Is Cheyenne WY a pretty city? Are there lakes and other natural beauty?

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by Hemet girl

Wow, you guys have sure made Cheyenne sound desolate and ugly.... I am in So. California and have the opportunity to move to cheyenne for a fantastic job, now I am wondering if this is a mistake.... I thought California was ugly, but now it sounds like I will be going from one ugly location to another. Are there any nearby towns that aren't as ugly?

You're working from the wrong paradigm.

Cheyenne is the economic powerhouse of the SE Wyoming area and largest population center of the state (or within a few hundred of Casper, depending upon who is counting and the day of the week).

"nearby towns" to Cheyenne are places like Pine Bluffs (30 miles East, at the NE border), with a population of a few hundred ... Burns (15 miles East) with a Post Office, public branch library, small truck stop, with a population of about 200 ... Carpenter, with a Post Office and an elementary school and a population of about 130 still on dirt streets off of a paved county road ...

and a number of I-80 exits that serve the local area county residents, some of them have a truck stop, some have a little gas station, some of them have ... nothing! but access to county roads for ranches, farms, and county residences. No shopping, no commercial, no development to speak of ... maybe access to a gravel pit, mine, city dump, open space park, etc.

Try thinking in terms of the south eastern areas of San Diego County in the 1950's-1960's ... where the highway (pre-interstate) went for miles between any commercial centers and you didn't see development. Perhaps you'd have called that "desolate" ... and it was, without much population or commerce. I can remember days when traveling from San Diego to Hemet (or Apple Valley or Palomar or to the Kearney Mesa or La Mesa areas) was a trip from one population/commercial center to the next without much in-between and a few miles of open countryside ... and there was more there in those communities even then there is now in Cheyenne. Nowadays, of course, one knows that you've left one community to reach the next because the city limits signage is there to tell you as you travel from one uninterrupted area of development to the next.

Such is the current level of development of much of Wyoming. Keep in mind that the entire state population is only 500,000 people, and that over half of the state is public lands not available for development. Much of the land area is federal/state lands that are leased out for grazing .... As pointed out, Cheyenne was a town created by the development of the railroad across the USA, and it's original commercial activity centered on a major railyard for the rolling stock that had to cross a high steep grade area to the West of town. I wouldn't consider Cheyenne a "pretty" city by any conventional measure ... it's charm lies in the access to the solitude and low population density surrounding it, with ready access to a lot of outdoor recreation and activity. If you need to be "entertained", as opposed to finding things to do for yourself for recreation ... then Cheyenne is most likely not a place where you'll be happy.

If you are seeking an activity level of people, and access to business, dining, arts and theater, shopping, and entertainment comparable to even a modest suburb of virtually anywhere in SoCal ... it's not going to be found in Wyoming, and definitely not in Cheyenne, let alone near or around here. Cheyenne folk travel to Colorado to find those things when desired/needed, the nearest place being Fort Collins, down the road away via I-25.

[septocaine_queen]

Cheyenne is prettier than Hemet by leaps and bounds. I worked in Hemet about 7 years ago. The area is windy kind of like Beaumont. The ability to get away from the crowds and see the big sky is liberating. There is no smog and the people are nicer. You'll be close to Denver and all the big city stuff. The freeways are empty, but winter will take a bit to get used to. You should try it out, if you don't like it, no harm no foul, you can always go home. no regrets, right?

[jdavid93225]

Originally Posted by Hemet girl

Wow, you guys have sure made Cheyenne sound desolate and ugly.... I am in So. California and have the opportunity to move to cheyenne for a fantastic job, now I am wondering if this is a mistake.... I thought California was ugly, but now it sounds like I will be going from one ugly location to another. Are there any nearby towns that aren't as ugly?

I don't think Cheyenne is as ugly as it has been made out to be. Compared to most cities in California, I would say it's actually a very nice city. It's not Beverly Hills, but it is a pleasant, and fairly clean city. There are some industrial areas along the railroad track, but even those areas are much nicer than the industrial areas around L.A. In the older parts of town, the homes are well kept, and the streets are lined with trees. In the area of Lions Park, there are a couple of small lakes, and the Cheyenne Botanic Garden, which I enjoy visiting when I'm there. I prefer Cheyenne to almost every city I've been to in California, and I've been to most of them.

Originally Posted by sunsprit

I wouldn't consider Cheyenne a "pretty" city by any conventional measure ... it's charm lies in the access to the solitude and low population density surrounding it, with ready access to a lot of outdoor recreation and activity. If you need to be "entertained", as opposed to finding things to do for yourself for recreation ... then Cheyenne is most likely not a place where you'll be happy.

I do consider Cheyenne to be a "pretty" city, at least when compared to those in California. Graffiti is a common sight in California's cities; not so in Cheyenne. Overall, I just find it to be a much nicer, cleaner city than the cities I've been to in California. I do agree, though, that if you need to be entertained, it's probably not the place for you.

Originally Posted by sunsprit

If you are seeking an activity level of people, and access to business, dining, arts and theater, shopping, and entertainment comparable to even a modest suburb of virtually anywhere in SoCal ... it's not going to be found in Wyoming, and definitely not in Cheyenne, let alone near or around here. Cheyenne folk travel to Colorado to find those things when desired/needed, the nearest place being Fort Collins, down the road away via I-25.

Again, I agree. There's not much for entertainment in Cheyenne if you like the stuff Sunsprit's mentioned here. The same is true of all of Wyoming, for the most part. On the other hand, if you only want that stuff once in a while, Denver's only 90 miles south of Cheyenne.

Originally Posted by septocaine_queen

Cheyenne is prettier than Hemet by leaps and bounds. I worked in Hemet about 7 years ago. The area is windy kind of like Beaumont. The ability to get away from the crowds and see the big sky is liberating. There is no smog and the people are nicer. You'll be close to Denver and all the big city stuff. The freeways are empty, but winter will take a bit to get used to. You should try it out, if you don't like it, no harm no foul, you can always go home. no regrets, right?

I agree with this post, too. I was trying to think of a city in California that would be comparable to Cheyenne as far as the general feeling of the town, the cleanliness, the attitude of the residents, and so on. I couldn't think of one. If you're used to living in Hemet, I don't think you would be disappointed in Cheyenne.

[jdavid93225]

Originally Posted by Hemet girl

Wow, you guys have sure made Cheyenne sound desolate and ugly.... I am in So. California and have the opportunity to move to cheyenne for a fantastic job, now I am wondering if this is a mistake.... I thought California was ugly, but now it sounds like I will be going from one ugly location to another. Are there any nearby towns that aren't as ugly?

By the way, welcome to the forum!

[Happy in Wyoming]

Originally Posted by Hemet girl

Wow, you guys have sure made Cheyenne sound desolate and ugly.... I am in So. California and have the opportunity to move to cheyenne for a fantastic job, now I am wondering if this is a mistake.... I thought California was ugly, but now it sounds like I will be going from one ugly location to another. Are there any nearby towns that aren't as ugly?

Towns and cities are all ugly. Beauty is in the deserts, the mountains, the empty plains, wherever there are no humans. Wyoming has plenty of beautiful areas.

[CptnRn]

If you think California is ugly you probably won't care for Wyoming. In general I think that ugliness is man made and one can find beauty in all natural settings.

Go to Google Maps for Cheyenne Wyoming and click on explore this area for photographs of the area.

cheyenne wyoming - Google Maps

Likewise you can go to the City Data web page for Cheyenne and see more photographs there

http://www.city-data.com/city/Cheyenne-Wyoming.html

This part of Wyoming is high plains desert, not very scenic unless you enjoy desert scenery. The most spectacular natural area near Cheyenne is the Vedauwoo area.





and the Granite Springs Reservoir and Curt Gowdy State Park Wyoming State Parks and Historic Sites & Trails - Site Information

If you travel farther West or Southwest there are some of the nicest and most lightly used mountain ranges in Southern Wyoming and Northern Colorado.

I have always felt like Cheyenne didn't deserve to be the State Capital for Wyoming, simply because it is such a relatively uninteresting location. It has that distinction simply because that was where the railroads first constructed a round house terminus as they were extending its the transcontinental railway across the United States in 1868. There were few other settlements of any size in Wyoming at the time.