The Long Way
Albany County
Pine trees and rocky outcrops under a dramatic stormy sky.
Plate I. Turtle Rock, Turtle Rock Trailhead. Photograph by Liam Rogers, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Turtle Rock Trailhead

Laramie, Albany County, Wyoming. Trailhead; late-Spring - early-Fall.

Details

Map. Laramie, Albany County, Wyoming. Larger map
Where
Laramie, Albany County, WY. No street address stated. Directions
Getting there
From Laramie, take Interstate 80 east 15.8 miles to Vedauwoo Road/ exit 329. Exit and go to stop sign; turn left onto Vedauwoo Rd. and go 1.2 miles. Turn left at sign and go 0.6, continue through the roundabout to the second right, then turn left.
Fees
$5/vehicle/day.
Access
Dogs must be kept on a leash. Open season is late spring to early fall.
Phone
(307) 745-2300
Managed by
Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests & Thunder Basin National Grassland.

A very popular trail within the Vedauwoo Day Use Area. The easy trail winds around Turtle Rock, an icon Sherman Granite outcropping. Hikers will enjoy a 2.8 mile loop winding around the boulders, slabs and cliffs of the Vedauwoo rock formation, as well as beaver ponds.

Notable Events

  1. 1910The rock unit was formally named by geologist Nelson Horatio Darton (1910) after the town of Sherman, Wyoming (after civil war general William Tecumseh Sherman). geowyo.com
  2. 1924The word was used as the title of Maybelle Land DeKay's play performed live at Vedauwoo Glen three times between 1924 and 1931. vedauwoo.org
  3. 1936The area was utilized as outdoor settings in spectacular, action packed Westerns such as Cecil B. DeMille's classic ‘The Plainsman’ which debuted in 1936. vedauwoo.org
  4. 1940sWith the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps, facilities were upgraded and campsites multiplied. vedauwoo.org
  5. 1953The first recorded climb in the Greater Vedauwoo Area was in 1953, although the University of Wyoming 'Outing Club' was active in the area in the late 1940's. vedauwoo.org

People

  • Nelson Horatio Darton, geologist who formally named the rock unit after the town of Sherman, Wyoming (1910).
  • John Roberts, Episcopal missionary living on the Wind River Reservation who supplied the Arapaho word meaning ‘earth born’.
  • Maybelle Land DeKay, Professor of English and Drama at the University of Wyoming in Laramie who gave the place its Arapaho name as the title of her play (between 1924 and 1931).
  • Richard Moss, authority on the Arapaho language.

Sources

  1. fs.usda.gov/r02/mbrtb/recreation/turtle-rock-trailhead
  2. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Turtle_Rock_Vedauwoo_Wyoming.png
  3. fs.usda.gov/r02/mbrtb/recreation/pole-mountain-area-0
  4. main.wsgs.wyo.gov/outreach/cultural-geology/guide-vedauwoo
  5. geowyo.com/vedauwoo.html
  6. vedauwoo.org/about-vedauwoo
  7. vedauwoo.org/turtle-rock