Finn Killeen
Hikers on a trail through an alpine meadow toward a turquoise lake beneath jagged granite peaks
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Wind River Range, Wyoming · 42.77° N · 109.22° W

Cirque of the Towers

Granite spires, an alpine lake, and a trail that drops straight into one of the most famous amphitheaters in the Rockies.

Rough draft: the full story is still being written.

The Cirque of the Towers is a ring of granite peaks in the southern Wind River Range, wrapped around a basin of meadows and alpine lakes. It’s the kind of place that looks fake in photos, and somehow better in person.

The way in

A loop from the Big Sandy Trailhead: about 23 miles with roughly 4,200 ft of climbing, through the heart of the Cirque. No reservations needed. You camp anywhere, first come, first served.

Who came, and when did the towers first come into view?

In the cirque

What did the days look like? Weather, the lake, the climbing and scrambling, the food that tasted way better than it should have.

Birds

Logged a Clark’s Nutcracker here, a lifer. Add the story of seeing it.

What I’d tell someone going

Gear, permits, timing, mosquitoes, anything you learned the hard way.

The film

Photos · 16

A dirt trail through a wide meadow toward distant peaksA lake in a meadow ringed by pines and graniteA hiker standing on a granite slab with mountains behindA hiker on a trail through a green meadow toward granite mountainsTwo hikers crossing a rocky streamFinn in a tie-dye bandana holding up trekking poles below the peaksLooking down on a turquoise lake below the granite towersA stream cascading over boulders beneath the towersA granite spire above an alpine meadow and lake, with hikers on the trailPine silhouettes against a starry sky and a moonlit ridgeHikers picking their way up a granite boulder fieldA jagged skyline of granite towers above a basinA faint trail leading through a high meadow under cloudsFinn in a tie-dye headband grinning with a thumbs up in the forestFinn in a headband giving a thumbs up in a sunny meadowFinn in a teal rain suit cooking at a rocky campsite