Seniors Enjoy Peaceful Cloud Peak Wilderness

Cloud Peak Wilderness is located in north central Wyoming. Entirely within Bighorn National Forest, Cloud Peak Wilderness was established in 1984 in an effort to preserve the wildest section of the Bighorn Mountains. Managed as the Cloud Peak Primitive Area as far back as 1932, this region has some of the most majestic alpine scenery that senior travelers will find in America.

For 27 miles along the backbone of the Bighorn Mountain Range, Cloud Peak Wilderness preserves many sharp summits and towering sheer rock faces standing above glacier-carved, U-shaped valleys. Named for the tallest mountain in the Bighorn National Forest – Cloud Peak at 13,167 feet – the area is blanketed in snow for a large part of the year.

On the east side of Cloud Peak itself, senior visitors will discover the last remaining glacier in this range. The peak and the south west ridge route are among the most popular ascents in the state.

Seniors Mountain Climb, Hike And Fish

It is common to see several parties a day attempting the climb during the summer climbing season-July and August. Speed ascents have been made from the West Tensleep Trail head in under three hours.

Senior visitors are in for an awesome experience when you take the sixty mile loop through the area in the Bighorn National Forest. Beautiful lakes cover the landscape and drain into miles of streams.

The area is a hiking and fishing paradise. Although rugged in appearance, the Bighorns are actually more gentle than other mountains in Wyoming. The area is now visited each year by tens of thousands of backpackers, hikers and horseback riders who enjoy the more than 100 miles of trails.

Backpacker Magazine notes that Cloud Peak is the “Best of the Bighorns.” Amazon has several helpful guides for hikers. Just input: Hiking Wyoming’s Cloud Peak Wilderness (Regional Hiking Series).  The area keeps snow on the ground usually into July, and the snowmelt feeds into several hundred high mountain lakes.

Seniors Seek Out Wilderness Areas

Seniors, if you are “into” wilderness areas, you may already know that there are 757 designated and federally protected wilderness areas in the United States.  hey range in size from the tiny 6 acre Pelican Island Wilderness in Florida  to the mind-numbingly huge 9 million acre Wrangell-St. Elias in Alaska. Cloud Peak Wilderness is some 189,039 acres of majestic alpine scenery.

Enjoy all the fresh air and scenery of the ‘Equality State’. It is still called by many “The Cowboy State.”  You choose. It will be a memorable vacation.  jeb