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With bears, bison, elk, wolves, moose, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep and bobcats, not to mention lots and lots of cattle, Wyoming is full of four-legged creatures that can make your visit a memorable one. That's a good thing, because the people of Wyoming, as nice as they are, can sometimes seem the most endangered species around: Fewer humans live in Wyoming than in any other state in the U.S. The pronghorn alone have them outnumbered.

The terrain the animals roam is an attraction in its own right: The state is blessed with two of the country's most spectacular national parks, Yellowstone and Grand Teton. Although they get crowded in summer, don't pass up a chance to see them.

With its spewing geysers, bubbling hot pots and colorful canyons, Yellowstone is still one of the most impressive pieces of wilderness in the U.S., and Grand Teton's scenery—wildflowers set against a backdrop of craggy purple peaks—is hard to beat.

Both parks are good places to get out of the car and take a hike. You can go for days on the backcountry trails and encounter only a few other hikers, if any. Even with Yellowstone's popularity, there is much undeveloped land in this vast state.

Geography

History

The area that became Wyoming was inhabited by several Native American groups before the arrival of Europeans. In fact, its name is derived from the Algonquin words for vast plains, and many of its towns are also named for Native American peoples and words.

The Shoshone, Arapaho, Cheyenne and Crow lived in the eastern portion of the area. They hunted bison, following the tremendous herds—now reduced to numbers in the low thousands—through their seasonal migrations, and lived in tepees. The Ute people inhabited Wyoming's western mountains, depending less on bison and more on the gathering of wild foods, the hunting of smaller game (antelope, rabbit, deer and elk) and fishing.

Historians believe the first European to see Wyoming was Francois Louis Verendrye, who arrived around 1743, but it wasn't until 1807 that John Colter, who had been a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, first explored the area that would become Yellowstone National Park. Fur trappers and traders followed, and by the 1840s, large numbers of westward-bound pioneers were trekking across Wyoming on their way to Utah, Oregon and California. This influx led to conflict with Native Americans.

In the late 1860s, the Union Pacific Railroad began stitching Wyoming to the rest of the country, and the population began to increase. By the 1880s, the Native Americans had been confined to the state's only reservation, which opened lands for the new settlers. Cattle ranchers began arriving in Wyoming (many of them having driven herds north from Texas), and they were later joined by sheep herders. Bitter and violent range wars ensued between the two groups, though cattle became the more vital business in the long run.

Wyoming joined the Union in 1890, becoming the 44th state. Soon after, the state's mineral resources attracted a new kind of pioneer. Today, natural gas, crude oil and coal-bed methane extraction, along with ranching, tourism and agriculture, power Wyoming's economy.

In 1995, wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park, and the issue still alights controversy in the West, particularly in the communities around Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. In 2011, wolves were “delisted” in Idaho and Montana, removing the species from the Federal Endangered Species List, and in 2017, Wyoming's wolves were delisted as well, following a several-year court battle between conservation groups and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Conservation groups continue to review their options.

The other heated issue in the region concerns snowmobiling in Yellowstone. Park managers tried to ban snowmobile use in 2000, but West Yellowstone and other gateway communities protested, arguing that banning snowmobiles would be economically devastating. In 2013, after 15 years of debate, both environmentalists and snowmobile operators agreed on a rule that allows a prescribed number of snowmobile events in Yellowstone daily, but only snowmobiles that pass stringent noise and air pollution tests. The rule also sets limits for the number of snow coaches that can run in the park.

Snapshot

Wyoming's main attractions include Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, spectacular mountain scenery, snow skiing, fishing, hunting, backpacking, white-water rafting, cowboys, photography, Devils Tower and Fossil Butte National Monuments, camping, horseback riding, mountain climbing, Native American history, Cheyenne, the culture and art of the Old West, and an abundance of wildlife.

Travelers who love rugged outdoor scenery and outdoor sports, and who enjoy a nontouristy atmosphere, will appreciate Wyoming. Fast-lane travelers may find Wyoming's decidedly nonurban pace (even in its biggest cities) too slow for their liking.

Potpourri

During the Yellowstone fires of 1988, firefighters dug 665 mi/1,070 km of fire line and dropped 10 million gallons of water to try to snuff the fires. Still, the fires burned until the first snow fell in mid-September. The charred remains are still visible today, but new growth is slowly taking over, adding yet another dimension to the ecology of the nation's first national park.

In 1941, a skydiver parachuted onto the top of Devils Tower—an impressive bit of aerial accuracy. The only problem was that he couldn't climb down the pinnacle, having lost the rope he planned to use for his descent. He was rescued by climbers after being stranded for six days at the top.

Infamous outlaw William Carlisle held up a train stopped at the Medicine Bow station in 1919. One of the last train robbers, the escaped convict eluded capture until November of that year, when he was apprehended in the Laramie Range.

If you're driving along Highway 30 northwest of Rock River, you'll see Como Bluff, one of the richest sites for dinosaur fossils in the world. Most of the fossils have long since been carted off to various centers of paleontological research, but you may want to stop to see the building that's constructed almost entirely of dinosaur bones (it was once a museum and gift shop).

You can tour the old gas chamber and gallows (no longer in use) at the Wyoming Frontier Prison in Rawlins. The prison housed men from 1901 to 1980, and it changed little in those years. Rawlins is also where the notorious hellion George "Big Nose" Parrot was dispatched by vigilantes—and believe us, you don't want to know what happened to him after they lynched him.

If prison tours are on the agenda, stop at Laramie's Territorial Prison. It operated from 1872 to 1903 and is one of few prisons that held the notorious Butch Cassidy for a time. The frontier village offers a glimpse of those Old West ways.

The notorious Teapot Dome, the source of a White House scandal in the 1920s, is located north of Casper. It's an underground oil reserve that was leased to the Mammoth Oil Company in exchange for a bribe paid to a member of former U.S. President Harding's administration.

At one time—and not for very long—Wyoming was part of the short-lived Republic of Texas.

The gang led by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was named for its Wyoming hideout, Hole-in-the-Wall. The cabin has since been relocated to Old Trail Town in Cody.

In 1869, before it had even become a state, Wyoming granted universal suffrage. In 1870, the first female judge was appointed in Wyoming. Jackson voters elected the first all-female town council in 1920, and the state elected the country's first woman governor, Nellie Taylor Ross, in 1924.

Almost half (48%) of Wyoming's land area is owned by the federal government, and 6% is controlled by the state. About 91% of Wyoming's 97,914 sq mi/253,596 sq km is considered rural.

In 1998, former Gov. Mike Sullivan was appointed ambassador of Ireland, and in 2001, Wyoming's Dick Cheney was inaugurated as vice president of the United States. He and his wife Lynne graduated from high school in Casper. The Cheneys own a home in Jackson Hole.