Wyoming's highest mountain is 13.804-foot Gannett Peak in the Wind River Range, and the 13,775-foot Grand Teton, the centerpiece of spectacular Grand Teton National Park is runnerup. At 12,013 feet, Medicine Bow Peak is not even in the same elevation league. Still, with a location in the scenic Snowy Range of south-central Wyoming, it has lured my husband, Ral, and me three times in th past few years. The first time, we left Boulder in the pitch-dark, began climbing early from the Lake Marie Trailhead but were only about half-way across the flat broad mountaintop before being spooked by lightning visible in every direction and retreated. The second time, we spent the night in Fort Collins and thought we had a head start, but again, the weather closed in when we were crossing the top, and again we turned around. This past weekend, accompanied by our Boulder friends Andrea and Dana, we wanted to try for a third time. To be closer to the trailhead, we spent the night at the Old Corral Hotel in Centennial, Our plan was to ascend via the shortest, steepest route from Lewis Lake to reach the highest point -- roughly 1,200 feet of elevation gain in considerably less than 2 miles. Heavy clouds filled the sky, even in the morning, so it wasn't looking good. Our immediate destination was the junction with the trail to the summit -- just in case the clouds lifted and the sun emerged. They didn't.
Lakes Trail from Lewis Lake
From the trailhead at Lewis Lake (below), we passed lakes and tarns, lingering snowfields and spectacular wildflowers that filled meadows and seasonal marshes, poked up through willows and coniferous shrubs, and magically grew on tiny ledges on rock cliffs. I'm afraid my little camera can't do justice to the splendid displays.
The three-from-one conifer below is just a few hundred feet from the Lewis Lake trailhead.
The last of winter's deep snow still lingers on August 1, but its steady melting is what makes the flowers so dazzling.
Below, death camas, which also goes by wand lily and several other names.
Pale yellow Indian paintbrush, aster, elephantilla (that's the stalk) and one of the senisios or some other yellow composite.
Queen's crown is light pink in the Snowy Range but in the Colorado Rockies is usually dark red.
I can't identify the two small flowers below from this photo, and I didn't have my tundra book with me to look them up at the time. Still, I loved seeing the tough, low-growing blue and pink blossoms side by side, literally between a rock and a hard place.
After about 1 1/4 miles, we reached a three-way trail junction and had another decision to make. We had already discarded thoughts of the the steep ascent to the summit. A second option was to continue down to Mirror Lake and return the way we came, but if the skies opened, we'd be miles from the car. The third was to retrace our steps to Lewis Lake and drive to the Mirror Lake Trailhead and start up from there.
Of course, we started chatting. And after we exchanged the usual pleasantries and questions of fellow hikers, Ed told us about what Caterpillar has been doing. As card-carrying, environ-conscious Boulderites, we were gratified to hear the company's heavy equipment is burning cleaner and more efficiently. While this doesn't make the enormous open-pit mines in Wyoming and elsewhere any easier on the eyes, at least the equipment is less polluting and using less fuel than in the past. Ed, his golf clubs and his companion headed up to the summit, while we turned back and drove around to the Mirror Lake Trailhead to check out the Lakes Trail.
Lakes Trail from Mirror Lake
The trail begins through the trees but soon Lookout Lake comes into view. Set against Medicine Bow Peak's steep eastern and rocky face where snow packed onto gullies even on the first day of August, it is a immensely scenic route.
The flowers were, if anything more abundant than on the first trail, but again, my modest camera in no way captures it. Below, avalanche lilies (aka, glacier lilies). This is a small cluster. We also saw large expanses carpeted in these lovely yellow blooms that come up in the wake of melting snow.
We saw very few blue columbines but many white ones, some with a yellowish cast, others a tad pink.
Parry's primrose, a gorgeous wildflower that loves moist areas, appeared in rivulets from recently melted snow and on moist slopes above the lake.
Across the valley, we saw a single snowboard track down the center of this lingering snowpatch. It's not clear on the image below, but it was visible to the naked eye.
A jumble of enormous quartzite boulders are landmarks along the most dramatic section of the 2.7-mile-long Lakes Trail.
The rugged scenery and the fabulous flowers chased away our initial disappointment. As my husband commented, if we had succeeded in climbing Medicine Bow Peak, we probably would never return and do these lake hikes. Now, maybe, just maybe, we will come back one more time.
Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, 2468 Jackson Street, Laramie, WY 82070; 307-745-2300.
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