This week I chatted with geologist Holly Brown (Trihydro Corp.), who has recently moved from the suburbs of Maryland to the wilds of Laramie, Wyoming. Holly has been exploring her new surroundings, and she agreed to share some of her experiences. Let’s go hiking in Wyoming (before winter sets in)! 🏔❄
P.S. If you want to see tips on visiting the stromatolites in the Snowy Range, head here for expanded content from this edition.
Sharon Lyon
Editor, GeoLifestyle
The Snowy Range, Wyoming
Hiking the Snowy Mountains, Wyoming; courtesy of Holly Brown.
The Snowy Range is the northeast-trending subrange of the Medicine Bow Mountains in southern Wyoming. Its name derives from its snow-covered, scenic high peaks.
Geology: The range is cored by an Archean 2.55–2-billion-year-old crystalline basement, overlain by the Paleoproterozoic metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks of the Snowy Pass Supergroup.
The Snowy Pass Supergroup includes the thick Medicine Peak Quartzite, schists/phyllites, and metadolomites. Many of the high cliffs are formed from the quartzite, which was deposited as quartz sand along the coast of the Supercontinent Superia.
Nearly two billion years ago, a small plate (the Green Mountain Terrane) converged with the ancestral Wyoming coast, producing a continental suture known as the Cheyenne Belt. The rocks along this belt were tilted and highly deformed.
The resulting ancient range eroded and was buried under tens of thousands of feet of sediment. The rocks were later uplifted during the Laramide Orogeny, 80–40 million years ago.
As the Medicine Bow Mountains uplifted, erosion continued, removing the sedimentary rock cover to expose the Precambrian core. The Medicine Peak Quartzite was left as a high-standing ridge.
Read more about the history of the Snowy Range here.
Holly’s hiking tips:
For adventurous types, summit Medicine Bow Peak (the highest point in the Snowy Range at 12,013 feet) via an out-and-back trail or a scenic loop trail.
The Lewis Lake Trailhead provides the most direct route with a 5.3-mile out-and-back moderate to difficult trail.
The Medicine Bow Peak Loop Trail incorporates a difficult hike with steep switchbacks to the peak, followed by a descent past alpine lakes. Some of the most breathtaking alpine lakes in the Snowy’s are Mirror Lake and Lake Marie, encompassing a seven-mile circuit.
Browns Peak Loop Trail is a longer 12.5-mile loop that offers a stunning mix of alpine lakes, rocky scrambles, and panoramic mountain views.
For those who want to look, not climb: There are many scenic lookout points or short easy trails to take in the scenery:
At Mirror Lake, you can pull directly up to the lake and surrounding peaks. Captured at the right time of day, the Snowy peaks reflect in the lake, hence the name.
The Lake Marie Falls Trail has relatively flat paths and access to its alpine namesake lake.
Libby Creek Trail is a beginner-level, four-mile out-and-back loop that encompasses several lake views.
One more spot: The Snowy Range is known for its stromatolites. Read all about Holly's tips for visiting these here.
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Located 20 miles east of Laramie, Vedauwoo is a renowned international climbing destination, featuring granitic towers, hoodoos, monadnocks, and tors, rising above a plain. The name Vedauwoo comes from the Arapaho word “biot o’wu” meaning earth-born.
Area geology:
The middle Proterozoic (1.43-billion-year-old) Sherman Granite formed as a batholith and was later uplifted during the Laramide Orogeny.
Weathering by wind, ice, water, and clay expansion shaped the rocks into the blocky formations seen today.
Climbing: Vedauwoo is known as the “Fat Crack/Offwidth Mecca of North America” with more than 1,000 climbing routes ranging from V5 to V5.14 (if you’re not familiar with climbing grades, this essentially means the routes are for high intermediate or advanced climbers).
Offwidth cracks are wider than a fist, but narrower than a body.
There are friction and chimney climbs.
Climbing season is from mid-April through mid-October.
Dig deeper into the area’s climbing opportunities here.
Trip tips: Besides climbing, the area offers ample hiking and mountain biking.
There are 20 miles of trails, including Turtle Rock Loop, a 2.8-mile, moderate hike.
Peak wildflower season is in June and July.
Because of the elevation (around 8,000 feet), be prepared for cooler temperatures and strong winds. Storms sweep in from the Snowy Range, and the weather can change rapidly.
Fun fact: Vedauwoo was used as a filming location for Cecil B. DeMille’s 1936 Western “The Plainsman,” starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur.
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