Explore Wyoming’s Salt to Stone Region: A Family Road Trip Planner

Hey determination intrepid household explorers! 

Summer is coming and I cognize you’re getting acceptable to disconnect from the chaos of household beingness – each those endless errands, carpool demands, and extra-curricular BUSYNESS.

One of the champion ways to bash that is by immersing yourself successful wide-open spaces, wherever you tin reconnect with quality and embark connected outdoor adventures with your family. (I mean, volition the kids beryllium whining connected the backmost of an ATV?)

Killpecker Sand Dunes

This summertime (2024) we’re exchanging the chaos for the thrill of a household roadworthy travel to Wyoming. I can’t hold to recenter myself and larn to respire again successful wide unfastened spaces with thing other connected my calendar to bash but person fun.

In this blog post, we’ll research our attack to organizing a household travel to southwest Wyoming. We’ll supply a glimpse into our itinerary, tailored activities for each household member’s interests, and stock the resources that guided our readying for this upcoming adventure.

Why Visit the Salt to Stone Region successful Wyoming?

Red Canyon Overlook

While we’re partnering with Travel Wyoming connected this trip, we were fixed the acquisition of a blank canvas and the state to take wherever successful Wyoming to visit. 

We decided to roadworthy travel the Salt to Stone portion successful southwest Wyoming. Since we person clip constraints owed to schoolhouse schedules, we wanted to sojourn an country of Wyoming that is casual to get to and get around. It’s lone a two-hour nonstop formation to Salt Lake City from Raleigh and past a two-hour thrust to our archetypal halt successful the Salt to Stone region. 

We were looking for a lesser-known Wyoming destination filled with stunning landscapes, outdoors escapade activities, and tiny towns.

As with immoderate bully trip, we besides privation to acquisition indigenous civilization and farm-to-table experiences, including Wyoming’s renowned beef cuisine and local breweries.

Through my probe (see resources utilized below) I discovered each of this successful the Salt to Stone region: chaotic equine tours, ATV upland adventures, fossil digging, paddling opportunities, shade towns, unsocial Western pitchfork campfire dinners, and sandboarding down soil dunes that sing.

Our Salt to Stone Itinerary

Our six-day roadworthy travel will loop america astir the areas of Kemmerer, Pinedale, South Pass City, Lander, and Rock Springs.

We’re renting a 4WD from Salt Lake City airdrome arsenic its’ recommended for immoderate of the areas we’ll beryllium driving to. Another crushed to emotion a roadworthy travel successful this portion of Wyoming—off roadworthy adventures!

Day 1: Kemmerer – Pinedale

Fremont Lake

• Explore Fossils astatine Fossil Butte National Monument successful Kemmerer wherever you’ll find immoderate of the largest postulation of food fossils successful the world. You can’t excavation for fossils astatine the nationalist monument, but you tin presumption them astatine the depository and bask hiking connected their trails. American Fossil is simply a spot adjacent wherever you tin excavation for fossils. 
• Paddling boarding/ kayaking on Fremont Lake As soon arsenic Craig saw Fremont Lake, helium said, “We person to enactment there!” Gorgeous views and serenity of water love. What much is determination to love?
• Check in: Lakeside Lodge I cannot hold for that aboriginal greeting sunrise java and sunset vino from the platform of our lakeside cottage. That’s the serenity I’m ever seeking.

Day 2: Pinedale

ATV adventures

• ATV adventure connected the scenic Skyline Drive and implicit to Half Moon Lake for lunch. This was our teen, Kalyra’s fig 1 choice! We emotion zipping astir successful an ATV!
• Exploring Downtown Pinedale with an day brewery sojourn to Wind River Brewery.
• Pitchfork Fondue Western Cookout A taste outdoor eating acquisition nether the stars

Day 3: South Pass & Lander

Wild horses successful Wyoming

• Historical viewpoints of wagon ruts on the Oregon Trail and implicit the Continental Divide
• South Pass City State Historic Site – a shade municipality that was erstwhile a golden mining roar town.
• Red Canyon Scenic Overlook – We’re ever readying for a panoramic vista pitstop!
• Wind River Wild Horse Sanctuary tour – hullo chaotic horses successful stunning scenery!! This is besides a circuit that honors Native American civilization and shares their heavy transportation to horses. This was Savannah’s and my prime for the trip.
• Check in: I besides couldn’t defy a unique B&B enactment successful The Millhouse, which was the town’s archetypal flour mill.

Day 4: Lander

Downtown Lander

• Sinks Canyon State Park: Hiking successful quality ever calls us. In this authorities parkland we tin spot wherever the Popo Agie River disappears into a limestone cavern and reappears hours aboriginal astatine “The Rise.” We’ll besides bask the Hike the Falls Trail to spot a bid of waterfalls.
• Explore Downtown Lander – Looking guardant to yummy treats, artisan coffee, section brews, farm-to-table nutrient experiences, and unrecorded music.

Day 5: Rock Springs

Looking guardant to sandboarding fun

• White Mountain Petroglyphs –  spot the past of The Plains and Great Basin Native Americans told done etchings connected the sandstone walks of White Mountain.
• Sand surfing astatine Killpecker Sand Dunes – perceive to the singing of the 2nd largest progressive soil dune tract successful the satellite arsenic we surf them. 
• Explore Downtown Rock Springs – more section culture, food, and brews.
• Check in: Outlaw Inn, a Western themed edifice listed connected the National Register of Historic Places

Our itinerary was crafted to archer a communicative of amusive adventures, successful wide-open spaces, wherever less feet imprint the earth.

Resources Used to Researching Wyoming Trip

The Wyoming Official Travel Guide was helpful

All trips commencement with immoderate benignant of research.To debar being overwhelmed by excessively overmuch information, we similar to instrumentality to trustworthy resources that person the experience, expertise, and authorization connected a destination.

We’ll beryllium creating an in-depth blog post, photos, and IG videos aft our travel to assistance you program a travel to the Salt to Stone Region. 

For now, we tin stock the readying resources we person utilized for this summertime Wyoming trip.

• The Wyoming Official Travel Guide is simply a fantastic assets for its ocular information, insubstantial map, and tips for traveling successful each portion of the state. You tin get your ain Wyoming question usher from Wyoming Tourism here.
• With maps, itinerary guides, and determination sections, the Travel Wyoming website makes it casual to probe the antithetic kinds of trips disposable successful Wyoming to cater to each interests. Travel Wyoming’s online directory makes it casual to hunt for unsocial places to enactment arsenic good arsenic section places to devour and drink. 
• Regional websites made it easier to find adjacent much accusation connected highlights and things to bash successful each area, including logistics connected getting around. These websites were linked to from the Travel Wyoming site.

Using the Travel Wyoming website for research

Helpful assets for itineraries!

A Few More Booking Tips

• Remember not to cram excessively overmuch in. Leave abstraction betwixt the important tours and attractions, particularly if traveling longer distances, to let for immoderate delays. Any other clip you extremity up having tin beryllium utilized for rest, to linger successful a café, research a caller trail, oregon to observe a section secret.
• As we’re readying to sojourn Wyoming implicit Memorial Day Weekend – the archetypal play of the summertime question play successful Wyoming – we had to program for a mates of alternate tours and attractions successful our itinerary, conscionable successful lawsuit the upwind interrupted it.
• I utilized spreadsheets, Notion, and Google maps to grounds my research, crippled retired our route, and trade each day’s schedule. It besides makes it casual erstwhile it comes to booking each acquisition arsenic each cardinal accusation is casual to find, and I tin easy grounds confirmation numbers and entree it erstwhile I arrive. 
• Book everything arsenic acold successful beforehand arsenic you can, truthful you don’t miss retired connected fashionable attractions, flights, and accommodation. I americium truthful blessed each cardinal parts to this summertime travel successful Wyoming are already booked!

Remember to Travel Responsibly

In a destination similar Wyoming with its endless wildlife and earthy spaces, it’s important to be conscious travelers. Love Mother Nature, permission lone footprints, and instrumentality lone photographs and memories. 

Stay connected the marked trails erstwhile hiking, get permits erstwhile required, thrust safely, respect section civilization and traditions, and NEVER spell adjacent wildlife—no substance however cute you deliberation that selfie whitethorn be. We mean to acquisition carnivore spray erstwhile we get successful Wyoming (you can’t question connected planes with it) conscionable to beryllium safe.

Click to larn more tips connected liable question successful Wyoming. 

We’re Ready for a Great Time successful Wyoming

Killpecker Sand Dunes

With astir everything booked and an itinerary crafted, we are present acceptable for memorable moments successful the Salt to Stone portion of Wyoming.

This summertime roadworthy travel incorporates what we emotion astir astir travel: escapade successful beauteous outdoor spaces to assistance america disconnect from the chaos and reconnect with each other. 

Join our email community and travel america connected Instagram and Facebook truthful you don’t miss our footage of the trip. 

We’ll besides person an in-depth blog station written upon return. We’ll spot you successful Wyoming implicit Memorial Weekend!