Darton Peak, Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming (7-12-20)

Days 3 & 4 of Lupe’s 2nd summer of 2020 Dingo Vacation to Wyoming & Utah!

7-12-20, 7:40 AM, 57ºF, 0.67 mile NE of Lost Twin Lakes at 11,100 feet – With the sleeping bags and other unnecessary items safely stashed in the tiny house, SPHP was finally ready.  The Carolina Dog had slept like a rock last night, and was eager to get the day’s adventures underway.

The lighter pack put a little more spring in SPHP’s step as Lupe headed ESE up a broad slope, a region of grass, wildflowers, and rock bordered on both flanks by talus ridges.  The ridge on the L was higher, and led up to an unidentified peak along the spine of the Bighorn Range.

The American Dingo was on her way to a saddle at the upper end of the slope.  What she saw on the far side once she got there would put an end to any remaining uncertainty over her precise location.  Progress was rapid, but for a while, Lupe didn’t seem to be getting any closer to the saddle.  More territory kept appearing ahead.

By the time Loop actually did reach the saddle, she was nearly a mile from the tiny house.  The talus ridges on both sides were now hundreds of feet higher.  In the saddle, a snowbank clung to the edge of a precipice at the extreme upper end of a long, deep gorge to the ESE.  Miles away, and thousands of feet lower, a number of small lakes glistened in the morning sun.

SPHP consulted the topo map.  The lack of any big lakes much closer to the saddle was a dead giveaway.  This had to be the Oliver Creek canyon.

If Lupe was seeing Oliver Creek Canyon from here, that meant the ridge to the N was part of Peak 12080.  The ridge to the S had to be her actual objective, Darton Peak (12,275 ft.).

This saddle was at a little over 11,600 feet.  What could be seen of Darton Peak looked only 300 feet higher, not the roughly 650 feet it ought to have been.  Either appearances were deceiving, or there must be a lot more to it.

The N face of Darton Peak appeared climbable, but quite steep and all talus.  SW of the saddle, Lupe could see a big ramp with a fair amount of green on it that went much more gradually up toward a less steep NW ridge.  This ramp reached the ridgeline between an all talus portion trending toward the summit, and a couple of large snowbanks farther NW.  Definitely a longer route, but perhaps a better approach than going straight up the N face?

Looper gave the ramp a shot.

Even the ramp proved to be mighty rocky.  After getting past the initial bit of vegetation, Lupe found herself scrambling among great boulders still trying to get to the apparent ridgeline.  Working her way around to the W side of the mountain, she never did come to a distinct NW ridge, or an easy W slope.  Occasionally the Carolina Dog encountered a bit of greenery, but no significant areas of genuinely better terrain.  Disappointing!

Gradually turning SE, then E, Lupe mounted a direct assault on the W slope.  The American Dingo did her usual fantastic job of scrambling, but huge talus made progress dreadfully slow.  SPHP became concerned about the deep holes among the rocks.  Any fall resulting in a broken bone would be terribly serious.  The required leaps were so large that Loop did have difficulty with some of them.  Once she lost her grip, but fell only a few feet.  Unharmed.  Whew!

Carefully, carefully!  Didn’t matter how long this took.  Meanwhile, views were improving.  Off to the N, Lupe could see Mather Peaks (12,400 ft.), Bomber Mountain (12,850 ft.), and mighty Cloud Peak (13,167 ft.).

The rocks kept getting bigger.  Many as big as cars, some as big as buses.  Cavernous holes between them.  SPHP started having to boost Loopster higher in spots, but for the most part, the wily American Dingo had an uncanny knack at finding ways up, leaping from rock to rock through a complex maze of impassable points.

Darton Peak slowly narrowed.  Surely, Loop was getting close to the top?  She climbed and climbed, but more rocks kept appearing distressingly higher.

At last, it was clear that the Carolina Dog was just 20 or 30 feet below the summit.  However, the talus was huge.  Neither Loop nor SPHP could find a way up from the W.  Slowly working around to the S, a couple of spots might have worked, but they were chancy.  SPHP didn’t like the looks of them.

Lupe kept circling until the E face came into view.  A solid wall of rock.  No way up it.  For a couple of minutes, SPHP studied the situation.  If the wall had been only a little shorter, Loop would have been able to get up there.  As it was, simply no dice.  Not gonna work.

Better go back.  SPHP took another look at the possibilities from the S.  They hadn’t gotten any better.  Not going to risk it.  A second search was conducted along the W face.  Finally, a bit toward the N, an answer to the puzzle.  A spot where it was possible to get another 10 feet higher.

That was the break Lupe needed.  The rest was, well, not easy, but much less difficult.

Darton Peak (12,275 ft.) had a two tier summit region.  Lupe came up from the W, reaching the slightly lower NW area first.  Nothing but rock up here, but the boulders weren’t as massive as what she’d just come through.  The true summit was a big light-colored boulder just S of this lower tier.

Both the upper and lower tiers were roughly 20 feet in diameter.  The upper tier had the largest boulders.  The true summit boulder sat NW of 2 other huge rocks which weren’t much lower.

A gusty 15 to 25 mph W wind that had come up during the ascent was an annoyance.  Lupe especially didn’t care for it when SPHP boosted her up onto the true summit boulder.  The top of the boulder was somewhat narrow, which didn’t help make her feel any more secure.  However, she did stay up there for several minutes, long enough for a few photos.

The views from Darton Peak were tremendous!  Loopster could see all along the spine of the Bighorn Range from Cloud Peak and Bomber Mountain to the N, all the way down to Loaf Mountain (11,722 ft.), and even Hazelton Pyramid (10,534 ft.) to the S.  Bighorn Peak (12,324 ft.) was only 1.5 miles due S.

Lost Twin Lakes Peak (12,015 ft.) was visible off to the SW.  Earlier in the day, SPHP had harbored hopes that Lupe might be able to venture over there today after visiting Darton Peak.  Hah!  Delusional!  Although Darton Peak wasn’t all that far from where the tiny house was situated, it had taken hours to get up here.  Clearly it would take hours more just to get down.

Getting to Lost Twin Lakes Peak would then be nearly a two mile march, which didn’t sound like much, but Lupe could see practically the entire route from here.  An awful lot of talus to deal with, plus some pretty good elevation variations.  Nope, sadly not happening, but it was fun to have such a good view of what would have been involved.

Portions of the Lost Twin Lakes could be seen as well, although only a sliver of the upper lake was visible.

No other high peaks existed off to the E.  Instead, Lupe could see many small lakes and a vast lower portion of the Bighorns, most of it forested.  Beyond the foothills, the high plains of NE Wyoming extended to the far horizon.

Already 1:10 PM.  The ascent had been more challenging and taken way longer than anticipated.  After a good look around from the upper tier of the summit region, a decent rest break was in order.  Darton Peak was nothing but boulders.  Not a single soft spot or patch of dirt where Lupe could relax.  She retreated to the slightly lower NW tier where the rocks weren’t quite as large.

SPHP shook the Carolina Dog’s paw, congratulating Loop on her Darton Peak success, then sat down so she could at least curl up on SPHP’s lap.  The gusty W wind was relentless, making it somewhat difficult to truly appreciate the spectacular views from this seldom visited spine of the Bighorns peak.

Even so, Lupe and SPHP hung out on Darton Peak for an hour, sometimes getting up to hop among the boulders in order to revisit certain vantage points.  Clouds sailed swiftly by, their shadows passing briefly over the mountain.  Time was spent reminiscing about the American Dingo’s other adventures along the spine of the Bighorns.

In years now lost to history, Loop had been to quite a few of these high peaks.  It was fun to see them all again from yet another lofty, lonely, wind-swept summit.  Less than a year ago, she’d had her first good look at Darton Peak from Bighorn Peak, and now, amazingly, here she was!

Before departing, Loopster returned to the upper tier for a final look around, but this time SPHP did not help her up onto that super breezy summit boulder again, since she wouldn’t have enjoyed it.

Well, it was time.  Heading back to the lower tier, Lupe started the long, tricky scramble down Darton Peak’s W slope.  She’d barely gotten started when SPHP paused.

What’s the holdup, SPHP?  Keep going!

I’d love to, Looper, but keep going where?  Do you remember how we got up here, cause I’m not seeing it.

Oh, don’t worry about that!  Any route you want to take is fine with me.

That’s the problem.  I not only don’t see where we came up, I don’t see any way down at all.  None.  Zippo.

Oh, please!  We got up here, so there has to be one.  It’s right around here somewhere.  I’ll help you look.

Wandering carefully, slowly, in the stiff breeze among massive boulders, the search began.  Nothing.  No safe way down, only drops so large they meant a fall.  Giving up on the W slope, Lupe and SPHP circled around to the S.  Yuck!  Even worse.  Nada.

Well, this is a bit of a pickle, isn’t it?  We don’t have any rope, and even if we did, you’d never get down it, Loop.

Let’s work our way back over to the W slope, SPHP.  We know we came up somewhere over there.  If we have to look at every rock on this mountain, we’re going to find the right one.  C’mon!

That sort of did have to be the plan.  After more fruitless searching along the W slope, carefully examining every rock, crack, and gap multiple times, something clicked.

This is it, Loop!  I finally recognize it.  We came up this way.

You sure, SPHP?  You’ve looked at these same rocks umpteen times and saw nothing.

Yep, yep!  I remember this now.  It just has a different appearance looking down on it, than it did on the way up.

Lupe was on her way again.  Sure wasn’t the end of looking for viable routes down Darton Peak’s W slope, but the snail-like process never ground to a complete halt again for long.  Nearly 3 hours after leaving the summit, Looper emerged from the worst of the boulders, reaching better terrain with smaller rocks and some vegetation.

Even then, it took a long time to get past all the smaller talus over to the N side of the ridge overlooking the broad slope Lupe had taken up to the saddle early this morning.  Traversing some of the big snowbanks she had seen back then as a useful shortcut, Loop finally got down to the much grassier region below.

What a day!  Darton Peak (12,275 ft.) couldn’t have been any more than 1.5 miles as the crow flies from the tiny house the American Dingo had started out from.  No more than 1,200 feet of elevation gain, either, yet the whole experience after leaving the saddle overlooking the Oliver Creek gorge had been sort of an ordeal.

Apparently, SPHP wasn’t the only one that felt that way.  Back at the tiny house, Lupe rested outside among the wildflowers, enjoying another lovely spine of the Bighorns evening at 11,100 feet.  However, she didn’t seem to have the energy to eat much Taste of the Wild for dinner.  Long before sunset, she retired to the tiny house, crashing and burning on her soft sleeping bag.

7-13-20, 7:01 AM – Once again, the American Dingo had barely stirred during the night.  However, she was up now, looking wistfully toward Mather Peaks (12,400 ft.) while SPHP packed up the tiny house.

Earlier, SPHP had been pondering whether or not heading over to Mather Peaks might be the thing to do, but clouds over that way sort of ruled it out.  Looked like a front might be moving in out of the NW.

Still, as the Carolina Dog continued to stare in that same direction, SPHP began to reconsider all options.  In the end, SPHP simply wasn’t up for it.  Mather Peaks was easily 3 times as far away as Darton Peak had been.  While it didn’t look like a hard trek from here, much of the route was every bit as rocky.  Might actually take a very long time to get there.

Darton Peak had been a success.  Best let it go at that.  Besides, that left the possibility that some fine day, Lupe would return.

In the end, Lupe roamed at will among rocks and wildflowers, searching for the marmots always whistling in the distance on the way back down to the Lost Twin Lakes.

By 12:30 PM, Lupe was back at the G6, still parked along the dusty road S of the West Tensleep trailhead.

The Carolina Dog’s Lost Twin Lakes and Darton Peak adventures were over.  Rest and recovery time.  Lupe enjoyed Alpo and chicken jerky treats for lunch, while SPHP drove.  Sadly, the old Deer Haven lodge looked defunct, but SPHP did get a juicy cheeseburger and a 7UP at Meadowlark Lake lodge.

Energy returned during a relaxing afternoon at the Lake Point picnic ground.  In the evening, Looper took the familiar short trail up to High Park Lookout (9,477 ft.).  A front had indeed moved in during the day.  No precipitation yet, but silvery clouds hung over the spine of the Bighorn Range.

Hard to tell exactly what was what way up there from down here, but it was possible to roughly identify the general region where two beautiful lakes lay hidden in a spectacular cirque nearly 2,000 feet below a light-colored boulder atop lonely, wind-swept Darton Peak.

Links:

Next Adventure                     Prior Adventure

Darton Peak, Part 1:

To the Lost Twin Lakes & Beyond, Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming (7-11-20)

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