Box Canyon Trail, Vedauwoo Wyoming, Rock Climbing and Scrambling

I'm still trying to catch up from two weekends at Vedauwoo, Wyoming in the Medicine Bow Mountains between Laramie and Cheyenne off I-80; there were tons of trails to write about and great camping too.  Check out my previous posts about the Turtle Rock trail here and the Vedauwoo campground here.  When hiking the Turtle Rock Trail a few weeks ago, we mistakenly thought it would take us to the top of the rock formations, however, the Box Canyon Trail does continue up the rock formations and we spent the day climbing, scrambling and hiking up the amazing and unique rock formations.  

Getting there:   From the Denver Metro area take I-25 North into Cheyenne Wyoming, head west on I-80 and exit 329, follow the 'camping' signs and turn right at the stop sign then turn left onto Vedauwoo Rd. and go 1.2 miles. Turn left at sign and go 0.3 miles to campground but instead of turning right into the campground, continue straight to the day use area and follow the signs toward the Box Canyon Trail, its easy.  (Latitude: 41.1608157   Longitude: -105.3685959)

Graffiti trees along the trail. 

Specs:  Hiking in the day use area costs $5 per car; there are pit toilets, picnic tables, running water, a rotunda with tables, grills, hiking trails and more.  The Turtle Rock trail is 3.2 miles around the formation and there are several other trail intersections that can make the hike longer; paper maps are available at the pay station near the park entrance that has all the hikes in the area. 

The Hike:  After speaking with the rangers and finding out that the trail to reach the top of the rock formations was the Box Canyon Trail, so we decided to hike that on Saturday morning.  It takes quite a while to pack up all that is needed for a few hours away for 2 adults, a baby and 2 dogs; including food, hiking pack, enough water, diapers, toys, etc, but we finally got into the car around 11am and over to the trailhead.  It was very popular but we found the last parking spot in the small parking lot (there are overflow lots) and started up the trail (after taking a while to load up dogs, kid, carrier, food and etc).  We walked down the paved trail and then it splits (its a small loop) to continue around the picnic area, and at the end of the picnic area the trail turns to dirt and crosses a small ravine toward the base of the rock formations.  Initially, we thought that the dogs wouldn't be able to climb up the rocks, so Josh stayed down with Magnolia and the dogs while I climbed; which was disappointing after all of that work.  But I enjoyed an hour to myself on the hike and after about 35 minutes of being completely confused on the rocks, I found the Box Canyon Trail (after starting in the wrong spot) and decided to hike a little further by myself before going back to tell Josh that we could, in fact, all hike this trail.  

To start the Box Canyon Trail have one of the frequent rangers show you the path ahead of time, or just start climbing; the best place to begin is where the rocks slope down not far from the bridge and canyon.  There are no real trail markers and its hard to know if you are going the correct way or not, but there are small markers, like a bridge that continues across the rock surface, or a set of stairs that makes one of the huge boulders accessible otherwise I don't think the average person could make it past that point.  Eventually the trail continues toward the back of the rock formation and you have amazing views of the surrounding valley.  Here the trail gets pretty tricky; to reach the top of the formation you need to squeeze through a very narrow path beside a rock wall and another boulder and then you have to stand on some smaller boulders with a small ravine between you and a large boulder that needs to be scaled to reach the top.  I actually got so confused as to where to go at this point that I waited for some people to come down and watched how they did it to confirm that scaling that rock by the ravine, was in fact, the correct way to go.  We talked for a few minutes and the gentleman helping his 10 year old daughter down said it continued to be difficult a little farther up the rock, then got easy as you reached the top.  Again, I went to the place where they came down and tried to scale this rock, had their been a hand hold, I would have done it, but it was so steep and at my chest height, with nothing to hang onto and the rocks are made up of granite that is very sharp and slices your skin easily and I was wearing shorts on this 90+ degree day.  I didn't risk it and hiked back down to go meet with Josh.  

Me looking down at Josh from the start of the trail

I told Josh that we could all hike it, we talked with the ranger again who told us of another rock formation that we could climb with the dogs and Magnolia in the pack.  He showed us the way (there is no way that I can explain this, it was very hard to find ourselves) and we started up the path he suggested, but again got to a point where we just could not go any farther with 2 dogs and a baby in a pack.  We climbed all the way back down and then Josh wanted to hike the Box Canyon Trail, so I went up with him again.  At this point, I was pretty tired and hot; I'd been hiking for 2+ hours on the rocks, but he had not, so I continued up with him.  We reached the same spot that I got hung up at before and I again tried to climb it, but with no avail and it was driving me nuts, I could see the top but I couldn't reach it for fear of getting sliced by the granite, or falling into this small ravine if I lost my footing.  Josh wasn't even able to make it through the narrow path by the rocks with the hiking pack on his back.  So again, we reached a stopping point and went back.  Here are some more photos of the hike.  

 View of some of the rock formations while on the rocks, its shaped like a large horseshoe of rocks, and its easy to see why its called a box canyon.  

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 Cross this bridge to get over the largest boulders and then find the rickety stairs that continue to take you up Box Canyon Trail

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 Views from the middle of the canyon.  

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 Find this second bridge to cross after the stairway.  

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I am not sure what this flower is, but its a beauty.  

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 Once you reach the views on the far side of the formation, the Box Canyon Trail gets tricky, at least it was for me. 

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This is where I got stopped, this photo is taken with me standing on a small rock and leaning onto the rock that I needed to scale which was right at my chest level.  If you look closely, you can see a rock climber (shown below) in the rocks in the center/right of the photo

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 You can see the guy climbing in the orange shirt in this photo, its such a tall, steep rock surface, this photo doesn't do it justice! 

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Here is a closer look at the guy, but you still don't really get a feel of how high he is or how steep and difficult this climb is! 

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Views looking up at the water lines, this would be awesome to check out after it rains, or during the rain, the water will roll down each of those grooved lines and look amazing!

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 One of the many chipmunks that live on the rocks.

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Josh took this shot of me on our hike back down. 

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Now that we were able to at least hike on the Box Canyon Trail, I felt like we got to see the best of Vedauwoo and I look forward to visiting it in the future with Magnolia!  

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