Fly Fishing: Hidden Treasures During Runoff Conditions

By Jeff McDonald

Many areas in Wyoming’s high country are still heavily loaded with melting snow, which means that most of the rivers and creeks continue to run high with poor water clarity.  High, fast moving water can also make wading a challenge, if not downright dangerous.

Just because some of the better-known trout streams are “blown out,” it does not mean that there is not good fly fishing in Wyoming right now.  During these runoff conditions, I like to focus my attention on smaller out-of-the-way places that escape the dangerous runoff conditions much earlier in the spring.

Cheyenne Frontier Days

By Carrie Barker

I’ve had a cowboy hat tucked into the top of my closet for years, and this weekend I pulled it down for the very first time to wear at Cheyenne Frontier Days. I’ll admit, the classic style felt awkward at first, but while walking in an excited crowd of the big-brimmed hats I felt like I fit right in. And by the time I’d seen the first rodeo event, I was feeling like a genuine Western cowgirl.

And for the record, I’ve been to rodeos before, but nothing has compared to the Daddy of ‘Em All. From I-25 you can see the bright lights and colors of the carnival and the tops of the tee-pees in Indian Village. When you pull into the dusty parking lot, there are pickup trucks and horses occupying every other space — yes, horses had their own parking space. The midway is packed with fair-style food vendors selling funnel cakes topped with ice cream, smoked turkey legs and corn dogs. Once you smell it all, you won’t be able to resist.

Tour de Wyoming: A Different Way to See the State

By Dina Mishev

Sunday morning, I started out from Worland. After touring through open, rolling ranch country, I ended the day in Ten Sleep, at the foot of the eastern slopes of the Bighorns.

Monday, it was 4,000-plus feet up and over Power River Pass, where huge fields of periwinkle lupine distract from the few small patches of remaining snow. It was like traveling through a perfume bottle. I descended from the pass’ 9,666-foot summit into Buffalo. Sagewood Gifts, on Main Street, has a wonderful little café hiding at the back of the store. The key lime cheesecake, which they make, along with all of the breads they use, in-house, was wonderful. I spent the night in Buffalo.

Today, Tuesday, I stayed on the western side of the Bighorns, coming up from Buffalo through the tiny towns of Banner and Story before stopping in Sheridan at one of my favorite coffee shops in the state, Java Moon. After a hearty bacon breakfast burrito, some freshly squeezed lemonade – 100-degree temperatures made that sound better than coffee – and a vanilla bean scone, I continued north to Dayton. The rugged Tongue River Canyon is only six miles outside of town and the river itself comes right through town. I’m tempted to jump in.

Tomorrow I will again head up into the Bighorns, to Bear Lodge at Burgess Junction.

Mine isn’t an uncommon itinerary.

My First Real Rodeo

By Helen Coronato
The Accidental Cowgirl

The 64th Hulett Rodeo took place in June at the rodeo grounds –— a stone’s throw from Main Street. Having never attended a rodeo, I was looking forward to seeing some real cowboys in action. What could be more exciting than a cowboy in full regalia trying to stay on a horse that wants nothing to so with him?

We arrived under sunny skies and I was immediately enthralled with not just the sights, but the sounds. Being from the East Coast, I am used to there being a very safe distance and ample security between spectator and participant. Here, I propped a cowboy boot on the rail and had a better-than-front-row seat for the action. And action there was!

Yes, cowboys holding on for 8 seconds is something to see; but I had no idea how massive, mean and LOUD the horses and bulls (and sheep!) would be. The snarling, coughing, hissing and complaining beasts of burden kicking up dirt, ramming into the rails and falling and flailing turned each individual’s competition into a frenzy. I wasn’t just watching a show, I was experiencing an out-West event as old as the land itself. And while I held my breath when my own little boys tried to pull the ribbon from the sheep’s tail, I couldn’t help but smile when they, too, kicked some dirt on dear old mom as they ran by in hot pursuit of their prize. Where else in the world, I wondered, would we rather be doing this on a Saturday afternoon?

New Bike Park at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort

By Dina Mishev

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort opens new trails … for bikers.

“On most of the beginner trails, you hardly need to pedal or brake, you just flow,” the supervisor at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort’s new Bike Park told me. Having run off the top of Rendezvous Mountain, also at JHMR, with him several years prior (attached to a paragliding wing), I wasn’t so sure he was to be believed. Another resort employee told me he’d feel comfortable having his five-year old kid ride the park’s beginner trails.

Still, I was nervous.

The last time I was on a mountain bike — while in Morocco researching a story — I fell. Hard. And broke my collarbone into many pieces. Rather than a hand-painted tagine to remember that trip by, I now have a four-inch metal plate and titanium screws in my left shoulder.

But I digress.

Opened June 18, the bike park was designed by Whistler-based Gravity Logic and constructed by JHMR staff last summer. JHMR has had cross-country mountain bike trails for years. The six trails that make the bike park are completely new. All are accessed from the top of the 300-foot Teewinot high-speed quad lift.