Yesterday we raved about how much we love our camp site here at Sugarloaf Campground in Wyoming. Of all the great attributes we listed in the last blog, we have one more for today. We can start on several different hikes that get great reviews right from our motor home. For example, today we are hiking to the top of Medicine Bow Peak. When we woke up and saw that clouds were settling on the top of the peaks, we waited to start our hike.
In the summer, we are usually up early to hike before it gets too hot. But on a day in July when we start the hike in the snow, we didn't need to worry about the heat.
We're right beside Lewis Lake, heading up into the mountains.
We love hikes like this that start out over 10,000 feet in elevation. That's because much of the climb is already done for us. So the first part of the hike was rather level as we walked through the saddle between two mountains.
But then we got to the foot of Medicine Bow Peak, and the climbing began!
As the trail got rocky, Denisa commented that this felt like a place a marmot would live. That was the cue for our wildlife picture of the day, as we followed the whistle and found this marmot scampering through the wildflowers.
Besides marmots, we also ran into more snow to hike through.
Now we are at a height where the lakes below us are beginning to look like they are on a map. We can recognize Libby Lake and Lewis Lake behind Mark, and the South Gap Lake in front of him.
The Forest Service web site says there are 102 alpine lakes in this area, and we're beginning to see more and more patches of blue lakes as we climb higher.
We took way too many pictures but we have two excuses. 1) This is one of the prettiest hikes we've been on this year, and
2) we need an excuse to stop and rest. We're well over 11,000 feet in elevation now. The combination of thin air and steep inclines means that we stopped and enjoyed the scenery a lot!
As we zig-zagged across the face of Medicine Bow Peak, we could now see down into another mountain valley. That's Lookout Lake down below us, with Mirror and Marie Lakes further away.
The last ascent to the summit is a rock scramble, something that Denisa struggles with.
Mark figured out that hiking higher up the slope on the snow was easier than boulder hopping.
Either way, we both finally made it to the top for the summit picture.
From here, Mark bounds around on top of refrigerator-sized boulders so he can see the views off the other side of Medicine Bow Peak.
That's while Denisa sits quietly enjoying the views, and breathing in the air at 12,014 feet. This is the highest peak in western Wyoming, and it feels like we can see forever.
From this height, we are looking way down on Sugarloaf Mountain. It looks small from here, but it looks so much bigger from our camp site.
Speaking of our campground, if we zoom in, we can see it from here as well. It's the circular road in the center of the picture below (about 1,500 feet below).
After basking in the beautiful views among the boulders at top, it was time to head back down Medicine Bow Peak.
After toting her ice cleats all the way to the top of the mountain, Denisa insists on using them to help get down through this gentle slope of snow.
Mark thinks that is a little crazy, but if it gives Denisa more confidence on the snow he won't make fun of her (too much). Now it's time to start the long downhill slog down that very rocky path.
But wait, what if we walk off the trail to the steep snow pack area on the side of the peak. Won't that be a faster and easier descent?
Yes, it will be faster because we literally couldn't stop until we got to a less steep section at the bottom of the snow. We slipped and slid and skied down that black-diamond slope. Mark is smiling now because we are almost finished, but it wasn't pretty.
When we got back on the trail, we took a picture up to the snow patch we had just slid down. We could see that our tracks were the only ones down that route.
Back on the trail, we met a couple that had watched us coming down the snow. They were a little surprised to see people with white hair. They were expecting a couple of crazy kids taking that route. We talked for a few minutes, and they invited us to their church the next time we were in northeast Wyoming. We meet the nicest people in our wanderings! We also met this guy hiking up to the summit. He is wearing his skis and boots on his back all the way to the top, because he's planning to ski down.
We've burned a lot of calories so far, and it's definitely time for lunch. So we are taking a spur trail to find a nice picnic spot by the water.
There's so many lakes that they aren't all named. But they all have beautiful mountains around them.
This spur trail goes on for miles, but our legs have determined that we will only go another mile or so.
This is our last destination of the day--Overlook Lake. It's that long thin lake lying under the steep fin of mountains that we admired from the top of Medicine Bow Peak.
Hiking to the peak was nice, but there were almost no flowers among all those rocks and snow at the top. Down here, the valley is full of wildflowers like these paintbrushes.
Last summer, we discovered this different pink flower that only grows at high elevation in moist areas.
They have a scientific name, but Denisa prefers to call them "the pink elephant flower." They have rows of bright pink elephant-nose-like blooms, complete with floppy elephant ears. Who wouldn't love to find these flowers?!?
On the way home we stopped in at another lake, that still has a wall of snow over its shore.
Any one of these alpine lakes would be a great destination for a normal hike. But today, this is just another stop on a beautiful hike. We have definitely wandered into lots of God's wonders today!
With all the snow, this trail hasn't been open very long this summer. It definitely hasn't been maintained, and the shrubbery is tall and the trail is narrow in places.
That's about the time we glanced back at the snowy mountains, and caught a glimpse of the young man that we met earlier carrying his ski gear to the top. We stopped to talk to him, and he had a big smile on his face. He had a successful ski run down the mountain, and he counted his day as a success.
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