Medicine Bow Peak, Mountain summit in the Snowy Range, Wyoming, United States

Medicine Bow Peak is the highest summit in the Snowy Range, a subrange of the Medicine Bow Mountains, about 35 miles west of Laramie, Wyoming. It rises 12,018 feet (3,663 m) as part of a Proterozoic quartzite ridge that juts above the range. The peak lies in extreme western Albany County, with lower slopes stretching into Carbon County, and several glacial lakes sit at its base.

The peak became the site of a United Airlines airplane crash in 1955 that killed all people aboard. A memorial was installed decades later to honor those lost in this tragedy.

The mountain lies in a region used by the Northern Arapahoe, Northern Cheyenne, Lakota, Ute and Eastern Shoshone, who inhabited the surrounding lowlands or travelled nearby canyons and passes. The name Medicine Bow comes from the bow-making wood gathered here, and the quartzite ridge is known in geology as the Medicine Peak Quartzite.

The usual route starts from Wyoming Highway 130 near Snowy Range Pass, a four-mile hike with switchbacks and much loose rock. Trails are generally open from early June to mid October; snow covers the mountain from October to late June, when snowshoes or skis are needed. Afternoon thunderstorms and hail are frequent in summer, so start early.

Geologists call the rock here Precambrian Medicine Peak Quartzite, and it lies unconformably on gneissic basement rock; samples have been examined for traces of Precambrian life, though the findings may be pseudofossils. Above the timberline, periglacial polygons known as stone nets cover the ground.