Wyoming
Go somewhere new this summer with these hidden Wyoming gems – WyoFile
Most Wyomingites have soaked in the Thermopolis hot springs and have likely camped, fished or biked at Glendo State Park.
But how many of us have visited Names Hill Historic Site near LaBarge or stopped to look at the Ames Monument at the highest point on the original transcontinental railroad route?
Chances are, not many of us. In fact, most of us likely visit the same places year after year, returning to our favorite campsites at our favorite state parks, national forests or reservoirs.
But just as the national park system offers far more than Yellowstone and Yosemite, Wyoming’s state parks supply some pretty remarkable hidden gems, including 12 parks and more than 20 historic sites. Each is steeped in history and adventure, culture and beauty. And as the national parks face a summer with diminished capacity in the face of federal workforce cuts, consider spending these hot months visiting Wyoming’s overlooked sites.
To help you on your journey, WyoFile talked with Wyoming State Parks and Historic Sites Director Dave Glenn about his top five overlooked state gems.
Seminoe State Park: Solitude with a side of fishing
“It takes quite a bit of work to get there,” says Glenn about Seminoe State Park. “Which means you can always get a site.”
He’s not exaggerating. Nestled against the Seminoe Mountains, the park sits about 35 miles north of Sinclair off Interstate 80 in southern Wyoming.
The park boasts a reservoir full of trout and walleye with nearby sand dunes perfect for exploring. It also provides easy access to the Miracle Mile section of the North Platte River for anyone interested in floating or wade fishing.
But for Glenn, solitude is the real draw.
“There just aren’t a lot of people there,” he says. “You can wander around the nearby wilderness study area or watch bighorn sheep.”
Bring binoculars for a chance to see hawks and eagles along with migratory birds, ducks, pelicans and geese. Go for the day or stay the night. You likely won’t need a reservation.
Medicine Lodge Archeological Site: Thousands of years of history
Tucked into the Bighorn Mountains in north-central Wyoming rests an archeological site with 10,000 years of stories. And learning about those stories became easier with the site’s new interpretive center, Glenn says.
“It’s really one of a kind,” he says. “You walk from season to season and through time, including interviews with tribal members.”
The Medicine Lodge Archeological Site includes a 750-foot-long sandstone cliff with hundreds of petroglyphs and pictographs.
The area also offers a campground in iconic red rock country, a cottonwood river bottom and a creek running through. Fish from your campsite or bring your horses and leave them in the corrals when you’re not riding.
“It’s a great mix of outdoor recreation with past human history.”
Piedmont Charcoal Kilns: Perfectly preserved heritage
Glenn will take just about any excuse to veer off Interstate 80 while traveling across the bottom of the state. And in the southwest corner, that reason is the Piedmont Charcoal Kilns.
The 30-foot-tall cones look like beehives rising from the prairie. They were built in 1869, and used wood gathered in the Uinta Mountains to produce charcoal shipped to Utah. While charcoal kilns exist in other areas, the Piedmont site is one of the country’s most intact and preserved.
“For years, I’d driven by and never stopped to see them,” Glenn says. Once he did, he realized they were more than worth the stop, available to the public to view, explore and learn more about for free.
Wyoming Territorial Prison: See where Butch Cassidy did time
On Laramie’s western edge sits one of the state’s oldest buildings: The Wyoming Territorial Prison. You won’t miss it if you drive by. “It looks like an old prison,” Glenn says.
While the architecture is impressive, as are the surrounding old West buildings — including a church, a mercantile and cabins — the real intrigue rests inside.
Cells fill the inside of the prison, including ones you can walk into and imagine what life was like in a territorial prison. Large plaques hang on the walls featuring headshots of inmates with their backstories, including tales of murder and mayhem, shootouts and cattle rustling.
The prison also contains a small museum dedicated to Butch Cassidy’s story including artifacts from his life.
“It’s a powerful piece of Wyoming history,” Glenn says.
Oregon Trail Ruts: Retrace a journey
Imagine what pioneers must have felt as they traveled through Wyoming’s harsh, high desert landscape on their way west. They hit blizzards and thunderstorms, crossed raging rivers and tangled with rattlesnakes and bears.
And in eastern Wyoming, right outside Guernsey State Park, you can see where those wagons coursed across the landscape. Ruts sometimes up to five feet deep cut through soft sandstone, visible a short walk from the site’s parking lot.
“You look at that sandstone, and go ‘holy cow, how many horses and wagons had to go over this to create grooves that deep?’” says Glenn.
The site has a picnic shelter and restroom. Anyone interested in camping in the area can head over to Guernsey State Park.
The expansion would open the spigot for 550,000 barrels per day of crude, the company says. Although the crude would mostly pass through eastern Wyoming, the venture opens opportunities for Wyoming oil producers in the region for more transportation access to U.S. refineries and shipping ports, according to Bridger and local industry officials.“It would be the biggest project in our history, if it comes to fruition,” Bridger Pipeline spokesperson Bill Salvin told WyoFile on Friday. “We are, however, in the really early stages of the project. But we’re very excited about it.”Industry trade groups speculate the Bridger Pipeline Expansion is part of a competitive scramble to fill a gap left by TC Energy’s Keystone XL project. That company, in 2021, abandoned the controversial project in the face of major opposition and protests. It would have transported Canadian tar-sands oil into the U.S. market via a route extending through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. Among many challenges for Keystone XL was acquiring new rights-of-way easements. Though the Bridger Pipeline Expansion proposal requires some new rights-of-way, that’s not the case for the 210-mile Wyoming segment, according to Salvin.“All of that distance is within, or parallel to, existing pipeline corridors,” Salvin said.
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The Wyoming segment would pass through Crook, Weston, Niobrara, Goshen and Platte counties.Bridger Pipeline, a subsidiary of Casper-based True Companies, submitted a notice of intent to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality in January and noted it will formally initiate environmental applications to the agency. Salvin told WyoFile he’s uncertain about the full spectrum of regulatory requirements in Wyoming.However, the company regards the Cowboy State as a great fit for the project, he said. “This [project proposal] just highlights how important the region is and how Wyoming is a very good place for energy projects like this.”Reached for comment, the Petroleum Association of Wyoming said the proposed pipeline only stands to benefit Wyoming producers and the state.“Investments like these, along with continued growth in areas like the Powder River Basin, show Wyoming will continue to play an important role in the nation’s energy markets,” PAW Vice President and Director of Communications Ryan McConnaughey told WyoFile. “Connecting in Guernsey allows product to be transported to refining hubs like Cushing, Oklahoma.” WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
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LARAMIE — Nasir Meyer converted a three-point play with 35 seconds remaining to give Wyoming Cowboys men’s basketball the lead for good, and Wyoming held Air Force Falcons men’s basketball scoreless over the final two minutes to secure a 66-62 victory Saturday night.
The win marked the 13th home victory of the season for Wyoming, which improved to 16-13 overall and 7-11 in conference play.
“Air Force deserves all the credit and let’s talk about a team that has every reason not to fight, but thats why they are Air Force and the cadets and I have a lot of respect for them,” Wyoming coach Sundance Wicks said. “They were not going to quit, and I didn’t drive that message home enough and hats off to Air Force because they deserved to win. We snuck away with a win. Adam Harakow showed when we need him and he was massive for us. Simm-Marten was made big plays and Naz was clutch for us late.”
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Wyoming shot 35% from the field and went 7 of 28 from 3-point range, making just two from beyond the arc in the second half. Air Force shot 49% overall and 44% from 3, hitting eight shots from long distance. The Cowboys made 13 of 16 free throws (81%) and scored 22 points off 15 Air Force turnovers while holding a 39-36 edge in rebounding.
Damarion Dennis led Wyoming with 16 points and three assists, going 7 of 8 from the free-throw line. Meyer finished with 14 points and tied a career best with eight rebounds. Adam Harakow added 14 points off the bench on 5-of-6 shooting, his first double-figure scoring game since the first meeting with Air Force. Simm-Marten Saadi had nine points in 13 minutes, and Kiani Saxon grabbed seven rebounds.
Air Force opened with back-to-back 3-pointers to take a 6-0 lead. Meyer scored Wyoming’s first basket, and Leland Walker added a 3-pointer to make it 8-5 with 16 minutes left in the first half.
Wyoming responded with a 9-0 run over nearly four minutes, with Saadi and Harakow each connecting from beyond the arc to give the Cowboys an 11-8 lead with under 14 minutes remaining. Air Force regained a 12-11 advantage as Wyoming went scoreless for more than two minutes.
Harakow’s second 3-pointer pushed the lead to 22-16 with nine minutes left in the half, and Wyoming used a 6-0 run while holding the Falcons without a field goal for more than four minutes to build a 28-18 lead with six minutes remaining. The Cowboys closed the half on a defensive stand, keeping Air Force scoreless for the final two minutes to take a 35-25 lead into the break. Wyoming scored 15 first-half points off turnovers.
The teams traded 3-pointers early in the second half, and Air Force cut the deficit to 40-31 with under 17 minutes left before trimming it to seven 90 seconds later. Walker answered with a 3-pointer to make it 43-33 with 15 minutes to go.
Air Force used a 9-0 run during a stretch in which Wyoming went more than 3 1/2 minutes without a point to pull within one with nine minutes left. The Falcons later tied the game at 51-51 with 5:30 remaining after forcing six straight missed shots.
A pair of free throws by Meyer and a basket from Saadi gave Wyoming a 57-53 lead with under four minutes to play. Air Force answered with three consecutive 3-pointers from Kam Sanders to take a 62-59 lead with two minutes left.
Meyer scored with 90 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to one. On the next trip, he converted an and-one to give Wyoming a 64-62 lead with 35 seconds left. The Cowboys added late free throws to close out the 66-62 win.
Sanders led Air Force with 16 points and nine rebounds, going 4 of 5 from 3-point range. Eli Robinson added 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
Wyoming closes its home schedule Tuesday against Nevada Wolf Pack men’s basketball at 8 p.m. as part of a doubleheader with the Cowgirls.
The 2-time defending champ Tongue River girls, along with both teams from Big Horn will represent Sheridan County in the small school version of March Madness.
Click here to see results from the regional tournaments.
2A Boys:
First Round:
Thursday, March 5th: (All games played at Casper College)
(#2E) Big Horn vs. (#3W) Shoshoni – Noon
(#1W) Thermopolis vs. (#4E) Sundance – 1:30pm
(#2W) Wyoming Indian vs. (#3E) Wright – 6:30pm
(#1E) Pine Bluffs vs. (#4W) Rocky Mountain – 8pm
Friday, March 6th: (All games played at Ford Wyoming Center)
Consolation Round:
Big Horn/Shoshoni loser vs. Thermopolis/Sundance loser – Noon LOSER OUT!
Wyoming Indian/Wright loser vs. Pine Bluffs/Rocky Mountain loser – 1:30pm LOSER OUT!
Semi-Finals:
Big Horn/Shoshoni winner vs. Thermopolis/Sundance winner – 6:30pm
Wyoming Indian/Wright winner vs. Pine Bluffs/Rocky Mountain winner – 8pm
Saturday, March 7th:
Friday Noon winner vs. Friday 1:30pm – Noon at Ford Wyoming Center Consolation Championship
Friday 6:30pm loser vs. Friday 8pm loser – 3pm at Natrona County High School 3rd Place
Friday 6:30pm winner vs. Friday 8pm winner – 7pm at Ford Wyoming Center Championship
2A Girls:
First Round:
Thursday, March 5th: (All games played at Casper College)
(#2W) Wyoming Indian vs. (#3E) Big Horn – 9am
(#1E) Sundance vs. (#4W) Shoshoni – 10:30am
(#2E) Tongue River vs. (#3W) Greybull – 3:30pm
(#1W) Thermopolis vs. (#4E) Pine Bluffs – 5pm
Friday, March 6th: (All games played at Ford Wyoming Center)
Consolation Round:
Wyoming Indian/Big Horn loser vs. Sundance/Shoshoni loser – 9am LOSER OUT!
Tongue River/Greybull loser vs. Thermopolis/Pine Bluffs loser – 10:30am LOSER OUT!
Semi-Finals:
Wyoming Indian/Big Horn winner vs. Sundance/Shoshoni winner – 3:30pm
Tongue River/Greybull loser vs. Thermopolis/Pine Bluffs loser – 5pm
Saturday, March 7th:
Friday 9am winner vs. Friday 10:30am winner – 9am at Ford Wyoming Center Consolation Championship
Friday 3:30pm loser vs. Friday 5pm loser – 10:30am at Ford Wyoming Center 3rd Place
Friday 3:30pm winner vs. Friday 5pm winner – 5:30pm at Ford Wyoming Center Championship
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