RV Squid: Neversweat, Sinks Canyon, Grand Teton

Upon leaving Rawlins, we traveled to Dubois, WY. It's pronounced DuBoys by the locals. According to Wikipedia, they wanted to name the town Neversweat, but that name was rejected by the postmaster. Out of spite, the locals rejected the French pronunciation of the name. DuBoys it is.

We stayed at Windhaven RV Resort. While both of us agree that it's a campground, not an RV resort, you certainly can't beat the owners' hospitality. It's the only campground to which we've been that provided freshly baked cookies in the evening.

Dubois scenic overlook - vast 360 degree vistas

On our first day trip, we backtracked to the Lander, WY, area to hit Sinks Canyon State Park. We had been intrigued by the description of the unique geologic feature of the park and wanted to see it for ourselves. The Po Po Agie River disappears into limestone caverns, known as "the sinks," and reappears about a quarter of a mile down the road into a pool, called "the rise." They have used dye tracers to determine that the water takes around two hours to make the trip and is a couple of degrees warmer when it arrives above ground again. It's super amazing to consider.

"The Sinks" During the spring thaw, the water level is to the roof.

"The Rise" trout pond

While in the park, we opted to take the trail to the Middle Falls for a little exercise. We didn't know about "the slide" where folks slide down slick rocks into a pool of refreshingly cold water. After watching a teen try it, I'm not sure it would have been a good idea for us anyway.

Part of Middle Falls

The slide

We toured the National Bighorn Sheep Center in Dubois and then drove the self-guided car tour to the Whiskey Basin in a vain attempt to see the bighorns. While we didn't see any sheep, we did take the short half mile walk to a footbridge over a waterfall gorge - beautiful and impressive.

Desert Bighorn, Rocky Mountain Bighorn, Stone, Dall (left to right)

Rushing falls near Glacier Trail trailhead in Whiskey Basin Wildlife Management Area

Dubois is now home to a new museum, the National Museum of Military Vehicles. We had a rather cool and somewhat rainy day, and I encouraged Harold to go while I stayed behind to get caught up on some laundry. Just about every guy to whom we had talked was excited about this place. All I could envision was hours of looking at tank after tank. Harold did enjoy the museum. I think he spent more time there than he has in any museum we've visited thus far. He stayed until closing time!

It's a tank

Dubois is about an hour's drive to the east entrance of Grand Teton National Park. We made the trip twice. The drive over Togwotee Pass in the Bridger-Teton National Forest is gorgeous, especially coming east in the late afternoon on the return to Dubois.

On the way back to Dubois

I was trying to think about what it is that distinguishes the Tetons. They're jagged peaks of granite without a lot of trees. You see retreating glaciers. The overall impression is of blue and white, hard and rugged peaks.

We did see those famous barns, the Moulton barns, that appear in multiple magazine spreads. We saw where Ansel Adams took his photos of the Tetons and the Snake River. We hiked partially around Jenny Lake and took the boat back to the starting point. We drove into Jackson and took our picture with elk antler arch in the town square. We did not see any bear, elk, or moose. Bummer! We did see a herd of bison, the most we'd seen since Custer State Park. That counts!