Last weekend we headed up to Wyoming for the first time since we moved here six years ago. Why it took us this long to get there, I have no idea, but we’re in love now! The scenery is gorgeous, and it’s so close!We heard about Vedauwoo from a friend last year and were excited to finally make it up there this year. We camped in dispersed camping nearby, had a great hike and spent an afternoon in Laramie, I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

Camping

Vedauwoo has a dedicated campground that is first come first served. They have 28 campsites, most of them made for smaller trailers (pop-up sized) and tents. There’s a tent only area down by the trailheads that also looked really nice. The larger sites had been taken by the time we arrived Friday around noon, so we headed down the dirt road into the dispersed area camping areas.

There’s one main road that goes through the dispersed camping area, it’s not too rough for campers and trailers. The road is about five miles long and connects to highway 210, which connects Laramie and Cheyenne. We made it about four miles into the dispersed camping area before we found a spot, it was pretty full! There were a LOT of spots in there though, so getting there earlier would have been a good idea.

Our spot was GORGEOUS though! We had a big open meadow and beautiful views. The kids rode their bikes, climbed on rocks, and ran around with each other.

The dispersed sites have fire rings, but no tables, so keep that in mind when you head that direction.

(For people with trailers/campers, there’s a free dump station at the Southeast Wyoming Welcome Center just where I-80 and I-25 meet.)

Here’s more camping information: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/mbr/recarea/?recid=22872

Laramie Visit

We headed into Laramie for an afternoon because I wanted to explore and see their main street. We ended up at Historic Ivinson Mansion, and it was fantastic! (We didn’t get a chance to visit The Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Prison, but it’s supposed to be great too!)

Ivinson Mansion

The mansion was built in 1892 by the Ivinson family. It was eventually converted into a girls school, and then was turned into a museum by the city. The history of the family and the house was fascinating. To go into the mansion you must take a private tour, which is led by one of their junior docents. I loved this aspect of the tour, the young people, who were probably 12-13, were fabulous tour guides. And it was much more interesting for our kids to have young people leading the tour. I really enjoyed listening to them share the history, I wish more museums would do that!

Their regular tour is an hour, but I asked if we could have a shorter tour, because there’s no way our four-year-old would do a one-hour tour, so they had us do the 30-minute walk through tour, which was perfect! We got to see all the rooms and hear a brief history of the house as we went. And the house is gorgeous, with beautiful furniture, and historic pieces. And the staircase is amazing!

I’m so glad this was something we stumbled upon while we were in Laramie, and I can’t recommend it enough! (I am definitely not a museum person, but I really enjoyed this, especially with our kids!)

Here’s more info about the Ivinson Mansion: http://www.laramiemuseum.org/

Laramie Main Street 

The main street area is near the railroad tracks between University and Garfield, and 1st and 3rd. Lots of shops and restaurants frequent this street, and we had fun walking around. We stopped into The Chocolate Cellar and picked out some chocolates, which were delicious! Then we headed next door to the Big Dipper Ice Cream Shop for some ice cream, which was amazing! They had so many different unique flavors. It’s a little pricey, but well worth it for a delicious treat. (Tip: The kiddie cup is a better value if you get it with a cone, even if your kiddo needs a dish, get the cone with a dish on the side!)

Box Canyon Hike

We were excited to explore more of Vedauwoo, so we set out on a hike one morning. We were planning on doing the Turtle Rock Trail but unfortunately the parking lot for that was full, so we ended up in the parking lot for the box canyon. Which was a happy accident, because the Box Canyon Hike ended up being amazing!

I’ll warn you that the parking lots are all pretty small, and spots were hard to come by on a Saturday morning at 10:00am in June. Get there earlier and you should be good! If not, you’ll have to park in the overflow lot, which is really far from the trailheads, and would make this hike almost impossible with the kids.

From the parking lot, we headed out on the paved trail that goes into the canyon. There are lots of great picnic areas along this part of the hike, and fun rock formations for the kids to check out. Eventually you come the where the trail splits and you can take a dirt path, which is where the fun starts.

Take the trail back until it seems like a dead end. Instead of going straight up to the rock formations and trying to get creative about how to get up, take a look to your left after you cross the bridge. There’s a rock that looks like a ramp, head up that! You’ll find portions of trail (and remnants of when they had railings and other trail markings) as you go, and will stumble upon bridges, stairs and ladders that will let you know you’re on the right track. If you make your way up, there’s a saddle that you’ll come to, and you can choose to go up higher on either side if you’re adventurous! We kept heading up quite a ways, and the kids did awesome. We made it to the top of one of the big rock formations, and that was pretty fun. Just pick your path well and remember you have to go back down what you come up!