It rises in the Snowy Range, flowing out of the North Gap Lake, in southeastern Carbon County. It flows north, past Elk Mountain, then northeast, then northwest past the town of Medicine Bow and between the Shirley Mountains to the north and the Medicine Bow Mountains to the south. Near the town of Medicine Bow the Medicine Bow River is joined by its two largest tributaries, Rock Creek and the Little Medicine Bow River. It joins the North Platte in the Seminoe Reservoir, with the lower 10 miles (16 km) of the river forming an arm of the reservoir.
^U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National MapArchived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, accessed March 21, 2011
