Field trip ideas needed for Wyoming

[phathui5]

I've been offered a midwifery apprenticeship in Oregon, so it looks like our family is going to be making the drive from upstate New York to Lebanon, Oregon this fall.

We'll be driving along I-80W for a large portion of the trip and I am looking for field trip suggestions for stops along the way.

Our children will be 11, 8, 6, and 4 when we make the trip. We've always homeschooled and I'm thinking we'll treat this like the biggest homeschool field trip we've ever had.

What can you suggest that's close to the highway that we shouldn't miss?

[rsochi]

Here's a list of "touristy" things to do through Wyoming
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/map/wy

It's about 1.5 hours between each major town on I-80, so consider staying on one side of the state or the other (Cheyenne or Evanston) South of Cheyenne toward Colorado is Terry Bison Ranch, it's kind of cool.  If you like history, there's http://www.wyomingterritorialprison.com/ & http://www.wyomingfrontierprison.org/.  You might want to consider going over the Snowy Range from Laramie and connecting back up to I-80 to see the leaves and possibly stop in Saratoga at the hot springs. 

[elanorh]

When in the fall?  The sights and suggestions could be very different, depending on whether you're talking about mid-September, or early November..... Also very different potential weather to consider at the same time, too. 

It sounds disloyal to suggest this, but have you considered looping onto I-90 at Chicago and going that route?  In the end, it wouldn't add more than 100 miles or so to your drive (doing this via Google Maps) - but the scenery, especially in the fall, is so nice along that route ().  I'm a Montana native, but my Wyoming native husband is the one who suggested this!  I-90 would take you close enough to Yellowstone to loop down to it, too.  There's the Museum of the Rockies (great dinosaur etc. museum) in Bozeman.....

If you do follow I-80 as you're planning:

You'd go through Laramie, where you should stop at the University - there's a nice museum there.  Jeffrey's for a nice (localish) meal in Laramie.  The pizza place there is also good (Grand Avenue Pizza) although I heard they have new owners so the quality may have changed.  Fort Laramie is a cool stop.  It's about 2 hours from Laramie (National Historic Site).  http://www.nps.gov/fola/index.htm

Going through Nebraska, you'd go through North Platte which has a huge rail yard.  Also where the Golden Spike is from the joining of the transcontinental tracks there.....


 

[phathui5]

It'll probably be the week of October 22nd.

We are looking at stopping in Chicago to take my Lego fanatic son to the Lego Discovery Center.

[elanorh]

I'm sorry, canning season hit me like a ton o'bricks and I haven't been on MDC for awhile! 

Whether you take I-90 or I-80, that time of the year the weather would be quite changeable on either route.  It's too late for much for 'fall color' on either route - still pretty scenery but your deciduous trees will have wintered up by then.  You could have nice weather, or you could end up with a big snow storm.  And, either route, there are stretches of road where there's a good long distance between towns.  So, make sure you're prepared for winter weather with a travel box etc. - that should guarantee nice weather along your whole route. 

So, I'd say what it comes down to, since you'll be in Chicago and can go either route, is whether you'd have the time/interest to swing to Yellowstone or not.  There aren't many tourists there that time of the year, so you would be seeing it at a much less congested time....