Interstate 80: Ride with the Legends By Candy Moulton
Elk Mountain Chuck Coon
Give or take a few, it is 400 miles across Wyoming on Interstate 80. By anybody's standard that is a solid day's travel. But hey, don't just buzz through the state. There is a lot to see and do along the way. So much, in fact, that it's best done in sections. So instead of hitting Wyoming at Pine Bluffs, putting the cruise control on 75 mph, and blowing out of the state around eight hours later at Evanston, set your sights on just some of the towns.
Begin your trip in Laramie, about 1/4 of the way across. This is cowboy country. University of Wyoming Cowboy country, that is. But ranchland surrounds the college town in all directions. Home of the Wyoming Territorial Prison, which has the original state prison and a replica town plus authentic ranch barns and buildings. Butch Cassidy spent time behind bars here – the only place he was ever in prison. In Laramie you can learn even more history at the American Heritage Center, on the UW campus, take in the permanent and revolving displays at the UW Art Museum, learn about paleontology and geology of the region at the UW Geology Museum, or explore the social life of early Laramie at the Ivinson Mansion. Shopping and dining in the downtown historic district is eclectic and there are good lodging opportunities either in town or at nearby guest ranches.
On your second day, breeze out of Laramie, headed west, on a route taken by pioneers in the 1860s as they followed the Overland Trail to California. I-80 between Laramie and Elk Mountain is over a winding, hilly terrain because it lies close to the Medicine Bow
Wyoming Territorial Prison, Laramie Fred Pflughoft
mountain range. You'll skirt north of the mountains until passing by Elk Mountain – which the American Indians called Medicine Butte – and then the landscape flattens and opens with broad vistas.
As you drive, imagine this: railroad workers welding the nation together as they constructed the Union Pacific Railroad. Picture John C. Fremont, Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, and dozens of mountain explorers as they mapped the West, American Indian families as they traveled from winter homes to summer hunting areas, gold seekers with covered wagons, the stagecoaches of Ben Holladay's Overland Mail, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid riding hard with plunder from robbed railroad cars. All these folks traveled right along this same route making their mark on and creating the stories that are now Western legend.
Although it is small, don't bypass the community of Elk Mountain. This ranching town has a population of fewer than 200, an elementary school, a store, and a wonderful hotel that has been restored to 1905 elegance. They have lodging in period rooms, serve meals in the dining room, or you can enjoy a quiet interlude on the hotel porch.
Rawlins, like Laramie to the east and Green River to the west, began as a Hell-on-Wheels town when the Union Pacific Railroad pushed through Wyoming in 1868-69. When state officials moved the prison from Laramie, it went west to Rawlins and that facility – called the Territorial Prison – is now a museum where you can take a historical or haunted tour, view artwork created by inmates, even sit in the death house (kinda gruesome, when you think about it, but a good way to give notice to unruly
Centennial Ryan Conway
children that they need to mind their Ps and Qs). The Carbon County Museum, just down the street from the Territorial Prison, has clothing, photographs, and social items representing the history of the area. Unique items are shoes made from outlaw George Parrott's hide (yep, he was skinned and the hide tanned after he was hung by a lynch mob in 1881) and one of the original Wyoming state flags.
On your third day, travel to Rock Springs and Green River. These small cities are located just a dozen miles apart and both have museums that provide rich detail about the dozens of ethnic groups who came here to work for coal mines that began operating in the Rock Springs area soon after the railroad arrived. Green River came into prominence in 1869 and again in 1871 when John Wesley Powell launched his two exploratory trips down the Green/Colorado River.
If you like diversions along this interstate route, take some side trips. From Laramie drive west on Wyoming Highway 130 to Centennial with its small shops and Nici Self Museum. At Walcott Junction (midway between Elk Mountain and Rawlins), turn south on Highway 130-230 about 7 miles to an Overland Trail monument; looking west from the monument you will see the ruts of the trail. You can continue on south another dozen miles to Saratoga for a soak in the Hobo Pool (free and open 24/7). At Rock Springs leave the interstate and instead take the Wild Horse loop drive (partially paved, partially dirt) to Green River. At Green River travel south on Wyoming Highway 530 or U.S. 191 to visit Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.
Candy Moulton lives south of I-80 near the quiet community of Encampment. She is the author of Roadside History of Wyoming and several other Western histories.
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