Buffalo Peak

Buffalo Peak covers 17,560 acres of mountainous, montane country on the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest in Converse County, at the northern end of the Laramie Range. The terrain is structured around a cluster of named summits — Buffalo Peak itself, Roaring Mountain, Buck Peak, Twin Peaks, and Cherry Mountain — with Fire Canyon cutting through the high country. The hydrology is rated major: streams head off the granite slopes in a fan of named drainages, with East Box Elder Creek, Box Elder Creek, Buffalo Creek, Elk Run Creek, Standing Rock Creek, Woodchopper Creek, Sleepy Jack Creek, Van Wormer Creek, Rock Creek, Elkhorn Creek, Bill Young Creek, Meadow Creek, Roaring Fork, Beaver Creek, and Little Beaver Creek all descending into the broader Box Elder watershed. Elk Lake and Cold Spring hold standing water within the area.

Forest community types are organized by elevation, aspect, and substrate. Lower south-facing slopes carry Intermountain Mountain Sagebrush Steppe, Great Basin Big Sagebrush Steppe, and Great Basin Big Sagebrush Shrubland, with big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) and bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata). Rocky Mountain Foothill Shrubland and Intermountain Semi-Desert Grassland fill the transitions. Mid-slope, Southern Rockies Ponderosa Pine Woodland and Savanna give way to Southern Rockies Mixed Conifer Forest and Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine Forest, with Rocky Mountains ponderosa pine (Pinus scopulorum) on the warm exposures and an understory of wax currant (Ribes cereum), creeping Oregon-grape (Berberis repens), and bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi). Higher elevations hold Rocky Mountain Dry Subalpine and Wet Subalpine Spruce-Fir Forest, Rocky Mountain Limber and Bristlecone Pine Woodland, Northern Rockies Subalpine Grassland, and Rocky Mountain Subalpine Meadow. Rocky Mountain Aspen Forest and Intermountain Aspen and Conifer Forest occupy mesic benches, with quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) over Gunnison's mariposa lily (Calochortus gunnisonii) and showy green-gentian (Frasera speciosa). Streamside Rocky Mountain Subalpine and Foothill Streamside Woodland and Subalpine Streamside Shrubland carry the wet corridors.

Dusky grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) inhabits the conifer-aspen mosaic. Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) caches limber pine seeds in the high stands — the regeneration mechanism for that woodland. Calliope hummingbird and broad-tailed hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus) move between paintbrush meadows; Cassin's finch (Haemorhous cassinii) holds the spruce-fir canopy, while olive-sided flycatcher (Contopus cooperi) hunts insects above the forest edge. Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) and bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) work the airspace above Elk Lake and the larger creeks. The granite outcrops and rocky exposures harbor greater short-horned lizard (Phrynosoma hernandesi), and the open sage and grass holds gophersnake (Pituophis catenifer). Portions of this area fall within the potential range of several federally listed species; see the Conservation section for details.

A walk up Box Elder Creek from the foothills climbs from sage into closing ponderosa pine, then into mixed conifer, before breaking into open subalpine meadow below Buffalo Peak. Fire Canyon drops eastward from the high country, cut into the granite. From the crest of Cherry Mountain or Twin Peaks, the High Plains open to the east; behind, Roaring Mountain and Buck Peak carry the eye south along the ridgeline.

The mountainous country at the northern end of the Laramie Range, where the 17,560-acre Buffalo Peak Inventoried Roadless Area sits today within Converse County, has been used by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Long before the Oregon Trail was blazed through Wyoming, the broader Medicine Bow region was the scene of the annual bow-making festival, when braves from many quarters came together to cut mountain mahogany — which grows in great abundance along the streams in these hills and was highly prized throughout the region for bowwood [3]. The Platte River tribes — Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho — eventually edged the Shoshone west of the Continental Divide and the Crow to the north, contesting and using the country along the North Platte that bordered the Laramie Range to the south [4]. Lt. Col. William J. Fetterman and his entire command were wiped out by Cheyenne and Sioux warriors in 1866 on the east flank of the Bighorn Mountains; Fort Fetterman, on the North Platte River, was built in 1867 in what would eventually become Converse County [1].

The North Platte had already become one of the main routes west for white travelers. Trappers beginning in the 1820s, emigrants bound for Oregon, California and Utah in the 1840s, and stagecoaches and the Pony Express in the 1850s and 1860s all used the route heavily [1]. Fort Fetterman was built about 20 miles east of Deer Creek, on a high bluff above the south bank of the river, and became an important staging point for the army in the Indian Wars of the 1860s and 1870s [1]. The Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad, building west from Chadron, Nebraska, reached Douglas in 1886, and the first passenger train rolled in on Aug. 29 of that year [1]. Two years after the railroad arrived in Douglas, Converse County was created from pieces of two existing counties, Albany and Laramie, and named for Amasa Converse, a noted pioneer and Cheyenne banker [1]. Cattle ranching reshaped the surrounding range: in the early and mid 1880s, optimistic ranchers brought cattle from as far away as Texas to forage the area's grasslands, but by the summer and fall of 1886 many cattle were weak and thin from lack of food, and the terrible winter that followed collapsed the area's cattle-dependent economy and many people left [1]. People came as fur trappers, fortune seekers, gold miners, coal miners, cowboys, cattle barons, remittance men, adventure seekers, railroaders, homesteaders, and uranium miners [5].

The Medicine Bow timber industry shaped the forested ranges. The rails of the Union Pacific that led to the point where the golden spike marked the final link in the first transcontinental railroad were underlaid with Medicine Bow railroad ties [3]. Federal protection arrived through President Theodore Roosevelt, who established the Medicine Bow Forest Reserve by proclamation on May 22, 1902 [2]. The Medicine Bow National Forest dates back to that establishment; in 1959, the area formerly used by the military at Pole Mountain was added [2]. The Laramie Peak unit on which Buffalo Peak sits — south of Douglas in Converse County — was administered as part of the Medicine Bow National Forest, with the Thunder Basin National Grassland (initiated in 1934 as the Northeastern Wyoming Land Utilization Project) combined with the Laramie Peak area into the Douglas Ranger District in 1987 [2]. Today, Buffalo Peak is protected under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

Vital Resources Protected

• Headwater Protection for the Box Elder System. The roadless condition of Buffalo Peak's 17,560 acres preserves the unsedimented headwaters of East Box Elder Creek, Box Elder Creek, Buffalo Creek, and a dense network of tributaries — Elk Run, Standing Rock, Woodchopper, Sleepy Jack, Van Wormer, Rock, Elkhorn, Bill Young, Meadow, Roaring Fork, Beaver, and Little Beaver creeks, plus Elk Lake and Cold Spring. The area's hydrological significance is rated major; downstream flow stability, water clarity, and aquatic habitat depend on the absence of road-grade disturbance in the catchments above.

• Lodgepole Pine and Mixed Conifer Forest Integrity. Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine Forest and Southern Rockies Mixed Conifer Forest together cover nearly 60% of the area. The roadless state preserves intact stand structure across this dominant forest matrix, important for the Cassin's finch, olive-sided flycatcher, and dusky grouse that depend on it, and for the watershed function it provides — once the litter layer of these forests is broken, soils erode rapidly and water quality declines in the streams below.

• Limber Pine Woodland and the Clark's Nutcracker Mutualism. Rocky Mountain Limber and Bristlecone Pine Woodland on the ridgelines around Buffalo Peak, Buck Peak, and Twin Peaks depends on intact canopy distribution for the Clark's nutcracker seed-caching that regenerates the stands. Roadless conditions preserve the unfragmented woodland through which the bird disperses seed — a mutualism that is the regeneration mechanism for a species already under pressure from white pine blister rust.

Potential Effects of Road Construction

• Sedimentation of the Box Elder Headwaters. Road construction across the granite slopes draining into East Box Elder, Buffalo, and the other named creeks would deliver chronic fine sediment from cut banks and ditch lines to the streambeds. Because soils in Southern Rockies Mixed Conifer Forest and Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine Forest are shallow and erodible once the litter layer is broken, sediment delivery persists for decades, and culverted crossings further sever fish passage and concentrate erosive flow downstream into the major Box Elder system.

• Fragmentation of the Dominant Conifer Matrix. Cutting a road grade through Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine Forest and Southern Rockies Mixed Conifer Forest opens the canopy, fragments stand structure, and introduces edge effects that depress interior-forest species like Cassin's finch and olive-sided flycatcher. Invasive exotic species become abundant in disturbed areas and alter floristic composition, and altered stand structure from road-related disturbance affects fuel loads and fire regimes in ways that compound over successional time.

• Cheatgrass Invasion of Sagebrush and Limber Pine Stands. Road corridors are the primary vector by which cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and other invasive annual grasses enter Intermountain Mountain Sagebrush Steppe, Great Basin Big Sagebrush Steppe, and the surrounding shrubland. Once established along a disturbed corridor, cheatgrass shortens fire return intervals to the point where native sagebrush — and the limber pine woodland on the ridgelines, which is intolerant of frequent fire and already vulnerable to white pine blister rust — cannot persist. The conversion is difficult to reverse on a management timescale.

Buffalo Peak covers 17,560 acres of mountainous, montane country at the northern end of the Laramie Range on the Douglas Ranger District of the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest. The trail system is short and concentrated: access is from the Twin Peaks Trailhead, with the Campbell Creek Campground providing the area's developed front-country base. Use is otherwise dispersed walk-in and stock-supported backcountry.

The Twin Peaks Trail (618) runs 3.0 miles into the area from the trailhead of the same name. The Elkhorn Creek Trail (696) adds 4.0 miles, designated for hiker use. Both routes are native-material surfaces. Combined, the two trails put visitors within reach of the cluster of named summits — Buffalo Peak, Buck Peak, Twin Peaks, Roaring Mountain, and Cherry Mountain — and the upper drainages descending from them. Off-trail travel into Fire Canyon and the upper creek headwaters is feasible for experienced backcountry users.

Hunting is a primary use. Dusky grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) inhabits the conifer-aspen mosaic, and the area's elk, mule deer, and pronghorn populations work the elevational gradient from sagebrush flats through ponderosa savanna and mixed conifer into subalpine meadows. The lack of motorized incursion onto the trail system allows walk-in and stock-supported hunters to work the drainages and the high country undisturbed.

Cold-water fishing is available in the headwater complex — East Box Elder Creek, Box Elder Creek, Buffalo Creek, Elkhorn Creek, Elk Run Creek, Beaver Creek, Little Beaver Creek, and the other named tributaries — plus Elk Lake and Cold Spring at higher elevations. The area's hydrology is rated major, and the unsedimented headwaters are the substrate the fishery depends on.

Wildlife observation centers on the conifer-aspen canopy and the rocky outcrops around the summits. Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) caches limber pine seeds in the high stands and is the regeneration agent for that woodland. The granite exposures harbor greater short-horned lizard (Phrynosoma hernandesi), and gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer) holds the warmer sage and grass below. Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) works the airspace above Elk Lake. Plant photography is supported by Brandegee's Jacob's-ladder (Polemonium brandegeei) on the rocky exposures, fairy slipper (Calypso bulbosa) in the spruce-fir litter, mountain ball cactus (Pediocactus simpsonii) on dry slopes, and Front Range beardtongue (Penstemon virens) in open meadows.

The Campbell Creek Campground serves as a developed base near the area for visitors who do not want to disperse-camp. Within the area itself, dispersed backcountry camping is permitted; the trail system and the absence of designated interior campgrounds give the country its character. Every documented use of Buffalo Peak — the walk-in approach from the Twin Peaks Trailhead up onto the ridge of named summits, the hunting from the trails into the drainages, the fishing in the East Box Elder headwaters, the bird and plant observation in the limber pine and aspen — depends on the unroaded condition of the country between the Twin Peaks access and the spine of the Laramie Range summits.