Labonte Canyon

The Labonte Canyon Inventoried Roadless Area covers 16,281 acres of mountainous, montane terrain on the eastern flank of the Laramie Mountains within the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, spanning Albany and Converse Counties. The land rises in a sequence of ridges and incised drainages — La Bonte Canyon itself, Big Bear Canyon, Little Bear Canyon, Deer Canyon, Curtis Gulch, and Prospect Gulch — separated by Burnt Mountain and the North, Middle, and South Sawtooth Mountain ridgeline. Cold water drains east toward the North Platte: the area holds the Upper La Bonte Creek headwaters and feeds Porcupine Creek, South Park Creek, South Fork La Bonte Creek, Softwater Creek, French Joe Creek, and Little Bear Creek, with Dunn Reservoir Number 1 holding water at the lower edge. The shaded canyon bottoms and granite cliffs of the Sawtooth ridges define both the hydrology and the wildlife pattern.

Forest composition turns on aspect and elevation. South-facing slopes and the lower benches carry Southern Rockies Ponderosa Pine Woodland and Ponderosa Pine Savanna, with Rocky Mountains ponderosa pine (Pinus scopulorum) standing in open stands over bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata), prairie junegrass (Koeleria macrantha), big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), and Wyoming Indian-paintbrush (Castilleja linariifolia). North-facing slopes hold Rocky Mountain Lodgepole Pine Forest and Southern Rockies Mixed Conifer Forest with subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) on the higher shoulders; Rocky Mountain Foothill Limber Pine-Juniper Woodland follows the rocky outcrops, with Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) and ground juniper (Juniperus communis). Rocky Mountain Aspen Forest occupies moist drainage benches in patches of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) with creeping Oregon-grape (Berberis repens) and sticky geranium (Geranium viscosissimum) below. Rocky Mountain Foothill Streamside Woodland runs the canyon bottoms with red-osier dogwood (Cornus sericea) and mountain maple (Acer glabrum), while Rocky Mountain Woodsia (Woodsia scopulina) and northern spleenwort (Asplenium septentrionale) hold the wet cliffs.

Wildlife reflects this stack of habitats. The ponderosa-savanna mosaic supports red-naped sapsucker (Sphyrapicus nuchalis), broad-tailed hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus) working the paintbrush and penstemon, and Virginia's warbler (Leiothlypis virginiae) — a species largely confined to oak-shrub and mountain-mahogany understory of the southern Rockies foothills. The aspen and mixed-conifer canyons hold tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor), spotted and striped coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata, C. striata) under the closed canopy, and least chipmunk (Neotamias minimus) and North American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) feeding on conifer seeds. The high subalpine ridges support Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana), which caches pine seeds across the parkland. Smooth greensnake (Opheodrys vernalis) is found in the moist meadow edges. Cold-water reaches of Upper La Bonte Creek and its tributaries provide stream habitat structurally similar to that used by Preble's meadow jumping mouse (Zapus hudsonius preblei) and other riparian species. Portions of this area fall within the potential range of several federally listed species; see the Conservation section for details.

A hiker descending into La Bonte Canyon moves through layered transitions: from open ponderosa savanna on the rim with its scattered Indian-paintbrush, through aspen stands shading into closed lodgepole, then onto the streamside dogwood and mountain maple of the canyon bottom under granite walls of the Sawtooth ridges. The cliffs throw morning shadow on the west side of the canyon; afternoon sun warms the east. Water sounds carry. Hummingbirds work the canyon meadows.

Labonte Canyon lies on the eastern flank of the Laramie Mountains in Albany and Converse Counties, Wyoming, in country that the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Lakota, Crow, and Shoshone used long before any boundary line was drawn across it. "For generations, Shoshone, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Ute, Lakota and Crow people gathered plants, visited family and tracked game along watercourses and over mountain passes in the seasonal subsistence patterns of their lives," and "the Cheyenne hunted along the Laramie Mountains, the North Platte River to the east, and north around the Powder and Bighorn" country [1][2]. The Medicine Bow name itself, attached to landmarks across the surrounding ranges, refers to Indigenous use of the mountains: "Long before the Oregon Trail was blazed through Wyoming, 'Medicine Bow' was the scene of the red man's annual bow-making festival" at sites where braves "came together to cut mountain mahogany … highly prized throughout the region for bowwood" [3].

European-era land use in the upper La Bonte Creek country, like the rest of the Medicine Bow timber belt, turned on the railroad. After the Union Pacific drove the transcontinental line across southern Wyoming in 1868, the lodgepole pine forests of the Laramie Mountains and the Medicine Bow Range became the principal source of crossties: "The rails of the Union Pacific which led to the point where the golden spike marked the final link in our first transcontinental railroad were underlaid with Medicine Bow railroad ties, and to-day, for miles each way from Laramie, the forest headquarters, the tracks are laid on Medicine Bow ties" [3]. Tie hacks worked the timber with broadaxes — "woods workers skilled in the use of the broadax can hew 'faces' which for smoothness might have been planed … turning out regularly 25 to 30 ties a day" — and the hewn ties moved to a treating plant at Laramie that supplied the Union Pacific and the regional mines [3]. Grazing of cattle and sheep filled in the meadows and parklands as soon as fencing and railroad shipping made the country accessible.

Federal protection came in two stages. On May 22, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt established the Medicine Bow Forest Reserve, with an original boundary of "about two million acres" stretching from southern Wyoming into Colorado near Estes Park; Lewis G. Davis served as the first forest supervisor from 1903 to 1907 [4][5]. The reserve was repeatedly redrawn — divided in 1908 into the Medicine Bow National Forest (Colorado portion) and the Cheyenne National Forest (Wyoming portion), and renamed again in 1910 so that the Wyoming Cheyenne National Forest became the Medicine Bow National Forest [4]. Crucially for the La Bonte country, "the Laramie Peak unit of the Medicine Bow National Forest was added in 1935," bringing the upper La Bonte Creek headwaters under Forest Service administration alongside the older Medicine Bow units [4]. In 1987 the Laramie Peak area and the Thunder Basin National Grassland were combined into the Douglas Ranger District [5]. The 16,281-acre Labonte Canyon Inventoried Roadless Area, today administered by that district under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, sits within the 1935 addition that brought the Laramie Mountains into the forest system.

Vital Resources Protected

• Cold Headwater Stream Integrity: The Labonte Canyon Roadless Area holds the Upper La Bonte Creek headwaters and feeds Porcupine Creek, South Park Creek, South Fork La Bonte Creek, Softwater Creek, French Joe Creek, and Little Bear Creek. Without a road network to deliver fine sediment from cut slopes, these montane streams maintain the cold, clear flow and stable channel structure that downstream Preble's meadow jumping mouse habitat and Platte-system aquatic communities depend on, and that supports the riparian Rocky Mountain Foothill Streamside Woodland of red-osier dogwood and mountain maple.
• Interior Ponderosa Pine and Mixed Conifer Habitat: Roughly two-thirds of the area is Southern Rockies Ponderosa Pine Woodland, with another sixth in Southern Rockies Mixed Conifer Forest. The roadless condition preserves an unbroken canopy across Burnt Mountain and the Sawtooth ridges, sustaining interior-forest birds such as Virginia's warbler, the granitic-cliff fern community (Rocky Mountain Woodsia, northern spleenwort), and the natural low-intensity fire regime that pre-settlement ponderosa pine stands evolved under.
• Canyon Refugia and Aspen-Conifer Connectivity: Deep, north-aspect drainages — La Bonte Canyon, Big Bear Canyon, Little Bear Canyon, Deer Canyon — hold Rocky Mountain Aspen Forest, Rocky Mountain Foothill Streamside Woodland, and Rocky Mountain Subalpine Streamside Woodland in a continuous moisture gradient from canyon bottom to ridgeline. These shaded corridors provide microclimate refugia for species pressed upslope by warming foothills, and the unfragmented connection between aspen patches, mixed conifer, and riparian zones lets pollinators, songbirds, and ungulates move with the season.

Potential Effects of Road Construction

• Sedimentation of La Bonte Creek and Tributaries: Cut-and-fill construction on the steep granite-soil slopes feeding Porcupine, South Park, Softwater, and French Joe Creeks would deliver chronic fine sediment to the channels with every snowmelt and convective storm. Sediment fills the interstitial spaces of stream-bottom gravels, suppresses aquatic insect production, and degrades the riparian conditions that Preble's meadow jumping mouse and Ute ladies'-tresses depend on downstream. Once embedded in the system, this fine sediment continues to move through the channel for decades after construction ends.
• Fragmentation of Ponderosa Pine Canopy and Altered Fire Regime: A road corridor through the dominant Southern Rockies Ponderosa Pine Woodland would slice the closed-canopy stands into smaller patches with sun- and wind-exposed edges. Edge effects shift microclimate inward, accelerate windthrow, and combine with a century of fire suppression to push these stands further from their pre-settlement open-canopy structure. The new road also provides ignition points for wildfires that the altered, higher-density fuel structure cannot tolerate.
• Invasive Species Introduction and Sensitive-Habitat Loss: Disturbed roadside soils and vehicle tires would carry cheatgrass and other non-native annuals into the Intermountain Mountain Sagebrush Steppe, Great Basin Big Sagebrush Steppe, and Rocky Mountain Foothill Shrubland, converting native bunchgrass communities such as bluebunch wheatgrass and prairie junegrass to fire-prone monocultures. The same corridor would extend disturbance into Rocky Mountain Aspen Forest stands and into the granite-cliff fern community, both of which are functionally irreversible to restore at planning timescales once altered.

The Labonte Canyon Inventoried Roadless Area covers 16,281 acres of the eastern Laramie Mountains in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, with primary access at the Curtis Gulch and Big Bear trailheads on the Douglas Ranger District. Six maintained native-surface trails — totaling about 18 miles — provide the trail framework: the Labonte Canyon Trail (624) runs 4.3 miles along the canyon bottom; the Devils Pass Trail (610) covers 4.4 miles; the Big Bear Canyon Trail (657) follows the canyon for 3.9 miles; the Sawtooth Mountain Trail (615) climbs 3.1 miles with a 0.5-mile spur (615.A); and the Curtis Gulch Trail (639) is signed for horse use over 2.1 miles. Curtis Gulch Campground sits at the principal trailhead and serves as the staging point for multi-day trips into the canyon system.

Hiking and backcountry travel center on the canyon-bottom routes. The Labonte Canyon Trail follows Upper La Bonte Creek through Rocky Mountain Foothill Streamside Woodland of red-osier dogwood and mountain maple, under granite walls rising into North, Middle, and South Sawtooth Mountain. The Sawtooth Mountain Trail climbs from the canyon onto the ridgeline through Southern Rockies Ponderosa Pine Woodland and Mixed Conifer Forest. Devils Pass and Big Bear Canyon link the drainages and reach the limber pine-juniper outcrops on the higher exposures. Dispersed camping is the standard pattern away from Curtis Gulch; horse use is supported on the Curtis Gulch Trail and accommodated on the broader trail network.

Fishing focuses on Upper La Bonte Creek and its tributaries — Porcupine Creek, South Park Creek, South Fork La Bonte Creek, Softwater Creek, French Joe Creek, and Little Bear Creek. The cold montane reaches in the canyon bottoms support trout fisheries managed under Wyoming Game and Fish regulations. Dunn Reservoir Number 1 at the lower edge of the area provides a small still-water option.

Hunting is a major fall use. The mix of ponderosa pine savanna, mixed conifer canyon, and aspen patches supports mule deer, elk, and black bear, and the open ridges of Burnt Mountain and the Sawtooth Mountains hold pronghorn in adjacent country. Hunters typically pack in from Curtis Gulch or Big Bear for multi-day trips. State regulations and Medicine Bow-Routt forest orders apply, including the standing Laramie Peak area temporary use prohibitions.

Birding takes the foothill-to-montane gradient. Virginia's warbler (Leiothlypis virginiae) occupies the shrub-and-mahogany understory of the foothill canyons. Red-naped sapsucker (Sphyrapicus nuchalis) and tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) work the aspen stands. Broad-tailed hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus) feeds at meadow penstemons and paintbrush in the canyon openings, and Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) caches pine seeds across the high ridges. Smooth greensnake (Opheodrys vernalis) is found in moist meadow edges along the canyon bottoms. Wildlife photographers work the cliff-and-canyon views from the Sawtooth Mountain trail and the streamside cover on the Labonte Canyon Trail.

Every one of these uses — quiet canyon-bottom hiking, multi-day horse pack trips, cold-water trout fishing in undisturbed headwater streams, fall pack-in hunting through ponderosa parkland, songbird and woodpecker surveys in unfragmented mixed conifer — depends directly on the absence of roads through the interior. The current trail network places visitors deep into the canyons within a few miles of the trailhead, but only because the surrounding country is roadless. Road construction would replace canyon-bottom hiking and horse travel with motorized day use and shorten every one of those experiences accordingly.