United States
Lander
A river vanishes underground and resurfaces a quarter-mile later in a pool of giant trout.
At Sinks Canyon, the Popo Agie River vanishes into a limestone cave and reappears half a mile downstream, somehow carrying more fish than when it disappeared. Nobody has fully explained why. Lander, Wyoming, perches at the base of the Wind River Range with that mystery running through its backyard and some of the best rock climbing in the American West waiting above.
Lander is a climbing town — the limestone walls of Sinks Canyon and the granite spires of the Wind River Range draw sport climbers, trad climbers, and mountaineers from around the world. The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) has been headquartered here since 1965, training generations of wilderness leaders. Beyond climbing, the Wind River Range holds the state's highest peak (Gannett Peak, 13,804 feet), the Cirque of the Towers — a horseshoe of pinnacles surrounding a glacier-carved lake — and some of the most remote backcountry in the lower forty-eight. The town itself is a frontier settlement with a population of around 7,500, a few climbing shops, a handful of bars, and a direct relationship with wildness that feels unmediated. The Shoshone and Arapaho peoples' Wind River Reservation borders the town, adding cultural depth to a landscape defined by verticality.
Solo
Lander is built for the self-reliant. Climb Sinks Canyon in the morning, hike the Cirque of the Towers on a multi-day solo trip, and return to town where fellow climbers swap beta over bison nachos at the local bar.
Friends
A group of climbers can spend a week here without repeating a route. The Wind River Range offers multi-day traverses for those who want to go deep, and the town's low-key atmosphere means evenings are campfire stories, not velvet ropes.
- The Sinks at Sinks Canyon State Park is a geological anomaly: the Popo Agie River disappears into a cave opening and resurfaces 500 metres downstream with more volume than it entered with.
- The trout at the Rise — the resurgence point — are so large and so dense they are visible from the path above; hand-feeding is permitted and the fish take food from your fingers.
- The Wind River Range above Lander contains more 13,000-foot peaks than any other Wyoming range — the departure point for wilderness expeditions requiring no permit in several access zones.
- The National Outdoor Leadership School is headquartered here; the town's culture is unambiguously built around serious outdoor work rather than tourism.
Craft beer and bison nachos at a climber's bar in town.
Wyoming beef ribeye at a steakhouse with elk heads on the wall.
Campfire trout from the Popo Agie River, grilled with sage.
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