Loaf Mountain Overlook Observation Site Overview

<p>Loaf Mountain Overlook Observation Site sits along the Cloud Peak Skyway.&nbsp; Stop and&nbsp;read the interpretive signs and view the beautiful scenery.</p><p><strong>Forest Mosaic</strong></p><p>Timber management on the Bighorn National Forest is used to enhance and maintain recreation and wildlife resources, as well as to produce lumber and future healthy trees.&nbsp; Look at the mosaic of different timber management techniques and try to pick out the following:</p><p><u>Harvesting:</u>&nbsp; In other areas of the Forest, timber is cut for commercial use.&nbsp; Older trees that are frequently diseased are removed to make room for the growth of healthy young trees.&nbsp; Clearcutting is a harvesting method which produces an opening in the forest, like those directly below Loaf Mountain.</p><p>Clearcuts allow sunlight to reach the ground to produce a new crop of grasses, plants, and tree seedlings.&nbsp; In contrast, Shelterwood harvest removes only selected trees to enable the regeneration of the forest under the shade and protection of the existing trees.</p><p><u>Old Growth Forest:</u>&nbsp; These are groves of large, old trees that provide important habitat for some wildlife species.&nbsp; On some areas of the Forest, trees are allowed to mature and die with the forest regenerating itself under completely natural conditions.&nbsp; If you look toward Bighorn Peak, you can see some dark slopes of old growth forest.</p><p><strong>Loaf Mountain Overlook</strong></p><p>Since 1932 the area before you has been managed by the Forest Service as the Cloud Peak Primitive Area.&nbsp; In the Wyoming Wilderness Act of 1984, Congress established the cloud Peak Wilderness.</p><p>The mountain peaks before you are within the 189,039 acre Cloud Peak Wilderness.&nbsp; Those who venture into the wilderness by foot or on horseback find outstanding opportunities for solitude, where natural processes are preserved.</p><p>A Wilderness&hellip;&rdquo;is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who doesn&rsquo;t remain&rdquo;.&nbsp; The Wilderness Act of 1964</p>