ROCKY MOUNTAIN STATES
Tracking Butch Cassidy in Wyoming
Butch Cassidy was born and bred in Utah, but he also cut a wide trail through Wyoming. Here's how to track him there.
Historic Trails West, Mills, (307) 266-4868, www.historictrailswest.com, offers a six-day Outlaw Trail ride and cattle drive that visits places on the wide Wyoming range where Butch rustled cattle and hid stolen horses. The six-day drive costs $2,395, and participants must be 7 or older.
Hole-in-the-Wall is a remote valley at the southern end of the Big Horn Mountains about 30 miles west of the town of Kaycee that became a hide-out for the Wild Bunch because it could be reached only from the east by a narrow trail over a sheer red rock wall. Today, Willow Creek Ranch at the Hole-in-the-Wall welcomes guests for cowboy vacations, fly fishing, skeet shooting, bird watching and dipping into Butch's favorite swimming hole on Buffalo Creek. Information about the 57,000-acre dude ranch is available at (307) 738-2294, www.willowcreekranch.com.
Rock Springs is the small coal-mining town in southwestern Wyoming where Butch was said to have earned his nickname by working at a butcher shop on Main Street. This short-lived interlude on the straight and narrow was over by 1894, when Butch was convicted for stealing horses.
Wyoming Territorial Prison, 975 Snowy Range Road, Laramie, (307) 745-6161, www.wyoprisonpark.org, is the penitentiary where Butch did time for horse theft from July 1894 to January 1896. Legend has it, he was granted an early release by the governor after promising never to return to Wyoming. The restored 1872 stone prison welcomes visitors and has an exhibit on its most infamous inmate. Admission is $5 for adults, $2.50 for kids 12 to 17, 11 and younger are free. Open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily from May 1 through Oct. 31.
 This is a city known for great old architecture. And it's a desert spot and has a long-standing tradition of hospitality. |
 America's 20 most-visited national parks in 2009. |
Big Bear and Mountain High ski resorts opening Friday in Southern California
Two of Southern California's most popular and convenient ski resorts are opening Friday aft...
Read more »
Users' Favorites
Taking restless Southern California on vacation
Los Angeles Times e-mail newsletter, delivered every Thursday
wherever it appears.