The Gap: North Gap Lake Trail, Sugarloaf Recreation Area, WY

Highlights: It’s the season for a foray into the Snowy Range, the high country of the Medicine Bow. This trail takes day hikers through the gap between Medicine Bow Peak and Browns Peak, past several crystalline lakes into the expansive tundra behind the range. The fish are jumping and the flowers are high.

Location: The high point of the Medicine Bow range, west of Centennial, WY.

Elevations: Trailhead 10,800′, high point 11,120′, Deep Lake10,500′.

Distance: 3 miles each way.

Maps: Medicine Bow National Forest (note the inset); USGS Medicine Bow Peak, Sand Lake quads; Forest Service pamphlet “Snowy Range Trails.”

Guide: Marc Smith’s Hiking Wyoming’s Medicine Bow National Forest – Third Edition
Getting there: From Cheyenne, take I-80 west through Laramie to exit 311. Follow Hwy. 130 west continuing 11 miles past Centennial. Turn north into the Sugarloaf Recreation Area and continue for a mile to the Lewis Lake trailhead. Be prepared for a parking fee and a crowd.

The Hike: The North Gap Lake Trail (#108) begins above the Lewis Lake shoreline with a good perspective of the peaks and Sugarloaf Mountain. Within a quarter of a mile the Lost Lake Trail branches to the east. Stay to the left and begin your gradual ascent to South Gap Lake, nestled against the white quartzize of the range. As you reach the gap the view broadens to the vast lake district left by the glaciers of long ago.
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Savage Run, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY

Highlights: A walk across the length of the 1st Wilderness Area in the Medicine Bows, established in 1978. The trail passes through three distinct areas. The first is through one of the few remaining old growth lodgepole forests in the area with huge trees and a park-like savannah in between. The second crosses some large wet meadows, filled with sunshine and life. The third and final is a long ramble along the tumbling Savage Run as it makes it’s way through the deeply forested, v-shaped valley.

Location: On the western slope of the Medicine Bow Mountains.

Elevations: Trailhead 9,400′, Forest Boundary 7,725′

Distance: 9 miles from end to end, one way

Maps: Medicine Bow National Forest, USGS Overlook Hill & Keystone quads

Guide: Marc Smith’s Hiking Wyoming’s Medicine Bow National Forest – Third Edition, Erik Molvar’s Wild Wyoming, Forest Service pamphlet “Savage Run Wilderness”

Trailhead: From Laramie take WY 130 west to WY 11 south to Albany. Here WY 11 becomes FS 500. Continue west about 14 miles on this long gravel road past Rob Roy Reservoir to FS 500.3A. Turn to the south and continue 1 ½ miles along this rocky track to the trailhead and parking. A high clearance rig is advisable for this last bit. Cars can park just off the road.

The Hike: The trail begins in the desolation of a clear cut but then steps into a magical forest primeval. This is the way the Medicine Bows must have looked when the first trappers entered the Native Americans’ world, before the loggers claimed it as their own. Majestic lodgepole pines are widely spaced, the floor open, the brush cleared by fires that barely licked the trees. Take some time to wander in these woods.
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