We were pleased to wake to clear skies with no smoke - perfect start to our backpacking trip! We had breakfast at Big Sandy Lodge then made the five minute drive to the trailhead. The parking lot was packed, but despite this trail being one of the most heavily used in the Wind River Range it never felt crowded in the backcountry.

Different sources put the mileage to Big Sandy Lake at about 5-6 miles. We had about 600 feet in elevation gain (Big Sandy Lake is at 9690 feet), which is nothing over 5-6 miles. It was a pleasant hike through the woods and we met multiple parties hiking out. We had anticipated it would take the bulk of the day to hike on account of Norah, so were pleasantly surprised when after three hours of hiking a guy told us we were about ten minutes from the lake. Awesome!

The trail brought us to the southwestern end of the lake and we veered right to find a campsite along the eastern shore. We found a great campsite near a bear box and a short walk from the lake.

In this picture the peaks from left to right are Warbonnet, Mitchell, Dogtooth,and Big Sandy.