The Sinks

We’ve had a couple of invaluable books that have been really helpful as we figure out where to go next on this trip. One of them, Moon’s Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho camping tipped us off to a little Wyoming State Park called Sinks Canyon.

What makes Sinks Canyon really cool is that the rushing Pogo Agie River thrashes away, then cascades down into a large, deep cavern and disappears (called “The Sink”). The river calmly reappears a quarter of a mile down the road into a large, peaceful pool (called “The Rise”) before speeding up into a rushing river again.

We started at the Sink, splashing around a bit on the edge and marvelling at the force of the water and the size of the cavern. From there, we walked down a path and across the road to an observation deck and were pleasantly surprised to be able to see about 50 rainbow and brown trout swimming around at The Rise, an area apparently rich in food. The kids had a lot of fun watching the fish, and there was a food dispensing machine, so they had even more fun throwing food in the water, then watching the fish splash around to get it.

Our campsite was inside the State Park, right next to the Pogo Agie River. It was a large site, with separate pads for tents and the boys decided it was a good night for them to sleep in the tent by themselves. After supper, Gerry and the boys got to work setting up the tent. Just as they were finishing, lightning flashed, thunder rumbled, and the skies opened up and dumped a violent waterfall of rain and hail down on us.

There was a steady downpour for about 30 minutes, which we watched from underneath our awning, laughing at the hail and the steam coming off rocks that were still hot from the afternoon sun.

However, not to be deterred, once the rain slowed down, the boys hunkered down in the tent and stayed there most of the evening and all night long, giggling themselves to sleep.