Seminoe Reservoir
— — red rock holding a long blue lake.
Not only on a wall.
“A long reservoir on the North Platte River in south-central Wyoming, held back by a concrete arch dam finished in 1939. Rust-red Seminoe sandstone walls the western shore, and the lake runs about 20 miles north into open sagebrush country. Pelicans nest on the islands. The wind is steady. The blue against that red rock is the thing the eye keeps coming back to. — from the studio
Seminoe Reservoir, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Seminoe Reservoir lies on the North Platte River in Carbon County, Wyoming, about 35 miles north of Sinclair on County Road 351, a paved-then-gravel route across open sagebrush. The lake holds roughly one million acre-feet at full pool and runs about 20 miles north to south, walled on its western flank by the Seminoe Mountains. Seminoe State Park manages the developed shoreline; the dam and water itself are a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation project, part of the Kendrick irrigation system that has watered the central Wyoming farming country since the late 1930s.
The west shore is Seminoe sandstone, a deep rust-red Permian formation that the road cuts straight through on the descent to the dam. The contrast against the blue water is the visual signature of the reservoir, and the reason photographers drive in from Casper and Laramie despite the long approach. Seminoe Dam itself is a concrete arch structure completed in 1939, 295 feet tall, the first Bureau of Reclamation arch dam in Wyoming. Sand Mountain, a 350-acre active dune field, sits above the eastern shore and adds a third color to the frame.
Open year-round, with a per-vehicle day-use fee and a separate camping fee. From Sinclair, take County Road 351 north about 35 miles; the last several miles are gravel and washboarded after rain. The park has two main campgrounds (North Red Hills and South Red Hills), a boat ramp, and a primitive route over Seminoe Dam that continues north toward Miracle Mile fishing water on the North Platte below the dam. Cell signal drops well before the lake. Bring fuel, water, and a paper map.