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My husband and I a few years from retiring, but we're starting to look around at our options for possible relocation. We have so many questions and concerns we hardly know where to start. We already live in a great place and it's difficult to think about leaving, but we're thinking retirement might be a good time for a change. One of our biggest concerns here is that medical care is limited in our current town. We will be senior citizens with no children or other relatives to depend on if we need to be driven somewhere for care, and feel we need to live where there are more options for care in the same town we would be living in.
We've thought since 1977 we might be interested in living in Cody, and now have expanded our interest to other communities in Wyoming as well. We took a trip to Wyoming last month to look at various communities and had our hearts set on Sheridan. We also looked at Cody, Gillette, and, on a whim, Laramie.
Gillette does not seem to have the medical care we're looking for as older people, so it's not in consideration although it seems like a nice place.
We like Cody a lot, but it's isolated. We are also concerned about camping and grizzly bears. There seem to be a lot of things in NE Wyoming that would be interested in eating us. We are used to black bears and they don't especially scare us, but grizzlies are something else. And after a black bear and her three cubs tore up our house this spring, we wouldn't be unhappy not to share a habitat with them anymore, either.
We had high hopes for Sheridan and spent two days there looking it over. It's more centrally located than Cody, with Yellowstone, Devil's Tower, Roosevelt NP, and all the Black Hills have to offer all an easy drive away. We liked the amenities of Sheridan and the public areas such as parks and the downtown seemed well kept, but the residential areas seemed to be not as well kept. We're at a loss to understand how almost every area could look like no one cares. We feel like we're missing something or misunderstanding something. Please understand, I'm not criticizing Sheridan or its people, just making an outsider's observation and trying to understand. We tend to be messy people ourselves, so it's not a judgment. We're just wondering about it. The other drawback for us was there seem to be limited camping opportunities nearby, like within 25 miles or so, which could become a factor as we get older.
Laramie seemed to us to be very busy, with narrow congested streets and a lot of traffic, not a good place for older drivers or older people walking and crossing streets. Housing prices also seem much higher than elsewhere. But we did like the town, and we're also keeping in mind we were there only a couple hours on the Friday afternoon before Labor Day, when college had just started, people were prepping for the holiday, the first Cowboys game was that night, and it was right at quitting time. I'm sure all of that contributed to the traffic and general busyness, so we're planning to go back there at a less frenetic time and see what our second impression is.
One thing we really wonder about is the political climate in Wyoming in general. We are not loyal to any political party but are left-leaning moderates. We don't hunt or fish but don't mind if others do. We are not religious people. We are pro-wolf but recognize the wolf issues where we live are a world away from the wolf issues in Wyoming. We are not hardcore environmentalists but naturally don't want our environment ruined. We rarely vote a straight party ticket for any particular party. Is there a place for us in a staunchly red state such as Wyoming?
Another question we have is about gardening. I've read some of the posts in other threads about that, so that did give us some answers. It seems doable but we're still wondering about gardening in Sheridan in particular. Is a greenhouse a must?
We're also wondering about flood potential in Sheridan and Cody. Anyone have any info? I've tried to find info online but it's difficult.
We know Cody can be windy. What about Sheridan? Is it less windy than Cody? What about tornadoes in either of those places? Other severe storms? We've lived in eastern South Dakota and are familiar with blizzards coming across the prairies. We're assuming it's similar in Wyoming, but if we're wrong about that, please enlighten us.
Another question we have about Wyoming in general is about driving on mountain roads, especially in winter. My husband doesn't mind mountain driving all that much even when towing our camper, but I'm a little more nervous about it. It wasn't happy-making when we saw a sign for a steep grade for the next eleven miles coming down from Granite Pass! How do seniors cope with the driving out there? I realize it's impossible to generalize.
We're wondering if Wyoming has a statewide clean indoor air act that prohibits smoking in restaurants and other public places.
I could go on for days, but I'll stop now since this is already such a long post. TIA for any info anyone would care to provide.
1) if the medical facilities in Gillette didn't meet your requirements, then I think you'll not be able to do much better anywhere in Wyoming, even in the two largest towns which don't appear to meet most of your other requirements.
2) I don't know what you saw in the residential areas that your toured that made them seem unkempt to you ... but I'll guess that you were looking for manicured lawns and immaculate landscaping. While these items may be par for the course in a riparian area with lots of moisture during the growing season, it's not easy to do that level of landscaping in the Wyoming climate. A manicured lawn in most of Wyoming is quite a luxury and indulgence of water use. Much other landscaping is difficult to establish and maintain, so the tendency is to use more natural native species and let them grow as they can. We see folk move here from riparian areas and the first thing they do on their land is mow it to "trim it up", which equates to beauty in their eyes; they couldn't do much more damage to a lot of the land then to do this.
3) I don't recall a statewide ban on smoking in restaurants. There are local ordinances to that effect around the state, and many restaurants voluntarily comply with those guidelines. But even then, you'll find the compliance not up to a ban standard; ie, the non-smoking areas may be poorly seperated from the smoking areas. As a non-smoker (and allergic to tobacco smoke since childhood), I've been known to walk out of more than one restaurant which I found to be problematic in this regard. As well, some of the places are arranged so that the non-smoking area is accessed by walking through the smoking area which has poor air make-up equipment ... that's an automatic fail for me if I can't get to the dining area without having my clothes reek from tobacco.
4) Driving on mountain roads with a trailer ... Do keep in mind that much of the state recreational areas are essentially closed during the winter months. State and Federal campgrounds, as well as KOA's (and other private RV campgrounds) close for the winter season. Some of this is due to poor road access, some of it is due to low activity levels in the winter months so there's not enough sales volume to stay open. Essentially, unless you are a hunter in the fall/early winter and use the right vehicles to access the backcountry ... you'll not find tourist areas open. For example, I camped twice early this year at the reservoir West of Cody in my Class B RV and I had all the campgrounds to myself. The sanitary facilites were locked up for the season and the potable water system was shut down. There wasn't one campsite that offered any blocking of the strong winds and gusts that were blasting through the area, and after a couple of hours of watching the rustic beauty of the place, the charm wore off. I returned to Cody and stealth camped at the East edge of the WalMart parking lot both times, where the building helped block the gusty winds.
Many other tourist area attractions will be closed for the winter season, too. YNP shuts down from the East access, so it's not easy to get there then. The Black Hills areas shut down, and the Nat'l Forest campgrounds are essentially not accessible. Keyhole Res is accessible, but it's just a place to camp because the lake is not very user friendly in the winter months. One of the few KOA's open in the winter months is at Douglas, but again ... it's just a place to park your RV, there's nothing else there except the bathrooms in the winter.
Understand that many county roads into recreational areas do not have wintertime road maintenance. You'll know this because there's signage up advising this where the maintenance ends for the season and possibly due to the obvious impassibility of the road with snow drifts.
5) Sheridan less windy than Cody, yes. Camping in the area through the winter months is essentially shut down for the season.
6) Most of Wyoming is Zone 4 for gardening with a relatively short growing season. Depending upon your site and exposure, an outdoor garden can be successful but you'll find better control of your growing environment with a tunnel structure greenhouse. The greenhouse isn't a heated structure, but it allows you to extend your growing season and control the winds and air temps better than an outdoor garden. IMO, the tunnel is not optional, but it all depends upon your gardening priorities. We grow organic produce for our consumption to the point where we hardly buy any vegetables in the store.
7) Wolves are a big deal issue around here. The "reintroduction" was a fiction from the get-go; ie, they weren't here to begin with, especially the ones that they've brought into the area. With ranching being a way of life here, wolf predation and the losses to livestock become a big deal ... especially in light of the "proof" needed to satisfy the requirements that you've lost livestock to wolves. As well, the big game populations have been decimated in some areas by the wolf packs. By their own standards of what was to be the level of wolf packs, the Feds have wildly exceeded the numbers and yet will not allow meaningful control of them here in Wyoming. When ranchers catch the Feds placing wolves on their private property without notice or permission, it becomes a big deal ... in light of the protected species consequences for the rancher attempting to protect his property and livestock.
8) tornadoes are more likely to happen in the flatlands in the Eastern plains portion of the state; unlikely in the mountain shielded areas.
9) when you talk about your political leanings, it's all on a relative scale. What you consider to be "moderate" in your current environment may, in fact, be extreme left-wing in Wyoming. It's all how the discussion is framed; ie, your environmental outlook while not extreme to you may be taken as such here in Wyoming. Most folk who derive their livlihood from protecting and utilizing their land are pretty good stewards of the lands until you look at their operation from an idealized pollyanna view of how the world should be operated. IMO, if you bring typical MN liberal attitudes of how society should be run, you'll do best to not mention them to most Wyoming folk ... because you'll be heading for a reasoned argument as to why those eastern solutions don't work well here ... but that's just my opinion based upon having had these types of discussions with a lot of easterners here in the Rocky Mountain areas. I'm going through this right now with some "moderate" folk from VA in a very expensive legal battle because they stubbornly cling to everything they know about farming and water law/rights in VA, and they can or will not recognize that WY is not a riparian state. I've also encountered the liberal mindset that we're just a bunch of ign'rant hicks out here and should be grateful that their enlightened majesties have deined to move out here to show us how life should be. I've been here too many years to know that what they take for granted as fair and reasonable simply won't work out here; I'm not going to spend all of my resources to their sole benefit, which appears to be what they consider their due. If this situation had happened once with one family, I'd say that it was just them ... but I've now had this happen with many others moving into this area and it appears to be a consistent trait of folk from the very liberal areas of the USA. YMMV.
Overall, if close and ready access to medical facilites that meet your expectations are a deal killer for you, especially if you require easy access for elderly drivers or public transport ... my impression is that Wyoming isn't the place for you. Much of this problem presents because there isn't a local population base to support the faciliites. You'll not build and operate a Mayo Clinic in a town of 8,000 people, let alone an entire state with a population of around 500,000 folk dispersed over a large area with problematic access during 4-5-6 months of the year.
Just for reference, look at the NWS charts for today ... a winter storm watch covers much of the state already, and it's just the beginning of October. We've pulled our tomatoes and peppers out of the greenhouse for the season, and the pumpkins and squash are close to being harvested.
I'd urge you to visit the places of interest to you in Wyoming in the depths of winter for an evaluation if the services, recreation, entertainment, climate, and accessibility meet your requirements. You've got to evaluate these from the standpoint of being a resident for the duration, not just a tourist with a couple days of exposure and then the ability to head "home" to what presents as your comfort level. It's a big difference.
Thank you for your detailed response. I think you're getting the wrong impression about us, but of course it's impossible for you to know me based on the little info you have been presented with in my post.
We live in the woods here. We don't own a lawnmower and have basically done nothing to landscape or manicure our environment, and would have no interest in doing so in a new town, although we would try to maintain our yard at least up to whatever the local accepted standards are. We're aware of the water issues there and realize how difficult or impossible it would be to have a lush green lawn. We're too lazy to work that hard anyway. We're definitely not looking for manicured lawns and immaculate landscaping. What we saw that we wondered about was a lot of junk in yards, stuff needing paint, and things like that. It just seemed odd. Maybe it was just a fluke that the houses for sale that we were interested in seemed to have a lot of properties nearby that were like that, or maybe we were just looking at properties in the wrong neighborhoods, I don't know. I do realize all towns have properties that are less well cared for than others.
We live in a tourist town, so I'm aware of the seasonal nature of tourist-oriented businesses including the campgrounds. I didn't mean to imply we were worried about mountain driving in the winter while towing a trailer. I was just asking about winter driving in general. How well are Wyoming roads maintained in winter? Judging from signs we saw when we were out there last month, we did figure out that many roads are not open in winter out there, which makes sense. Mostly we're wondering about how city streets and main arteries are maintained. The question occurs to us due to living in another state where roads were not plowed if less than a foot of snow fell, so if the town we lived in then got eleven and a half inches of snow in a single storm, we drove on that crap till spring because nothing was done about it. In short, we're trying to find out what things are different than what we're used to and then decide if we can adjust to the differences or not.
I wouldn't expect to move to a town or state and try to change the way people live or think. That's why we're asking questions now. We want to know if we can adapt to different ideas and cultures, and we feel it would be our responsibility to change ourselves, not the responsibility of the people in the new place to change to accommodate us. Some things we could adapt to. Some things would be unacceptable for us, and those are the things we're trying to ferret out beforehand so we can make a more informed choice.
We are in Zone 3 for gardening so Zone 4 would be a nice upgrade.
It's possible we were misled by the person we spoke to in Gillette, who told us there were not good medical facilities there. If you feel services there are equivalent to other similar sized towns in Wyoming, maybe we need more research. The person we spoke to was in a position that she should have known what she was talking about, and we took her statements at face value. Maybe we shouldn't have. We'll look into that further.
Trust me, if we thought Wyomingites were a bunch of ignorant hicks, Wyoming wouldn't even be on our radar for possible relocation. But it does concern me if a lot of Wyomingites assume everyone from east of Wyoming is an extreme left-winger. Prejudices can go both ways and that's another concern we have, that we would be perceived a particular way and judged by people before they even know whether we think that way or not. It's hard to live with that kind of thing.
I don't know what "typical MN liberal attitudes" are. People here hold a wide variety of opinions and political positions on a lot of issues, just like everywhere else. It's a fallacy to assume we all think alike here, and there is a big difference in the thinking of people in urban areas and rural areas sometimes, too.
We know enough about the wolf issues in Wyoming to know better than to take a stand one way or the other about that out there. Hence my explaining that we know it's an entirely different issue out there than it is here. We don't expect to really understand the Wyoming perspective because it's based on completely different experiences than the wolf issues here. We would not be moving out there to start arguments with our new neighbors. We don't really talk politics with people here and I don't expect that would change much if we lived out there. There are some subjects that are just better off being avoided even amongst friends, colleagues, and neighbors in order to keep the peace.
We realize living somewhere is a lot different than just visiting, which is the source of so many of our questions. We're trying to do our due diligence. We will visit in winter at some point, but right now we have several years to go before making our decision, and too many places under consideration to go to all of them. Discussions like this one will help us narrow our choices, I hope.
Thank you again for taking the time to respond, and in such detail, too. It's been helpful and informative.
Thank you for your detailed response. I think you're getting the wrong impression about us, but of course it's impossible for you to know me based on the little info you have been presented with in my post.
You are correct that I don't know you.
But your choice of language and line of inquiries are consistent with what I have found to be common among folk from your area of the country. Your inquires came off as condescending rather than what you may perceive as purely an inquiry. In my experience, it's so ingrained into your plane of reference that you don't even realize that you're doing it. Nevertheless, from the perspective of at least this resident, you are succeding in generating an image of an eastern liberal, even if ... as you assert ... that not everybody is the same back there.
From an attitude perspective, it's illuminating in a thread about moving to the state that you feel the need to announce your tolerant approval upon those who hunt and fish, which are big activities here. I can assure you that few Wyoming hunters and fisherman were awaiting your judgement on these vital issues.
What is unusual for a moving to Wyoming thread is that your inquiries had several social and political issues as concerns on par with access to medical services for your retirement years.
For example, your inquiry about a non-smoking statewide statute. You assert that you've been here and visited quite a few towns across the state, so it was highly probable that you've been in restaurants or public places that allowed tobacco use and quite likely saw signage that prohibited or designated a smoking location.
But I sense a fundamental difference in our thinking about this: I have reasonable cause to not smoke, never have, nor do I allow it in my residence or place of business. I exercise my right to leave the premises of a business with a smoking atmosphere that I don't want to be exposed to. However, it's a legal product that many folk here choose to use, and I respect their right to do so along with the businesses that make that decision to allow tobacco use on their premises. I suspect that you'd want legislation that would mandate against tobacco use because you may find it offensive to you.
We live in the woods here. We don't own a lawnmower and have basically done nothing to landscape or manicure our environment, and would have no interest in doing so in a new town, although we would try to maintain our yard at least up to whatever the local accepted standards are. We're aware of the water issues there and realize how difficult or impossible it would be to have a lush green lawn. We're too lazy to work that hard anyway. We're definitely not looking for manicured lawns and immaculate landscaping. What we saw that we wondered about was a lot of junk in yards, stuff needing paint, and things like that. It just seemed odd. Maybe it was just a fluke that the houses for sale that we were interested in seemed to have a lot of properties nearby that were like that, or maybe we were just looking at properties in the wrong neighborhoods, I don't know. I do realize all towns have properties that are less well cared for than others.
IF you'd looked at housing at your desired price range with the services of a real estate company, then that was the opportune time to ask a local expert about prevailing neighborhood conditions. Folk out here have their priorities, and you apparently are offended that the level of maintenance of their properties wasn't up to your standards ... even though you acknowledge that you aren't particularly interested in investing the resources to do so for your own property if you were to move here unless it was to keep up appearances.
That's kinda' a conflicting attitude; ie, you acknowledge that you want as little to do with your property upkeep as possible yet have your visual standards for others to meet. Again, I don't know what you saw that raised your concerns, but exterior cosmetics are problematic at the altitudes here; most paint formulations will not withstand the climate very well and many folk will accept that their house isn't fresh looking on the exterior for some number of years before they decide to repaint.
As well, the yard may be where recreational equipment and vehicles are conveniently stored in plain view by a lot of people; one man's recreational stuff may be your junk. Beauty is in the eye ....
For the most part, folk with your type of exterior concerns about their property and their neighbors are better served by moving into a covenant controlled subdivision/complex with CC&R's and an agressive HOA to enforce the regulations. And that's what you should have advised you RE agent was a concern for you ... that they weren't showing or guiding you to properties in a neighborhood which met your expectations.
We live in a tourist town, so I'm aware of the seasonal nature of tourist-oriented businesses including the campgrounds. I didn't mean to imply we were worried about mountain driving in the winter while towing a trailer. I was just asking about winter driving in general. How well are Wyoming roads maintained in winter?
Some would call it very well maintained. Some wouldn't. It all depends upon the intensity of a storm frontal passage, it's duration, the winds, the temperatures, how much snow fell, how much accumulated, how much drifted, etc. If you're in most larger towns, the in-town maintenance can be pretty good on the major streets. Then again, maybe it isn't if you need to be someplace and they haven't plowed lately and the black ice has formed over a hardpack on the streets. Or maybe you're on a school bus route road while your neighbor a few blocks away isn't, so the priority to plow their road is much less.
Judging from signs we saw when we were out there last month, we did figure out that many roads are not open in winter out there, which makes sense. Mostly we're wondering about how city streets and main arteries are maintained. The question occurs to us due to living in another state where roads were not plowed if less than a foot of snow fell, so if the town we lived in then got eleven and a half inches of snow in a single storm, we drove on that crap till spring because nothing was done about it. In short, we're trying to find out what things are different than what we're used to and then decide if we can adjust to the differences or not.
Deep snow may not necessarily be that big a concern for winter driving here. Black ice formation or drifting snow which obscures visibility and the road surface are bigger concerns.
I wouldn't expect to move to a town or state and try to change the way people live or think. That's why we're asking questions now. We want to know if we can adapt to different ideas and cultures, and we feel it would be our responsibility to change ourselves, not the responsibility of the people in the new place to change to accommodate us. Some things we could adapt to. Some things would be unacceptable for us, and those are the things we're trying to ferret out beforehand so we can make a more informed choice.
We are in Zone 3 for gardening so Zone 4 would be a nice upgrade.
It's possible we were misled by the person we spoke to in Gillette, who told us there were not good medical facilities there. If you feel services there are equivalent to other similar sized towns in Wyoming, maybe we need more research. The person we spoke to was in a position that she should have known what she was talking about, and we took her statements at face value. Maybe we shouldn't have. We'll look into that further.
While one's assessment of medical facilities can be very subjective, depending upon your frame of reference and particular medical needs ...
what presents in Gillette is very comparable to the top levels to be found in the largest communities in Wyoming. Your source may have been very candid about their assessment of medical services in the area.
What I'm saying here is that the level of medical services that the Wyoming community can afford to sustain may not necessarily meet your needs or expectations, or that of your source.
There is a reason why so many of us travel to adjacent states for medical services. The Front Range of Colorado, SLC, Billings, or Rapid City come to mind.
Trust me, if we thought Wyomingites were a bunch of ignorant hicks, Wyoming wouldn't even be on our radar for possible relocation. But it does concern me if a lot of Wyomingites assume everyone from east of Wyoming is an extreme left-winger. Prejudices can go both ways and that's another concern we have, that we would be perceived a particular way and judged by people before they even know whether we think that way or not. It's hard to live with that kind of thing.
I've been in this part of the country since the mid 1960's, having made a conscious choice to leave behind the attitudes and concepts of a liberal state that I was raised in. I'm a transplant, like so many here. In all those years, I've had few issues with folk who have found this area of the country to their liking. But of all the issues and serious confrontations that I've had with folk here, one thing has been absolutely consistent: they came here from predominantly liberal areas of the USA.
I'll be one of the first to welcome you as a new neighbor. In fact, I've been taken to task on this forum a few times for having that outlook. By the same token, I will allow you ample room and opportunity to reveal yourself for who you are. Most folks who come here with a liberal mindset, even if they perceive it to be "moderate" in their liberal area ... simply don't fit in without making some serious major changes (unless they're headed to Laramie or Jackson).
Again, I've been taken to task numerous times on this forum for driving people away from here. But it wasn't me, it was the newcomers discovering that so much of what they took for granted and valued "back home" was what they wanted, preferred, and returned to.
I don't know what "typical MN liberal attitudes" are. People here hold a wide variety of opinions and political positions on a lot of issues, just like everywhere else. It's a fallacy to assume we all think alike here, and there is a big difference in the thinking of people in urban areas and rural areas sometimes, too.
Again, I recognize that there's a range of liberal concerns, but there are underlying concepts which frame the attitudes which fundamentally are at odds with what you'll find in most of Wyoming.
We know enough about the wolf issues in Wyoming to know better than to take a stand one way or the other about that out there. Hence my explaining that we know it's an entirely different issue out there than it is here. We don't expect to really understand the Wyoming perspective because it's based on completely different experiences than the wolf issues here. We would not be moving out there to start arguments with our new neighbors. We don't really talk politics with people here and I don't expect that would change much if we lived out there. There are some subjects that are just better off being avoided even amongst friends, colleagues, and neighbors in order to keep the peace.
And I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum. I enjoy political discussion and the interplay of the events of the day. It is possible to disagree without being disagreeable.
FWIW, this is the type of social/political community throughout much of the state where strangers will strike up conversations about many topics. I've traveled through a lot of towns where I could sit in a cafe and was asked to join in or invited myself into the discussion. No shrinking violet here, I'd just as soon know where you and I stand rather than have to simply "keep the peace".
We realize living somewhere is a lot different than just visiting, which is the source of so many of our questions. We're trying to do our due diligence. We will visit in winter at some point, but right now we have several years to go before making our decision, and too many places under consideration to go to all of them. Discussions like this one will help us narrow our choices, I hope.
Thank you again for taking the time to respond, and in such detail, too. It's been helpful and informative.
Thank you for your time. I hope others on this forum will join in, too, with their perspective on your inquiries and comments.
PS: I do find it interesting that you feel a need to "keep the peace" when it comes to political viewpoints, yet are so willing to engage in an anonymous discussion about this topic. From my perspective, I'd rather know what you're thinking as a neighbor so we can discuss and make informed decisions than to not know what you've got on your mind ... which leads me to think that you aren't interested in other points of view and have your own preconceived notions about what's best for the people of Wyoming.
Welcome to the Wyoming Forum. I can answer your questions about Sheridan and the surrounding areas.
You mentioned Sheridan and what you looked at might not have been the best representation of Sheridan. I also understand that you looked at a few houses and felt that in your price range, the area wasn't up to what you would like it to be.
Sheridan has some good parts, and bad, however, safety wise, I'd let my kids walk down any street in Sheridan, at any time of the day, and did for years. Now I see my grandkids playing in those same neighborhoods.
In Sheridan, there are some older parts of town and in those parts, you are correct, the places are not the best kept. You'll find housing pretty reasonable in those areas, for a good reason. Jobs around here, specially higher paying jobs, are hard to come by. My son was making $26 an hour at the coal mine until Obama reset the EPA standards and the coal production dropped. They layed off 50% of the entire workforce. He now works for $15 an hour and yet, he still has to make his house payment, truck payment, and the rest of his bills. That certainly doesn't give him an excuse to not keep his yard maintained and stuff put away. But in the same turn, a lot of folks run across the same circumstances and are now working 2, or sometimes, 3 jobs. That doesn't leave much time for maintaining like they used to. I've seen those areas boom and bust with energy around here. They'll be like that for a couple years and then somebody will paint their house and it's like the domino effect, everybody down the street decides it looks pretty good and before you know it, places are looking pretty good. For the most part, that the entire strip about 3 or 4 blocks on either side of main street, almost the full length of town.
Then you have the older homes, that money is invested. I'm talking about the big victorian homes, big seeping driveways and obvious to anybody that there is money in those neighborhoods. Those areas are, for the most part, the old money in Sheridan. The business owners, the real estate investors, etc.
You also have what I call, the middle of the roads areas, up on the hill around the cemetary, up 5th street between Goose Creek and the Hospital is that area. Nice houses, most well kept, the heart and soul of the working class in Sheridan. Not to say the others don't work, just that this is the upper middle class, if you will.
Beyond the hospital is the newer areas. To the North and West. Newer homes, nice yard layouts, not real big but nice. Same with over behind the Country Club and Golf Course area.
Now it brings me to the last group of homes and they are spread out widely. For years, the city fathers in Sheridan wanted zero growth and would stomp on any growth that appeared to be planned. They wanted Sheridan to be their Retirement Community. Finally, they realized that the retired folks weren't going to keep this town running, without somebody being in the stores and unless they allowed some business to come into town, growth was stagnant and real estate prices were going to tank. Hence, the areas that sub divisions sprung up. Most of them outside of city limits. Large, 4000+ homes on 10-12 acress or more. Big sub divisions taking up lots of space, but away from the city center. Of course, those homes are $500k or better.
Sheridan has a great medical group, be it the hospital, the cancer center, the surgical center, etc... There are a lot of specialized practices in town. The one thing Sheridan is lacking, and it's caused by a mere 18,000 people, is major medical. I know, if I get a cut, to me it's major. hahaha I'm talking bypass surgery, or heart specialist, or specialized cancer, etc... Billings Montana has a very large facility and these things are covered very well there. Billings is only 120 miles up the road, and as such, people find it easy to visit a specialist in Billings. With NO TAX in Billings, people almost welcome a day trip to run up to an appointment, then load up the car with major purchases, stop at a nice restaurant, and then head home.
Sheridan has just about anything you cold possibly need, but variety and large quantities make it easy to slip up to Billings and pick it up. I'm sure you took a stroll through the stores downtown.
Sheridan is steeped in history with many many battlefields, forts, etc... from the settlement days. Not far from Sheridan you can visit something every weekend for a long time without seeing anything twice.
Our schools are terrific. The High School Auditorium seats about 500 (guessing) and is standing room only when the choir puts on a concert. The schools get a lot of great support from the community. Our Junior High has a indoor olympic sized swimming pool for our dive and swim teams.
I might add that Sheridan does also have, a much better Football team than say, Gillette.
Forgot to mention. When we have a major snow event, Sheridan's City Department keeps the roads open from the Interstate, to the hospital, and from the North end of town to the South End of town. That's NUMBER ONE. Next, they'll work all night keeping the major streets to and from schools open. Finally, they'll start mopping up the side streets. When I lived in town, and we had a major snow event, my street (off the beaten track) was plowed by 8am or so. Seldom are roads closed in town and if they do close, it's only for a few hours.
I now live 20 miles from the center of Sheridan. I have no problem getting to town when I want to. Roads will close periodically, but it's usually do to visibility, not depth of snow and then it's only for a few hours. Seldom over night except for the one or two real major storms we might get all winter.
Did you get a chance to get out and see the surrounding towns? Buffalo, Story, Big Horn, Ranchester, Dayton? Well worth looking at.
... Gillette does not seem to have the medical care we're looking for as older people, so it's not in consideration although it seems like a nice place.
Gillette's medical community is not on a par with Casper's, nor with those in Billings or Rapid City and certainly not Denver, Rochester or Minneapolis, but I'd put it up against any of the other towns in Wyoming and most other towns of its size in the country. If that's your concern about Gillette, I'd urge you to look into it again and make your decision based on what you find rather than what someone says.
I'm 68 and have had more than my share of medical problems in the past couple decades. I went to Omaha for my first back surgery as I wanted to have a new procedure done and wanted a surgeon with plenty of experience with that procedure. I could have had it done here (Gillette), but the surgeon, an acquaintance of mine who I liked and respected, had very little experience at it (chymopapain injection).
A few years later it was a brain tumor. I'd been seeing a headache specialist in Billings for several months and he had diagnosed my headaches as migraines. During a routine eye exam in Gillette, my optometrist spotted the tumor and sent me to Rapid City. The neurosurgeon there said it was the biggest he'd ever seen and would only recommend three hospitals that "might be able to help" -- Rochester, one in Denver, and one in Boston (I think). I chose Denver.
A couple years after that I was having back problems again. I needed traditional disk surgery. Again, I could have had it done in Gillette and had planned to, but the night before my scheduled surgery my surgeon became unavailable. I went back to the neurosurgeon that I knew in Denver.
I had a couple hernia surgeries, both in smallish cities where I happened to be when I needed to get something done. I certainly could have had both done in Gillette had I been here at the time.
Last Novermber I had a kidney stone problem. The urologist in Gillette was just about to leave town and couldn't do surgery for a week, so I went to one who comes to town one day a week -- from Casper. I wanted surgery NOW so went to Casper for the procedure. (Of course the two-hour drive moved the stone a little, so by the time I got there I was no longer in pain, but I had it blasted anyway.)
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We like Cody a lot, but it's isolated. We are also concerned about camping and grizzly bears. There seem to be a lot of things in NE Wyoming that would be interested in eating us. We are used to black bears and they don't especially scare us, but grizzlies are something else. And after a black bear and her three cubs tore up our house this spring, we wouldn't be unhappy not to share a habitat with them anymore, either.
I can understand that. I lived in Alaska for a few years and have had a few meetings with Grizzlies/Brownies and have shares many a fishing stream with Black bears. I tend to agree with you, but Black bears have certainly been known to kill AND EAT humans, and I've been within arm's reach of Grizzlies and just talked to them as they walked by. (When meeting one on a trail, step off and start talking.) That said, there are very few if any Grizzlies in NE Wyoming. I think there may be some in the northern Big Horns, but I've never seen one, and I've been camping and hiking in the Big Horns for 40 years.
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We had high hopes for Sheridan and spent two days there looking it over. It's more centrally located than Cody, with Yellowstone, Devil's Tower, Roosevelt NP, and all the Black Hills have to offer all an easy drive away. We liked the amenities of Sheridan and the public areas such as parks and the downtown seemed well kept, but the residential areas seemed to be not as well kept. We're at a loss to understand how almost every area could look like no one cares. We feel like we're missing something or misunderstanding something. Please understand, I'm not criticizing Sheridan or its people, just making an outsider's observation and trying to understand. We tend to be messy people ourselves, so it's not a judgment. We're just wondering about it. The other drawback for us was there seem to be limited camping opportunities nearby, like within 25 miles or so, which could become a factor as we get older.
I'm a home inspector and inspect, on average, probably 40 homes in Sheridan each month, so I know the neighborhoods quite well. You were apparently in some of the older neighborhoods, because there are several nice residential areas in Sheridan. If you want a newer home, there are some neighborhoods where it would be hard to find a blade of grass growing in the wrong direction! There are also a few, in the older parts of town, where anything goes -- lawns filled with old cars and junk of all kinds.
I noticed, when I moved from Iowa to Gillette 40+ years ago, that lawns weren't normally manicured like they were in Iowa towns. I think it's because in Wyoming, residents tend to spend their weekends at the lakes and mountains, or just driving a few hundred miles to enjoy a weekend of city life. In Gillette especially, folks work long and hard, then play long and hard. Oftentimes, lawns are mowed when there's time to do it rather than when the grass reaches 3 inches. Personally, my summer has been an unusually busy one, and I'm not at all proud of what my lawn looks like right now. Hopefully next summer will be different.
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Laramie seemed to us to be very busy, with narrow congested streets and a lot of traffic, not a good place for older drivers or older people walking and crossing streets. Housing prices also seem much higher than elsewhere. But we did like the town, and we're also keeping in mind we were there only a couple hours on the Friday afternoon before Labor Day, when college had just started, people were prepping for the holiday, the first Cowboys game was that night, and it was right at quitting time. I'm sure all of that contributed to the traffic and general busyness, so we're planning to go back there at a less frenetic time and see what our second impression is.
You shouldn't judge Laramie on a Friday night before a home football game. My first time in downtown Lincoln, NE was on a Saturday afternoon -- during a Cornhuskers game. Half the stores were closed! "Gone to game"
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One thing we really wonder about is the political climate in Wyoming in general. We are not loyal to any political party but are left-leaning moderates. We don't hunt or fish but don't mind if others do. We are not religious people. We are pro-wolf but recognize the wolf issues where we live are a world away from the wolf issues in Wyoming. We are not hardcore environmentalists but naturally don't want our environment ruined. We rarely vote a straight party ticket for any particular party. Is there a place for us in a staunchly red state such as Wyoming?
You wouldn't be alone. But you would be outnumbered. There are a few hot-button topics that you might want to avoid. If you favor gun control, believe that hunting is cruel and unusual, and think oil, gas, and coal should be left in the ground, I'd not mention that. If you think wolves should be allowed to run free across the state and kill (rich rancher's) livestock, keep those thoughts to yourself. Generally, Wyoming is conservative, just like most rural areas across the country are, but most of us aren't out to eliminate liberals. Mining, oil and gas production, ranching, tourism and hunting are very important to Wyoming. It's what pays the bills, both for the state government and for most of us personally.
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Another question we have is about gardening. I've read some of the posts in other threads about that, so that did give us some answers. It seems doable but we're still wondering about gardening in Sheridan in particular. Is a greenhouse a must?
Many of the towns have community gardens that are in the open, and the ones I've seen look very good. I know Gillette has one that's popular, and Newcastle has one that always seems to have a few people working in it. I tried to grow one for a couple years and gave up. I do NOT have a green thumb. We had a bumper crop of tomatoes, most of which ended up as fried green tomatoes after the frost, but they were in a different garden with better soil. I think if you get the soil properly prepared (manure), and maybe get some of the stuff started indoors when there's still frost in the ground, you'd do okay -- as long as hail doesn't get it. My job takes me to every town in NE Wyoming, and I see thriving gardens in every one of those towns -- not a lot of gardens, but a few. It can be done if you know what you're doing and work it.
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We're also wondering about flood potential in Sheridan and Cody. Anyone have any info? I've tried to find info online but it's difficult.
I've heard of flood warnings for low ground in Sheridan. Ground water gets into a lot of basements in NE Wyoming. It's something to be aware of. I'd be very careful buying a home near a river, and any home that's not on a hill should have tiles around the basement perimeter and a reliable sump pump. I don't know about Cody -- not that I've ever heard of. With the flooding in Colorado last month, anything is possible.
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We know Cody can be windy. What about Sheridan? Is it less windy than Cody? What about tornadoes in either of those places? Other severe storms? We've lived in eastern South Dakota and are familiar with blizzards coming across the prairies. We're assuming it's similar in Wyoming, but if we're wrong about that, please enlighten us.
Sheridan can be windy, but it's not as bad as Cody. Tornadoes would be very rare for Sheridan and even more so for Cody. But I think every state in the nation has recorded tornadoes. If there's hail, tornadoes are also possible because they both develop from the same type of big tall clouds.
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Another question we have about Wyoming in general is about driving on mountain roads, especially in winter. My husband doesn't mind mountain driving all that much even when towing our camper, but I'm a little more nervous about it. It wasn't happy-making when we saw a sign for a steep grade for the next eleven miles coming down from Granite Pass! How do seniors cope with the driving out there? I realize it's impossible to generalize.
You'll probably get used to it. My wife's father used to delight in scaring his kids with his mountain driving antics, so she's still afraid of mountain roads, but she's getting better with it. They're of no concern to me. I slow down a little if towing -- pick a lower gear and use the brakes sparingly. No problems.
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We're wondering if Wyoming has a statewide clean indoor air act that prohibits smoking in restaurants and other public places.
It seems to me that the legislature did pass something recently, but I can't recall for sure. Either way, some of the towns do, and several restaurants ban smoking. My wife likes to smoke after a meal, so we're limited to Applebees and a couple locally-owned restaurants that have outdoor patios where smoking is allowed.
Thank you for the welcome, ElkHunter, and the excellent information.
Thanks also for the explanation about the messy yards. What you said makes perfect sense. We didn't make any judgment about what we had seen, we were just curious about why. We were looking at houses that might be considered in the lower price range (under $200K) as we're hoping, when the time comes, that we can cash out of our current home, buy something cheaper, and liquidate some of our equity to add to our retirement funds.
Thanks also for the remarks about safety. Crime is a concern for us as it is for everyone, particularly as we become older and more vulnerable. That's one of our questions too, but it's easier to find crime stats online than some of this other info.
The area we live in now is also an economically depressed area, and also relies on mining, so I do understand the boom and bust economic cycles that can create havoc with local economies. I'm sorry about your son's job.
We did drive through some of the subdivisions and wondered why they were so far from town. You've explained it nicely, thanks so much. That's the kind of thing one cannot find out without talking to the locals. Looking ahead, we know we'd need to be in town as elderly people, so we're not very interested in the outlying areas even though there are some nice places out there. We also have zero interest in any neighborhood that would have an HOA, so some of those neighborhoods (based on their signage) wouldn't be for us anyway. I guess we'd fit best in the middle of the road neighborhoods you mentioned in town, with the working class people. Time will tell if we ever have to make the choice or not, of course.
Everywhere we went in Wyoming during our last trip, we asked about Sheridan and heard only good things. People who weren't living in Sheridan either knew people who were there and loved it, or they wanted to be there themselves. We will certainly be back to do some further research, next year when we host an RV rally in Yellowstone and will be in the neighborhood anyway. We were very impressed with the parks, library, shopping, and other amenities available there. I had an in-depth conversation with a couple of Sheridan residents who were most helpful in answering my questions. Everyone we met was friendly and helpful.
We knew the hospital looked nice, and that there is a good variety of services available. That's the main drawback of living where we live now, and one of the main reasons we're considering a move, whether it's out of state or elsewhere within Minnesota. Our local hospital here provides basic services but does not, for example, do any surgeries. It's basically a primary care facility. Serious emergency cases are airlifted to Duluth or taken by ambulance 110 miles away, so that part is similar to what you said about the worst cases going to Billings. There is no cardiac care unit here, no oncology unit, nothing like that, although I think now they're doing chemo and dialysis here but the docs are in Duluth. My mom just went through cancer treatment that could not be done locally, and it's a lesson we learned, that if you're old and alone and live in a tiny town in the back left corner of nowhere, you could be in serious trouble with no one to drive you to your care. It sounds like Sheridan can provide most care needed though, except for the most serious cases. We realize we will not find the same care options as in a larger city but we don't want to live in a large city again, so are trying to figure out the right balance.
How is the road between Sheridan and Billings? We were going to go home that way when we were out there, but decided to check out Gillette and Spearfish, SD, instead.
We did check out the stores downtown, but to be honest, we saw so many towns so fast they're becoming a blur in my memory already. I've been watching the Grinnell Plaza webcam for months though and enjoyed seeing the community gatherings, I think on Thursday nights. Sheridan looks like a town where people enjoy getting out in the summer and socializing. We saw they sometimes had a band there even. Very cool.
Good to know about the schools. That's important to us, too. Even though we don't have kids in school anymore, we do realize the schools are the heart of any community. If the schools aren't doing well, the rest of the community suffers too.
I'm quite sure Sheridan has a very impressive football team.
We drove from Cody when we came to Sheridan, and passed through Dayton and Ranchester and maybe some of the others you mentioned, I forget now. We love the real estate in those towns! However, after watching my elderly mom struggle to drive the fifteen miles from her home to our town, we want to be right in town within an easy drive to medical services as we get older. Mom moved from her home to an apartment in our town last spring and it's been difficult for her. We're hoping if we can find a new home where we won't have to drive too far for various services, we can stay in our home longer without having to disrupt our lives as she has had to do. Watching loved ones age and seeing the mistakes they make has been quite an education for us.
Again, thanks for taking the time to provide us with information. We appreciate it very much.
I'm glad WyoNewk brought up flooding, I forgot to mention it.
Several years ago, Sheridan did have a nasty flooding problem as Goose Creek runs right through town, from Kendrick park it parallel's main street and runs out the North end of town.
The town complained and the City Counsel listened. They started putting money aside and decided to do the entire length of town, in 3 stages. The North end was first. The Creek was taken down about 10 feet and the overburden was bermed on both sides of the creek. I'm sure WyoNewk has seen this, from about the YMCA clear to the truckstop on the North end of town. Those were the first two phases. The third phase is the area from about the YMCA going past Kendrick Park to the SouthWest edge of town.
The last phase, happens to be where I lived when I first come back to Sheridan from the Military, in 1992. I rented a home on Sherman Street. I was told by the realtor that that area was prone to flooding. The house I was renting, was for sale, and it had a basement with no sump. Because I was only renting while I looked for a home to purchase, I wasn't too worried about it. As it turned out, I didn't have a problem. I spoke with neighbors and they mentioned flooding in the past and said it was something that caught them every 8-10 years. Of course, those right next to the creek had ground water problems, not necessarly flooding problems. The ground becomes saturated and the water rises, doesn't flood, just rises right up out of the ground, and of course, right into your basement. I was actually only a block and a half from the creek and immediate neighbors said they had never had a problem.
Of course, those older homes, once flooded, are never really the same anymore. Extensive remodeling is about all a person can do.
The rest of town, flooding has never really been a problem. Of course, a flash flood periodically, any street can flood. If you look at places up on top, like where the hospital is, you will never have a problem. Going out South of town, some of the individual lots that sell, are pretty swampy. You just have to look at what is there and make your own evaluation. A good friend just bought a place, that 10 years ago was swampy, but the whole area was raised better than 20 feet, and very well landscaped. I'm not talking his lot, I'm talking the whole sub division area was raised 20 feet. They did an outstanding job.
Since being back in Sheridan, we've had an occasional bear decide to tour town. As soon as these are spotted and reported, the Sheridan Sheriff's department puts a couple deputies out with rifles, and they litterally escort the bear out of town. Actually, they just stay behind the bear and follow it to make sure it goes straight through town. Same with an occasional mountain lion. But we're talking once every few years. As to bears in the Big Horns, there are no Grizzley's unless it is a wonderer from over in the park area, 150 miles off his normal turf. That is according to the game and fish. I've spent a lot of time in the Big Horns and have only seen a couple bears and then it was while looking over a very large meadow we spotted something dark and had to get out the binoculars to figure out what it was. I have never met up with one, up close and personal, while hiking or camping in the Big Horns.
I also remember you asking about camping. From Sheridan, 15 miles out to Ranchester, there is a good State Park, primitive camping, water and bathrooms available, but not on site. A State permit is $40 a year and you can stay in any state park for free. No annual permit and it's $6. per night at Connor. 5 more miles towards the mountains and there is Tongue Canyon, and up the canyon is about 25 or so places where you can camp in a 4 mile stretch. There are two bathrooms, one at each end of the Canyon. Then you start up the mountain. You can camp anywhere in the National Forest that you want to camp, no charge. I'm talking anyplace you want to pull off the road is hundreds of little areas to set up camp, rv, tent, or whatever, and get a fire going. There are also several camp grounds up there, state camp grounds, again the permits apply or a nightly fee. There are RV campgrounds in Ranchester, Dayton, and up at the Lodges on top. 3 lodges and all three have RV campgrounds. The lodges offer a bar, restaurant, motel type, snow mobile and 4 wheeler rentals. There is cross country skiing from lodge to lodge. Also there are several hundred miles of groomed trailes to snowmobile or ski on. As to 4 wheelers, motorcycles and such, there are also several hundred miles of well marked trails to play on. We usually camp up on top and after breakfast we take off on our 4 wheelers and explore all day, getting back just in time to get a good fire going so we can cook up some supper. You can camp anywhere, the limit is 16 days in any one spot, and then you have to move a minimum of 2 miles. My daughter takes her 5th wheel up and parks it. Every weekend she takes up the 4 wheelers, and every other weekend, she moves the 5th wheel. So the 5th wheel is up there from May until September. Nobody has ever bothered it.
I also wanted to say that Gillettes football team is not used to playing in the snow. You'll see them with those ear muff thingys and their mittens with the strings on them, clipped to their sleeves so they don't loose them.
Thanks, WyoNewk. All good info! Just what we need to know.
The medical community sounds about like what we expect, given the localities and population of Gillette and Sheridan. I wonder why the person in Gillette told us that. We will look into that some more. It's been hectic here since we got home, so we haven't had much time for research. I would not expect a small town hospital to provide the same care as Denver or Mayo. We're just looking for more than we have right now. I'm sorry to hear about your medical problems but it sounds like you were able to arrange for the care you needed when you needed it.
I know black bears can be dangerous, but we don't run screaming if we see one. They get up on our front deck sometimes and then I ~am~ screaming, but AT them, not out of fear of them! Normally they leave, but the big sow who tore up our house didn't. Very un-bear-like and worrisome. Luckily, they decided it wasn't in their best interest to come into the house and did eventually leave. Grizzlies probably would completely freak me out though. We love where we live due to the wildlife here, but I'm sorry, they cannot come in the house. PERIOD!
We were told that Cody has "town deer." Does Sheridan? We enjoy the deer here.
Interesting to get your perspective as a home inspector. Thanks so much! I'm sure your lawn looks perfectly fine. We don't even have a lawn where we are now. We couldn't make a lawn if we tried. We live on the Canadian shield in a dense forest, so it's either giant boulders or heavy tree cover on all seven acres of our property. Making a lawn would require major money and lots of heavy equipment. Not for us. We figure God did a pretty good job of landscaping already, so who are we to question it or mess with it? Again, we weren't judging the condition of lawns in Sheridan, just wondering if there was a reason some were that way.
We aren't judging Laramie on a holiday Friday night before a big game! That's why we want to go back on a normal day to see how the town is when it's not crazy time.
We would expect to be outnumbered as lefty moderates. I did get involved in an interesting conversation with a lifelong Republican, also a lifelong Wyomingite from Casper, when we were camped at Cody. I really enjoyed talking to her. We did not agree on a lot of issues but she had interesting insights and taught me a lot.
My dad was a gun dealer and I grew up around guns and hunting. For a doorstop on the front door of our house, we used a three-foot cannon. We used to haul that sucker out to a gravel pit and fire it off just for giggles. Where do you think I fall on the gun control issues? LOL! Nice to know though that most people in Wyoming aren't out to shoot liberals. We're not as liberal as you might think anyway. Most of the things you mentioned being important to Wyoming are also important here, minus gas and oil production and subbing farming for ranching. There are many similarities between here and there, and I think that's part of the attraction for us. Of course there are also many differences and exactly what those are is what we're trying to figure out.
We don't have green thumbs either, but we keep trying. Soil is very poor here and weather is also very temperamental, so it can be difficult but the weather part sounds the same out there. We're hoping if we do move, we can do better with gardening. I do best when gardening in AeroGardens, but that's cheating!
We're hoping to stay out of flood plains if we move. We figure we'll ask home insurance agents where the flood risk is worst, since they would have to know. We're hoping for a dry basement wherever we go. We don't have a basement now and would like one. Thanks for letting us know to watch out for ground water. Terrible what's happened in CO.
I know tornadoes can happen anywhere. They're rare here, much more common in southern Minnesota where we grew up. We don't miss them and would rather not move back where they're common. But they are one reason we would like a basement. We don't get much hail either. How often do you get quarter size or larger hail there? Is it rare or common?
We're cautious, defensive drivers. Our trailer is fairly small, about 3,500 pounds, and we tow with a truck which I suppose ranchers out there would call a girly truck (Avalanche). Second gear is our best friend in the mountains. I suppose we would get used to it. We actually bought a tent three years ago for a trip to Yellowstone, because we were too wussy to tow our camper. But the guys on our camping forum talked us into it and advised us which roads to take to avoid the scary places, and all was well. Which is nice because I'm too old to sleep on the ground anymore!
I thought I had heard or seen something about smoking bans while we were out in Wyoming last month. That's why I asked about it.
Thanks again for taking the time to share this info with us. Very, very helpful.
Last edited by JustThinkin'; 10-02-2013 at 11:02 PM..
Interesting about the flooding and what they did to help fix it. I think we saw diversion channels when we were there, but I might be thinking of a different city. I don't think so though. Thanks for all the info about that. I'm starting a file on the various places we're interested in and will be adding all this to the Sheridan file. It's hard to keep things straight if I don't organize it all somehow. I've tried looking at maps of the flood plain there but couldn't quite get a handle on it. Now with your description, we can look at the city map we picked up out there and it should make more sense to us.
So if we decide to buy a house in Sheridan, should we avoid older homes that might have been flooded years ago?
Swampy ground, we're used to. There are hundreds of thousands of acres of muskeg here, so we know to look out for it. The second to last purchase agreement we signed on a piece of land had a contingency we added that the sale would be canceled if we couldn't put in a septic system due to ground water. Thanks for the heads up though. It's so dry out there we probably wouldn't think about it so much there.
Someone in Sheridan told me the YMCA was outstanding and a good place for the whole community.
We like seeing the occasional bear, just not ripping our house apart. Interesting the sheriff's department escorts the bear out of town and not Game and Fish. I was surprised to learn there isn't a bear hunting season out there like there is here. Mountain lions scare me. They have the same tendencies as our house cats and I know how much our cats enjoy torturing and killing things. Not good.
Great list of camping places! Thanks! We may have to check them out when we're there again next year. It depends how hot it is when we're there. If it's hot, we'll want AC and need power. We stayed at Peter D's when we were there last trip. It was wonderful to hear the horses nickering to each other in the pasture by that campground.
State park fees are $40 a year and that covers camping, too? What? Am I understanding right? Wow, that would be quite a deal. I think we paid $24/night at Buffalo Bill SP in Cody, but that included the entrance fees and electricity and water and the scenic view of the back side of the bear-attracting Dumpster right outside our camper door. LOL. Luckily it wasn't very attractive while we were there. We love that park though.
We were aware of the dispersed camping available there on public lands, but when we're not from the area and don't know where to go and need assurance of having a site, we thought it was safer and easier just to reserve sites along our trip. Besides, it was hotter'n blazes and yes, we were wimpy enough to want AC especially in areas where there was no shade. We put in some long days driving on our trip, driving diagonally the length of Minnesota, across South Dakota, part of Utah, southern Idaho, Wyoming twice, North Dakota, and then across Minnesota again, eleven campgrounds in fourteen days. But if we lived there, that would be a great thing to do, just find a spot and set up camp. We're not real outdoorsy people but do love to camp. I'm okay with not having power unless it's hot, but my husband is a weenie and really hates to be off the grid. I switched our camper lights to LEDs before we left so I didn't have to care if we had power or not, like in Yellowstone.
I'm quite sure Sheridan's football team is made up of rough, tough guys who scoff at the cold. No doubt they will all grow up to be Green Bay Packers.
You guys are really a big help to us. I can't thank you enough!
Last edited by JustThinkin'; 10-02-2013 at 11:44 PM..
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Half the stores were closed! "Gone to game"
Mining, oil and gas production, ranching, tourism and hunting are very important to Wyoming. It's what pays the bills, both for the state government and for most of us personally.
That's why we want to go back on a normal day to see how the town is when it's not crazy time.
