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.
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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.
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A summer visitor boating at Seminoe State Park. (courtesy Wyoming State Parks & Cultural Resources)
“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
A cliff face with petroglyphs at Medicine Lodge State Archaeological Site. (courtesy Wyoming State Parks & Cultural Resources)
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.
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“It’s a great mix of outdoor recreation with past human history.”
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.
A view of the 30-foot kilns comprised of limestone and sandstone at the Piedmont Charcoal Kilns State Historic Site. (courtesy Wyoming State Parks & Cultural Resources)
“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.
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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.
Exterior view of the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site. (courtesy Wyoming State Parks & Cultural Resources)
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.
Impressions left by countless wagon wheels in the soft sandstone at the Oregon Trail Ruts State Historic Site. (courtesy Wyoming State Parks & Cultural Resources)
“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.
This month, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, is a fitting time for reflection. Our focus turns toward family and community, and the changing weather causes us to slow down. It is a good time to take stock of the society around us. The Thanksgiving holiday naturally turns our minds to what we are grateful for — what already exists that we cherish. Christmas is a holiday of hope, focused on the promise of what is yet to come. With these holidays in mind, let us reflect on what parts of our state we are thankful for and hopeful about.
Perhaps the thing Wyomingites hold most dear is our heritage. Culturally, we are descended from pioneers and settlers — or from those who came before — and we take that frontier heritage to heart. We value independence, community and overcoming challenges. We are willing to endure hardship to build a life that we want, and we are closely attuned to the natural world and the benefits that it provides. Above all else, we know that our perch in this place is still precarious. These are perspectives that are hard to find elsewhere. They set us apart. By embracing these values, we create a society that fits our circumstances. These ideas would not fit in other places, but they fit here, and for that I am grateful.
I am also thankful for the good stewardship of our forefathers. Wyoming is a harsh place and it’s challenging to thrive here. Most of our land is arid and inhospitable, our physical conditions are difficult, and we are remote from most modern conveniences and luxuries. With poor planning or shortsighted leadership, this place could easily fall into decline.
Fortunately, we have been blessed with the opposite. The state’s early settlers understood the importance of building the infrastructure that would allow for growth. When it became clear that natural resources would power our economy, our leaders decided to set aside large portions of the state’s mineral revenue to support us in perpetuity. The easy decision — the short-sighted decision — would have been to spend those dollars on the needs of the day. They certainly could have built some nice things, and those projects would have been popular. They also would have been fleeting. Because of wise leadership and decisions that focused on the long-term, we all benefit from our state’s bounty.
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Just as we are grateful for the good decisions of the past, we should be hopeful for the future. Despite our state’s challenges, there are many good reasons to have hope. First, our state is full of opportunity. We have space, natural resources, and the ability to be nimble when it comes to building regulatory structures that can support new industries. Our people are hard-working and determined. We have existing expertise in manufacturing and mining that is missing in many other parts of the country. Our climate and location give Wyoming an advantage in attracting computing facilities to locate here. If we take advantage of the opportunities in front of us, Wyoming is poised to thrive, and that gives me hope.
I am also hopeful because there appears to be a growing consensus on the issues we face, which allows us to better meet these challenges. In surveys and conversations about Wyoming’s future, the challenges of economic diversification and talent retention quickly rise to the top. We recognize where our weaknesses are, which is a significant part of the battle. Once we agree on the problem, we can work to find solutions.
Finding a fix is often an easier undertaking than identifying the problem itself. Already, drilling into these challenges has helped us recognize the underlying problems connected to affordable housing, livable spaces, health care access and education. Understanding how these fit together and how improvements in one area can lead to improvements in others puts us on a much more manageable path. It will still not be easy to overcome our hurdles, but the fact that we must wrestle with difficult problems is not unusual or unique. We have answered big questions before. Now that we have a growing consensus on what those problems are, I am far more hopeful about our ability to move forward.
In this holiday season, we should take the time to contemplate the world around us. Self-reflection is important. We should look both behind us and ahead of us, toward the past and gratitude and the future and hope. Our state gives us plenty to consider on both accounts.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The Wyoming Department of Transportation has reported that the ongoing high wind speeds throughout the state have caused 39 vehicles to crash on Wyoming highways so far this week, primarily between Dec. 9 and Dec. 11.
According to a report from WYDOT, most of the crashes occurred on Interstate 80 near Cooper Cove west of Laramie, on I-25 on Wyo Hill south of Cheyenne and along I-25 near Wheatland at Bordeaux. Many blown-over vehicles were underweight, and some trailers were even empty.
WYDOT updates the minimum weights listed on overhead digital messaging signs based on real-time wind speeds. Drivers are encouraged to check weight-based wind closure information often to ensure travel is permitted.
It’s not just commercial vehicles that are at risk, either; the department reports that campers, toy-haulers and other large trailers are also susceptible to blowing over in strong winds.
June skiing and pond-skimming at Arapahoe Basin in Colorado
Skiers and snowboarders soak in the sun and attempt to make it across a pond on a June day at Arapahoe Basin in Colorado
Snowy Range ski area is scheduled to open for the season on Dec. 12.
Daily lift ticket prices range from $40 for children to $69 for adults.
Snowy Range, one of the closest ski areas to Fort Collins, is scheduled to open for the season Dec. 12 and remain open through April 12, 2026.
The ski area had a snow depth of about 30 inches on Dec. 9, spokesperson Kate Lessman told the Coloradoan in an email.
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Daily lift tickets range in price from $59-$69 purchased onsite for adults, $52-$62 for teenagers ages 13-17 and $40-$50 for children ages 5-12. Children age 4 and younger and senior citizens age 70 and older can ski for free. Tickets purchased in advance online are discounted $5.
More: Complete Colorado ski resort guide
Snowy Range Ski and Recreation Area is located about 100 miles northwest of Fort Collins and 36 miles west of Laramie, Wyoming.
For additional information, visit the ski area’s website.
Coloradoan reporter Kelly Lyell can be reached at KellyLyell@coloradoan.com. Follow him on x.com/KellyLyell, threads.net/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.
