Vedauwoo - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Vedauwoo is an area of rocky outcrops (Sherman Granite) located in south-eastern Wyoming

Wyoming

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, north of Interstate 80

Interstate 80

Interstate 80 is the second-longest Interstate Highway in the United States, following Interstate 90. It is a transcontinental artery running from downtown San Francisco, California to Teaneck, New Jersey in the New York City Metropolitan Area...

, between Laramie

Laramie, Wyoming

Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 30,816 at the . Located on the Laramie River in southeastern Wyoming, the city is west of Cheyenne, at the junction of Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 287....

and Cheyenne

Cheyenne, Wyoming

Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County. The population is 59,466 at the 2010 census. Cheyenne is the...

. Its name (according to climbing guidebook authors Skip Harper and Rob Kelman) is an anglicized version of the Arapaho

Arapaho

The Arapaho are a tribe of Native Americans historically living on the eastern plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Sioux. Arapaho is an Algonquian language closely related to Gros Ventre, whose people are seen as an early...

word "bito'o'wu" meaning "earth-born". The area is within Medicine Bow - Routt National Forest

Medicine Bow - Routt National Forest

Medicine Bow – Routt National Forest is the official title to a U.S. Forest Service managed area extending over 2,769,949 acres in the states of Wyoming and Colorado, United States...

and includes a day-use picnic

Picnic

In contemporary usage, a picnic can be defined simply as a pleasure excursion at which a meal is eaten outdoors , ideally taking place in a beautiful landscape such as a park, beside a lake or with an interesting view and possibly at a public event such as before an open air theatre performance,...

area and an overnight campground. Vedauwoo is a popular climbing area

Climbing area

A climbing area is a small geographical region with a concentration of opportunities for climbing. The term is most commonly used of rock climbing areas, but there are also ice climbing areas that have the right combination of steepness and water to result in climbable ice during the winter.While...

. Mountain bikers, anglers, hikers, cross-country skiers, snowshoers, and rock climbers come from all parts of the world to sample the area's natural beauty. Climbers find some of the best wide crack climbs (called "offwidths") known. There are over 900 routes currently on record. Due to its elevation and distance from nearby cities, making it a dark site, it is a favorite of star party enthusiasts. Interstate 80 passes just south of the main rock outcroppings and well-marked highway signs indicate the exit to use in order to reach Vedauwoo. An alternative is to drive in from the Happy Jack road that runs between Laramie and Cheyenne.

Overview

The rock making up Vedauwoo's characteristic hoodoos and outcrops is the 1.4 billion year old Sherman Granite. These rocks represent some of the oldest rock in Wyoming (but are still more than a billion years younger than the Tetons

Geology of the Grand Teton area

The geology of the Grand Teton area consists of some of the oldest rocks and one of the youngest mountain ranges in North America. The Teton Range, mostly located in Grand Teton National Park, started to grow some 9 million years ago...

). It is exposed at the surface around Vedauwoo due to the uplift of the Laramie Mountains that began around 70 million years ago. Younger layers of rock and sediment have progressively eroded, and this continues today. The hard granite of vedauwoo is made of large crystals of quartz, orthoclase, plagioclase, and some mica and is more erosion-resistant, resulting in unique, wind and water-sculpted forms. Just east of Vedauwoo, along I-80, spectacular sandstone cliffs are formed of the Permian-age Fountain Formation, which is about 300 million years old. Ancient sand dunes of a broad desert met with the salty waters of a shallow, epicontinental sea, producing beautiful examples of cross-stratification. Fossils of sea urchins, snails, and sea lillies can be found in some of these rocks.

Wildlife abounds in and around Vedauwoo with Wyoming ground squirrels, mule deer, elk, moose, yellow-bellied marmots, least chipmunks, pronghorn, wild turkeys, badgers, prairie dogs, coyotes, and mountain lions all calling the area home. Beavers are found in some of the creeks, where their dams and lodges form cover for a variety of aquatic insects, frogs, and fish. Golden and bald eagles can be seen soaring on the thermals alongside hawks, crows, ravens, turkey vultures, and numerous songbirds. Anglers find brook trout in the streams and ponds but over the past decade or so the populations of these fish have dropped noticeably.

The area surrounding Vedauwoo is quite popular with Wyoming residents, particularly from Cheyenne and Laramie, who enjoy picnicking in the recreation areas near the rocks. Although access to Vedauwoo is free to the public, a fee is required to use the parking and camping facilities. The roads are dirt and gravel, and motorists are advised to drive with caution.

Also of note is signage posted at the kiosk indicating that Vedauwoo was formerly used as a military testing ground, until 1961. The signage advises that unexploded "ordinances", if found, should be left alone and reported to authorities.

External links

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