Vedauwoo () is an area of rocky outcrops (Sherman Granite) located in southeastern

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, north of Interstate 80, between Laramie and

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...

. Its name, according to some, is a romanized version of the

Arapaho The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...

word "bito'o'wu" meaning "earth-born". Vedauwoo is located in the

Medicine Bow - Routt National Forest Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

and includes a day-use picnic area and an overnight campground. It is also a popular

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 wat ...

. 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 1.4 billion year old Sherman Granite is the rock formation that makes up Vedauwoo's characteristic

hoodoos A hoodoo (also called a tent rock, fairy chimney, or earth pyramid) is a tall, thin spire of rock formed by erosion. Hoodoos typically consist of relatively soft rock topped by harder, less easily eroded stone that protects each column from the ...

and outcrops. The formation represent one of the oldest that outcrops in Wyoming (but it still more than a billion years younger than the rocks of the

Tetons The Teton Range is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in North America. It extends for approximately in a north–south direction through the U.S. state of Wyoming, east of the Idaho state line. It is south of Yellowstone National Park and ...

). 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 been progressively eroded in process that continues to this day. The hard granite of Vedauwoo is made of large crystals of

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...

orthoclase Orthoclase, or orthoclase feldspar ( endmember formula K Al Si3 O8), is an important tectosilicate mineral which forms igneous rock. The name is from the Ancient Greek for "straight fracture," because its two cleavage planes are at right angles ...

plagioclase Plagioclase is a series of tectosilicate (framework silicate) minerals within the feldspar group. Rather than referring to a particular mineral with a specific chemical composition, plagioclase is a continuous solid solution series, more pro ...

, and some mica and is more erosion-resistant, resulting in wind and water-sculpted forms. Just east of Vedauwoo, along I-80, sandstone cliffs are formed by the

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last ...

-age

Fountain Formation The Fountain Formation is a Pennsylvanian bedrock unit consisting primarily of conglomerate, sandstone, or arkose, in the states of Colorado and Wyoming in the United States, along the east side of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, and a ...

, which is about 300 million years old. The ancient sand dunes of a broad desert met with the salty waters of a shallow, epicontinental sea, producing examples of

cross-stratification In geology, cross-bedding, also known as cross-stratification, is layering within a stratum and at an angle to the main bedding plane. The sedimentary structures which result are roughly horizontal units composed of inclined layers. The original ...

. Fossils of sea urchins, snails, and sea lilies can be found in some of these rocks. Wildlife abounds in and around Vedauwoo with Wyoming ground squirrels,

mule deer The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related whi ...

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The common ...

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...

yellow-bellied marmots The yellow-bellied marmot (''Marmota flaviventris''), also known as the rock chuck, is a large, stout-bodied ground squirrel in the marmot genus. It is one of fourteen species of marmots, and is native to mountainous regions of southwestern Canad ...

, least chipmunks,

pronghorn The pronghorn (, ) (''Antilocapra americana'') is a species of artiodactyl (even-toed, hoofed) mammal indigenous to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is known colloquially in North America as the American a ...

wild turkeys The wild turkey (''Meleagris gallopavo'') is an upland ground bird native to North America, one of two extant species of turkey and the heaviest member of the order Galliformes. It is the ancestor to the domestic turkey, which was originally de ...

badger Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae (which also includes the otters, wolverines, martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and ferrets). Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by ...

, prairie dog, coyote, and

mountain lions The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...

all calling the area home. Beaver are found in some of the creeks, where their dams and lodges form cover for a variety of aquatic insects, frogs, and fish.

Golden Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall * Golden Cap, Dorset *Golden Square, Soho, London *Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestershi ...

and bald eagles can be seen soaring on the thermals alongside hawks,

crow A crow is a bird of the genus '' Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifica ...

ravens Ravens may refer to: * Raven, a species of the genus ''Corvus'' Sports * Anderson Ravens, the intercollegiate athletic program of Anderson University in Indiana * Baltimore Ravens, a professional American football franchise * Benedictine Ravens, ...

turkey vulture The turkey vulture (''Cathartes aura'') is the most widespread of the New World vultures. One of three species in the genus '' Cathartes'' of the family Cathartidae, the turkey vulture ranges from southern Canada to the southernmost tip of Sout ...

, and numerous

songbirds A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 5 ...

. Anglers find brook trout in the streams and ponds but over the past decade or so the populations of these fish have dropped noticeably.

Climbing

TJ Burr, Author and Mountaineer, tells about his experiences at Vedauwoo in his adventure book, Rocky Mountain Adventure Collection. The following is an excerpt from the chapter, Bouldering at Vedauwoo: ″The Vedauwoo rocks are large blocks of weathered Sherman granite primarily composed of crystalline fragments of quartz and feldspar. The higher concentration of feldspar gives the rocks a pinkish tint. They are grouped together in large granite towers formed by stacks of huge rectangular blocks that have been rounded by windblown sand. They provide some of North America's best technical climbs. Although they lack cracks and holds, they provide excellent friction and chimney climbs. Living only fifteen miles from Vedauwoo while attending the University of Wyoming, I had the privilege of spending many weekends climbing, rappelling, and hiking around the rocky wonderland. Vedauwoo provides a welcome outlet for many stressed college students. It is also frequented by technical climbers, family picnickers, and campers. On any given day with nice Wyoming weather, there will be numerous climbers testing their skills on the vertical rock faces of the Vedauwoo Recreation Area.″ Vedauwoo is particularly known for its offwidth crack climbing.

References

External links

Wyoming's Vedauwoo website

US Forest Service's Vedauwoo Campground website

The Vedauwoo Volunteer Fire/Rescue Department Homepage
{{Coord, 41, 09, 18, N, 105, 22, 54, W, display=title Protected areas of Albany County, Wyoming Climbing areas of the United States Geologic formations with imbedded sand dunes Rock formations of Wyoming Tourist attractions in Wyoming Landforms of Albany County, Wyoming