Wyoming Alpine - Late Summer in the Snowy Range

The Snowy Range is the northernmost extent of the Medicine Bow Mountains which run from Northern Colorado (starting in State Forest State Park) to Southern Wyoming. Medicine Bow Peak itself is in the Snowy Range. This entire area is located west of Laramie, and so students from the University of Wyoming often go here for camping and hiking excursions (as a graduate of University of Wyoming, this is how I first became acquainted with the place).

One of the defining characteristics of the Snowies is the white color of the peaks rising above the conifer groves, meadows, and lakes. The white is of course from snow, but also from large amounts of quartzite. In fact, there are beautiful quartzite boulders all over these peaks, and in the surrounding meadows.

Another defining characteristic of the Snowies (and the Medicine Bow Mountains in general) is the presence of many moose! My fiancé and some of our friends spent this past Labor Day weekend camping in the Snowies and saw more moose than I've seen in a very long time. It's possible that we were really just seeing the same handful of moose multiple times in a row, but in total I'd estimate we saw at least 5 different individuals, all of which appeared to be bull moose.

In addition to moose, a plethora of mountain wildflowers greeted us on our hikes. Pink elephant heads, harebells, arnica, fireweed and many purple asters were abundant along the trails. So, happy Labor Day from Wyoming's beautiful Snowy Range!

Posted on September 3, 2024 03:38 AM by mhughes26