Wyoming State Map

Geography of Wyoming

Wyoming’s borders are straight surveyed lines, so the state is almost a perfect rectangle. Inside it, mountain ranges alternate with wide, dry basins, and the Continental Divide crosses from the northwest corner to the south-central border.

Yellowstone and Grand Teton

The northwest corner holds most of Yellowstone National Park, established in 1872 as the first national park, with its geysers, hot springs and Yellowstone Lake. Just south, Grand Teton National Park rises above the valley of Jackson Hole and the town of Jackson.

Wind River Range

A long granite range in west-central Wyoming with Gannett Peak, the state’s highest point, and many of the largest glaciers in the US Rocky Mountains. Lander and Pinedale lie at its foot, and the Wind River Indian Reservation lies to the east.

Bighorn Mountains and Bighorn Basin

The Bighorn Mountains rise west of Sheridan and Buffalo. Beyond them, the Bighorn Basin holds Cody, Worland and Thermopolis, ringed by the Absaroka and Owl Creek mountains.

Great Divide Basin and the southwest

The high desert between Rawlins and Rock Springs, including the Red Desert, is an enclosed basin: rain that falls there drains to neither ocean. The Green River flows south through the region toward Utah and the Colorado River. Evanston sits in the far southwest corner.

Southeast mountains and plains

The Laramie Mountains and the Snowy Range of the Medicine Bow Mountains rise west of Cheyenne and Laramie. East of them, the High Plains run to Nebraska, with ranches, wheat and the North Platte River valley around Torrington.

Powder River Basin and the northeast

Rolling grassland and the country’s largest coal-mining district around Gillette. In the far northeast corner, Devils Tower became the first national monument in 1906, near the western edge of the Black Hills.

Rivers

Major rivers drain Wyoming in every direction. The Snake River runs from Yellowstone through Jackson Hole into Idaho; the Green River flows south into Utah; the North Platte enters from Colorado, loops north to Casper and turns east into Nebraska; and the Yellowstone, Bighorn and Powder rivers flow north into Montana.

Major highways

• I-80: across southern Wyoming from the Utah line at Evanston through Green River, Rock Springs, Rawlins, Laramie and Cheyenne to Nebraska; high winds and snow can close it in winter.
• I-25: from the Colorado line south of Cheyenne north through Wheatland, Douglas and Casper to Buffalo, where it ends at I-90.
• I-90: from the Montana line north of Sheridan through Buffalo, Gillette and Sundance to South Dakota.
• US 191, US 189 and US 89: the main routes through western Wyoming, linking Rock Springs, Pinedale, Jackson and Yellowstone.
• US 14/16/20: from Cody west to Yellowstone’s East Entrance; US 14 and US 16 also cross the Bighorn Mountains.
• US 20/26 and US 287: US 20/26 links Casper with Shoshoni and Riverton; US 287 links Rawlins with Lander.