Platte County
Accommodation in Platte County
Platte County combines wide-open landscapes along the water with impressive traces of America’s westward expansion. Between state parks, historic museums, and sites along the old trails, you will find a range of ways to shape your trip. When choosing your vacation rental, it is therefore worth considering your personal focus: Should the trip primarily offer nature, history, water activities, or regional culture?
Lakeside Landscapes and Outdoor Trails
Glendo State Park covers 22,000 acres and is located on and around Glendo Reservoir. This makes the landscape one of the notable natural experiences in Platte County. Those who enjoy spending time outdoors can make the park a key focus of their trip and combine their days there with additional historical or cultural visits.
Guernsey State Park also offers several points of interest for planning your trip. It has 19 campgrounds and 250 campsites. The park also includes the Guernsey Museum, the Castle, and Brimmer Point, all of which can be explored. The Guernsey Museum is open seasonally from May 1 through September 30. For hiking and walking plans, the park offers approximately 14 miles of restored CCC trails, divided into several loop trails.
At Wheatland Reservoir No. 1, you can fish for walleye, yellow perch, channel catfish, largemouth bass, as well as black bass and crappie species. A river trip on the North Platte River is offered in the Guernsey area in spring and summer. These different water-based activities make it possible to plan either a more active or a quieter day, depending on the stage of your trip.
Following the Pioneers’ Trail
The Oregon Trail Ruts State Historic Site preserves wagon ruts more than five feet deep in soft sandstone. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975. Another historic site is Register Cliff. Names, dates, places of origin, and messages from emigrants are carved into the soft sandstone. During the height of westward expansion in the 1840s and 1850s, Register Cliff was an important landmark along the California, Oregon, and Mormon Trails.
Those who would like to explore this history in greater depth will find an extensive fossil collection at the Glendo Museum, along with a pictorial history of Glendo Dam and hand-forged relics from the Twin Springs blacksmith shop, which burned down during the Battle of Horseshoe Creek. The Laramie Peak Museum also includes an authentic reconstruction of Wheatland’s first schoolhouse and numerous artifacts belonging to Platte County’s earliest settlers.
Regional Culture and Special Places
The Guernsey Museum is a historic museum built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC for short. In Chugwater, a preservation project at the Chugwater Museum has digitally preserved more than 3,000 images of photographs, newspapers, documents, letters, and private and government records. The Chugwater Soda Fountain is considered the oldest continuously operating soda fountain in Wyoming.
The Chugwater Chili Cook-Off and Roundup features public tastings of chili and salsa. The event takes place every June and adds its own culinary accent to the county’s historical and scenic impressions.
Choosing the Right Base for Your Trip
Platte County is located along I-25 on the route to or from Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone National Park. If your trip combines several destinations, you can take this location into account when planning your regional itinerary. When choosing a vacation rental, it is advisable to first organize the experiences you want: nature and water activities suggest focusing on the area around the state parks, while museums, historic sites, and events point toward different day plans. You can discover additional places within the county via Wheatland and Chugwater.
For the broader travel overview: Wyoming.
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