Medicine Bow Peak

Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest

(map link)

I had in the back of my mind the goal of actually getting to Wyoming, Idaho, maybe even Montana this year. Well, I got to Wyoming! It's not my first visit, but it is the first in the time of this blog. Scanning around the places of the nearest National Forest, I found its namesake and resolved to visit. It's hard to find a good dispersed camp in the area without a 4x4, but I managed, then came up the Snowy Range. "Oh, real creative naming," I thought sarcastically until I came around a corner and saw the peaks glistening white on a day that certainly had no remaining snow up there. I chose to start at Lake Marie, which was closest to my camp. The regular start point to climb Medicine Bow Peak is Sugarloaf Campground where it's difficult to find a place in the larger lot and there's a $5 day use fee to try. The small, free lot at Lake Marie was filling somewhat quickly as I arrived around 8AM. The hike is longer, but still not all that long, and there's a loop available.

00: white rocks rising steeply — The top of the Snowy Range from the parking lot at Mirror Lake.

01: bridge over reflecting water — Miners Cabin Trail bridging the Lake Marie outflow.

The trail starts in on climbing immediately and gets about half of the elevation change out of the way quickly. The trail is nice and clear and well graded, so nice and easy as it can be.

04: big bodies of water — More and more lakes are visible as I climb. Closest is Lake Marie with Mirror Lake behind it. Lookout Lake is coming into view behind and left.

06: white rocky mountain tops popping out of the trees — Some more of the Snowy Range as it extends southwest.

After the first climb, it has a rest before climbing more gently. It doesn't necessarily take less energy, though, since it's often quite rocky.

07: more white mountain tops popping out of the trees — A bit more of the Snowy Range as it extends southwest.

08: rocky trail marked by cairns — Not too badly rocky trail marked by cairns on the way to the peak ahead.

There was once a lookout on Medicine Bow Peak, but not on the top. It was in the saddle below. A sign marked where to head out to see it, but implied that what I would find there was just a cairn. That didn't sound so interesting. A little further, I looked over to see that it is much more than a cairn and headed over to have a look at the old lookout.

11: view down to the flats — The view down through the saddle from a little east of the lookout.

12: small building among big rocks — The old lookout in its environment. It's made of native materials, so it's hard to see there on the right at the end of the saddle area, but it's a little more than a cairn.

15: remains of a lookout and the view — A bit more view from the old lookout remains.

After that diversion, I continued on. The trail got rockier. Mostly it chose to climb in spaces that weren't so rocky which made the climbs easier.

16: pair of lakes — Lakes northwest of the mountain. Dipper Lake?

I encountered a nice big sign informing me of a trail I wasn't expecting. It's not on USGS, the Forest Service topo quads, or OpenStreetMap, but it sure looked real. (It seems to have been added to OpenStreetMap since I downloaded mine, which wasn't very old.) There's trail down to those lakes on the northwest side of the mountain.

17: very large trail sign — Enthusiastic signage at a trail junction on the way as the trail gets rockier.

18: launching into the rocks — Trail about to get rockier still.

20: lakes below white cliffs — Looking back along the cliff face of Medicine Bow Peak. The closest Lake is Lookout Lake, then Mirror Lake on the left and Lake Marie behind.

I guess the trail wasn't rocky after all. It devolved into a boulder hop although steps had been built into these rocks to some extent. I arrived at the top well before noon, which was nice because I fully expected it to start raining about then.

21: long stretch of quickly dropping off area — Made it! Panorama of the cliff side of Medicine Bow Peak.

22: long stretch of sloping off area — Panorama of the sloped side of Medicine Bow Peak.

I headed east off the peak as my plan had been to take the loop that was available. There were a lot more people on this side. Most the people I had come up with were going down the other way and even more had come up that side to go back down the same way. The trail was even harder on the east side. It is only marked by cairns and sticks until it gets a little way down, then becomes steep and rocky for a while longer.

24: cliff edge extending a couple miles — Looking at Medicine Bow's cliff face again.

25: boulder hop ahead — The boulder hop down the east side of Medicine Bow and the Snowy Range as it extends northeast, mostly just Browns Peak is visible.

26: fat bee on a flower — A bumble bee working on a penstemon.

27: definitely the heads of elephants — The last of the elephant head lousewort.

28: wide peak — Browns Peak among all its lakes.

The trail has calmed down to something reasonable by the time it reaches the junction with the Lakes Trail. This side of the loop is actually slightly shorter, but with the way the trail climbs and finishes, I expect it's harder.

30: trail with lakes ahead — Lakes Trail below Medicine Bow Peak. These first few lakes are unnamed.

32: mountain and lake — Descending to Lookout Lake.

It was well after noon, but it did start to rain a little. I had expected pouring, but it was only a few drops. Really not worth mentioning, especially after all the rain in Colorado.

33: water and flowers — There are streams in the most unexpected places, though not too many. This one had some nice paintbrush beside it.

34: tall pink flowers in the rocks above Lookout Lake — It seems fireweed grows everywhere. I resolved to see how many places I can find it. Here's a link to what I've got so far.

35: showy flowers — Columbine, even if going to seed, was an unexpected treat.

36: pika scratching an ear — The itchy pika has a nice Parry's gentian on its doorstep.

The trails multiply before arriving at the picnic area at Mirror Lake. I chose the wrong one and ended up at a table that was getting used before trying again and finding the sign marking the trailhead. From there, you've just got to walk through the picnic area and down a little of the access road to get to the path that leads back to Lake Marie. It's paved, but still better than being on the highway.

37: sign to start the other direction — Sign at the Lakes Trail trailhead at Mirror Lake Picnic Ground.

38: big lake — Mirror Lake from the access road. A few people were out fishing it.

39: paved trail — The accessible trail to Lake Marie from Mirror Lake.

40: another big lake — Lake Marie from the accessible trail.

41: waters refecting mountain — A lovely reflection of Medicine Bow as the sun comes out on Lake Marie.

Before finishing, I got to learn a little about Mary Bellamy for whom the lake was named. She was elected to the Wyoming Legislature in 1910 which, if anyone is keeping track, was before national suffrage for women. "Wyoming was the first place in the world to give all women the ability to vote" in 1869, says Wikipedia. (Did that include black women?) Wikipedia adds: "The territory retained its woman suffrage law even when that law could have jeopardized the Wyoming Territory's application for statehood." It's an interesting contrast to the Wyoming of today. With the primary in 4 days, I was listening to radio ads proclaiming Liz Cheney "too liberal for Wyoming" even though she has exactly zero liberal views. Well, sometimes it seems like votes for women is still a liberal rather than universal view. A fun hike with an interesting little history lesson at the end.

42: stone shelter — I also checked out the stone shelter near the picnic area.

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