Vedauwoo

The knobs, slabs and balanced boulders of Vedauwoo are Sherman Granite, a coarse rock of pink feldspar and white quartz that cooled deep underground about 1.4 billion years ago. It is among the oldest rock exposed in Wyoming, though still a billion years younger than the core of the Tetons. The Laramie Range began rising about 70 million years ago, erosion stripped away the younger layers above, and frost, wind and water rounded what was left into the shapes visible from Interstate 80, rising as much as five hundred feet above the meadows. The name is usually traced to an Arapaho word, bito'o'wu, given as earth-born, though how it reached the map is not well documented.

The same big crystals that make the rock look soft make it rough as sandpaper, and Vedauwoo became known for its cracks, above all the wide, awkward ones climbers call offwidths. Modern climbing here began after World War II with veterans of the Army's 10th Mountain Division. Most visitors walk the Turtle Rock Loop, about three miles around a single granite dome, past beaver ponds where moose sometimes turn up.

The recreation area is in the Medicine Bow National Forest at Exit 329 between Laramie and Cheyenne, with a campground and a day-use fee.