Cheyenne

Cheyenne is Wyoming's largest city, but at just over 50,000 people it is not a place where you'll have to fight traffic or wait in lines -- except, perhaps, during the last nine days in July, when the annual Cheyenne Frontier Days makes the city positively boom. Throughout the year it offers a decent variety of shopping, plus attractions ranging from art galleries to museums to parks.

Cheyenne became the state capital in 1890, at a time when the rule of the cattle barons was beginning to weaken after harsh winter storms in the late 1880s and financial downturns in the national economy. But Cheyenne's link to ranching didn't fade, and the community launched its first Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1897, an event that continues to this day. During the late July celebration -- the world's largest outdoor rodeo extravaganza -- the town is up to its neck in bucking broncs and bulls and joyful bluster. The parades, pageantry, and parties require the endurance of a cattle hand on a weeklong drive.