When I first moved to Wyoming, I moved to the city of Laramie. I think I was in my 20’s when I moved there. I did like Wyoming a lot. Wyoming has a very small population, half a million ! Most people live in the bigger cities like Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper. Wyoming is wild and you see a lot of wildlife there. It’s a beautiful place to take a lot of pictures. Yes, in my opinion Wyoming is where all the real Cowboys are from ! Laramie is also known for train watching, because it has one of the heaviest train traffic in the country and a large bridge over the Union Pacific tracks. There is a very old territorial prison you can visit which is the only remaining territorial prison in the country.
When I moved to Laramie, I loved how friendly the place was back then. Unfortunately it has really changed a lot since the last time I was there. I lived there about 10 years apart and it changed a lot in that timeframe. When I first moved there, people were so friendly and the restaurants that are no longer there unfortunately, were really good. They didn’t close because they were not good but just because you know, Laramie is a University town and I guess in recent years, the Spinach/Espresso hip customers trend has moved in to replace the good old Shari’s, Cherry’s (Had the best onion rings!) Dr. Finfrock, Wingers just to name a few. It’s really sad and nostalgic to watch places where you grew up, or lived for a while, to change so much.
Prices have gone up a lot as well. It’s funny because when I mentioned it in a Facebook comment on Laramie Live post, about the cheapest place to live in Wyoming and I said Laramie wasn’t one of them, people made fun of me. I guess I wouldn’t know since I lived there twice, 10 years apart, in 2 different countries and multiple states. The thing is that a lot of people from Colorado buy houses in Laramie, turn them into apartments for students and drive the rental price way up. We could easily find a 600$ rent when I first moved there, then after 10 years, we found a 1000$ townhouse for rent on Shield street, that came with a wild, unstable neighbor needless to say.
But all in all, Laramie just isn’t cheap anymore. Cheyenne on the other hand has really nice priced rentals. But commuting in the winter is just impossible. Winters are very unpredictable in Wyoming and the roads closes a lot. That is due to blizzards and whiteout conditions. I remember one time in the winter, me and my husband wanted to go to Texas roadhouse in Cheyenne, while living from Laramie and we had to turn around because we almost went off road a couple of times. It gets really cold at times and Wyoming can be very windy especially Laramie, since its elevation is over 7000 feet.
Wyoming has a lot of Ghost towns and abandoned places to see. We loved going to those places at night to get the creeps and spook ourselves. We had fun trying to find new places to go to and just give ourselves the creep. We also visited the cemetery late at night, while being respectful of course and just like sitting there in the dark waiting to hear something unusual. Those were fun times when we just had a lot of fun, doing silly things.
One of the memories we have from this was that one time when we were in Bosler, Wyoming, an abandoned town with 2 residents. We used to sit in the small driveway, outside a fenced area that would keep us from stepping onto the field from the abandoned school. We were sitting in the dark, before midnight, waiting for things to happen and spook us when we suddenly heard something growl on Seth’s side. At first we weren’t sure what it was. It sounded like a zombie, an old man/unnatural growl. We heard 3 of them and each time the sound was getting closer to his side of the car. We were in his old 1969 Volkswagen bug.
We both looked at each other in fear and surprise, like we couldn’t believe what we just heard and to see if the other actually heard it. Seth decided to take off as fast as he could. I will tell you that we still don’t know to this day, what it was but it did not sound human. We know it wasn’t an animal because we didn’t see anything like that and trust me, from where we were, we knew it was not an animal. We were sitting in a tiny gravel driveway with no grass, nothing. As we took off we were driving back to Laramie as fast as we could and the train on the right side of the road from us, decided to blast the horn right then and it scared us so much that we both screamed at the top of our lungs at the same time. Oh my god we will never forget that moment !
When I was living there we also got a few tornadoes; the most memorable one was the one that we went through on our way back from Fort Collins. We actually were right at the edge of it and It was raining heavily, with really high wind. At first we weren’t sure what was happening until I realized we just missed a really big tornado. After a few minutes of driving, it suddenly all stopped and I asked my husband if we just went through a tornado ! It went by and that is what I saw in the sky without the funnel when I looked over to my right. It was pretty exceptional if you are not used to seeing or experiencing something like that.
Beside getting the creeps we also liked going to new places to take pictures. Wyoming has a lot of natural forest, parks and wildlife and it’s just the perfect place to take pictures of scenery. I always loved taking pictures of scenery, while I am not a pro I do the best I can with what I have. Sometimes it’s just my phone, other times I have my cannon camera or my drone. I wish I had the drone when I used to live there. I think I would have been able to capture some truly amazing footage of this beautiful state.
When we lived there we used to bring our golden retriever and go to a lake outside Laramie and swim there. It was around 95 degrees outside and we loved going there. It was so warm that even the lake water was really warm as well. My husband, who grew up in Wyoming, would tell me how Wyoming changed and how he misses it. Until the drought Wyoming used to be green everywhere because it would rain around 2pm every afternoon. He would finish his homework (He was homeschooled) in the morning so he would have the whole afternoon to do what he wanted. They lived on the edge of the city. He would take his bike and go for a ride with his twin brother. He told me how they would get thunderstorms every afternoon with rain and it would keep things green.
I honestly have really good memories of my life in Wyoming. At some point, before moving to Alaska, I settled in the small village of Rock River with a population of around 150 and loved it ! It was very small, with one restaurant and a general store. I remember that general store during the 2018 Solar eclipse, when we drove through, this very village. Their prices were so high at that time. Everyone stopped by there and I am sure the owner made a killing, in fuel prices, from all the traffic that he wasn’t used to have.
I remember going to the store a lot from my time there. I spent 6 months in Rock River in the summer. The summers were really nice with an average of 90 degrees almost every day. I lived in the only rental in Rock River and everyone knew me there, as the goose lady ! Highway 287 runs right through our small village. I had to go to Laramie a lot to get groceries because there weren’t any in the Rock River area. Roads closes a lot during winter because of whiteout conditions there as well. When I lived there we got a tornado that went through our area really close by, it was exciting !
One of the things I loved about living in Rock River was how friendly people were. Everyone knew each other. The sky at night was so clear, I could see the milky way really well from where I was. I would take a walk in the school field on the other side of the highway, on the almost mile long road, leading to the school. I could easily see the milky way and so many stars with naked eye. I wish I had a telescope back then because Wyoming is a really good area for sky gazing, especially Laramie. I have really good memories from when I used to live there. Wyoming is a really sunny state. It’s rarely overcast.
Wyoming is really an interesting place to live. Low traffic, friendly people, dry, few jobs.. Most people are in shape doing a lot of outdoor activities. There is a lot of places to hike/hunt (for people who are into that. Sometimes people do it for a living, there are companies out there that specialize only in chopping firewood and you can end up going on a hike to find elk horns and sell them for about a day’s wages.
The highest population is in Cheyenne, which has a population of around 60k. Both Cheyenne and Laramie have decent paying jobs because of the military base, Walmart distribution center, University and even places like Sinclair has oil producing.
Bars are also better, like way better. In other places people tend to go to bars just to network with coworkers and avoid conversations with strangers, but in Wyoming, starting a conversation at a bar with a random person is much easier. Most people are very friendly.
Additionally, the amount of wilderness that exists compared to other places is vast and astounding. What you would normally see in a national park in other places you will see there on a drive to the next town. That being said “heavy traffic” doesn’t mean sitting on the highway for 4 hours, it means getting hit with a red light driving in town, except on football nights.
Herds of elk cross the roads frequently. Houseflies and mosquitos are a massive problem in the summer time. Ranching, most people have for generations raised cattle here. There are a lot of ranch in the state of Wyoming.
Cowboy state? Most people probably think nearly everyone in Wyoming struts around in cowboy hats singing Hank Williams songs. In truth, only a fraction of our population are ranchers, but they do generally look the part. A lot of people hunt, or has at least tried it. Wyoming also has no state income tax. It also have some of the prettiest and wildest land in the West with Yellowstone.
The weather is wild, the scenery in some part is desert scrub, with trees being nearly non-existent. Wyoming isn’t just Jackson Hole & the Tetons, it’s wild and rugged. Traffic is not congested. It can take hours to get out of San Francisco. It takes minutes to get out of Cheyenne. In Wyoming there is more wildlife than people. Much less crime in Wyoming. It’s cold and windy in Wyoming. The weather is erratic and unpredictable. It also does not rain very much, but when it does, everything gets flooded. Hail is also a thing from time to time in the summer.
There is very limited public transportation in Wyoming. Everything is spread out, so you have to have a car. All in all, I find living in Wyoming far less stressful, than other places where I lived. There’s a sense of community in Wyoming, as well as the cowboy, western culture, that make Wyoming so special.
Wearing a bolo tie, cowboy boots, a flannel shirt, cowboy hat, jeans and a giant belt buckle is totally appropriate for a wedding. It’s appropriate for an anniversary dinner, a business function, graduation. Many people have cowboy clothes. Many of those people have them because they still live on a ranch and actually require such an outfit. Many others have them just because it’s considered fashionable in some circles in Wyoming. Rodeo is still really popular in Cheyenne.
People actually do still live the lives of “cowboys”. A lot of people own horses and there are a lot of wild horses in the state of Wyoming. Many people own pickup trucks, roads can be rough, with a lot of it being dirt roads. You need a good vehicle to get around, especially in the winter. Nothing moves quickly here. There’s no real urgency. Oftentimes business meetings feel more like casual conversations. People don’t seem to be as stressed than other places i lived in, as well.
There are movie theatres, a lor of restaurant, stores. Lots of people still go to church on Sunday. We have a roller-skating rink, nature. The usual fun thing to do is go for coffee, then maybe go mini-golfing or bowling. It’s great for raising young kids; they can run out in the street and there’s a good chance that no cars will drive by in any given hour. The schools are pretty good. There’s a great sense of community in the state of Wyoming.
So that’s Wyoming. Life here is quiet and unremarkable, with very low crime. The people are friendly, if not a little quirky, and a lot of people own dogs. It’s very dog friendly as well. Everything moves slowly, and is ridiculously far apart. It’s a good life, quiet life.