Cold alpine lakes, thin air, and zero crowds: Wyoming Highway 130 earns every mile

It’s hiding just south of I-80

Most people blow through southern Wyoming on Interstate 80 and never look south. That’s a mistake.

Wyoming Highway 130 cuts 29 miles through the Medicine Bow National Forest, climbing from sagebrush flats into alpine country where the air thins and the lakes turn cold.

The byway connects two small towns, Centennial on the east and Saratoga on the west, and the drive takes about 45 minutes if you don’t stop. You’ll stop.

The pull is what’s waiting above the treeline.

A wagon road turned into a 1930s skyroad

Wagons first rolled over these mountains in the 1870s.

By the 1920s, crews with horse-drawn equipment widened and smoothed the route, and paving came in the 1930s. That’s when the road picked up the name “the Great Skyroad.”

In 1988, it earned a formal title as the nation’s second National Forest Scenic Byway.

The peaks you drive through are quartzite, roughly 2 to 2.5 billion years old, some of the most ancient exposed rock in the Rockies.

Centennial started with a gold rush in 1876

The byway begins on the east side in Centennial, a town founded in 1876 and named for the 100th anniversary of American independence. Gold showed up on nearby Centennial Ridge around the same time, and miners came fast.

The booms never lasted, but the town held on through ranching, logging and tourism. The Nici Self Historical Museum sits in the 1907 Centennial Railroad Depot, a National Register site run by volunteers.

You can walk through artifacts from the area’s mining, railroading and homesteading days before you even start the drive.

Marmots and Indian Paintbrush line the climb west

Head west from Centennial and the open plains disappear behind you. Lodgepole pines close in along the Little Laramie River, and the landscape shifts fast.

Sagebrush gives way to pine, then spruce and fir as the road climbs.

Pull over at any of the marked pullouts and you might catch yellow-bellied marmots sunning themselves on granite slabs.

Indian Paintbrush, Wyoming’s state flower, grows in bright red-orange patches along the roadside all summer.

Swim, fish or kayak at Lake Marie

Lake Marie sits at the base of Medicine Bow Peak, and the water is cold enough to remind you that you’re in the alpine zone.

You can fish, swim if you can handle it, or kayak across the surface with the peaks reflected in front of you.

A short trail from the lake leads to a small waterfall, and a paved path connects the lake to a picnic area and fishing spots. Marmots, pikas and bighorn sheep move through the area around the shore.

The hike to 12,013-foot Medicine Bow Peak

Medicine Bow Peak tops out at roughly 12,013 feet, the highest point in southern Wyoming.

The most popular way up is the Lakes Trail Loop from the Lake Marie Trailhead, about seven miles round trip with 1,700 feet of gain.

You pass alpine lakes and wildflower meadows on the way, and from the summit, the entire Snowy Range and surrounding valleys open up with nothing blocking the view. Start early.

Afternoon thunderstorms roll in fast at this altitude.

Stand on stone at Libby Flats and see three mountain ranges

Libby Flats Observation Point sits near 10,847 feet, the highest stretch along the whole byway. A stone platform gives you views in every direction.

On clear days, you can see south to the mountains of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, west to the Sierra Madre and east to the Laramie Range.

The stone structures date to the Civilian Conservation Corps era in the 1930s, with additional work done in 1959. Wind rips across this elevation almost constantly, so bring a jacket even in July.

Trout get helicoptered into these alpine lakes

Alpine lakes dot the Snowy Range, and many of them sit right off the byway or a short hike away. Libby Lake holds splake, cutthroat and brown trout at the base of Sugarloaf Peak.

Lewis Lake is steps from the parking lot and gives you views of most of the Snowy Range peaks from its shore. Brooklyn Lake Road, a maintained dirt road, leads to more lakes and trailheads.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department stocks many of these high lakes by helicopter because the fish can’t reproduce naturally up here.

Red, orange and purple wildflowers bloom through August

The high meadows along the byway light up with wildflowers from June through August.

Indian Paintbrush grows in large patches, and you’ll also find lupine, marsh marigold, alpine forget-me-not and fireweed scattered across the slopes. The blooming season moves uphill with the weeks.

Lower areas start in early June, and the highest meadows peak by late June or July. Don’t pick anything.

Collecting native plants from the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests falls under Forest Service permit rules.

Moose, bighorn sheep and Wyoming’s only native trout

The Medicine Bow National Forest holds moose, elk, mule deer, black bear, bobcat and coyote. Near Medicine Bow Peak, Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, marmots and pikas work the rocky slopes.

The lakes and streams carry rainbow trout, brook trout and cutthroat, Wyoming’s only native trout. Bald eagles and wild turkeys sometimes show up along the lower waterways.

Your best odds come early morning or late evening, and watch the road carefully because animals cross without warning.

300 inches of snow and dark skies for stargazing

The Snowy Range pulls in more than 300 inches of snow a year.

Over 300 miles of groomed and ungroomed snowmobile trails run through the forest, and cross-country skiing and snowshoeing keep people moving all winter. Alpine lakes freeze solid for ice fishing and skating.

The Snowy Range Ski Area near Centennial runs 27 trails with five lifts. After dark, Wyoming’s open skies turn the range into a stargazing spot.

Libby Flats and Lake Marie are both recommended places to look up.

Soak free at Saratoga’s 24-hour hot springs

The byway drops into Saratoga on the west end, a small town in the North Platte River Valley.

The Hobo Hot Pool is a natural hot spring the town owns and maintains, free to the public, open 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Water in the main pool runs about 106 degrees, and the hottest section hits around 120.

On the drive between the pass and Saratoga, Ryan Park Campground sits where a CCC camp operated in the 1930s and a World War II POW branch camp opened in October 1943. Interpretive signs tell the story today.

Drive the Snowy Range Scenic Byway in Wyoming

You can pick up the byway from either end. Centennial sits about 27 miles west of Laramie, and Saratoga is about 20 miles east of the Walcott Junction exit on I-80.

The 29-mile drive runs along Highway 130 through the Medicine Bow National Forest.

The road opens around Memorial Day weekend after weeks of plowing and closes in mid-November when snow buries the highest sections.

Some recreation sites charge a day-use fee, but interagency annual passes work at those stops.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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