Considering Casper and Sheridan for our family (Cheyenne, Laramie: cliquey, rent)

[sapphire904]

Hello everyone,


My husband, 3 yo son, and I are thinking of moving to WY and have narrowed it down between Casper and Sheridan. After researching both towns and all things considered, I'd like to get opinions/facts from locals about outdoor recreation, community closeness, and schools. Having access to mountains or hills is important as we like to hike and my husband mtn bikes. We also want to be close to fishing, archery, and eventually hunting as we teach my son. Seems like Sheridan is farther to mtn access, but not sure if the foothills offer trails.

As far as community, we want opportunities to volunteer, be part of a church family, and meet friends with little ones. A good library system, camps, and clubs for my son to join (ex. 4-H, Trail Life, FFA, etc.) are pretty important. I would like to start a business too, so I would like to live somewhere that will be helpful for start-ups.

We will probably rent an apt or home the first year we're there, but then buy a house eventually, preferably on an acre or so.

If anyone has kids and can give me some info, I'd greatly appreciate it. Of course, all opinions are welcome. Thanks!

[Wytempest]

Both have what your looking for. Casper would probably be considered city slicker compared to Sheridan for outdoor activities. We were in Casper today shopping for a truck which they had very few. I remember rolling into Casper 28 yrs ago while looking for a job and being immediately disgusted by it. I disliked it then and that has never changed. The wind was horrible today as it is most of the time we go to Casper. As in, rip the door off your vehicle ridiculous every time you get in or out! The trash is unbelievable! IMO, for family, between those two, Sheridan easily wins. I would say Sheridan will most likely be more expensive than Casper in most ways.

[nowhereman427]

Originally Posted by Wytempest

Both have what your looking for. Casper would probably be considered city slicker compared to Sheridan for outdoor activities. We were in Casper today shopping for a truck which they had very few. I remember rolling into Casper 28 yrs ago while looking for a job and being immediately disgusted by it. I disliked it then and that has never changed. The wind was horrible today as it is most of the time we go to Casper. As in, rip the door off your vehicle ridiculous every time you get in or out! The trash is unbelievable! IMO, for family, between those two, Sheridan easily wins. I would say Sheridan will most likely be more expensive than Casper in most ways.

So Casper is the windy city.

[sapphire904]

Originally Posted by Wytempest

Both have what your looking for. Casper would probably be considered city slicker compared to Sheridan for outdoor activities. We were in Casper today shopping for a truck which they had very few. I remember rolling into Casper 28 yrs ago while looking for a job and being immediately disgusted by it. I disliked it then and that has never changed. The wind was horrible today as it is most of the time we go to Casper. As in, rip the door off your vehicle ridiculous every time you get in or out! The trash is unbelievable! IMO, for family, between those two, Sheridan easily wins. I would say Sheridan will most likely be more expensive than Casper in most ways.

Thanks Wytempest. I've been watching the weather in both cities and yeah, it seems Casper is always windy. No mountains to block it. If you don't mind, why were you disgusted by it? The trash?

[rya700]

Casper isn't that bad. I go there often and not sure where it is so trashy. Clubs and extracurricular activities IMO are hit and miss as far as quality. It depends on if you get dedicated parents to run the groups and they can be cliquey.

[branDcalf]

I've lived in/near both.

In my experience the town of Casper is windy, but a little ways west it's much better. There are more reservoirs near Casper and they are bigger. Mountain recreation is closer to Casper, along with skiing.

Sheridan is smaller, which I like. But you have to travel further for recreation and sports, specialty medicine, some shopping.

I've heard newcomers complain about both being cliquish.

[Exwyocowboy]

Originally Posted by Wytempest

Both have what your looking for. Casper would probably be considered city slicker compared to Sheridan for outdoor activities. We were in Casper today shopping for a truck which they had very few. I remember rolling into Casper 28 yrs ago while looking for a job and being immediately disgusted by it. I disliked it then and that has never changed. The wind was horrible today as it is most of the time we go to Casper. As in, rip the door off your vehicle ridiculous every time you get in or out! The trash is unbelievable! IMO, for family, between those two, Sheridan easily wins. I would say Sheridan will most likely be more expensive than Casper in most ways.

Well, I see nothing has changed much in the 35 yrs when I left there. The first thing I remember about Casper, was that HUGE scrap metal pile that greeted drivers. I understand that's been cleaned up. It's ALWAYS been windy. The lack of good trucks to buy is also a problem and prices for the stock that are available are always cause for laughter. You want $10,000 for a 20 yr old rusted Chevy?
Personally I always liked Ranchester and Dayton uphill from Sheridan

[NorCalMan]

I'll second (third) the garbage issue in Casper. Drove up from Laramie last summer to check the area out before moving onto Buffalo and Sheridan. I don't mean to disparage but Casper is dirty and isolated. The junk yards in people's front, back, and side yards will make you yearn for some CC&R's or some code enforcement. There's a lot wrong with California, but the reams of garbage in yards is usually not one of them. I think living in Casper would give me island fever too. It's hours in either direction to something... else. Casper Mountain is nearby but that's it for high country out there.
We really liked Buffalo and Sheridan, though Sheridan to a lesser extent. But the Big Horns being right there as well as Lake De Smet would make me choose Sheridan over Casper any day. But to each their own.

[sunsprit]

The greater Casper area is actually made up of a number of incorporated communities, with wide variations in land development and uses.

What presents is a hodge-podge of residential/commercial/industrial/retail sites adjacent to each other without much rime or reason for community development. A lot of the area development is somewhat incongruous ... residential houses next to industrial businesses, for example.

Sure, it's not all that way as there are subdivisions with better planning and segregation of uses.

But a casual drive through the Casper area could readily give the impression of the hodge-podge of development which isn't very inviting for a lot of people.

And yes, there seem to be some neighborhoods where the "pride of ownership" got left at the Wyoming border when the folks moved in. As well ... and I've written about this some years ago on another C-D thread ... I've had some less-than-a-pleasure experiences there. For example, on one trip where I was calling upon a few clients in an industrial area, I stopped at a nice neighborhood park (ballfields, open play areas, kid's slides and swings, tennis courts, etc) to exercise my dog and pass an hour before a nearby highly rated mex restaurant opened for the evening. I'm about a hundred yards from my RV van, walking my dog on a leash ... and out of nowhere descends a group of about 15 teen-agers with maybe a couple of pre-teens in the "gang". Riding their bicycles past me, very closely to intimidate me and waving their arms to barely miss me, they're shouting all kinds of "whitey go home" stuff, and kicking at my dog, and messin' around with the van mirrors and antennas and the outside rear spare tire mount, playing at trying to break stuff off. My little dog, a very friendly well socialized pet ... is absolutely terrorized because the normal petting she gets with a tail wag and happy composure instead is getting kicked or threatening moves towards her and she doesn't understand what's going on. OK ... I get the message, this isn't a place I want to be and I make a beeline for the RV, picked up my dog and went as fast as I could walk. I get inside to start it up and the brats are slapping the van exterior and pulling at the sliding door handle. I managed to drive off without running any of them over, although they were clearly trying to cause such an accident by closely riding along or in front of the RV as I moved off. I've traveled for business throughout the Rocky Mountain region since 1964, been through all kinds of neighborhoods (rich, and poor) and industrial areas at all times of the day and night, worked at job sites where I was forewarned that it was a "tough" neighborhood and to "be careful" ... and this was the first time ever I had this type of assault or even been threatened. Suffice to say that the experience didn't endear me to the Casper area and I made it a point to call upon my few best customers and get out of there as quickly as possible. While I did find a couple of OK RV campgrounds in the area ... I did notice a much rougher element than I usually see in these places; lots of very rowdy "under the influence" noisy behavior in the wee hours of the mornings, folks looking for a fight or just setting up a disturbance just for the sake of annoying everybody else. I'm thankful that I haven't had to be back in that town for a couple of years now except to pass through and maybe stop for fuel.

Wind? one of the highest average energy density areas of the USA. It's windy.

[tijlover]

If you Google windiest cities in the country, Cheyenne tops the list with average annual wind speeds of 13.9MPH.

As a comparison, Las Vegas @ 9.2MPH (I lived there for 22 years and I left because of the wind blasters) and the lowest annual wind speeds of any major cities is tied between L.A. and Phoenix at 6.2MPH, and with that, as expected, smog problems.

Lowest annual wind speeds outside major cities is Medford, OR @ 4.5MPH.

Wind is one thing, but the fine silica that flies into your lungs is another matter.