Medicine Bow Mountains

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Medicine Bow Mountains seen from U.S. Highway 287 in northern Colorado

Medicine Bow Peak up close

For the Snowy Range of Australia, see Snowy Mountains.

The Medicine Bow Mountains are a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains that extend from northern Colorado into southern Wyoming. Wyoming's northern portion of the range is often referred to as The Snowy Range or "The Snowies". From the northern end of Colorado's Never Summer Mountains, the Medicine Bow mountains extend north from Cameron Pass along the border between Larimer and Jackson counties in Colorado and northward into south central Wyoming. In Wyoming, the range sits west of Laramie, in Albany and Carbon counties to the route of the Union Pacific Railroad and U.S. Interstate 80. The mountains often serve as a symbol for the city of Laramie.

The highest peak in the range is Clark Peak (12,951 feet), located in Rawah Wilderness and is along the southern end of the range in Northern Colorado. Much of the range is located within the Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming. The highest peak on the Wyoming side is in fact Medicine Bow Peak (12,013). The range is drained along is western flank by the Michigan and Canadian rivers, tributaries of the North Platte in North Park. On its eastern flank it is drained by the Laramie River, another tributary of the North Platte.

The Medicine Bow Mountains resulted from continental compression during the Laramide Orogeny. Beginning ~70 million years ago, the Rockies began uplifting along thrust faults that broke up the Precambrian granite of Earth's crust. By 50 million years ago, all of Wyoming's major mountain ranges were elevated and the major basins defined. Rocks exposed along the flanks and peaks of the Medicine Bow Mountains span the Precambrian to modern, with the peaks composed of 2.4-2.0 billion year old Medicine Peak Quartzite. This rock was once a shallow marine sand deposit that has since been compressed and heated during burial, forming the metamorphic rock, quartzite. What may be traces of multicellular animals are preserved in this rock, making it of particular interest to paleontologists.

Wildlife abounds in these mountains, with mule deer, elk, moose, black bear, mountain lions, coyotes, marmots, Richardson's ground squirrels, bobcats, and lynx as well as a tremendous varierty of birds being visible even from the road. Anglers enjoy fishing for brook and rainbow trout as well as grayling and golden trout. Flyfishing is generally the most productive method, but small spinning outfits are popular as well.

This mountain range is also home to some of the remains of a Douglas DC-4 aircraft, operated under United Airlines Flight 409. The aircraft crashed into Medicine Bow Peak on October 6, 1955, killing all 66 people on board (63 passengers, 3 crew members.)