Views of The Great Wyoming Highlands - near Pinedale, Wyoming

There's a fairly quiet, little-known town a ways southeast of Yellowstone Park, yet it represents a door leading to an extremely large country comprising of gorgeous highland forests properly situated in the Wind River Mountain Range. This little town, you ask? Pinedale, Wyoming.

A tree near Halfmoon Lake.

Halfmoon Lake.

On the first day of our arrival in the town, we took a route toward the Halfmoon and Fremont Lakes. We first went through the area around Halfmoon Lake, and got the chance to enjoy peace and quiet in the lush forest scenery. We turned around and headed on another road that led to a viewpoint of Fremont Lake.

Viewpoint of Fremont Lake.

Seeing the rolling hills and the lake... it was almost out of a fairytale. The only downside was that there were quite a few of pesky bugs flying around, which was a little annoying, but the great view overcame this small annoyance. Unfortunately, in many of the nearby places we visited there would be a lot of bugs. However, we were about to encounter an even more spectacular view just up the road.

View of the Wind River Range.

This next overlook presented a view of the Wind River Range; over 10 mountains in the view were at least 10,000 feet or higher. It did prove to be much more dramatic, primarily because we were up so high. We could also part of the Fremont Lake below, which was now almost a speck.

 The next day offered spectacular views as well. This time, we headed out of the city and onto another road through the settlement of Cora, Wyoming. A short distance later, the road turned into bumpy gravel, but this didn't stop us from proceeding. As we continued, the Green River eventually came in by our side. Although it wasn't officially designated as a scenic road, it certainly should have after seeing the views of the pine trees, rolling hills and the beautiful Green River on our sides of the road.

The Green River.

Finally we reached the end of the gravel road, and we came face to face with a striking view of the Green River Lake, with the Squaretop Mountain in the distance. It was like it was out of a dream. In fact, it WAS out of a dream I had several months before I came here.

The Green River Lake with Squaretop Mountain.