Best 5 places in Wyoming you must visit

Wyoming is a western US state. It is a truly wild west and famous for adventure. Plenty of open space and wildlife. Based on my experience while I was attending graduate school in Laramie, I suggest 10 places in Wyoming you should not miss to visit. I will miss these places.

Wind River area Wyoming by Basant Giri on 500px

1. Vedauwoo

Close to Laramie, the home of the University of Wyoming, Vedauwoo is famous for outdoor rock climbing-I never did though. This place has Sherman granite rocks, some of which are seen to be placed on top of other rocks very carefully.

I have been to Vedauwoo several times for picnic, camping and hiking specially in summer. In cold winter nights, we went there with chilling beer. White snow on ground and clear sky with stars supported us.

I needed no prior planning. I used to be ready for anytime whether it was an early morning or a late night, specially, when bored or frustrated with the lab experiments and classes.

You can also enjoy Curt Gowdy State park with some beautiful lakes for fishing. Also, you don't want to miss HappyJack recreational area during winter for snow sports. I specially enjoyed sledding. Lincoln monument (3.8 m tall on a 9.1 m pedestal) on the side of I 80  (at 8878 feet elevation) can be another attraction. We also enjoyed drinking beer on the other side of the monument over looking I -80 and Vedauwoo in both summer and winter nights.

2. Snow Range Mountains

I like mountains-no doubts. Snowy Range Mountains are part of the Rockies, just half an hour drive west of Laramie.

Snow sports in winter and fishing and hiking in Summer. Around this mountain, there are numerous high elevation lakes in which you can enjoy fishing-we had done hand fishing too.

snowies by Basant Giri on 500px

I have hiked to the top of this mountain (12013 ft). More than this, I liked the scenic highway (HW 130) that crosses the mountain: driving is this road was an unforgettable memory. Highest point on this road is at 10847 ft.

There is a small town called Centennial on the eastern side of the mountain and Saratoga on western side. Saratoga is famous for hot spring.

3. Grand Teton National Park (GTNP)

GTNP is bit far from Laramie-northwest part of Wyoming. You need at least four days to fully enjoy the place. This park includes a major section of Teton Range mountains, Jackson valley, and Jackson lake.

Jackson Lake and the Tetons by Basant Giri on 500px

You can mostly enjoy the natural-prestine scenery, wildlife-deers, bears, moose, hardworking beavers, marmots and hiking to the Teton Mountains peaks in addition to backcountry camping.

Mom Grizzly with cubs by Basant Giri on 500px

I had seen black and grizzly bears almost every time I visited this NP (3 times so far).Camping on the periphery of Jackson lake looking towards the Tetons was awesome. I had hiked twice up to the static peak (11,303 ft) via death valley trail which includes Phelps lake. During one of the trecks, enchanted black bears couple of times from very close.

Hike to the Static Peak

4. Yellowstone National Park (YSNP)
YSNP is the world's oldest (estd: 1872) national park. It is north of GTNP, comprises lakes, canyons, rivers, and mountain ranges and touches Idaho and Montana states.  

This NP is most famous for wildlife (Bison, bears, deer, elks, moose, wolf, coyote etc. to my interest) and its many geothermal features such as the Old Faithful-the biggest one. There are hundreds of other smaller geysers too.

Old Faithful geyser eruption by Basant Giri on 500px

You can enjoy hiking, fishing, camping, boating, sightseeing etc. We had camped close to Jackson lake and at Mamoth-close to north entrance-Montana. Making a 8-loop is very famous to cover almost every aspects of Yellowstone ecosystem. Yellowstone lake and upper falls of Yellowstone river are amazing.

5. Devils Tower National Monument

From northwest, lets move to northeast where you can see the Devils tower. Devils tower is an igneous intrusion which rises 1267 ft above the surrounding terrain in Black hills.

For me it looked like a Shiva Linga in Hinduism. If it was in south Asia, religious people would have made it a place of worship.

Devils Tower Monument

When you are traveling to this place, don't forget to incorporate the Mt. Rushmore near southwestern South Dakota in your visit where you can see a sculpture of five US presidents carved into the granite.

Mt. Rushmore National Memorial Visit

While returning from our recent trip to Vermillion, SD, we visited Mount Rushmore National Memorial. This place has sculptures of the heads of four former US presidents. In above picture they are (left to right): George Washington (1732–1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). These four presidents represent the first 150 years of the history of the United States.

 I liked the place around. It is hilly region and specially I love to drive on roads passing through such landscape. Hills are covered with evergreen pine family trees. The monumental graphite sculpture was created by  Gutzon Borglum in 1941 and is is 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level. The sculpture is 60 foot big and it took ~14 yrs for 400 workers to carve it on the stone of the hill. This place is one of the main tourist attraction of South Dakota state. Approximately two million people visit this place every year. Noted that during winter it is covered with snow and not accessible to general public.  During our visit-actually stop by, there were many people even though the weather was not very good.

I and Rajendra with Mt Rushmore shirts

Picture quality is not good. These pictures were taken by a camcorder. If you are somewhere in this area, you should definitely visit this place. During summer you can also do camping.