This 25km canyon stretches down through the Owl Creek Mountains of central Wyoming from Thermopolis to the Boysen Reservoir. It forms part of the Reservation set up in July 3, 1868, under the leadership of Chief Washakie of the Eastern Shoshone (Sheep Eater) Indians. The Wind River actually runs north through this gorge (unusual in America) and joins the Bighorn (of George Armstrong Custer fame) at Thermopolis.
So much for the facts.
This chasm is so deep, that the sun starts to set before you even get used to it rising. The rapids twist and turn so often, that within minutes you are lost in another world. The walls are so high, that halfway down you start thinking about earthquakes and rock slides and the bars that have vanished from your cellphone. It is a thrilling, intimidating, exhilarating, spiritual ride, and the biggest adrenalin rush you will ever feel at 30kph.
And then you arrive at the Boysen Reservoir, a vast, windswept, desert lake in the middle of nowhere - as open and expansive a place as the canyon was closed and urgent. It all makes for a very strange experience, and a reminder of how much more there is to Wyoming than first met your eye. read more