The Snowy Range, Wyoming

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Snowy Range Pass, Wyoming
Snowy Range Pass, Wyoming
On our one full day in Laramie, we headed out on the Snowy Range Scenic Byway, Wyoming’s second highest pass at 10,847 feet. Our first stop was the Libby Flats Observation Point (from which the panorama above was taken, as well as the two pictures below).

Libby Flats Observation Point
Snowy Range Pass, Wyoming

A short distance down the road, the Medicine Bow Peak Overlook had good views over the peak and Bellamy Lake nestling below it.

Medicine Bow Peak and Bellamy Lake
Medicine Bow Peak and Bellamy Lake
From here, we also took a short trail of about a mile which looped round the abandoned Red Mask Mine and a miner’s cabin. Built in the 1920s, the mine was thought to contain rich veins of copper, gold and silver but only traces were ever found.

Red Mask Mine Trail
Red Mask Mine Trail

Descending a little further, we parked at Lake Marie, named after Mrs Mary (Marie) Bellamy who led the successful suffrage drive which led to the 19th amendment allowing women to vote. She was also the first woman elected to the Wyoming Legislature in 1910. Wyoming women’s history rocks!

Lake Marie
Lake Marie
A trail led off from Lake Marie passing Mirror Lake, Lookout Lake and several smaller lakes – and now I can’t remember which is which! So I have helpfully labelled all the photos in the next gallery Lakes Trail. Breath-taking views – in more ways than one….

Lakes Trail
Lakes Trail
Lakes Trail
Lakes Trail
Lakes Trail
Lakes Trail

The trail wasn’t difficult as it climbed gently uphill, but I found myself short of breath and (even) slower than usual. The air is much thinner when you’re at 10,000 feet before you even start walking and it took us a few days to acclimatise.

Eventually, we reached a saddle with a junction of trails.

Lakes Trail
Lakes Trail

We could, of course, have continued upwards and onwards to the summit of Medicine Bow Peak and back to Lake Marie along the ridge – um, not likely! We returned by the same 2.4 mile route we had come. At least it was now mostly downhill and easier to breathe.

The next day, we left Laramie and headed for Rock Springs.

USA, Wyoming

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  2. Pingback: April Squares: Snowy Range – The Glasgow Gallivanter

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  9. Always like the mountain regions in any country and good to put a landscape on a name. I must have heard it somewhere in a book or film before as Medicine Bow Peak rings a bell.

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