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.
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Two men were detained in Wyoming in connection with a fatal shooting at a downtown Salt Lake hotel that killed one man.
Carlos Chee, 23, and Chino Aguilar, 21, were both wanted for first-degree felony murder after the victim, identified as Christian Lee, 32, was found dead in a room at the Springhill Suites near 600 South and 300 West.
According to warrants issued for their arrest, Chee and Aguilar met with Lee and another woman at the hotel to sell marijuana. During the alleged drug deal, Aguilar allegedly shot and killed Lee after he tried to grab at his gun.
MORE | Shootings
Investigators said they found Lee dead in the room upon arrival, as well as a single shell casing on the floor and a small amount of marijuana on the television stand.
The woman told investigators she had met Chee on a dating app and that he agreed to come to the hotel to sell her marijuana. She had been hanging out with him in the room, which Lee rented for her to use, when Lee asked them to leave. Lee was then shot and killed following a brief confrontation.
Chee and Aguilar allegedly fled the scene in a 2013 Toyota Camry with a Texas license plate that was later found outside of Rock Springs, Wyoming just a few hours later.
The two men were taken into custody and detained at the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office.
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ROCK SPRINGS, Wyoming (KUTV) — A man was hospitalized with critical injuries after he was reportedly shot by a deputy responding to reports of a disturbance.
Deputies with the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office and officers with the Rock Springs Police Department responded to the Sweetwater Heights apartment complex in the 2100 block of Century Boulevard just after 4 a.m. on Monday to investigate reports of a disturbance involving an armed individual.
Information that dispatch received indicated that the individual had shot himself. When officials arrived, they found the individual on the balcony of an upstairs apartment “who appeared to have a gunshot wound consistent with the initial report,” a press release states.
MORE | Officer-Involved Shooting
During the encounter, a deputy discharged their weapon and struck the individual.
Emergency medical personnel rendered aid, and the individual was transported to an area hospital in critical condition.
No law enforcement officers or members of the public were injured during the incident.
The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation will conduct an independent investigation.
The deputy who fired their weapon was placed on administrative leave per standard protocol.
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by Maggie Mullen, WyoFile
Albert Sommers, former Wyoming Speaker of the House, announced Thursday he will attempt to reclaim a seat he formerly held for more than a decade in the statehouse.
“Leadership matters,” Sommers, a lifelong cattle rancher, wrote in a press release. “Right now, the Wyoming House is too often focused on division instead of solutions. We need steady, effective leadership that solves problems—not rhetoric and political theater.”
Voters in 2013 first elected Sommers to House District 20, which encompasses Sublette County and an eastern section of Lincoln County. As a lawmaker, Sommers largely focused on health care, education and water issues. Over six terms, he rose through the ranks, serving in leadership positions and chairing committees focused on education funding and broadband.
In his announcement, Sommers highlighted his legislative work to establish funding for rural hospitals, prioritize “responsible property tax relief,” as well as the creation of the Wyoming Colorado River Advisory Committee within the State Engineer’s Office, “to ensure our water users have a voice in critical decisions affecting the Green River Valley,” he wrote.
As speaker, Sommers was a frequent target of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus as well as the DC-based State Freedom Caucus Network, even getting the attention of Fox News and other national, conservative news outlets. They often accused Sommers of not being conservative enough, and criticized him for keeping bills in “the drawer,” which has long been code for the unilateral power a speaker has to kill legislation by holding it back. (The practice of holding bills has been used to a much higher degree under Freedom Caucus leadership.)
In 2023, Sommers used the speaker’s powers to kill bills related to a school voucher program, banning instruction on gender and sexual orientation from some classrooms and criminalizing gender-affirming care for minors. At the time, Sommers defended his decision to hold back “bills that are unconstitutional, not well vetted, duplicate bills or debates, and bills that negate local control, restrict the rights of people or risk costly litigation financed by the people of Wyoming.”
He reiterated that philosophy and defended his record in his Thursday campaign announcement.
“I am a common-sense conservative who believes in getting things done. I support our core industries—oil and gas, ranching, and tourism—and I will continue to fight for the people and natural resources of Sublette County and LaBarge. I am pro-gun, pro-life, pro-family, and pro-education,” Sommers wrote. “I also take seriously my oath to uphold the U.S. and Wyoming Constitutions, which means I didn’t support bills that violated those constitutions. I read bills carefully and I voted accordingly.”
Following his term as speaker, Sommers stepped away from the House to run for Senate District 14 in 2024. He lost in the primary election to political newcomer Laura Pearson, a Freedom Caucus-endorsed Republican from Kemmerer, who also won in the general election. Her Senate win coincided with the Freedom Caucus winning control of the House.
“That race didn’t go my way, and I respected the outcome,” Sommers said in a Thursday press release. But “the direction of the Wyoming House,” since then, he said, has “raised serious concerns.”
Sommers pointed to the Freedom Caucus and its budget proposal, which, despite a funding surplus, included major cuts and funding denials. Ahead of the session, the caucus said its sights were set on shrinking spending and limiting the growth of government.
In his Thursday press release, Sommers criticized “decisions that cut food assistance for vulnerable children, reduced business opportunities, slashed funding to the University of Wyoming, eliminated resources for cheatgrass control, denied raises for state employees, and removed positions critical to protecting Wyoming’s water rights.”
Most of those proposals did not make it into the final budget bill.
Sommers also pointed to a controversy that dominated the 2026 session after a Teton County conservative activist handed out campaign checks to lawmakers on the House floor. Lawmakers in both chambers unanimously voted to ban such behavior before a House Special Investigative Committee found that the exchange did not violate the Wyoming Constitution nor did it amount to legislative misconduct. A Laramie County Sheriff’s Office criminal investigation is still underway.
But “controversies like ‘Checkgate’ undermined public trust, and decorum in the House deteriorated,” Sommers said.
“Transparency and accessibility will remain central to how I serve,” Sommers said. “As I’ve done before, I will provide regular updates on legislation, seek your input, and clearly explain my votes.”
Incumbent bows out
Rep. Mike Schmid, R-La Barge, currently represents House District 20, but announced Thursday morning that he would not seek reelection.
“It has truly been an honor to serve as your State Representative for House District 20. When I first ran, I had hoped to serve up to three terms and continue building on what I learned during my first term,” Schmid wrote in a Facebook post. “But life can change your priorities. Over the past year, my family has gone through some difficult times. My wife is dealing with serious health issues, and the death of my brother, Jim, just a few short weeks ago have made it clear to me where I need to spend my time.”
In March, Bill Winney, a perennial candidate and former nuclear submarine commander, announced he would run for House District 20.
The official candidate filing period opens May 14.
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
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