunting elk up in the mountains.

Joe jumped off his horse and tied him to the line. He met the cook in the mess tent and bagged up some sandwiches and coffee. He took another horse from the group in camp, and headed back up the mountain IN THE DARK!!! Did I mention how dark it gets in the wilderness? Amazed I asked Shane about this. He said the horse knew the way.

Day three and guess who was waiting for me on the line? Warrior was rested, but not much interested in being ridden. He let me know his opinion as soon as I mounted. We had several trips around the tie up area before he agreed to follow directions.

Our ride to Divide Lake was to begin along the river. We crossed over the river and followed a path along it. Shane was again in the lead. As we followed along he suddenly stopped. He had us come up and showed us a fresh grizzly bear track. He said the bear had just been there, and asked if we could smell it.

 We could smell a musky odor. Shane showed us the .45 pistol he was carrying. He said it was likely the bear would stay away and the gun was the scare him. He said we should yell if we saw him as that could keep him away. We all started scanning every bush and rock.

The trail moved into a wooded area. This area was quite different from the woods we had left. The trees were mostly burned out trunks of pine trees. There were many standing pines that were dead, but not burned. Shane explained there had been a wildfire that swept through this side of the valley a few years before (1988). The firefighters had contained it to this side of the river and had stopped the fire before it burned deeply into Yellowstone, which began just up the river from our camp site.

The standing dead trees were killed by the invasive pine bore.  The insect was destroying the pines in the west, and providing much more fuel for future wildfires.

As we reached the mountain where the lake was located we started up the switch back horse trails. The trail again was only as wide as the horses’ hooves. Adding to the adventure were the loose rocks which formed the face of the mountain. Shane said the horses would handle the climb. As we continued to climb, I saw the horses slip on a rocks, but they never faltered.

I decided giving Warrior his head would be better than trying to direct him on the slippery trail. This worked well until Warrior decided he didn’t want to follow the group. About half way up the first slope, I was higher than the rest of the group. Shane’s comment was “Rick, where are you going?” My response was, “I thought Warrior knew the way”

Getting Warrior to head back down with the group was another challenge. Turning him while fearing he would slip and fall was quite frightening. A short while after we caught up the group, we came to the first break in the slope.

This break was a wide meadow, probably ten acres. A meadow on the side of a mountain fascinated me.  My mental images of mountains as stark barren places was in total conflict with what existed in front of me. I had no idea that mountains could contain such beautiful grassy areas way above the valley. There was plenty of plant life on which to graze. At that moment, I understood how so much wildlife could exist in the mountains.

We crossed the meadow and continued to another slope.  This was the final ascent. I like that phrase. It sounds like we were reaching the peak of Everest. What we actually reached was the top of the western continental divide. For those who don’t remember, or were never taught, geography, all precipitation on the western side of this mountain flowed toward the Pacific Ocean. All precipitation on the side from which we came flowed eventually to the Gulf of Mexico via the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.

The view from the top was amazingly cool. To our left, south, were the twin peaks of the Grand Tetons. Two our right, north, were the mountains and valleys that form the southern entrance to Yellowstone National Park.

About one hundred feet below sat Divide Lake. Approximately five acres in size, it was surrounded by rock and the entire shore was unobstructed. Like Joy Peak Lake, it was totally clear. There was no visible creek inflow or drainage. It sat at ten thousand feet with no way for water to enter except by melting snow.

As we got to the lake shore, we dismounted and tied our horses to some nearby trees. We could see the trout swimming and quickly got out our rods.

As soon as my trusty rooster tail spinner hit the water I had a monster trout. He fought long and hard, but I landed him. I put the tape measure on him. He was over twenty three inches. A beautiful cutthroat.  The next cast I caught a brown trout. The colors were even more brilliant.

For the next hour we fished and continued to land huge fish. We were again releasing them as we had not planned for returning with them. Each of us worked about half of the lake before we broke for lunch.

We tried different lures and flies. Every fly or lure caught fish. I began to wonder if this lake had ever been fished before. Certainly it wasn’t over fished.

After our requisite three hours of fishing, Shane had us mount up for the return to camp. After we passed over the top of the divide, he took us down a different path. We stayed high on the slope, but the area was wide. We could see across to other slopes and meadows.

As were moving we heard the call of a bull elk. The sound is like a echoing siren and carries through the slopes. Shane took out binoculars and spotted the bull. He was quite a long distance from our location, but clearly visible on the slope. Shane said he was calling to his heard of cows below him. He said they were easily spooked and one had to stay very secluded to approach them while hunting.

Shane took us to a flat overlook of the river valley below and Joy Peak in the distance. From this vantage he offered to take out picture. This is a photo that is special to me. Paul, Don, and I mounted on our horses with a wide river valley and mountains behind and below. Warrior even behaved for the photo shoot.