Local Point Of View
Here's how one local rider, Sandy Sletten, describes the spot in the Wyoming Range side of Sublette County he likes to ride. "Horse Creek is the favorite place for everyone to ride. Snow is always early and stays late. It's an amazing place to ride. The Wyoming Range Mountains have awesome 360-degree views where you can even see the Teton Mountains. There's lots of trail riding and endless boondocking that keep everyone happy."
We chronicled one of our most recent rides in the Wyoming Range a year ago in the September, 2010 issue of SnoWest Magazine ("No Time For Highways," page 36). We rode from Bone, ID to Merna and the Timberline Lodge in Sublette County and then rode back a slightly different route. We crossed into Sublette County at McDougal Gap, headed north, shadowing the groomed trail and then went east to Merna. On the way back we headed toward Blind Bull and then back to Bone.
As amazing as it is to ride in the Wyoming Range portion of Sublette County, it's not the only riding in the county. Wyoming's longest and most famous snowmobile trail, the Continental Divide Snowmobile Trail, goes through portions of the county.
We've ridden most of the nearly 600-mile CDST from one end to the other, starting at the Sinks Canyon parking area south of Lander, crossing through Sublette County and the town of Pinedale on our way to Togwotee Pass and finishing at Grand Teton National Park. When we took that snowmobile trip, you could still ride a groomed trail through Boulder and Pinedale, turning north at Highway 352 and continuing on to the northern part of Sublette County on your way to Brooks Lake and then Togwotee.
Admittedly, it was tough for the state of Wyoming to maintain the groomed trail from east of Boulder up past Cora because snow conditions weren't always ideal. It might be hard to fathom that there wasn't always enough snow around Pinedale, which sits at about 7,200 feet and has an annual snowfall of 62 inches, but it is true.
The trail the day we rode through Boulder and Pinedale wasn't bad but there could have been more snow. Even today, you can still see signs near Pinedale indicating that you can ride alongside (in the right-a-way) the highway (U.S. Highway 191), assuming there is snow. It just won't be groomed.