Fremont Lake, Pinedale, WY - Aug 2006

I had read about the campground at Fremont Lake in a book titled "100 Miles Around Yellowstone." In the book, the authors describe many things to do and places to stay that are within 100 miles of Yellowstone. Their descriptions included comments about some of their favorite camping places and Fremont Lake was listed as tops on their list of very nice places. Fremont Lake is the second largest lake in Wyoming and is noted as being one of the cleanest lakes in the country. In this photo, Fremont Lake is the larger, deep blue lake in the foreground and Green River Lake is the aqua colored lake behind it. That small white splash is a boat pulling a water skier -- all I can say is BRRRR!

We arrived at the campground on a Tuesday afternoon after a short, but stressful drive from Rock Springs, Wyoming. The entire drive we were pelted with rain and buffeted with winds and those two factors kept us driving much slower than the posted speed limit. Of course, the locals weren't bothered by the nasty weather conditions and we were constantly being passed by pick-up trucks. The road is also used by a lot of semi-trucks and as they zoomed by, going the other direction, we got splashed and blinded by their 18-wheel road spray. Luckily, by the time we reached the campground, the rain had stopped and we set up camp and had a lovely remainder of the afternoon.

The campground had 54 sites and sadly, only about a half dozen of them had really nice views of the lake. The rest of the sites were divided into two groups -- the first group were very private nooks that were nestled into the pines and aspens and the second group were those that were not much more than a wide pull-out off the road. We really lucked into #35 -- a level, back-in site with a great view of the lake.

Our site sat up on a bluff with a view overlooking the middle section of the lake. It had several trees -- pines and aspens -- and it even had a dirt path that led right down to water's edge. We really enjoyed having our morning coffee out on the bluff and also spent every evening perched there while we watched the sun go down behind the mountains on the opposite side of the lake.

While at Fremont Lake, we took time to visit the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale (about 7 miles from the campground.) It was a small, but well-done museum and had lots of artifacts as well as histories of the more famous mountain men who later went on to become scouts for the westward bound pioneers. While in town, we also enjoyed a meal and home-brewed beer at the Bottom's Up Brewery and Grill.

One day we drove up to the end of Skyline Drive. The drive took us past several grand vistas including one that overlooked Fremont Lake. We could see almost the entire 11 mile length of the lake from this one vantage point. Most of the lake is inaccessible by car and has very little development on it. There is only one other RV park on the lake (private), a small marina and a small campground on the northern end of the lake that can only be accessed by boat. Maybe that's how the lake stays so clean!

Another pull-out further along Skyline Drive gave us a sweeping view of the Wind River Range. We were also able to see the canyon that contained the river that fed into Fremont Lake from there. Our drive that day also took us to Half Moon Lake (where we checked out the nf campground and found it not nearly as nice as Fremont.) Skyline Drive ends at a public campground called Trail's End -- not much more than a half dozen sites with only two being large enough for an RV.

One day we took an excursion to the White Pine Ski Resort. Being fans of summertime chair lift rides we decided to try this one out. It was a pretty good ride up to the top, but there was nothing up there for the mere "view gazers". We enjoy having platforms to view the scenery as well as an outdoor snack bar where we can sit and sip on some coffee while enjoying the view, but White Pine had no such thing -- oh well. They did have a very nice dining room at the base of the mountain, so we ate our lunch out on the patio and enjoyed watching the mountain bikers zoom down the hill.

Another fun thing happened while at Fremont, we crossed paths with Lorna (another Lazy Daze owner) whom we'd met at Inks Lake State Park (near Llano, TX) back in April. She's such a fun person and we always enjoy our visits with her.