Wyoming is home to two of our favorite US national parks – Yellowstone and Grand Teton. They’re both amazing places to visit and as far as we’re concerned they should be on everyone’s bucket list.
But we’ve also driven across the state twice and found a few other spots worth seeing. Plus, there’s some cool-looking hidden landscapes in the south that we haven’t made it to yet.
In this Wyoming travel guide we show you the popular tourist areas to explore, along with an example road trip itinerary and when to visit.
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Places You Can’t Miss In Wyoming
Our roundup of the must-see places and hidden gems in Wyoming.
Yellowstone
There’s really only one place we can begin with when talking about travel in Wyoming – the extraordinary Yellowstone National Park. It really is a special place that more than lives up to its hype.
We’ve spent 7 full days in the park split between trips in April and October. We chose those transition months to avoid theme park crowds in the summer, but we did have snow both times so it was a trade-off. Overall, we think June and September would be better months to visit.
Our favorite things to do in the park are slowly walking around the geyser basins and getting out for sunrise each morning to take photos and spot wildlife. We think a 4 day itinerary is perfect for a first visit to Yellowstone, or better yet 6 days with 2 days in Grand Teton.
Here are some of our places to visit:
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Grand Teton
We find it fascinating how different Grand Teton is to Yellowstone despite them being so close. And we mean different in every sense of the word – scenery, vibe, attractions, crowds.
We’ve been to almost all the popular US national parks and Grand Teton is one of our favorites. It’s small, easy to visit and family friendly, but most importantly it’s just so visually spectacular. And as travel photographers, we can’t get enough.
Our favorite things to do in the park include watching sunrise at Mormon Row, watching another sunrise at Schwabacher Landing, driving to all the scenic overlooks, relaxing by Jenny Lake and hiking into Cascade Canyon. It’s a beautiful place best visited at a relaxing pace.
One of the best things about visiting the Tetons is having the old wild west town of Jackson on the doorstep. We love that Jackson retains its cowboy heritage, but it’s not a cheap place to stay (or buy a house!), especially in winter when it turns into a high-end ski resort.
The Rest Of Wyoming
What if you don’t want to go to Yellowstone or Grand Teton? Well, the rest of the state really doesn’t get anywhere near as many tourist visitors. But there are a handful of places we’ve visited that we thought were great, or we’d like to visit in the future.
Devils Tower in the far northeast of Wyoming is a totally unique rock formation unlike any we’ve seen before. We stopped there for a few hours on our Mt Rushmore to Yellowstone road trip, and thought it was well worth it.
We also recommend driving the Cloud Peak Skyway scenic byway from Buffalo to Ten Sleep across the Bighorn Mountains. The final descent into Ten Sleep is awesome! We didn’t do this, but heading south to bathe in hot springs in Thermopolis and visit Sinks Canyon would be fun.
But it’s the south of the state that we’d like to go to next time. Why? Because near the border with Colorado there’s a national forest called Medicine Bow-Routt that looks great and near the border with Utah there’s another cool looking place called Flaming Gorge.
10 Fun Facts About Wyoming
- Wyoming is the least populated state in America.
- More coal is produced in Wyoming than any other state.
- Yellowstone was the first established US national park.
- Devils Tower was the first US national monument.
- Gannett Peak is the highest point at 13,804 ft.
- Wyoming is the 9th largest state by size.
- The town of Cody was founded by Buffalo Bill Cody.
- Kemmerer is where the first JC Penney’s was opened.
- Wyoming’s largest city is Cheyenne.
- The state lines form a perfect rectangle.
Road Trip Itinerary
If we wanted to road trip around the top highlights in Wyoming, this is how we’d plan an action packed 14-day itinerary starting in the Black Hills of South Dakota and ending near Rocky Mountain in Colorado:
Drive To Cody – Day 1
- Devils Tower
- Lunch in Buffalo
- Cloud Peak Skyway
- Buffalo Bill Center of the West
Yellowstone – Days 2 to 5
- Full day east side
- Half day each north and west sides
- Full day southwest side
- Half day south side and half day Teton
Grand Teton – Day 6
- Full day in the Tetons
Sinks Canyon – Day 7
- See a river disappear underground
- Hike Pop Agie Falls
Flaming Gorge – Day 8
- Full outdoorsy day
Medicine Bow-Routt – Days 9 to 10
- Two days hiking in the mountains
This efficient road trip itinerary stops at most of Wyoming’s touristy highlights and hidden gem spots. It’s exactly how we’d do it if we had 10 days spare and we wanted to stay exclusively inside the state.
When To Visit
The best time to visit Wyoming’s amazing national parks is between May and October when the roads are open and all attractions are accessible. But personally, we’d avoid July and August at all costs due to extreme overcrowding.
Winter would be a unique time to visit the parks, with many areas only accessible by snowmobile. And of course, Jackson is a hugely popular vacation spot in the winter when it becomes a hub for skiing in the region.
Similarly to the parks, the mountain road through Medicine Bow-Routt closes between November and May. Flaming Gorge is busiest in the summer, but crowd free in spring and fall.
Keep Exploring
Are you planning a longer trip with stops in more states? Once you’re finished reading our travel guides for Wyoming, keep exploring nearby areas by heading over to the following pages:
We hope our Wyoming travel guide helps with planning your vacation to the American northwest!
Happy Travels,
Mark and Kristen
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