If you like open spaces and small towns, you’ll love Wyoming. It’s the least-populous state in the country, and its largest city, currently the state capital, Cheyenne, has under 65,000 inhabitants. Scattered about the state, though, are tiny towns that still have Old West and local charm.
They’re fun to visit and stay in, especially when you make them bases for exploring the incredible scenery all about the state. Plus, they tend to be less expensive to stay in!
Dubois
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The main street through town has no stoplights, and lining it is an assortment of non-chain restaurants, motels, and stores. The surrounding area features rugged mountains and colorful towns, making Dubois an excellent gateway to outdoor recreation.
Lander
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About 75 miles southeast of Dubois is Lander. It’s a little bigger and busier, but it still has a fun small-town feel. Lander is close to Sinks Canyon State Park, where a river plunges into a gaping cavern and then reemerges a short distance downstream. Sinks Canyon is also a site for world-class rock climbing and is a major gateway to the southern Wind River Range, a paradise for hikers, backpackers, and mountain climbers.
Pinedale
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Dubois and Lander provide access to the Wind River Range, but Pinedale is the most important gateway town for “the Winds.” It’s where many people stock up before heading to the Green River Lakes, Elkhart Park, and Big Sandy entry points. The town has a young, fun feel with plenty of restaurants, brewpubs, and motels.
Tensleep
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Tiny Ten Sleep is bigger than it used to be, but it’s still one of the quietest places to use as a basis for exploring the Bighorn Mountains. Ten Sleep is at the western end of stunning Ten Sleep Canyon, known for its rock climbing and opening up to the high country of the Bighorns.
Buffalo
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If you drive from Ten Sleep through the eponymously named canyon and then over the mountains, you’ll arrive in Buffalo. It’s right off Interstate 25 and thus is a lot busier and has a lot of chain restaurants and motels, but it still has plenty of local, traditional flavor while being a lot less bustling than nearby Sheridan.
Alpine
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Alpine is southeast of Jackson along the Snake River almost at the Idaho border. It’s a great place to stay if you’re going to be doing some whitewater rafting on the Snake or if you’re going to explore the beautiful Greys River Road, a dirt road that winds between two mountain ranges for about 60 miles and provides access to great hiking, camping, and fishing.
Kemmerer
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Not known to a lot of people outside Wyoming, Kemmerer is perhaps best known as the main gateway to Fossil Butte National Monument. It’s also less than an hour from Interstate 80, so if you’re traveling along that busy thoroughfare and want a quieter place to spend the night, Kemmerer’s a good choice.
Cody
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Cody is almost always really busy because of its cultural and historical significance and the fact that it’s a major gateway for Yellowstone National Park. Although it does get packed and busy, it’s still a fun place to visit and to use as a base for all the outdoor recreation in the area.
Meeteetse
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If you blink while driving through, you might miss this tiny town. It’s about 30 minutes south of Cody, making it a great alternative to Cody if it’s too busy for you. The name comes from a Shoshone word for “near by,” and in 1981 wildlife biologists found the world’s last population of black-footed ferrets. The remaining ferrets, which numbered 130 at the time and were down to only 18, by 1985, were captured and protected. Enough were able to breed that the species was saved.
Thermopolis
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As the name hints, Thermopolis is the site of geothermal features. Hot Springs State Park has the world’s largest mineral hot springs, and the surrounding area is teeming with wildlife and beautiful scenery. Thermopolis is also the northern gateway to spectacular Wind River Canyon, a don’t-miss destination.
Centennial
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Centennial is about 30 miles west of Laramie and is also so small that if you close your eyes for a few minutes, you might miss it. It has an Old West feel to it, and just west of it, the road starts climbing more steeply into the mountains, where beautiful scenery and recreation await.
Saratoga
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Known mostly for Saratoga Hot Springs, this town is bigger and busier than Centennial, but it still isn’t big. It’s also popular with trying their luck in the North Platte River. If you can, combine Centennial and Saratoga on a trip. If you do, you’ll get to climb into and through the gorgeous Snowy Range, where alpine wildflowers bloom among the tundra in the summer and mountain lakes glisten like jewels.
The 30 Most Beautiful Places in the World That Everyone Must See
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There’s no way you could ever come up with a definitive list of the world’s most beautiful places. However, if you ask around, some places come up a lot more frequently than others do.
The following are some of the places that people mention over and over again, not in any particular order.
30 Breathtaking Places You Must See Before You Die
The Two Best Scenic Wonders in Each of the Mountain States
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The Mountain States– Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico– have some of the wildest and most rugged landscapes in the United States. Because they’re so big, it can take a lot of time to visit them, so it helps to be able to plan for some specific destinations.
Following are our choices for the top two must-see outdoor locations in each of these seven states.
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