A Quest for Raintraps

In the 1960s and 1970s, the BLM installed seven raintraps to provide water to wildlife and range cattle in areas far from streams or wells. A raintrap is a simple but rather large contraption consisting of a large square of roofing tins, a collecting trough, a holding tank, and a watering trough that is kept filled by a float valve. For some reason, inspection and maintenance of these raintraps stopped in the early 1980s, and not surprisingly none are currently functional. The plumbing tends to plug with dirt and debris, and all of the watering troughs are gone - perhaps removed by the BLM or more likely stolen by ranchers in need of troughs for their cattle.

My search began on a Monday afternoon (7/23). As the maps I was following were quite inaccurate, I had to search awhile before I found what remained of the Boulder Lake raintrap - now more reminiscent of a trailer park after a tornado.

Twenty years of winter blizzards had ripped the tins loose and scattered them across the prairie. When I returned to my vehicle I found it surrounded by horses. The horses had no fear of me or the truck and presumably expected me to feed them. Starting the truck wasn't sufficient to scare them, so I actually had to nudge them gently with the truck until they finally got the message that no food was coming.

After a day of walking polygons around lynx habitat, I returned to the search on Wednesday, driving 222 miles to various remote locations in a trusty 4WD Chevy truck. The first two sites were down by the Jonah natural gas field (someday I will remember to take pictures of drilling operations), and the third was up on a high mesa known as Ross Ridge. The view north off of Ross Ridge looks over badlands-like layers. Notice the condition of the little two-track road I am on.

My final three raintraps took me to the southwest corner of our land, a beautiful area that has unfortunately been spoiled by a good deal of oil and gas development. The Rock Creek raintrap is (or was - I never found it and the range manager assumes it was removed but has no documentation) at the end of a five-mile two-track that follows a mountain ridgetop.

Thunderstorms were building, and I was hoping to get off of this road before rain turned it to mud. Despite the ominous-looking clouds, I was nearly successful, as storms don't move very quickly out here.

Rain coming closer...

I took this final picture on my way out, just as a storm was moving in. The rain started about ten seconds after I snapped this beautiful shot.

My final two raintraps were uneventful and easily located, and I arrived back in Pinedale at about 6 pm after perhaps my most interesting ten-hour day so far.