My cousin's girlfriend recently visited Wyoming, so I spent quite a bit
of time with her while he was working. We had some awesome, random
adventures. Medicine Bow National Forest was on my list of places I wanted to visit, so we planned to visit and make a day of it. This was in June (I'm behind on my posts, sorry), and it was plenty warm. I checked out the Medicine Bow website, and looked up some trails. I decided we were going to try to get to Medicine Bow Peak. According to a handy website I found called Just Trails (http://www.justtrails.com/trails/medicine-bow-peak-trail/), it said it was open year-round, but for the easiest hiking it advised to wait for July or August. Well, it was June. Close enough, right?Wrong.
We were both dressed for warm weather, so when we started up the pass and started seeing snow, I was surprised. I suppose I shouldn't have been. After all, the peak itself goes up to just over 12,000 feet, the highest in that particular mountain range, and the road takes you only a thousand feet or so from the top. But, as people from Indiana, this did not occur to either of us. I made the plans, though, so I'll take full credit. However, it was still awesome. There was thick fog or most of the trip, but we got to see an elk and some alpine lakes. And let's not forget the trees. Everything combined for some awesome pictures. When we finally reached where the turnoff for parking to hike the trail was supposed to be, I only knew it was there because of the GPS. It was covered in at least 10 feet of snow. Next time I'll listen when the website says to wait til mid summer.
When we were stopped taking pictures of a beautiful lake and trying not to freeze our asses off, a couple stopped for pictures and told us about a town called Saratoga that was several miles through the pass. They mentioned hot springs and shops, so we charted a course for Saratoga. On the way, we stopped for a great photo opportunity of the mountain stream on the left. It surprised me how rugged some of these plants were to survive when it's cold for most of the year. But here you go: wildflowers thriving alongside a nearly-frozen stream of snow melt.
Saratoga, Wyoming, is a tiny little tourist town with some unique little shops and the hot springs, which were free to get into. As far as I could see, it consisted of two small "swimming pools" where the hot springs bubble up. There are locker rooms and benches, like a regular pool. Unlike a regular pool, it smelled like rotten eggs. That would be the sulfur. But the water is supposed to be good for you, full of minerals. Neither of us knew we were going to end up at hot springs, so we didn't bring a swimsuit. We just sat with our legs in the scalding water. The locals that kept coming in wouldn't get in. They said it was unusually hot. My red legs agreed with them.
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| Saratoga, WY, hot springs |
We drove back the way we came, and the fog had cleared quite a bit, which made for some more good photo opportunities.
