Camping on the Green River

Dad and I had the most wonderful camping trip last week.  Late morning on Tuesday we started the drive to the Green River near Pinedale.  This was our day to scout the river, takeouts, and get lay of the land.  Our first stop was Warren Bridge.  The water and campsites up river from the Warren Bridge both looked outstanding.  Then we drove down to the Fish Hatchery ramp and then down to the Daniel boat ramp.  After driving to a few more lower takeouts (the Cage aka Summers and Huston) we had a good sense of this section of the river we went to the Two Rivers Emporium for local knowledge and fishing licenses.  After picking up two pizzas at Wind River Pizza we drove back to the camp ground #2 to wade fishing until sunset.

Setting up at Camp Ground #2

We woke up early on Wednesday and drove into town for a bland and unimpressive breakfast.  We got back to the ramp at camp ground #2 and were on the water by 9 am.  Right away the hatch was on and the fish were feeding at the end of the riffles.  Fishing was good all day, especially if you had a size 16 peacock body stimulator.  We couldn't "fall asleep" oars and had to keep maneuvering.  We took out at the Fish Hatchery around 3:30 and then we were onto scout the New Fork.

We drove south of Daniel until we could cut over to Marbleton and finally meet up with the New Fork.  It looked great and supposedly there is a take out nearby called East Fork, but we couldn't find it.  We found the Boulder ramp and the ramp off Tyler Ave. in Pinedale.  We concluded that the first few miles of the New Fork is hemmed in with willows and the channel is relatively narrow.  Thus, we decided to save this section for another trip.  By this time, both of us are parched, so we headed to the Wind River Brewery for burgers and to watch the baseball game.  We made it back to campground #2 just as it got dark and watched a deer graze on the opposite bank of the river.

Dad Fishing the Quigley for Browns

Thursday morning bright and early we found ourselves having breakfast with the oil men at the Wrangler.  The choices were too many and too tempting; steak and eggs, biscuits and gravy, hash skillet, or chicken fried steak.  Plus the coffee was bottomless.  We both were in heaven with the chicken fried steak breakfast with hash browns, two eggs, and buttered white toast.  Almost too good to leave, but there were fish to be caught.  We put in at the Fish Hatchery around 9 a.m. and again the bugs were coming off the riffles and fish were feeding on them.  I threw a foam back rusty emerged and Dad threw a PMD Quigley emerger, both worked well.  While this section of the river was easier to row, we still had to do our share of rowing.  The fishing seemed to turn off around noon.  We took out at Daniel around 2:30.  After a quick stop for gas and fountain dew at the Daniel Junction store we were back on the road to Driggs and made it home in time for Dad to take Mom out for dinner.

This is definitely one of the highlights of the summer for me.  We had a great time and with any luck Dad and I can return next summer.