Sites to See Near Casper, Wyoming! Who Knew?

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    This will be edition one of our trip from Phoenix, AZ to Casper, WY, and back again. Oh the places we saw!  I have debated how to best tell you about our trip in a way that would be of benefit to you.  We took 2 weeks to travel, visit and see the sites.  But, many of the places we went are great destinations to go see for just a fun day outing or weekend trip, depending on your place of departure or your mode of travel.  Some are places you may never have heard about, but you won't be disappointed if you go.

    To begin, the main reason we planned this trip was because my granddaughter, Jayda, was getting baptized.  This is a big event in her life and we wanted to be there for it.  The timing was pretty busy for her family because my son had just started a new job in a town about 4.5 hours away from Casper.  His wife deserves a giant shout-out for her strength and ability to get their home all packed up by herself, take care of their 5 children and prepare for this baptism with company (lots of family) coming all at the same time.  She is an amazing woman. 

• There is my cute little Jayda all ready to be baptized!
• Her Daddy is in the blue shirt getting ready to go to work.  It makes me happy to see him switch from lawyer job to being the Dad who is worthy and able to baptize his daughter.
• She is with cousins and siblings and her mommy.  I love the photo where she is looking up at her Dad.
• If you want to know more about our beliefs about baptism, you can click this link. 

Sites to Visit Around Casper, WY

As you can see, we did a lot and had so much fun!  I am going to make a list and some highlights of the sites we saw in Wyoming.

Ayers Natural Bridge:  Near the city of Douglas, and less than an hour from Casper, this is a beautiful park nestled in a red rock canyon.  It has camping areas and a playground and the bridge and water are beautiful.  Our grandchildren played in the pool right under the bridge.  The best part is, this beautiful park is totally free to use!  Another fun thing is that the caretakers have made the park even more magical by adding little fairy houses and animals on the trees of the park.  My granddaughter was captivated.

Casper Mountain:  Just a few miles south of Casper is Casper Mountain.  Drive up some winding roads and see a gorgeous view of the city below.  There is camping among the tall pines available and beautiful meadows.  We visited just after a music festival that was held there.  The weather and the skies were gorgeous the day we went up. 

Martin's Cove:  This is one of 3 historical sites very close to each other along the road between Casper and Kemmerer.   This site commemorates the Martin Handcart Company, one of the pioneer groups from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, better known as Mormon Pioneers.  The Martin Company left too late in the season and as a result lost many of its members to disease, cold and starvation. In Martin's Cove, a rescue party was able to meet them and help save the remaining members of the company.  One of my favorite stories from that rescue was of 3- 18 year old boys who carried the weak pioneers across the freezing Sweetwater River multiple times to safety. 
    At Martin's Cove, you can pull handcarts around a short interpretive walk, or borrow one for a longer trek of your own.  We did that with our grandkids, took a picnic in our handcart and hiked about 4.5 miles.  It was a great day, the kids were troopers and it was amazing to remember what those brave pioneers must have gone through.  
*WARNING:  Wear mosquito repellent! 

Devil's Gate:  The Sweetwater River flows through this natural gorge.  The Pioneers often traveled through this spot into the Martin's Cove area.  Again, wear repellent! 

Independence Rock:  I found out this giant rock with so many pioneer names carved on it was so named because the pioneers had to reach it by Independence Day to be able to have safe travel before winter hit.  Unfortunately for the Martin and Willie Handcart companies, they didn't arrive there until November! 
   My husband climbed up to the top of the rock.  I stayed below to take his picture.  Yeah, that's why.

Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area: This beautiful red rock area along the Green River is magnificent!  There is boating, hiking and camping available. 

Have you been to any of these places?  My husband and I really enjoyed Wyoming, It 

There are antelope EVERYWHERE in Wyoming! We also saw a 4 point buck in velvet right in the side yard in the middle of Casper! It was amazing.

We didn't want to put a lot of miles on our own cars for this trip, so we rented from Enterprise. We rented a Nissan Rogue that was extremely roomy and got such terrific gas mileage! It was really nice.