Snowy Range

Today we took a drive up into the Snowy Range.  The highest peak in the range is a little over 1200 feet.  There is still many feet of snow up there.  Some campgrounds were still buried under 20 feet of snow.  The ranger said some won't be open until mid-July.  We were hoping to find a NFS campsite for a day or two but there was nothing available.

Standing on 20 feet of snow

The trip up passes through open range.  We saw many pronghorn and mule dear.  The mule dear were in velvet.  It makes their horns look real fat.  They were running across the range for who knows where.  It is open land as far as you can see.  It really is incredible land.  It is so open and huge.  

Pronghorn

We passed by a Wyoming gated community.  Homesites were 40 acres apiece.  There was a huge arch and iron gate at the entrance.  It is odd to look out over the range and see houses spaced so far apart.  Not that is my idea of a gated community.  You don't have grass to mow or trees to trim either.  I bet it is really cold in the winter.

Pups seemed to enjoy cold wind

As we climbed up the mountains, the temperature dropped from 70 degrees in Laramie to 45 at the pass.  The wind up there was blowing so hard you could hardly stand up.  It had to be 60 mph.

I lost my hat many times.  Once it would have been gone forever but it hung up in some brush.

You couldn't take a breath facing the wind.  You had to turn away from it or the wind pushed your breath back down your throat.  

Wind was tough on hair dos

We passed through the old frontier town of Centennial.  They had a small area with the old train station and some old buildings and equipment that were once used there.

Medicine Bow peak

There is a lot of logging going on in the National Forest.  The pine bark beetle has killed most of the trees.  It is very sad to see this.  The mountains are covered with dead spruce trees and lodge pole pines.  Some areas have been closed because the hazard of falling trees is so great.  I am glad I saw the west before the trees died.  It will take decades to regrow.  The ranger told me the logs are being sawn for lumber.  The ranger station ceiling was made from beetle logs.  It was very beautiful.  So I guess that is a very small silver lining.  The campgrounds are stark and ugly though.  Once the campgrounds were in deep forest.  Now they are open lots with tree stumps.   It is sad to see.  The trees had to be removed because the danger was too great that one could fall on campers.

One of our last stops was at Medicine Bow peak.  It is the site of a United Airlines crash in 1955.  All 69 people on board perished.  It was one of the largest ever airline disasters at that time.  Back then, airlines often operated by visual flight rules and flew below 10,000 feet as they didn't have pressurized cabins on all flights.  This particular flight was bound from Denver to Laramie when it hit the fog enshrouded Medicine Bow peak.   There is a monument in memory of the flight.

Monument at Medicine Bow peak

We came back to Laramie for a late lunch.  There isn't much of a selection of restaurants here other than the standard franchise outfits.  We ate at Perkins.  Yuck!  Laramie is a city with communities on both sides of the tracks literally.  On one side you have the University and the assorted buildings and residences you would expect.  On the other side of the track it is all mobil home communities and apartment buildings.  That happens to be where the KOA is located also.

Mountain Wild Flowers

Laramie is a worthy place to visit.  If you like nature, hiking, fishing, rafting and viewing wildlife this is a good place to spend a few days.

Snowed In