Local Game & Fish Show off Improvements at Treasure Island

Floaters and anglers are aware of the improvements made at Treasure Island, a popular public access on the North Platte River off Highway 230 between Riverside and Saratoga.

But, if a person hasn’t been to Treasure Island in a few years, a lot of changes have taken place.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department (G&F) had their annual meeting in Saratoga two weeks ago, and one of the activities included was the improvements at the Treasure Island public access area.

Steve Gale, the Wyoming Game & Fish Aquatic Habitat Biologist for this region, is based in Laramie and talked about the project November 15.

Locals familiar with the area will immediately notice the new signage along the road to the access and a new bridge over Cow Creek. The biggest change was in how people are directed to park in the parking lot. Around 40-50 vehicles and boat trailers now have space to park between concrete barriers.

Erosion, small spaces in the parking lot and docking boats had become a problem in 2018 as the public access has become more popular with locals and visitors. An area which had previously been marshland is not a parking area. Vehicles only parking along the fence can accommodate 35 vehicles.

The ramp was moved and has two cement slabs so boats that land at the take-out can have their boat loaded onto the truck and trailer, and one where there is room to put in. Along the river are posts where boaters can tie off and wait to come into the access rather than fighting the current when the boat ramp is full.

In the past, there was a large amount of sentiment which created a sandbar that was difficult to navigate and prevented some boaters from being able to stop at the public access easily. The ramp was hard to see in its old location, Gale said.

Floaters would miss the access and had no choice but to float on into Saratoga. That was multiplied as shuttlers would have to come back to Treasure Island to retrieve a vehicle and boat trailer and relocate it to Saratoga.

The change of the location of the boat ramp makes it much easier to see, Gale said. The old boat ramp was 100 feet downstream from the new boat ramp. The boat ramp was also extended into the river so boaters could see the boat ramp from 200-300 yards upstream. It also allows boaters to wait upstream rather than coming into the boat ramp when it is full of boats and causing minor boat wrecks.

A design began in 2019 with a design team which had a lot of experience with boat ramps and the project was completed in 2022.

Since the marsh wetland was replaced with a parking lot, the G&F had to replace the wetland in another area, which included where the old boat ramp was located. The mitigation of the wetland is larger than the wetland that was impacted. Gale expects the wetland plants to meet the mitigation requirements in the next five years.

Gale said they have been monitoring the wetland benches for the last three years and have seen dramatic improvement in the number of wetland plants and the diversity of the plants.

The only complaint the G&F has received about the $500,000 project was that it makes the public access area even more popular. Boater access funds were used for the project.

The Upper North Platte River is known for its blue ribbon trout fishing and Treasure Island continues to become more popular with recreationists in Wyoming and Colorado.

Gale said the G&F has been monitoring boat usage in this area since the 1990s. The most popular float is from Treasure Island and the second most popular float is from Bennett Peak to Treasure Island. Gale said adding the people who float the Encampment River who also use the public access area at Treasure Island, it is obvious why it is a really busy spot.

Using a boat counting survey, the G&F has discovered the Treasurer Island Public Access gets more and more popular, Gale said.

Mark Cuafalde, the Habitat and Access Biologist from Saratoga, said a lot of river work was done to get the water deeper to safely pull a boat in and out of the ramp. Even in November, when the river is historically low, there was an obvious improvement to the water depth and flow.

Bobby Compton, the Laramie Region Fishery Supervisor, said with the change in the boat ramp - which was close to a side channel - boaters can now safely maneuver past the side channel during high runoff season. The project included two projects, river restoration and the parking lot, Compton said.

Five-day camping spots are available in the parking lot and are in a specific location to make it easier for trailer campers and RVs to be in the parking lot.

Treasure Island is an island between the Platte River west and east channels and about 600 acres, Compton said.

“There is a lot of day use here including hiking. There is a bridge to get over the river and then further upstream is a high water bridge that takes a person over the channel to get to Treasure Island. The G&F owns the property over to the middle of the river on the other side of Treasure Island.

People like to fish from Treasure Island, Compton said. It is also used for duck hunting. White-tail deer hunting and beaver trapping. Treasure Island is also used by Carbon Power & Light’s electric poles for the Hanging Bull Ranch.

The G&F also works with the Silver Spur Ranch, which owns the property above and below Treasure Island to help the cattle get safely across the river.

There is a sign upstream where Treasure Island begins to distinguish the two channels. If a person takes the east channel, they ca not stop at Treasure Island and will end up at the Wyoming Highway 130 bridge and there is no public access until they reach Saratoga. There are also more bridges to maneuver past in the east channel.

Unfortunately, the sign can be washed out during high flood years and Compton has had to replace it.

Compton said that 70 to 80% of the trips down the river are by outfitters from Colorado, the Platte Valley and Laramie. The peak for floating the river is mid-June to mid-July.

During that time, the G&F Game Warden, Levi Wood, is on the river three-to-four times a week making sure boats are properly registered and there are life jackets for all on the boat.