Visiting Wyoming on a Budget
Wyoming is two budget worlds in one state: the dramatic-but-pricey Tetons corridor in Jackson, and the wide-open, cheap plains and basins beyond the Divide. Jackson is the gateway to Grand Teton and home to the free National Elk Refuge and the antler-arch town square. Cheyenne, the capital, offers the free Wyoming State Museum, free Capitol tours, and the Big Boy locomotive; Cody, founded by Buffalo Bill, anchors Yellowstone's east gate with the five-museum Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Casper holds the free Historic Trails Center and Tate dinosaur museum, and Laramie adds the University of Wyoming's free art and dinosaur museums. June through September is prime.
Cities in Wyoming
Pick a city to see free attractions, cheap activities, and budget travel tips.
Casper, Wyoming
Casper is Wyoming's second-largest city, sitting where the Oregon, California, Mormon, and Pony Express trails all crossed the North Platte River — a Great Plains crossroads with an outsized free-museum scene. The free National Historic Trails Interpretive Center, free Tate Geological Museum, free Werner Wildlife Museum, and the reconstructed 1865 Fort Caspar Museum ($5) anchor the history side, while the 10-mile paved Platte River Trails, the Garden Creek Falls at Rotary Park, and Casper Mountain itself sit minutes away. The $5 Nicolaysen Art Museum rounds it out, with David Street Station's free summer concerts and winter ice rink anchoring downtown.
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Laramie, Wyoming
Home to the University of Wyoming since 1886, Laramie is a college town at 7,200 feet against the dramatic backdrop of the Snowy Range and Medicine Bow Mountains. The free UW Geological Museum (with 'Big Al' the Allosaurus), the free UW Art Museum, and the free American Heritage Center share a campus complex. Across town, the $9 Wyoming Territorial Prison once held Butch Cassidy, and the $10 Ivinson Mansion preserves Wyoming's first-suffrage-state history. Twenty miles east, Vedauwoo's free-to-walk granite hoodoos cap the trip for $5 day-use. Downtown adds the free Laramie Mural Project and free Wednesday concerts at Washington Park's historic bandshell.
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Jackson, Wyoming
Jackson sits in the south end of Jackson Hole valley — gateway to Grand Teton and Yellowstone, anchor of an outsized arts scene, and home to one of the West's most iconic town squares with its four elk-antler arches. The free National Elk Refuge, Cache Creek and Snow King hiking trails, the Jackson Hole Pathways System, and the Saturday Farmers Market on the Town Square keep budget travelers happy. Add Grand Teton's free trails (with park entry), Granite Hot Springs ($15), the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, and the Stagecoach Bar's Sunday-night dance — and a long weekend is possible on $20 a day.
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Cheyenne, Wyoming
Wyoming's capital, Cheyenne, mixes frontier rail history with state-government grandeur. The free Wyoming State Museum covers dinosaurs to the Wild West, the gold-domed State Capitol offers free self-guided tours, and the 1905 Historic Governors' Mansion is a free walk through the state's first families. The 1886 Union Pacific depot houses the Cheyenne Depot Museum, the world's largest steam locomotive - Big Boy 4004 - sits free in Holliday Park, and the free Cheyenne Botanic Gardens anchor sprawling Lions Park around Sloan's Lake. Curt Gowdy State Park's lakes and trails lie a short drive west toward Laramie.
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Cody, Wyoming
Cody, founded by Buffalo Bill himself, is Yellowstone's east gateway and a Western-history powerhouse. The Buffalo Bill Center of the West packs five museums - Western art, firearms, Plains Indian, natural history, and Buffalo Bill - under one roof, while Old Trail Town gathers authentic Old West cabins on the town's original site. The free Cody Dug Up Gun Museum and the free Historic Cody Mural sit downtown, the sobering Heart Mountain center tells the WWII Japanese-incarceration story nearby, and the free Buffalo Bill Dam Visitor Center perches above a dramatic canyon. Free trails at Paul Stock and Beck Lake round out the budget options.
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More on Wyoming from TravelCheapUS
In-depth budget travel guides from our companion blog that mention Wyoming.