Larry Johnson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted

Northwest > Wyoming

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Featured Locations

Devils Tower

Colin Faulkingham, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted

Devils Tower National Monument

Butte composed of igneous rock in the Black Hills, in northeastern Wyoming, rising 1,267 feet above the Belle Fourche River, standing 867 feet from summit to base

Grand Teton

Jon Sullivan, PD Photo., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted

Grand Teton National Park

National park 10 miles (16 km) south of Yellowstone, includes the major peaks of the 40-mile-long (64 km) Teton Range as well as most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole

Yellowstone Old Faithful

Mlewis2005, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted

Jackson, WY

Town in the Jackson Hole valley is a popular tourist destination due to its proximity to the ski resorts as well as Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park

Acroterion, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted

Landmarks and Landscapes

Buffalo Bill Center of the West · Cirque of the Towers · Green River Lakes · Hot Springs State Park · Pinedale, WY

Devils Tower

Fredlyfish4, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted

Wind River Range

Mountain range of the Rocky Mountains and the vast wilderness areas in western Wyoming is a popular recreation destination attracting hikers, climbers and skiers

Yellowstone Old Faithful

Tigerzeng, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image Size Adjusted

Yellowstone National Park

The first national park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world, the park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful geyser

Overview

Wyoming is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. The 10th largest state by area, it is also the least populous and least densely populated state in the contiguous United States. The state capital and the most populous city is Cheyenne.

Wyoming's western half is mostly covered by the ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains, while the eastern half of the state is high-elevation prairie called the High Plains. It is drier and windier than the rest of the country, being split between semi-arid and continental climates with greater temperature extremes. Federal lands include two national parks—Grand Teton and Yellowstone—two national recreation areas, two national monuments, several national forests, historic sites, fish hatcheries, and wildlife refuges.

Original inhabitants of the region include the Arapaho, Crow, Lakota, and Shoshone. Southwest Wyoming was claimed by the Spanish Empire and then as Mexican territory until it was ceded to the U.S. in 1848 at the end of the Mexican-American War. The region acquired the name "Wyoming" when a bill was introduced to Congress in 1865 to provide a temporary government for the territory of Wyoming. The name had been used earlier for the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, and is derived from the Munsee word xwé:wamənk, meaning "at the big river flat".

Wyoming's economy is driven by tourism and the extraction of minerals such as coal, natural gas, oil, and trona. Agricultural commodities include barley, hay, livestock, sugar beets, wheat, and wool. It was the first state to allow women the right to vote and become politicians, as well as the first state to elect a female governor. Due to this part of its history, its main nickname is "The Equality State" and its official state motto is "Equal Rights".

Wyoming is one of only three states (the others being Colorado and Utah) to have borders defined by only "straight" lines.

Natural landforms

The Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming. The state is a great plateau broken by many mountain ranges. Surface elevations range from the summit of Gannett Peak in the Wind River Mountain Range, at 13,804 feet (4,207 m), to the Belle Fourche River valley in the state's northeast corner, at 3,125 feet (952 m). In the northwest are the Absaroka, Owl Creek, Gros Ventre, Wind River, and the Teton ranges. In the north central are the Big Horn Mountains; in the northeast, the Black Hills; and in the southern region the Laramie, Snowy, and Sierra Madre ranges.

The Snowy Range in the south central part of the state is an extension of the Colorado Rockies both in geology and in appearance. The Wind River Range in the west central part of the state is remote and includes more than 40 mountain peaks in excess of 13,000 ft (4,000 m) tall in addition to Gannett Peak, the highest peak in the state. The Big Horn Mountains in the north central portion are somewhat isolated from the bulk of the Rocky Mountains.

The Teton Range in the northwest extends for 50 miles (80 km), part of which is included in Grand Teton National Park. The park includes the Grand Teton, the second highest peak in the state.

The Continental Divide spans north-south across the central portion of the state. Rivers east of the divide drain into the Missouri River Basin and eventually the Gulf of Mexico. They are the North Platte, Wind, Big Horn and the Yellowstone rivers. The Snake River in northwest Wyoming eventually drains into the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean, as does the Green River through the Colorado River Basin.

The Continental Divide forks in the south central part of the state in an area known as the Great Divide Basin where water that precipitates onto or flows into it cannot reach an ocean—it all sinks into the soil and eventually evaporates.

Several rivers begin in or flow through the state, including the Yellowstone River, Bighorn River, Green River, and the Snake River.

Basins

Much of Wyoming is covered with large basins containing different eco-regions, from shrublands to smaller patches of desert. Regions of the state classified as basins contain everything from large geologic formations to sand dunes and vast unpopulated spaces. Basin landscapes are typically at lower elevations and include rolling hills, valleys, mesas, terraces and other rugged terrain, but also include natural springs as well as rivers and artificial reservoirs. They have common plant species such as various subspecies of sagebrush, juniper and grasses such as wheatgrass, but basins are known for their diversity of plant and animal species.

The key tourist attractions in Wyoming include Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Devils Tower National Monument, Independence Rock and Fossil Butte National Monument. Each year Yellowstone National Park, the world's first national park, receives three million visitors.

Wyoming is home to 12 ski resorts, including Grand Targhee and Jackson Hole.

Public lands

Nearly half the land in Wyoming (about 30,099,430 acres (121,808.1 km2)) is owned by the federal government; the state owns another 3,864,800 acres (15,640 km2). Most of it is administered by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service in numerous national forests and a national grassland, not to mention vast swaths of "public" land and an air force base near Cheyenne.

There are also areas managed by the National Park Service and agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

National parks

Memorial parkway National recreation areas National monuments National historic trails, landmarks and sites National fish hatcheries National wildlife refuges

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Wyoming", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0