Welcome to Wyoming

Rugged, wild and breathtakingly wide-open, Wyoming is dominated by larger-than-life wilderness and picture-perfect landscapes. Straddling the Continental Divide, Wyoming is where the Rocky Mountains meet the Great Plains, offering visitors a divine mix of restless grassland, breathless desert and towering alpine peaks that will leave you speechless.

The town of Jackson in northwestern Wyoming is a popular spot to set up camp and go exploring. It serves as an unofficial gateway to both Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park, as well as the Jackson Hole valley region. The cowboy town of Cody, meanwhile, offers easy access to eastern Yellowstone.

Down in southeastern Wyoming, state capital Cheyenne enjoys a long Wild West legacy that is felt today. Highlights include the Wyoming State Museum, Cheyenne Depot Museum and the Historic Governor’s Mansion.

Adventure

Wide-open Wyoming is home to 12 state parks, five national forests, four national wildlife refuges and a pair of national recreation areas. But when it comes to outdoor adventure, it’s the state’s pair of national parks that steal most of the spotlight. Yellowstone and Grand Teton are among the finest national parks in the country, offering a mix of mesmerizing geography and an abundance of activities.

In Yellowstone, visitors can explore a lush landscape full of volcano-fueled gushing geysers and hot springs. The opportunities are endless. Hiking, boating, biking, horseback riding, fishing and cross-country skiing are all sought-after activities here. Start your exploring at one of the park’s many visitor centers before checking out hotspots like the Old Faithful Geyser, Mammoth Hot Springs, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Lamar Valley and the Upper Geyser Basin.

In Grand Teton National Park, start by cruising the 42-mile long Scenic Loop Drive, which shows off the park’s incredible scenery and wildlife. The park itself is home to more than 230 miles of marked hiking trails and lots of opportunities to fish, ride, boat, birdwatch or view wildlife.

Other must-visit destinations include the Devils Tower Monument, a massive, 870-foot tall stone monument immortalized in the Stephen Spielberg film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Intrepid visitors can also explore the western fringes of Black Hills National Forest near South Dakota.

Heritage

As one of the largest yet least populated states in the country, Wyoming still clings to its heritage as a scrappy frontier territory—where cowboys and gunslingers once reigned supreme. Towns like Cody and Cheyenne preserve the Old West flair, while the rocky mountains and rolling-grasslands appear just as they did centuries ago.

If you’re a Wild West buff or even just a history buff, you’ll find no shortage of spots to explore. In Cody, don’t miss a chance to walk through Old Trail Town—a fully reconstructed frontier-era township on the exact grounds of the original town of Cody. Cody is home to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the Cody Firearms Museum, the Dug Up Gun Museum and the Museum of the Plains Indian.

In Laramie and Rawlins, visit the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site and then the Wyoming Frontier Prison. In the town of Buffalo, you can see where the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang stayed at the Historic Occidental Hotel.