What's to do in Cheyenne?
May 23rd, 2004, 06:49 PM
#2
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From what area are you traveling?
Cheyenne's a neat place--it's easy to see its not-so-deep frontier roots just by driving through town. Funny this post came up now since I just drove through Cheyenne today on my way home from Denver and was admiring all of the restored buildings downtown.
The state capitol is in Cheyenne and is worth a tour. Warren Air Force base is also located here--they used to give tours but I'd check ahead of time now-a-days. If you're not familiar with Warren, it's the nation's longest continuously active Air Force base that the U.S. 'owns.' The base also maintains a huge stock of Minuteman and Peacekeeper missiles--living 100 miles away, I'm never sure whether that makes me feel more/less safe. Anyhow, the museum on the base would be a good stop.
Cheyenne has a lot going on in the summer--melodramas, rodeos (some in near-by Pine Bluff) plus downtown walking tours and tours on the new trolley. Guess they even offer a ghost tour which sounds fun.
Restaurants--hmmm. We've eaten at the usual chains (Outback, Sonic, Red Lobster, etc.) but am guessing you want something different? Sanford's downtown is fun, especially if you have kids. Maybe someone at your hotel could recommend a good steakhouse--coming from Nebraska we don't seek out steakhouses when we're out of town since we have them here
Let me know if you have any other questions and I'll do my best to answer them. Have a great trip!
Cheyenne's a neat place--it's easy to see its not-so-deep frontier roots just by driving through town. Funny this post came up now since I just drove through Cheyenne today on my way home from Denver and was admiring all of the restored buildings downtown.
The state capitol is in Cheyenne and is worth a tour. Warren Air Force base is also located here--they used to give tours but I'd check ahead of time now-a-days. If you're not familiar with Warren, it's the nation's longest continuously active Air Force base that the U.S. 'owns.' The base also maintains a huge stock of Minuteman and Peacekeeper missiles--living 100 miles away, I'm never sure whether that makes me feel more/less safe. Anyhow, the museum on the base would be a good stop.
Cheyenne has a lot going on in the summer--melodramas, rodeos (some in near-by Pine Bluff) plus downtown walking tours and tours on the new trolley. Guess they even offer a ghost tour which sounds fun.
Restaurants--hmmm. We've eaten at the usual chains (Outback, Sonic, Red Lobster, etc.) but am guessing you want something different? Sanford's downtown is fun, especially if you have kids. Maybe someone at your hotel could recommend a good steakhouse--coming from Nebraska we don't seek out steakhouses when we're out of town since we have them here
Let me know if you have any other questions and I'll do my best to answer them. Have a great trip!
May 24th, 2004, 10:01 AM
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Take a drive to Vidavoo State Park outside of Cheyenne. There are beautiful red rock formations that you can see easily from the road through the park. It looked like a nice place to picnic or hike but we were with a 93 year old granny so we just enjoyed the scenery from the car. She is a 70 year resident of Cheyenne and had never been to the park and was really impressed with the natural beauty. There is also a park with a locomotive steam engine that kids get a kick out of. I think it is named "Big Boy." I don't know the location, it was right on the main drag..locals will be able to tell you.
Jun 28th, 2004, 07:27 AM
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Here's a cut a paste from my trip report. I was wondering if I should have created a new thread and post it, but I ended up posting to my first thread instead. I've cut out the part about Nebraska. If you want to read that part, click on my name.
First, thanks to Sinehat and Tess. They gave some excellent suggestions, esp. to shorten my day trip into Nebraska to a more reasonable length.
We arrived in Cheyenne in the early afternoon on Friday. We took the trolley tour ($8 adults, $7 for AAA members) and it was well worth the money. About an hour but the driver/guide knew a lot about the town and even had historic photos to show. Because we arrived late in the day, we didn't have time to tour the Old West museum, the name I forget, the state musuem and the botanical gardens. Frontier Park and Holiday Park (both on the trolley tour) were amazing. Residents there are lucky to have two wonderful parks intown.
We stayed at the LaQuinta off of I-25 and Lincolnway highway. Room was fine but if you are a light sleeper you might want to pick another place because you can hear road and train noise all night long. You won't hear any noise from the hallway or ajoining rooms though. The LaQuinta offers a breakfast with hard-boiled eggs, bagels, muffins, cereal, juice and make your own waffles in the morning. It also has a pool. The hotel was very safety aware because you had to use you room key to enter the building from the parking lot. We picked the LaQuinta because it was the cheapest I found through a web search.
Restaurants we ate in weren't many. Friday night we ate a steakhouse the Cheyenne tour guide recommended. I don't remember the name of the place but the 2 of us had steak dinners with potatoes and salads for $25 before tip. The smallest steak was 12 ounces I believe. 16 and 18 ounce steaks were common on the menu. Saturday morning breakfast at the hotel. Saturday lunch was on the road. Saturday dinner at the San Pedro Mexcian restaurant on Lincolnway. It was recommed by the hotel. Very good and full of locals. We arrived arround 7:15 Saturday night and the place was hopping but able to seat us right away. By the time we finished dinner the place was near empty. They had combo platters in the $6-7 range. As with most all Mexican restaurants you are greeted with a basket of chips and salsa. The meal was enormous or maybe I ate way too many chips with the good salsa.
Sunday morning up early to hit the road. Had hoped to see Vidavoo state park but it was about 70 miles away from Cheyenne and in the wrong directions. Wished we had arrived earlier Friday so we could have visited the museums in town. And we didn't even try to visit the military base since neither one of use has military id.
All in all, Cheyenne was a good weekend destination. I don't think I would want to vacation there during Frontier Days or in the winter, but it's a nice little town clinging to its roots.
First, thanks to Sinehat and Tess. They gave some excellent suggestions, esp. to shorten my day trip into Nebraska to a more reasonable length.
We arrived in Cheyenne in the early afternoon on Friday. We took the trolley tour ($8 adults, $7 for AAA members) and it was well worth the money. About an hour but the driver/guide knew a lot about the town and even had historic photos to show. Because we arrived late in the day, we didn't have time to tour the Old West museum, the name I forget, the state musuem and the botanical gardens. Frontier Park and Holiday Park (both on the trolley tour) were amazing. Residents there are lucky to have two wonderful parks intown.
We stayed at the LaQuinta off of I-25 and Lincolnway highway. Room was fine but if you are a light sleeper you might want to pick another place because you can hear road and train noise all night long. You won't hear any noise from the hallway or ajoining rooms though. The LaQuinta offers a breakfast with hard-boiled eggs, bagels, muffins, cereal, juice and make your own waffles in the morning. It also has a pool. The hotel was very safety aware because you had to use you room key to enter the building from the parking lot. We picked the LaQuinta because it was the cheapest I found through a web search.
Restaurants we ate in weren't many. Friday night we ate a steakhouse the Cheyenne tour guide recommended. I don't remember the name of the place but the 2 of us had steak dinners with potatoes and salads for $25 before tip. The smallest steak was 12 ounces I believe. 16 and 18 ounce steaks were common on the menu. Saturday morning breakfast at the hotel. Saturday lunch was on the road. Saturday dinner at the San Pedro Mexcian restaurant on Lincolnway. It was recommed by the hotel. Very good and full of locals. We arrived arround 7:15 Saturday night and the place was hopping but able to seat us right away. By the time we finished dinner the place was near empty. They had combo platters in the $6-7 range. As with most all Mexican restaurants you are greeted with a basket of chips and salsa. The meal was enormous or maybe I ate way too many chips with the good salsa.
Sunday morning up early to hit the road. Had hoped to see Vidavoo state park but it was about 70 miles away from Cheyenne and in the wrong directions. Wished we had arrived earlier Friday so we could have visited the museums in town. And we didn't even try to visit the military base since neither one of use has military id.
All in all, Cheyenne was a good weekend destination. I don't think I would want to vacation there during Frontier Days or in the winter, but it's a nice little town clinging to its roots.
