We arose to another blue sky morning in Wyoming!   Eva had prepared a great ranch breakfast for her family and us at 0830. During breakfast we had great conversation with Lowell, Eva & their son Paul, who was home from college that weekend. We learned that the Clarks had owned another ranch in the area early in their married life, and then traded that ranch for the one on the Smiths Fork. Their original home on the ranch was an old building, so old that when they decided to build their new log cabin home, they burned down the old homestead in April 1986, saying it wasn’t worth saving. They had built the new log cabin by October 1986 (right ahead of winter!), a beautiful home, by themselves. In his earlier days, Lowell had been a bucking-bronc rider on the rodeo circuit. Lowell and his sons & daughter broke all the horses used on the ranch to work cattle. The horses were only barely broken to the saddle, as Lowell believed that too much taming took the "edge" off a good cattle working horse. Said another way; these horses were still wild! We’d see an example of just how wild they were later in the trip.

The YG was pondering our direction of travel this morning and asked the Clarks for their thoughts on proceeding up the dirt road, over the pass at the headwaters of the Smiths Fork. Lowell & Paul thought our van could make the trip, as long as the weather stayed dry, but Eva was concerned about a stream crossing at the top of the pass. Paul said his friend had just driven over the road with a Ford Focus, so the van shouldn’t be a problem.

We were undecided on the ability of the van to traverse the mountain roads and were discussing our options as we loaded the van. Take a chance and go over the mountain road pass or drive a 150 miles out of our way around the mountains on blacktopped roads. Saying our "Goodbyes & Thanks for a Great stay" to Eva & Lowell, we approached the end of the ranch driveway, and JR asked, "So which way?" Lets go left, over the mountains came from the back seat. Ok, lets do it!]

It was a beautiful, sunny day and the ride up the mountain road took us to some beautiful places. The front wheel drive van was doing fine on the mountain roads with JR driving, but we did have to take it very easy, at a couple places we got out of the van to reduce the load & guide the driver across rutted areas. One of these areas was the stream about which Eva had been worried.  The water level was low in August so as the picture said we navigated the stream just fine although at higher water levels the story may have turned out different.

We all agreed that a high-clearance, 4WD rig would have made the trip much more carefree and easier on the drivers nerves. Had it rained in this area, the clay composition of the roads would have turned extremely slippery, making it impossible to pass thru without 4WD.

The upper drainage of the Smiths Fork was a beautiful, sinuous, willow banked stream inundated with beaver dams. Further up the road and surrounded by 10,000’+ mountains, we crossed carefully the stream which Eva had mentioned but had no difficulty this time due to the low water. It was a perfect blue sky day with comfortable temperatures in the mid 60's and low 70's. Ideal for folks from the Pacific Northwest. We tooled up the well maintained Forest Service Road.  On the way, we came across a herd of cattle who elected to use the road - somewhat common I guess in these backcountry areas.

As we went up higher into more forested lands, we came across large herds of sheep, guarded by huge white Great Pyrenees sheep dogs that looked exactly like sheep.

AKA Pyrenees link: http://www.akc.org/breeds/recbreeds/grpyr.cfm)

We didn’t see the dogs as we approached the herd, they blended in with the sheep so well we thought they were sheep, but they certainly made their presence known as we neared the herd by charging the van, barking & growling. We had no doubt that the herd was well protected from wolves, coyotes & bears by these great dogs.

After passing thru hundreds of sheep on the road, we rounded a curve to see two horses and a mule hopping up the road. They were all hobbled, but apparently had decided to escape anyway. Several miles down the road, we ran into the sheepherder’s camp. Looked like they had their work cut out for them to find their horses. The herders, by their attire, appeared to be Basque. We latter learned that most all the sheepherders in the area were Spanish Basque or of South American (Peruvian) heritage. They had come to the area generations ago looking for a variety of work, but many missed the independent life of the sheepherder and returned to that difficult and lonesome lifestyle.

We continued on the well used gravel/dirt road as we marveled at the beauty of the  eroded red and gray mountains (showing the residual sediments from earlier seas which covered this area) which were all around us as we rose in elevation.

Turning through a large grassy flat we came to the Basin Tri-Divide . The ground we were standing on was a three-way continental divide, with the waters flowing from this spot to the Greys River/Snake/Columbia/Pacific drainage, the La Barge River/Green/Colorado/Grand Canyon/Gulf of California drainage or the Smiths Fork/Bear River/Great Basin (Great Salt Lake) drainage. From this one spot, we could see the three separate drainages of the Cutthroat species we were seeking.

The road had improved at this point to a reasonably well-maintained gravel road. We proceeded down the Greys River road which began along the headwaters of the Greys River itself.

 AM’s G2 indicated that the upper reaches of the Greys held native Snake River Fine-spot Cutts while the lower section of the river was planted with hatchery fish. The upper section of the Greys started as a trickle, then flattened into a meadow section dominated by willows and beaver dams. Further down the road, the river began to drop thru sections of riffles & deep pools. There were several fine looking stretches of fish holding water just off the road and we were all anxious to give the Fine-spot Cutt a shot. Stopping by Marten Creek (mile post 41), it didn’t take long before AM hooked up, followed by AB.

 Moving down river to a new spot (about ½ mile), JR was the next to connect.

GK had several strikes but was still looking for his first Fine-spot. Moving again ( mile post 40), we found a nice slot and let GK take the first crack at it. Several casts hadn’t produced any fish. AB offered his rod to GK with a tungsten bead-head pheasant-tail, saying, "Cast right up into the fast water slot at the head of the pool and work the bead along the calm edge of the pool. One cast and GK was hooked up on a big fish! The fish ran down stream with GK doing his best to control the bruiser. After a respectable fight, AB netted the fish. Wow!!, another whopper, a 20+" Snake River Fine-Spot Cutthroat. What a beautiful fish for GK’s first Fine-spot!

 We were all ecstatic, as we’d documented the second of the three Cutt species we were seeking! We fished several more sections of the Greys and found many nice sized fish holding in the large pools throughout the river.

We continued down the Greys River to the Sheep Creek road leading to McDougal Gap at 9000 feet. The road connects the west side of Wyoming to the east side and leads us to some of the most beautiful country we’d seen on the trip. Travel guides list this road as the most beautiful drive thru the Wyoming Range. Originally this area was traveled by dinosaurs, later a key area used by Mountain Men and fir trappers, followed by loggers who cut the forests for railroad ties.