Sunday 9-14-25 New Campground, Hiking & Reading

 

Camping at Vedauwoo Campground

 

Last night at 11:00 a front came in. We had steady rain until early morning. It didn't rain hard but it was steady. When we woke up it was wet outside. It was a brisk morning with the low of 43 degrees. There was a strong wind and it felt colder. It got up to 66 degrees.

I crawled out of bed at 7:45 and made biscuits for breakfast. We weren't in any hurry to leave Walmart because we only had 16 miles to go. 

It wasn't bad staying the night at Walmart in Laramie. When we got up it looked like an RV park. After breakfast we put things away and secured. We didn't leave until 8:45. We drove a six lane highway through a mountain pass to a rest area on the Lincoln Highway. We stopped so I could get a picture of Lincoln. We had been here before and knew the memorial was there. It was very cold because we had a strong wind. After using the restroom and taking a picture we continued our adventure to Vedauwoo Campground.

 

 President Lincoln Memorial Highway
   

We arrived at Vedauwoo Campground around 9:30 and found a site with no problem. Larry backed the Minnie in site #20 and got the Minnie leveled. We didn't have to use any blocks. Then we setup the Minnie. We filled out the envelope and put a check in for three nights. There are more campers here then at the last campgrounds we have been in. I guess it's because the campground is close to Laramie and Cheyenne. 

Vedauwoo Campground is in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest. Vedauwoo has two loops with 29 campsites, the roads and sites are paved, there is no power. It also has a walk-in tent area. All sites have a table, fire ring, dumpster and a vault toilet. It's gorgeous with hiking from the campground. Rock climbers enjoy climbing the big boulders. 

 

 

 Vedauwoo Campground

 

The campground winds around boulders, slabs and cliffs of the Vedauwoo rock formation. The formation is made up of 10 square miles of weathered Sherman granite, providing lots of space to explore. The vegetation is a variety of Limber pine, Engleman spruce, Douglas fir, and Aspen. The general area was once used as a hideout for outlaws. Native Americans thought playful spirits piled up the boulders. 

Before lunch we walked around the campground to check it out. We walked down to the day area and tent loop. We walked about a mile.

After lunch we went on a hike. We hiked the Nautilus Loop Trail, which was 1.06 mile. Larry had downloaded the trail so kind of knew where it was. The trail wasn't marked. We found where it began and walked through a gate. I had to open it because I couldn't fit through the opening because of my pouch. The trail took us around a big rock formation through a forest of pines and aspens down a wash and over boulders. At the beginning the trail was sandy but when you got to the forest the sand went away. You hiked over roots from the trees. We hiked through the rock formations. The hike was very nice and challenging because you went up and down through the formations. At the beginning we met a couple of friendly young girls finishing up their hike and at the end we met three more people just starting their hike. It was very pretty. It reminded me of  City of Rocks State Park in New Mexico. 

 

Rock Formation we hiked around

 

Larry hiking under a rock formation

 

Another view of the rock formation we hiked around

When we got back to the Minnie we saw a group of four people climbing the formations. We went inside and Larry watched them climb up to the top using binoculars. It was fun watching them. 

 

Rock climbers

We relaxed with a book for the rest of the day.

After dinner we went for walk/hike. Larry wanted to find the trailhead for Turtle Rock Trail. We picked up the trail to the trailhead at the campground. We hiked the trail for a half mile to the trailhead parking lot. Then we walked the road back. When we got back to the Minnie we climbed some rocks by our site. Then we went inside and stayed there for the rest of the day. I ended up doing 13,000 steps.

We had a wonderful day.