Michael McCoy - Wyoming Off the Beaten Path®: Discover Your Fun

Paul W. Papa is an American storyteller who lived in Laramie, Wyoming, until, after shoveling himself out of one too many six-foot snowdrifts, he strapped a snow shovel onto the front of his vehicle and drove south until someone asked him what it was. He landed in Las Vegas, Nevada (where, by the way, it does not snow), and quickly developed a love for writing true stories about uncommon events. Having never forgotten his Wyoming roots, Paul continues to be fascinated by stories of the once Wild West. He now owns a business that concentrates on nonfiction, technical, and commercial writing. Paul is the author of several books, including It Happened in Wyoming , Discovering Vintage Las Vegas , Haunted Las Vegas , Best Bike Rides Las Vegas , Mountain Biking Las Vegas and Southern Nevada , and Boulder City: The Town that Built the Hoover Dam . When not at his keyboard, Paul can be found on the trails of Bootleg Canyon riding his mountain bike, hiking around Red Rock Canyon, or on the waters of the Colorado in his kayak.

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ISSN 1542-6262
ISBN 978-1-4930-4416-0 (paper : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4930-4417-7 (electronic)

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To wild, windy, wonderful Wyoming, like no place on Earth.

Although another team of authors wrote the original edition of Wyoming Off the Beaten Path, when the offer to update the book came my way, I jumped at the opportunity. Wyoming, you see, is in my blood.

I was raised in Iowa, where I always felt special because I was born in Wyoming. Among the wannabe cowpokes in my neighborhoodwhich included just about every boy under the age of 11saying you were from Wyoming was rather like saying Roy Rogers was your uncle. Dont ask me how or why, but for a while there, when I was three or four, I even believed I was the cowboy gracing the Wyoming license plate. Today, although my mailing address reads Idaho, the first thing I see every morning when looking out my east-facing windows is the Wyoming Tetons.

My time spent residing in Wyoming doesnt add up to mucha grand total of six or seven yearsbut Ive worked and/or lived in practically every corner of the state. I was born in Wheatland, I graduated from the university in Laramie, and I got married in Grand Teton National Park. Ive spent time as a National Park Ranger at Devils Tower, cooked shrimp and steaks at Grand Targhee Ski Resort, and worked archaeological projects out of Rock Springs, Worland, Rawlins, Casper, and other towns. Ive hiked, bicycled, and/or cross-country skied in Yellowstone, the Great Divide Basin, the Wind Rivers, the Tetons, the Absarokas, the Wyoming and Salt River Ranges, the Medicine Bows, the Laramie Range, the Big Horns, the Gros Ventres, the Black Hills, and lesser-known ranges like the Owl Creek and Green Mountains and the Rattlesnake Range. Ive played pool or horseshoes and drunk beer with cowboys in places youve heard of and others you probably havent, including lone-pony towns like Hyattville, Jeffrey City, Woods Landing, Hulett, Bondurant, Savery, and Manderson.

If Ive learned one thing about Wyoming during my ramblings, it is this: The old state-line greeting signs werent stretching the truth when they told you its LIKE NO PLACE ON EARTH . Thanks to the sparsity of vegetation covering much of the state, passersby actually have opportunities to study the earth instead of a bunch of grass and trees. Wyoming reveals more about its inner self than just about any state of the Union, which explains why in the Tetons, the Big Horns, the Wind River Canyon, and other locations youll see camps and buses teeming with geology students from colleges throughout the United States. And the long list of critters you can see afoot and on the wing in Yellowstone and other parts of Wyoming makes the state one of the great wildlife viewing areas of the world. Then theres the sky: endless and unfathomably blue. Even the mindset of Wyomings human residents is different. Difficult as it is to believe in this era of contracts, litigation, scams, and red tape, in Wyoming there really are folks who still seal business deals with a handshake. Those involved knowcorny as it may soundthat a promise from a fellow honest man or woman is worth more than a bunch of words on a piece of paper, any day.

Todays traveler can still capture a sense of the hardy individualism and its bipolar companion, spirit of community, which hand in hand built the West as we know it. In Wyoming you can ferret out and follow historic trails penetrating a countryside little changed in the last 150 years: the Oregon-Mormon, California, Bridger, Bozeman, Nez Perce, and Pony Express Trails, for starters. These pioneer Wyoming paths, some of which hosted tens of thousands of travelers in the 1800s, have largely reverted to unbeaten status, and by following them you will experience a wild sort of country visited by few pilgrims today.

Wyoming by its very nature is off the beaten path. Thats obvious. Therefore, many of the attractions featured in this guide are really off the beaten path. Be aware when traveling through broad-shouldered Wyoming that services are often few and far between. Prepare accordingly by always carrying plenty of food and water; by being equipped for minor emergencies, such as a flat tire, so that they dont become major problems; and by always topping off your gas tank before leaving a town for the wide-open spaces. Know, too, that the weather is unpredictable; it can be fierce in a dozen different ways and can change in less than a moments notice. In winter take along a sleeping bag for each person, a snow shovel, snacks, and water. And if you get stranded in the snow somewhere, stay with your car. The climate can be extremely pleasant, too, but take precautions even then: Because of the intense, high-elevation sunshine, you should always apply a high-SPF sunscreen to your exposed skin and wear a hat and sunglasses to protect your head and eyes.

The Wyoming Division of Tourism has done a logical job of dividing the state into six travel regions, three of which Ive borrowed for use in this book: Medicine BowFlaming Gorge Country (southern Wyoming), Devils Tower Buffalo Bill Country (northern Wyoming), and Oregon TrailRendezvous Country (central Wyoming). The other three Division of Tourism regionsJackson HoleJim Bridger Country, Grand Teton Country, and Yellowstone CountryIve combined into one region called BridgerYellowstone Country, which comprises most of western Wyoming.