So...what's it like living in Cheyenne? (Casper, Laramie: university, camping)

[UtahGrad]

I'll try to be concise as possible, because I know that quite a few people just hop onto these forums and look for personalized evaluations of _____, __.

Anyway, I've been pondering making a move to Cheyenne this year, depending on whether or not I get the dream job I applied to (fingers crossed), but I'm not really sure what to expect living there. I grew up on the east coast, and I've spent the last three years of my life in Salt Lake City and Provo, UT.

Utah is ok, but Provo is certainly too religious for me... overall, I do enjoy the western lifestyle compared to the east.

I drove the length of WY on 80, but I only stopped in Laramie for a few hours. It didn't seem like much at first, but I spent some time on the University and in one of the restaurants (the name has escaped me), and it seemed like there was actually a bit of a social life.

I guess I'm just wondering about the culture of Cheyenne... is making friends outside of work easy? What's to do? How religious is the town? What's the overall role of alcohol in social lives?

Thanks!!!

[Wyomama2]

WINDY!

Okay so that's a bit limited in information but it is so very. But it's one of those things that one deals with. Having been married when I lived there I can't help a whole lot on the social scene. The friends I had I made at work but it's different for women than it is for men. I don't know which you are?
The religious atmosphere is not like Utah at all, no worries there.
Unfortunately Wyoming does seem to think that there must be alcohol present at every gathering(almost) but that doesn't mean that everyone partakes.

'What's to do?' Well that depends on what you're into. Do you hike, camp, fish, ice fish, snow shoe, rock climb, four wheel? Or are you more interested in indoor activities?

[UtahGrad]

Thanks for the info! I enjoy drinking, and that kind of environment sounds GREAT compared to living in the quasi-theocracy that is Provo!

Outdoor activities, non-fly fishing is far and away my favorite thing to do, so if there were any spots around there, that'd be extremely appealing. I also enjoy team sports, but that's just a matter of gathering a social group. Hiking is also fun! Are there a lot of accessible trails in the vicinity?

Windy is not my favorite, but isn't terrible either. Does it rain much? I miss that in utah...

[StealthRabbit]

if you get the 'dream job' it will be FINE for your desires.

Many great people / activities. Not the most scenic place, but tolerable in youth (for a 'dream-job')

Lots of outdoor activity within 25 min (vedauwo) to 1 hr (Snowy Range)
Rock Climbing at Vedauwoo, Wyoming. Your resource for climbing, hiking and camping at Vedauwoo.
Snowy Range Scenic Byway - Wyoming Travel and Tourism

[Wyomama2]

No, you won't be seeing much rain. There are a lot of spots for fishing not too far from Laramie in several directions. You'll be able to scout them out. Don't discount the smaller spots. If you ever go out to Lake Hattie and the wind isn't blowing like a banchee be afraid.

There are a lot of great trails in Veadawoo(pronounced vee da voo) which is located off of I-80 between Laramie and Cheyenne. You can also get off I-80 at Lincolnhead at the top of the summit and take Happy Jack Road to Veadawoo. North Crow Reservoir is located off of HJR as well as Granite and Crystal Reservoirs. Great for fishing and camping.
The Snowy's have trails too of course.

[jody_wy]

caught a 5 lb rainbow right in Laramie on an public fishing area behind the tie plant.... my daughter would go fishing in town too when she was going to College there.

[NDak15]

Nobody mentioned this, but another plus to Cheyenne is being close to Denver if you need a big city fix.

[some boring guy]

Welcome to WY! Fellow east coast transplant here (moved from RI, lived in Rawlins for 2 years and now a year and a half in Evanston). I've always liked Chey-town from my limited samplings. The wind can be pretty intense, which leads to rough winters, but it's typically quite a bit milder if you go just a little ways south on 25 (assuming the highway doesn't get closed down on you!). Also, Cheyenne is big enough and has enough resources that all your basic needs are met; I don't think you'd really feel the need to 'escape' like I sometimes felt in Rawlins.

Location is a big plus - you're within 60-90 minutes of places like FoCo, Boulder, and Denver....really vibrant areas with good bar scenes and lots of recreational opportunities with Rocky Mountain National Park just a stone's throw away. Not to mention you're still just up the road from Laramie. Even when I lived 150 miles west of Cheyenne in Rawlins, I found myself making frequent trips down there. Having a major airport in Denver being relatively close in proximity is nice too.

As for the culture of Cheyenne itself, it's different from Provo, to say the least. Heck, even many of the LDS folks I know up here are weirded out by Provo. The drinking scene in Wyoming is kind of interesting in that you'll see a lot of both ends of the spectrum: The LDS community who doesn't drink and folks who seem to do nothing but drink. It's all about finding folks within the happy medium, but Cheyenne is big enough that that shouldn't be a problem and you also won't have the issue of the church trying to impose it's regulations on the town as you would in many places in Utah. Even if the social scene in town isn't your thing, there are plenty of great options within an hour. I'm kind of a homebody myself, but I haven't had much difficulty making friends in the places that I've lived out here.

Not sure about your political leanings, but Wyoming is strongly conservative and has a curious paranoia about outsiders coming in and trying to 'change' things. A quick glance at this forum will give you a nice sample of that. Laramie is obviously a bit more lax in that department with being a university town, but still much more conservative than average. If you're coming from Utah, you're probably used to the politics, but it can be an adjustment having grown up back east, nonetheless. You'll hear some interesting comments in passing and can expect many public TVs to be turned to Fox News, but as someone with liberal leanings, I've just focused on being a good neighbor and side-stepping hot-button issues and haven't had a problem with anybody.

[twatson31450]

I understand that people are attempting to be as "real" as possible, but isn't the idea of driving instantly because you "need" something immediately seem silly to anyone else?

I am having trouble thinking of any situation where you instantly need something that wouldn't be at any generic grocery store in the country that can't be delivered by amazon within days. Or is Wyoming the only place they don't deliver? I have Amazon Prime and they gurantee 2 day delivery.

So I guess my question is for these "real" people doing their best to make sure people think Wyoming sucks , what are you needing so badly that isn't in town that you need to pack in the car and go get NOW?

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by twatson31450

I understand that people are attempting to be as "real" as possible, but isn't the idea of driving instantly because you "need" something immediately seem silly to anyone else?

I am having trouble thinking of any situation where you instantly need something that wouldn't be at any generic grocery store in the country that can't be delivered by amazon within days. Or is Wyoming the only place they don't deliver? I have Amazon Prime and they gurantee 2 day delivery.

So I guess my question is for these "real" people doing their best to make sure people think Wyoming sucks , what are you needing so badly that isn't in town that you need to pack in the car and go get NOW?

I can think of lots of times when "immediate" access via our own transport was desirable ...

professional services, such as medical

goods, such as farm/equipment repair items ... no, Amazon isn't going to custom fab a failed hydraulic hose on a piece of field equipment, nor ship it out with "2-DAY" delivery guaranteed with my Prime account, either. I'm thankful that 4 Rivers opened up a John Deere dealership in Cheyenne so that I can get parts from them now, sometimes shipped in overnight rather than having to always head to Fort Collins or Greeley for breakdown stuff.

It usually takes an extra day or two to actually get stuff delivered via the Amazon "2-Day" shipment ... not Amazon's fault, but it's just the way the shippers work in our area. Unless you pay extra for guaranteed overnight beginning of the day delivery service, don't expect stuff here out in the rural county areas in less than 3, sometimes 4, days.

I just got an "overnight" FedEx Letter sent from Casper to me and it took from Thursday afternoon's pick-up to reach me at 2 PM today.

The fun part is when stuff gets sent out FEDEX Ground to our SE Wyoming location (and sometimes for remarkably small lightweight packages which could have easily and inexpensively shipped USPS Priority Mail). It's in their system to go to the Scottsbluff, NE, terminal, which frequently will transship via USPS Priority Mail to our residence. Can frequently take over a week to get here. It's closer to the Fort Collins terminal, but FEDEX Ground has their postal zones set up this way.

The USPS service can be remarkably slow, too. I am a member of a couple organizations based on the CA coast, and they send out their monthly news magazine at the lowest rate periodical postage bulk mail available. It's been fairly consistent for the last decade that it takes over 3 weeks, generally 4, before I see the latest issue. I've missed more than a few meetings that I'd have liked to attended because the timely notification of the meeting, mailed out with time to spare over a month ahead of the event didn't reach me until the week or two after the event. I've had stuff out with USPS with tracking numbers and seen it "arrive" at a sorting facility and then not "leave" for a day or two.

In net effect, these are but basic examples of the differences here compared to many USA metropolitan and higher population density rural areas. For some folk, these are a big deal issue. For others, maybe not so. None of us here are trying to tell people that Wyoming "sucks" ... but we do wish that they'd have reasonable expectations about so many of the details of life here rather than assuming that it's the same here for many aspects that they take for granted "back home" and give no thought to about how important it is to them until they don't have it here.