7/16/12

Fire Ban in Canyon and across Wyoming

The spring and summer of 2012 is the driest in Wyoming since the late 1890s. A very light winter coupled with hardly any spring and summer rain has elevated fire dangers across the state to extremely dangerous levels.

Multiple large and destructive wildfires have been burning in Wyoming and across the west due to the tinder dry forests.

There is an open fire ban statewide. In Sinks Canyon open flames are banned. Campers and people using the park can still use propane stoves or charcoal in a covered container, but no open fires anywhere in the canyon.

People are asked to use extreme caution with anything that can make a spark. Smoking is only allowed inside vehicles, fireworks, as always, are banned.

 

7/16/12

New hiking trail opens in the canyon, the North Slope trail runs 1 mile between the Popo Agie Nature Trail and the Sinks to Rise Trail

For the past two summers park staff and volunteers have been working on a new hiking trail in the canyon. The North Slope Trail connects the Popo Agie Nature Trail and the Sinks To Rise trail. The new trail is 1 mile long and can hiked from either direction. The trail climbs through dense conifer forests, across an open ridge with outcrops of limestone and sandstone and switchbacks down across the dry river channel to the Sinks to Rise Trail. The hike is generally easy, but there are steep sections. The trail has some spectacular views up and down canyon.

1/5/12

Win a spectacular framed Bighorn Sheep photo in Sinks Canyon Raffle

Award winning Wyoming photographer Bill Briggs donated a 16x20 print of a Bighorn Sheep to the park for a raffle to raise funds for new displays in the Visitor Center.

Briggs, from Riverton, has spent many hours shooting pictures in the canyon, particularly of  "Bam Bam" the Bighorn ram. Bam Bam became infamous for hanging around the parking lots and Visitor Center and ramming cars. He was eventually moved out of the canyon for his own safty.

Briggs' protrait of the sheep will be raffled off this summer to raise funds for new displays in the Visitor Center. The 16x20 picture was professionally matted and framed and would be a magnificent picture to put in a home or office.

Raffle tickets are $2.00 each or 6 for $10.00 and are available at the Visitor Center. The drawing for the picture will be held on Labor Day 2012. Tickets are also available in Lander at The Lander Chamber of Commerce, and Reeds Office Supply.

All proceeds go directly to the park for new interpretive displays in the center.

Call 307-332-3077 for more information.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1/9/12

Campfire programs continue in Popo Agie Campground this summer

Visitors listen to a program by the banks of the river on a pleasant summer evening.

The Friday evening campfire programs will continue this summer at the camp host site in Popo Agie Campground this summer.

The programs will start at 6 p.m. and will feature park staff and other experts talking about wildlife, ecology, geology and the natural history of the canyon.

The programs will last about half and hour with a question and answer period after. The programs are free and open to the public.

 

 

5/28/11

SINKS CANYON STATE PARK ANNOUNCES EVENING CAMPFIRE PROGRAMS FOR SUMMER 2011

 

 

Campfire programs about the natural history of Sinks Canyon and Wyoming will be given on Friday evenings in Popo Agie Campground in Sinks Canyon State Park.

 

The programs will start at 6 p.m. in the campground. The programs will be every Friday evening through May, June and July.

 

Programs will feature park staff talking about geology, wildlife, plants and other topics of interest to visitors. The programs will last about a half and hour with a question and answer period after. The programs are free and open to the public.

 

The park is taking a break from its successful Tuesday evening speaker series held at he park visitor center for the past fifteen years. “We felt the speaker series had about run its course,” said Park Superintendent Darrel Trembly. “We had a tremendous response to the programs over the years, but over the last few summers more and more organizations were doing the same thing, pulling from the same few speakers and audience.”

 

Trembly said the park decided to focus this summer on a more informal campfire program geared towards campers in the park. He said the Tuesday visitor center programs drew few campers to the park since Tuesday was a slow night for campers.

 

“We aren’t dropping the speaker series entirely,” he went on to say, “If a speaker we think comes to us and is a good fit we will schedule them, but we want to offer the campfire programs to reach people traveling through.”

 

For more information on the campfire programs call the park at 307-332-3077 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 307-332-3077 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

 

12/31/10

Record High Water in 2010

The Sinks cave filled to the brim with water.

After almost a decade of drought conditions caused by warm, dry winters, The years of 2009 and 2010 saw a return to wetter weather.

2010 had high levels of spring moisture (snow and rain) which created record high water in the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie (and in many Wyoming rivers).

There had been heavy spring snows in the Wind River Mountains pushing snowpack levels well above normal. May 2010 had record cold, so the snow didn’t melt off early in the season.

When it did warm up in early June the extensive snow in the mountains began to come off quickly, pushing rivers above their banks.

The Middle Fork of the Popo Agie crested at 7.7 feet on June 7, and the river stayed extra high for a week after.

According to the National Weather Service the overflow channel (the normally dry channel below the Sinks cave that runs with excess water when the river fills the cave completely) begins to run at 4.5 feet. The 7.7 feet crest was the highest since records were kept.

In 2010 the overflow channel ran for 32 days (the average is a little under 2 weeks).

There was only minor flooding in the canyon during the high water. Some campsites in Popo Agie Campground were flooded as were parts of the Sinks to Rise Trail. There was more extensive flooding in the Lander Valley where the river has more room to spread out.

The spectacle of the high water drew many people to the canyon to witness the power of the water roaring down the rocky river channel. Sinks Canyon State Park set a new record for visitors to the visitor center, many coming back repeatedly to see the water.

 

An interpretive sign on the overflow loop trail with several inches of water covering the trail. The overflow channel behind it is full.

 

10/1/09

Bam Bam goes Bye Bye

 

Wyoming Game and Fish Personnel lure the wayward Bighorn sheep into a trailer.

Bam Bam gets the boot: G&F relocates popular bighorn sheep over concern for his, public's safety

JEFF GEARINO Southwest Wyoming bureau trib.com | Posted: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 12:00 am


GREEN RIVER - Like a lot of two-legged celebrities unaccustomed to the spotlight, this four-legged star couldn't handle fame either.
He rose quickly to the top of the YouTube.com charts, then turned on his adoring fans and now he's got a long, rocky climb back from seeming obscurity.
"Bam Bam" the famous bighorn ram has been banished from Sinks Canyon State Park.
The bighorn sheep who gained local popularity and a devoted following on the Internet was moved to a new home in the eastern Wind River Mountains last week by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
"We hope he will stay where he's at and live a happy sheep life," Sinks Canyon State Park Naturalist Randy Wise said. "He was all by himself here … and we all felt he was kind of lonely and just looking for some company."
The ram had become something of a local celebrity because he was so tame and easy to pet, Wise said in a phone interview Tuesday.
But he was also prone to chasing visitors around the park for no apparent reason.
"Why he chased any given person, we just don't know," Wise said. "Ten people could walk up to him and he would be just fine, but that 11th person he'd charge for some reason."
The ram earned the moniker Bam Bam after park officials discovered his penchant for butting vehicles. When he saw his reflection, Bam Bam tended to break taillights and mirrors on cars in the parking lot.
"Pretty much every park vehicle and many of our personal vehicles have broken taillights or some pretty good dents in them," Wise said.
"You could hear that sound of him thumping on a vehicle all the time. … You'd run out and of course, it'd be too late by then."
So early one morning last week, several wily Game and Fish biologists lured Bam Bam into a trailer and transported him to his new home in the north end of the range.
"It went as smoothly as any transplant could," said Kent Schmidlin of the agency's Lander Regional office. "Now he can be with other wild sheep and live like he's supposed to."
People from around the world visiting the park over the past few years got close-up looks at the ram, which Wise said was a rarity among bighorn sheep.Bam Bam even starred in his own YouTube video earlier this year in which he was video-taped charging a truck in the park.
"He was so habituated, he would just walk up to people and they would feed and pet him," Wise said.
"But he sort of get a wild hair every once in a while and started chasing people or cornering them against fences, butting cars and things like that," Wise said. "The problem was getting worse. He was just getting more and more aggressive."
Park Superintendent Darrel Trembly said it became too easy for people driving through the park to stop and pet or feed Bam Bam by the roadside.
"It was only a matter of time before someone got hurt, or he got hit by a vehicle," he said.
Last survivor
The popular Sinks Canyon State Park is located six miles south of Lander on Highway 131 in central Wyoming's Fremont County.
The park contains hiking trails, a visitors center and abundant wildlife, and offers camping, rock climbing and fishing opportunities.
The park also features a geologic phenomenon in which the Popo Agie River vanishes into a large cavern known as the Sinks, but reappears in a trout-filled pool called the Rise about a half-mile down the canyon.
The approximately 7-year-old Bam Bam was one of the last surviving bighorn sheep from the Sinks Canyon herd that was transplanted to the region in the early 1990s.
"There were two big transplants of sheep into this canyon back then, with the idea they would take because it's great habitat for sheep," Wise said. "Unfortunately, it just didn't work out for a variety of reasons, most prominently because of disease. … So over the years the herd dwindled down to just two rams and a ewe last year.
"The other ram died over the winter and the ewe just sort of disappeared and we were left with Bam Bam."
He said park personnel spent most of the summer trying in vain to haze Bam Bam back up the hill and away from roads and people. After consulting with Game and Fish staff, park officials decided to relocate the ram.
"So we stayed out of the (capture effort) because Bam Bam knew when we came, we were there to chase him off," Wise said. "But he didn't know the Game and Fish guys and he literally walked right up to them, they scratched him behind his ear and he followed them right into the trailer."
Biologists set the odds at 50-50 as to whether Bam Bam will make his way back to the park, Wise said.
"It's been a week so far and he hasn't shown up, which is a good sign," he added.

"Bam Bam" is the trailer ready for his move to a new home.

 

Update October 1, 2009

"Bam Bam" did make his way back to Sinks Canyon after a little over a month and returned to his behavior that got him moved in the first place. The Game and Fish returned and recaptured him. This time he was taken to the Game and Fish Research Facility in Sybille Canyon in Southeastern Wyoming. Now Bam Bam is in a large corral with a few other Big Horns and seems to have settled in. Visitors in the area can sometimes see him from the highway.