The Green River Lakes and Square Top Mountain

Across the lake the mountain stood. A sentinel of granite and metamprphic rock commanding the glacial valley with its size, shape and spires. I had only once seen anything that compares  and that was when we visited Yosemite and viewed Half Dome. Why wasn't this a national park?
I thought a bit and then realized that it had been declared a wilderness and perhaps that was the correct desigination for this high place of beauty The only access to it is by a gravel road that bounces up along the side of the Green River, (the Green River Lakes are its source afterall).
Matt pointed out a herd of elk grazing in the high country, atop another peak that stood to the north and west and Jenny countered with more elk in a meadow to the west. Renita pointed out the trail that paralled the lake before heading into the valley that stood below Square Top and how I longed to don a backpack and head out.......
Not today however but perhaps in the future. There is a trail that leads to the Green River Trailhead from Elk Park, a place just thirty miles away. It's another reason why this place is so remote and so unknown. THe distances and approaches are so long that few venture into the Winds without horses.
We watched two boats fight the wind which blew hard from the south, raising whitecaps and threating to grab our picnic lunch as we sat in a meadow and ate our sandwhichs. We finished our lunch and walked along the lake for a bit, but not far enough. I know only too well how one must be prepared, and not just physically, to enter such a place.
We took more images before climbing back into our truck and returned home bouncing down the washboard gravel and rock road. The road itself is not place to take our fifth wheel, (allthough you could if one didn't mind that everything would be bounced apart). We arrived home and talked again of the day spent and the beauty that surrounds us. We have been truely blessed. Clear skies