Medicine Bow Peak is located in the rugged beautiful mountains of the Snowy Range in southern Wyoming. It is on the border of Albany and Carbon Counties and is the high point of each at 12,013 feet. The Snowy Range is indeed snowy most of the year and it can snow any month of the year in this part of Wyoming. But even when there is no snow the range is nearly snow-white because it is mainly composed of quartzite. Medicine Bow Peak derived its name from the Native Americans who first came to the area to cut mountain mahogany, water birch, and juniper for bow making. When they collected these materials they also often collected materials for making medicines.
At the base of Medicine Bow Peak are beautiful turquoise blue clear lakes that are surrounded by beautiful fir and spruce forest. Wildlife is abundant including pikas, marmots, and mule deer. There are lots of camping and hiking opportunities in this area with one of the best trails being the 7.5 mile loop you can do that includes the summit of Med Bow Peak.
I did this hike in August 2001 with Andrew and his friend Archie. We had a beautiful day to do it, the weather was cool but not too windy, which it very often is in Wyoming, and the skies were a brilliant shade of blue. We started at Lewis Lake, climbed the peak, then walked along the spine of the range west and then down to Lake Marie then circled back to Lewis Lake. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the photos that I took that day and have recently dug out of my files and scanned in...
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