This is the 50th anniversary year of the enactment of The Wilderness Act, an especially noteworthy event!
The 704,274 acres of the Washakie Wilderness are components of the Shoshone National Forest and the Bridger-Teton National Forest, with most of the wilderness located in the Shoshone. In 1972, the Stratified Primitive Area was joined with the South Absaroka Wilderness to form the Washakie, now Wyoming's largest wilderness area. The wilderness is named after Chief Washakie, a key historical figure and past leader of the Shoshone tribe in Wyoming. Yellowstone National Park is to the northwest, Teton Wilderness to the west and the Wind River Indian Reservation to the southeast. The wilderness is an integral part of the 10-million acre Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and represents one of the greatest wild regions remaining in America.
In the southern Absarokas, the mountains are broad and flat-topped. The plateaus are cut by narrow valleys that expose the horizontal volcanic strata underneath, which is often eroded into irregular steps of cliffs and buttes. Wilderness area elevations range from a low of about 6,600 feet to a high of 13,153 feet at Franc's Peak; mountains exceeding 12,000 feet in elevation are scattered through the wilderness. About half the wilderness is forested; the remainder is rough and barren, supporting sparse vegetation in mixes of mountain grasslands, meadows, and bare rock. Throughout these mountains one can find zones having petrified forests and fossils, but lakes are few in this wilderness. The stream fishing for several species of trout is good. Hunters come in season for moose, elk, deer, black bear, and bighorn sheep. These mountains also support good populations of grizzly bears, mountain lions and wolves, so you should be prepared for encounters in any season. In 2011, when I climbed Washakie Needles and Franc’s Peak in August we encountered a minimum of 19 different grizzly bears and saw many others that we considered to be repeats of previous sightings of individual bears. While I was hiking above the South Fork this year I saw no grizzlies, but their footprints in trail dirt were commonly seen. This is a wilderness where you need to be continuously alert and prepared for bear encounters.
The Washakie Wilderness has many miles of trails in varying states of maintenance, with various use levels in the different seasons. Because the forests are relatively open, off-trail hiking is reasonably easy. The higher country can see snowfall on any day of the year and considerable rain can occur during late summer. A hot summer's day is in the low 80s, while a cold winter can see minus 40s for lengthy periods.
THE PUZZLE
Solve the puzzle given here and then take a hike to your calculated cache location
Anderson
Boulder
Icy
Frost
Pearce
Cow
Castle
Calf
Buckle
Saddle
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