How's this for a campsite view!? Hey, welcome back to Grand Adventure! I'm your
host Marc Guido, and in this episode we're going to be exploring the Green
River Lakes in Wyoming's Wind River Mountains, so stay tuned!
So, the Wind River Mountains run through north central Wyoming. They're a
wonderfully underutilized mountain range. We're southeast of Jackson, and just
north of the town of Pinedale in the Green River Lakes area. Now just so you
know, this is about 50 miles from the nearest town -- which is Pinedale -- and about
19 of that, about the last 19 miles is dirt road. Now it's a graded dirt road,
but it does have a lot of embedded small rocks in it, and washboard. It's
slow-going - it's going to take you an hour to go that last 19 miles, but it is worth
every little bump, every little bounce, every little screw that I had to put
back in the RV, because this is an absolutely gorgeous spot!
Our camp is positively overrun with prairie dogs. That's a good thing, because
they've cleaned up any food scraps that previous campers may have left behind.
This is bear country, home to both black bears and grizzlies that can smell food
from miles away. We had intended to camp in the campground at Green River Lakes,
which is the only place you're going to get within a quarter mile of the lake
and with an RV to be able to camp, because they do restrict boondocking for
the last quarter mile of that road. But just outside that quarter-mile limit we
found this absolutely gorgeous spot right on the Green River. Green River
Lakes Campground is a dry Forest Service campground located near the
shores of beautiful Lower Green River Lake at an elevation of just over eight
thousand feet. 39 sites, including three group sites, feature fire rings and
picnic tables, and vault toilets and drinking water hydrants are scattered
throughout the campground. Single sites cost $12 per night, and the group sites are
$35 per night. Only the group sites are reservable -- the single sites are all
first-come, first-served. Forest Service officials tell us that the campground
seldom fills, and on this weekend preceding the fourth of July we found
the campground perhaps 20% full. Nevertheless, if you're unable to find
space in the campground we found seemingly unlimited boondocking sites
alongside the Forest Service road leading to the campground, along the
banks of the Green River.
Now I've been here exactly once before. It's been almost 10 years since I was
last here with my buddy Jon to do some kayak camping on the upper of the -
Green River Lakes. Today I want to get back on that lake because I've missed it
so much, go back and paddle Lower Green River Lake.
So we truly hope that you've enjoyed coming along to the Wind River Mountains
with us. If you're not yet a Grand Adventurer, now's the time -- smash that
little red "Subscribe" button down there in the corner, and ring that notification
bell! Now, we'd be honored if you shared Grand Adventure with your friends, your
family, and on social media. We put out new outdoor adventure travel videos each
and every Wednesday. If you liked this video it's extremely important to us:
please give us a thumbs up down below, and also down below you'll find the
comments section where we always love to hear from you after each video. And if
you'd like one of these spiffy Grand Adventure t-shirts or one of our other
designs, please visit our Teespring store -- we'll put a link right here on the
screen for you to go check it out right now. And until next week
please remember: life is nothing but a Grand Adventure! We'll see you then!