Cheyenne, and Wyoming

Gunslinger Village. Cheyenne, Wyoming, 2014

If you want to get away from it all, Wyoming (and Cheyenne) might not be a bad choice–as long as you don’t mind a bitter bit of wind during the winter months!

Here are some interesting factoids about Cheyenne and the State of Wyoming:

–Cheyenne, the capitol, has only some 90,000 souls in the entire metro area. This is about double what it was in 1958 when I was born there. It definitely still has a small town feel to it. State government and the US Air Force (F.E. Warren AFB) are the biggest employers.

–The wildest time to be in Cheyenne is surely the last full week in July when the “Grandaddy of ’em All”, the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo, hits the town–parades, gunfights (mostly simulated, of course!), bronc and bull riding, chuck wagon races, concerts, dances, Hell’s Half Acre, melodrama, art shows, antique cars, bikers, cowboy breakfasts, celebrity visits, and so on.

–The entire State of Wyoming contains fewer than 600,000 individuals–that makes it the least populous State in the Union…and all these people crammed into 253,000 square kilometers of mountains and prairie, which is an area that is larger than the entire United Kingdom (or, for another comparison, half the size of Spain).

–The economic movers in Wyoming? Minerals (coal, oil, and gas) and tourism. And cattle (cattlemen actually ran the State for a period…some say they still do).

–There is no personal state income tax in Wyoming, and taxes in general are very low across the board.

–The hot tourist spots are, of course, Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park (the latter, literally “hot” with its geysers!). Also to be visited: Devil’s Tower National Monument, Independence Rock, Fossil Butte National Monument, and the Jim Bridger Wilderness and the Wind River Mountains (Oh, the fly fishing to be had!).

—Gannett Peak, at 13,809′, is the highest point in Wyoming (the Grand Teton is 34′ shorter!) Gannett is considered one of the more difficult State high points in the country, requiring a few days to pack in and technical mountaineering/climbing expertise to get to the tippy top.

The Doorknob, #2. Cheyenne, Wyoming, 2014