Discover Rawlins: Culture, History and Trails

Rawlins combines city history, museums and trails with a designated connection to the Continental Divide Trail. Anyone who wants to combine cultural discoveries with outdoor activity will find various opportunities here for spending time together and planning a varied vacation. When choosing a vacation rental or holiday home, it is therefore worth first deciding on your preferred focus: the historic downtown, museum visits or trails in the surrounding area.

History and Culture in Rawlins

One defining site is the Wyoming Frontier Prison, which offers immersive tours of the former Wyoming State Penitentiary. The grounds can only be visited as part of a guided tour. The museum exhibits at Wyoming Frontier Prison, on the other hand, can be explored free of charge and at your own pace. The attraction also includes a new exhibit about the current Wyoming State Penitentiary, as well as a separate prison museum. This allows you to distinguish between a guided visit and an independent museum visit when planning your trip.

The Carbon County Museum expands the historical perspective on the region. Its collection includes more than 30,000 artifacts and archival materials. Among other topics, the exhibits explore the legacy of cattle and sheep ranching as well as mining throughout Carbon County. The current exhibit, “How Did We Get Here: Travels Through Carbon County,” focuses on the routes, transportation connections and journeys that linked Carbon County with the wider West.

The downtown area can also be explored in various ways. An art tour uses 12 murals to highlight the history and natural beauty of south-central Wyoming. The art and history tour also includes 10 stories ranging from the Transcontinental Railroad to modern energy production. Anyone who prefers to set their own pace can complete the downtown walking tour independently. The historic walking tour passes through the nationally designated historic downtown district and to other historically significant sites; you should allow approximately 60 to 90 minutes for it.

Trails for Active Vacation Days

Rawlins’s Outdoor Walking Trail offers 7.5 miles of paved route through the city. It connects the Continental Divide Trail, Main Street in the downtown area and the historic grounds of the Old Frontier Prison. This route is suitable for trip planning in which sightseeing and physical activity both have a place on the same day, without implying a specific walking time.

The Rawlins Uplift Interpretive Trail offers a different perspective. It leads from Rawlins Springs to the Rawlins Uplift and features interpretive signs about local history, geology and other topics. This creates an excursion in which not only the route itself but also the information along the way plays a role.

Rawlins was designated a “Continental Divide Trail Gateway Community” in September 2016. The city lies near the midpoint of the more than 3,000-mile Continental Divide National Scenic Trail. Rawlins is also located at the midpoint of the mapped sections of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. For cycling travelers and vacationers who want to include longer routes in their plans, this connection is a distinctive feature of the city.

The Right Base for Planning Your Trip

Accommodation in Rawlins can be particularly appealing if you want to combine culture, city history and active excursions. If guided tours and museums are your main focus, the downtown area becomes the central reference point for your trip. If paved trails, the Rawlins Uplift Interpretive Trail or the connections to the Continental Divide are to play a larger role, you can orient your daily planning more strongly around these experiences. The individual interests remain clearly distinguishable: Rawlins offers both self-guided museum and city explorations and an explicitly guided visit to Wyoming Frontier Prison.

For further trip planning, you can also keep Elk Mountain and Saratoga in mind as additional destinations. With its museums, murals, historical stories and designated trails, Rawlins itself offers enough different starting points to shape your stay according to your interests and daily rhythm.

For the overarching travel overview: Carbon.