Wyoming Road Trip
Many people visit Wyoming each year to experience our beautiful landscapes and unique attractions. These visitors are called tourists, and the money they spend while traveling is a major source of income for our state. Families that live in Wyoming can also be tourists when they visit our parks and attractions. In this activity, you will choose some Wyoming attractions you would like to visit then plan a road trip for your family.
In this activity, your family will:
- Explore Wyoming attractions via the internet.
- Plan a road trip for the family.
- Calculate mileage.
Materials needed:
- Computer, tablet, or phone
- Paper, pencil, crayons or colored pencils
- Wyoming Scavenger Hunt worksheet
- Wyoming Public Lands map
- Wyoming Parks (scroll to the bottom and click on graphics for lists)
- Wyoming National Parks and Monuments
- Wyoming road map
- WYDOT Wyoming Travel Information map
- Mileage charts (choose one):
-
- WYDOT Mileage Chart
- DriveBestWay
- MileageMath
-
Key Words to know:
Mileage – number of miles traveled or covered; the distance between places
National Parks – Federal land reserved to be enjoyed by the public for recreation and tourism and do not generate income through development
State Parks – State lands reserved to be enjoyed by the public for recreation and tourism and do not generate income through development
Tourism – the activity of traveling to a place for pleasure that can generate revenue from the enjoyment of Wyoming’s land and/or resources
Preparation:
- Print of the Wyoming Scavenger Hunt worksheet or make your own chart using the symbols.
- Practice using the Wyoming Public Lands map, especially using the zoom buttons.
- Choose a mileage chart for calculating mileage between places. (A Wyoming road map works well, too. Free copies can be found at rest stops or information sites.)
- The WYDOT travel conditions map can also display visitor centers and rest stops. Select the “additional layers” option to add those to the map.
Do the Activity:
- Print out the scavenger hunt worksheet or create your own chart.
- Using the Wyoming Public Lands map click on each symbol on the chart to see what kind of site it represents so you can become familiar with them.
- Look for different tourist attractions and visitor sites around Wyoming. Make a list of the ones you find most interesting.
- Explore the sites you found most interesting on the Wyoming State Parks and the Wyoming National Parks websites.
- While exploring the sites, contemplate the following questions:
-
- Which of the sites you’ve looked at is your favorite?
- Why do you want to go there?
- Are there others like it that you’ve been able to find? What are they?
- How are those sites alike? How are they different?
- What time of year would be the best time to go there?
- How many miles is it from your house? How long would it take you to drive there?
- Of all the places you’ve explored, which one is the farthest away from your house? Which is the nearest?
- Now that you’ve found a variety of interesting places to visit, plan a trip for your family that includes three or more of those places. For your plan, you will need to decide the following:
-
- Create a route to visit all three sites on one trip.
- What is the most efficient or easiest route?
- Will you need to make stops during the day? Where will those be?
- How much time will you spend there?
- Are there other things in the area that you may want to explore in addition to the place you chose?
- What is the total mileage for your trip? (Don’t forget to calculate coming and going.)
- How much time will you spend driving?
- Now that you have your plan, write a letter to your parents (or grandparents) to convince them why this would be a great trip for your family to take. Include some of the following:
-
- What you would like to learn.
- Why you think it’s an important site for Wyoming.
- Why you would like your family to visit.
- Draw pictures of the sites you want to visit.
Learn more through our Wyo Wonders curriculum here!