Southwest

Southwest Wyoming covers the four counties — Lincoln, Sublette, Sweetwater, Uinta — that fill the basin country between the Wyoming Range and the Utah-Idaho line. The terrain runs from the high alpine country of the Wind River Range and Wyoming Range down through the sage plains of the Green River Basin to the deep canyons of Flaming Gorge at the Utah border. Rock Springs anchors Sweetwater County on the I-80 corridor, with the Western Wyoming Community College’s dinosaur exhibits; Green River sits west of it, near Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area’s northern end. Pinedale in Sublette County is the gateway to the Wind River Range and holds the Museum of the Mountain Man; Kemmerer in Lincoln County holds the original J.C. Penney store and Fossil Butte National Monument west of town; Star Valley in northern Lincoln County wraps the small towns of Afton and Thayne below the Salt River Range; Evanston runs the Uinta County stop on the Utah border. Trips here usually anchor on Pinedale for the Winds, Flaming Gorge for the reservoir, or Star Valley for the cabin-country itinerary. Summer through fall is the working window.