The Snowy Range Scenic Byway crosses the Medicine Bow Mountain Range and includes nearly 30 miles of the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest portion of Wyoming Highway 130. It passes between the towns of Centennial and Saratoga, but it’s what is in between that is spectacular.

Originally a wagon road built in the 1870s, the road was paved in the 1930s and designated as the nation’s second Scenic Byway in 1988. Snow usually closes the highest section of the road early to mid-November and snowplows traditionally open the road in May right around Memorial Day weekend. Guess when we arrived? Two days after Memorial Day weekend. So, yay!

My brother Dave and I stayed in Laramie the night before, then leaving Laramie and traveling west on the Scenic Byway, we drove through the open plains of the traditional Old West where the deer and antelope still play. Sorry. 27 miles west of Laramie, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, lies the historic mining town of Centennial, and the start of the uphill climb.

My hiking buddy Dave told me stories about the Snowy Range being one of the most beautiful places he had been. Since we were so close we just had to check it out. Dave (Griztrax Dave, not brother Dave) was right. It’s stunning. We spent about three hours crossing the 30 miles from Centennial to Saratoga. There are plenty of stops and lots to see.

Particularly when you get to the Libby Flats area with its CCC built stone observation tower you can seemingly see forever. You are surrounded by snow capped mountains in every direction and alpine lakes around every turn. Starting on the sagebrush prairie and climbing to a high-altitude alpine environment with old growth spruce-fir forest containing wind-shaped krummholz, we experienced all the ecosystems presented by the Rocky Mountains. All the while the 12,013 foot Medicine Bow Peak towers overhead.

Brother Dave and I agreed while enjoying lunch later in Saratoga that we would definitely come back in the future to tackle some of the plentiful hiking trails found along the byway. There are lots of campgrounds available to stage into the designated wilderness areas found within the national forest. Below is a gallery of photos I took while we were passing through. Perhaps they will entice you to also visit the Snowy Range Scenic Byway in south-central Wyoming.

This post was created by Jeff Clark. Please feel free to use the sharing icons below, or add your thoughts to the comments. Pack it in, pack it out. Preserve the past. Respect other hikers. Let nature prevail. Leave no trace.

Devils Tower, an important landmark for Plains Indians tribes long before the white man reached Wyoming, was called Mateo Tepee or Grizzly Bear Lodge by the Sioux. A number of legends describe the origin of Devils Tower.

“One legend tells of seven little girls being chased onto a low rock to escape attacking bears. Their prayers for help were heeded as the rock carried them upward to safety. The claws of the leaping bears left furrowed columns in the sides of the ascending tower. Ultimately, the rock grew so high that the girls reached the sky where they were transformed into the constellation known as Pleiades.” — information sign along Hwy 24

Devils Tower rises dramatically 1,280 feet above the picturesque Belle Fourche River. Recognizing its unique characteristics, Congress designated the area a U.S. Forest Reserve in 1892 and then the nation’s first national monument in 1906. The tower was a centerpiece in the 1977 Spielberg film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

When you spend three weeks on the road visiting many of our nation’s wonderful wild attractions you are bound to have some days when the weather isn’t ideal. My brother Dave and I were really quite fortunate to have mostly bright, sunshiny days for our adventures. Not so, however, on the day we visited Devils Tower. There was a low cloud cover that obscured the top of the tower, and a drizzly mist was falling throughout the time we were there.

We did put on the rain gear for the must see 1.3-mile walk around the base of the Tower though. It starts across the parking area from the Visitor Center. A short, steep section leads you to a junction where you can go either way to walk around the base. The trail goes through ponderosa pine forest and the talus field of fallen boulders. Evidence of periodic prescribed burning can be seen within the forest, the last in 1998.

I did manage to get a few pictures as we approached the tower from miles away on Hwy 24, and from the Tower Trail. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments area below the gallery. Enjoy!

This post was created by Jeff Clark. Please feel free to use the sharing icons below, or add your thoughts to the comments. Pack it in, pack it out. Preserve the past. Respect other hikers. Let nature prevail. Leave no trace.