Medicine Bow Mountains
I was not planning on being here...I didn't even know this place existed. I went out meandering along the northern border of Colorado, and afterwards was looking for an interesting return route. I noticed the Wyoming border was pretty close and had some good looking mountain passes running in the direction I needed to travel, so figured why not. Then once I got into Wyoming, I checked the GPS while stopped for fuel and saw Google had an alternate route suggestion. "Oh nice, an even more remote road than the one I was planning on taking, good idea Google, let's do it." There were a few scenic overlooks marked along the route so I made note to stop at those, but didn't think too much of it. Little did I know I was walking into one of the coolest little stretches of national forest I think I've ever randomly happened upon. It was actually really foggy at one point, but when the clouds parted I was presented with what I would soon discover to be the Medicine Bow Mountains. I was immediately intrigued, and stopped at the first trailhead I found to take a closer look. Something about the glacial sculpted terrain here felt profoundly different and almost foreign to me. It didn't feel like most of what I've encountered in Colorado so far, and certainly isn't what springs to mind when I think of Wyoming either. Very Swiss Alps looking, I guess (my photos do NOT do it justice). I ended up spending a couple hours hiking around the glacial lakes that dot the base of the mountain range, just taking it all in. Super cool, and definitely some place I want to come back and spend more time in later. Forever thankful for random unexpected experiences, the thing I love most about traveling.
