> OTHER SPOTS I LOVED

Huntsville:

For drinks, head to Campus 805. Once a middle school, the complex has been converted into an appealing array of breweries, restaurants and bars. Another place I loved was A.M. Booth’s Lumberyard, a deceptively gigantic space that includes multiple bars, outdoor patios, music stages and a restored train car from the 1920s that you can have dinner in.

A short drive from the city centre will get you to Burritt on the Mountain. The centrepiece is the mansion of William Burritt, who willed the land to the city upon his death in 1955, but the highlights are the 19th-century structures that are home to a living history museum, with re-enactors in period-appropriate attire, and the view of the city.

There’s a lot of development going on in Huntsville, including the building of what will amount to a second downtown at MidCity. For now, much of it is still a construction site, but it’s worth heading to The Camp, an outdoor live music venue with a food truck that serves a dangerously good hot chicken sandwich.

Cheyenne:

Just a short drive from Cheyenne is the Terry Bison Ranch, home to a hotel, a steak house and a whole lot of bison. If you’ve got the stomach for it, take the train tour to the ranch to feed bison from the palm of your hand and then dig in to a seriously delicious bison burger at the Senator’s Steakhouse.

If you’re focusing your Wyoming trip on Cheyenne, it’s worth spending an afternoon in Laramie, about 40 minutes away. Home to the University of Wyoming, it exudes an energy that’s at once young and quirky. Grab a vegetarian bite at Sweet Melissa and bounce between the many antiques shops that dot South 2nd Street. You can also get an extra dose of history at the Laramie Plains Museum, a reconstructed 19th-century home with a hallway dedicated to Wyoming women’s firsts, and the House for Historic Women (closed in the winter), which honours Louisa Swain, the first woman to vote in a general election, and other Wyoming women.