Encampment River Trail, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY

Posted: June 28th, 2006 | Author: Roger Ludwig | Filed under: Wyoming | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

Highlights: This trail – a glorious walk along the Encampment River – is a gem, a sapphire. The river is a turbulent, wrestling rush of water, splashing its course down the narrow canyon. The upper reach is in the deep shade of fir and spruce, the lower runs through an open hillside of sun and sage, alders, wild flowers and wildlife. This is the finest canyon trail of the Medicine Bow National Forest. The lower four miles are in a BLM wilderness study area, the upper twelve run the length of the Encampment River Wilderness, established by congress in 1984. At 10,124 acres, it’s the smallest wilderness in the state. This one is for hikers, no bikes allowed, and it’s not an ideal trail for horses because of the narrow tread and the overhanging boughs.

Location: The eastern side of the Sierra Madre range, just south of the town of Encampment, Wyoming.

Elevations: Odd Fellows Trailhead, 7,800′; Commissary Park Trailhead, 8,900′

Distance: About 16 miles from end to end. A trailhead at Purgatory Gulch allows a hiker to split the trail in two sections.

Maps: USGS Dudley Creek, Encampment; Medicine Bow National Forest Map; Medicine Bow National Forest “Huston Park Encampment River Wilderness Trail Map” (pamphlet)

Guide: Marc Smith’s Hiking Wyoming’s Medicine Bow National Forest, Bill Hunger’s Hiker’s Guide to Wyoming, Erik Molvar’s Wild Wyoming.

Trailhead: It is a 140 mile drive from Cheyenne, WY, taking I-80 west to Laramie, exit 311, then southwest on WY 230 into Colorado (where it is CO 127), north on CO 125 back into Wyoming (where it continues as 230 again) to Riverside. At Riverside turn west on WY 70 through Encampment. Less than ¼ mile past Encampment a BLM sign (Encampment River Trail) points to the south. Take this well graded, gravel road two miles to the Oddfellows trailhead and campground.
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