Wyoming: Fossils, History and Landscapes

When choosing accommodation for a trip through Wyoming, it helps to establish a clear focus. Historic sites, fossils, distinctive landscapes and an experience on the water each create a different emphasis. In addition, trip planning can be based on four defined travel regions or on pre-planned road trips and routes. This allows you to structure your stay around your interests and the planned leg of your journey.

• Historic places and stories form a distinct focus.
• Fossils, viewpoints, mountains and high rock walls appeal to different landscape interests.
• Hiking trails, scenic drives, unpaved roads and a boat trip offer different ways to explore.
• It makes sense to choose accommodation based on the planned region or route.

Fossils, trails and natural-history impressions

The visitor center at Fossil Butte National Monument displays fossils of fish, insects, plants, reptiles, birds and mammals from Eocene Fossil Lake. Southwestern Wyoming is home to some of the best-preserved fossils in the world. This gives the natural-history part of a trip a clear focus: you can examine the diversity of the finds through specific animal and plant groups and explore the geological character of the area through its fossils.

Fossil Butte National Monument offers hiking trails and a scenic drive; visitors can also travel along unpaved roads there. This combination distinguishes different types of visits. The exhibition focuses on fossils, while the hiking trails, scenic drive and unpaved roads direct attention more strongly toward the terrain and landscape.

Viewpoints and distinctive mountains

Red Canyon Overlook offers a particularly scenic viewpoint in Wyoming. It therefore represents a stay in which the landscape itself is the main focus. Maverick Butte is a mountain in the vicinity of Wyoming. Wild Horse Butte, Needles Eye Butte and Sarcophagus Butte are mountains in the wider regional surroundings of Wyoming.

Devils Tower also creates its own emphasis. It rises 867 feet from its base to its summit. Devils Tower National Monument is accessible by a single road, WY Highway 24. If this site is one of your main focuses, you should therefore include it as a separate stop in your itinerary planning rather than equating it with the mountains located farther away in the region.

History between forts, a gold-mining town and trails

Fort Laramie developed from a private fur-trading post founded in 1834 into the largest and best-known military post on the Northern Plains. The visitor center at Fort Laramie National Historic Site includes visitor information, an auditorium, a museum and exhibitions.

South Pass City is a historic gold-mining town and represents a different historical focus from Fort Laramie. While Fort Laramie can be understood through its development from a private trading post into a military post, South Pass City directly represents the history of a gold-mining town. This distinction can help you make your selection.

The National Historic Trails Interpretive Center tells the stories of Native Americans, early explorers, and the Oregon, Mormon, California and Pony Express Trails. Interactive exhibitions offer simulated rides in covered wagons and stagecoaches. The site includes more than four miles of interpretive trails.

Boat trip and structuring your journey

On Bighorn Lake, you can go boating beneath rock walls up to 1,000 feet high. The rock walls also give the boat trip a clear connection to the landscape. If you distinguish nature experiences by type, Bighorn Lake therefore represents an activity on the water, while viewpoints, mountains, hiking trails and scenic drives offer other ways of experiencing the surroundings.

A trip through Wyoming can be planned around four defined travel regions or pre-planned road trips and routes. This structure offers you two different approaches: you can organize the trip by regional sections or follow an already planned route. The Wyoming Office of Tourism operates two visitor centers. When choosing your accommodation, you can therefore consider the intended travel section and the desired focus separately from individual attractions.

Choosing accommodation based on your travel focus

The different themes raise several useful questions for accommodation planning: Should the stay primarily include historic places such as Fort Laramie and South Pass City, explore natural-history impressions around Fossil Butte in greater depth, or incorporate landscapes such as Red Canyon Overlook and Bighorn Lake? A route with several regional stops also changes the planning compared with a stay focused on a single area of interest.

The components of the trip remain clearly distinguishable. Fossils and exhibitions represent natural-history and cultural interests, interpretive trails and scenic drives represent exploration on land, the boat trip offers a view from the water, and historic places provide a chronological perspective. For regional orientation, you can also access Teton.

For the general travel overview: USA.

More about the destination

Relevant information for planning your trip:

Ski holidays in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho | Ski holiday information.

More destinations

More places within the same destination:

Maryland, Washington, Minnesota, Missouri, Rhode Island, Connecticut.