Today my oldest son Lee and I took the dogs for a swim  and ourselves for a ride in the mountains of the Medicine Bow National Forest, Happy Jack, and the Vedauwoo recreation area. It was a gorgeous September day and I had my camera in tow. Lee, who was driving, was feeling adventurous, so with the dogs in the shell in the back of the truck, we spent a wonderful afternoon. The roads were pretty good – as Lee noted, they should be, as they are mostly crushed granite. I pointed out that in some places they were whole pieces of granite. We both noticed later on that the problems are when the road is partially crushed granite – that’s very bumpy!

This area is just east of Laramie, about 15 minutes up the interstate highway and then a longer ride up and down dirt forest service roads. It it popular with hikers, picnickers, campers, rock climbers, and in the winter, cross country skiers. The terrain is spectacular, ranging from rolling grassy hills to huge rocky outcroppings to beaver ponds and cool green glades of aspen trees. Here are a few of the photos from the afternoon.

 

 

Sign at Vedauwoo

 

A close up of the sign. The granite is mostly pink, but grey on the outside where it is weathered.

 

The plains just go rolling on forever

 

A rocky crown to this mountain

 

Rocks by the road

 

One view of Crow Resevoir

 

Massive rocks on the mountains

 

There are countless rocky outcroppings like this one scattered all over the meadows here. Most of them have scrubby, stunted and twisted pine trees growing them, in the meager shelter they provide from the icy winter winds and snow.

The aspen are just starting to turn gold here and there.

 

I love the play of light in an aspen grove.

 

This rock looks like it is balancing.

 

What you can’t see in this is the sheer scale of the rocks. This overhang, known locally as potato chip because it looks like one from the other side, is a popular rapelling spot for rock climbers. If there were any there today, they would look like dots on the face of the rock.

 

This is just to the right of the previous picture. There actually are climbers here – but they are too small to see in this photo.

 

Now can you see the climbers? This gives an idea of the size of the rocks at Vedauwoo. It is a very popular rock climbing place; both of the older boys climbed here in high school.

 

Here’s a big hunk of granite.

 

This is just plain pretty.

I didn’t get any beaver pond photos; those will have to wait for another time. I hope you enjoyed these – I sure enjoyed taking them.

-She Wolf (c)2008