Sheridan, WY

A North Main fixture doing modern American plates with a daily market menu built around what's seasonal and local. The room is the upscale-but-unfussy end of downtown dining, and the bar pours a deep whiskey list.

A downtown fine-dining room off Main built around a raw bar of oysters and crudo alongside French-leaning plates and Wagyu, with a chandelier-and-velvet setting that feels outsized for a town this size. It opened in 2024 and quickly drew AAA Four Diamond and James Beard semifinalist attention.

A North Main steakhouse known for aged steaks, fall-off-the-bone ribs, and stuffed fried green tomatoes. It's a regional Wyoming-Montana name but the Sheridan room runs warm and busy, especially on weekend nights.

An elevated gastropub in a former furniture warehouse near downtown, doing bison burgers, truffle fries, and a deep drink program under a chef who came off Four Seasons Jackson Hole kitchens. The high-ceilinged room runs casual by day and turns into a late-night spot on weekends.

A North Main spot doing Nepali and Indian cooking that stands out in a steak-heavy town. The lamb korma, tikka masala, and lamb samosas are what regulars come back for.

A family Mexican kitchen on North Main building plates from fresh ingredients rather than the usual gut-bomb combo platters. It's a reliable, unflashy stop for enchiladas and house salsa when you want something off the Western-fare track.

A small Main Street Thai room turning out rich, balanced pad thai and curries in generous portions. It runs at its own unhurried pace, so it's a sit-down meal, not a grab-and-go.

A Main Street coffee shop and scratch bakery doing paninis, soups, salads, and house-baked sweets. It's the downtown morning-and-lunch anchor where locals park with a laptop or meet a friend.

A breakfast-and-lunch counter tucked into a 1910 newsstand and tobacco shop at the head of Main Street, serving biscuits and gravy, smash burgers, and gluten-free blueberry pancakes all day. The vintage-diner room shares space with cigars and magazines, which is half the charm.

A no-frills Main Street diner doing breakfast through supper, with country fried steak and sausage gravy that have a local following. This is the start-your-morning-before-the-trail kind of place.

A family-friendly brewpub at 150 North Main pouring close to a dozen house beers plus seltzers, cocktails, and craft root beer. The pull is the patio out on its namesake historic alley, which is one of the better outdoor seats downtown.

A Broadway Street brewhouse pouring hand-crafted beers made on site by a Sheridan-native brewer, a short step off the main downtown drag. It's the more low-key, beer-first room of Sheridan's brewing scene, with live music several nights a week.

A North Main pizza-and-pub doing solid pies and slices with a small arcade in back, in a town short on good pizza. It's the casual, feed-the-family-after-a-hike option downtown.

Over 17 miles of non-motorized loops on state, BLM, and national forest land just up Highway 335 from town, winding through conifer and aspen along a year-round creek. Five trailheads between The Base and Bear Gulch let you pick anything from an easy meadow loop to a steep climb to big valley vistas.

A non-motorized foothill trail only minutes from downtown Sheridan that climbs through grassland and sage to open 360-degree views over the valley and the Bighorns. The longer out-and-back stretches several miles, but you can turn back whenever the ridgeline view is enough.

A climb to a 9,400-foot former fire-lookout cabin on the east face of the Bighorns, with a deck and a 360-degree view of Cloud Peak, Black Tooth, and Steamboat Rock. It gains over 1,000 feet and finishes with a short rock scramble up to the CCC-built lookout.

A short, steep push of under a mile that climbs nearly 600 feet to one of the most photographed viewpoints in the Bighorns. The summit opens onto a 360-degree panorama over the valley and the Cloud Peak Wilderness.

A timbered hike through the alpine close to the Tongue River, managed by the Bighorn National Forest. It's a quieter, shaded forest walk rather than a view-grab, good when the exposed trails are too hot or windy.

A trail in the forest above Story that works up a Bighorn canyon past clear streams, ponderosa pine, and dolomitic limestone cliffs, passing an old dam before turning to singletrack along the creek. It's a manageable family-length walk that still feels deep in the mountains.

A short, steep descent off Tongue Canyon Road near Dayton that drops to a roughly 100-foot waterfall pouring into a pool below. The trail down is quick, but the climb back out is the workout, with the Tongue River canyon walls framing the whole thing.

The 1,200-plus miles of trail across the range that backstop every hike in the area, from quick foothill loops to multi-day pushes into the Cloud Peak Wilderness. The forest is the larger canvas the named local trails are carved out of, reached up Highways 14 and 335.

A 1923 vaudeville house downtown, saved by a community restoration in 1989, that now runs touring acts, musicals, concerts, and film nights from a restored main stage. There's also a black-box studio and a dance studio, so the calendar runs deep year-round.

Sheridan's oldest bar, open since 1907, with a 1938 neon bucking-bronco sign out front and walls packed with taxidermy, brands, and rodeo memorabilia. It's the default after-dinner stop on Main Street.

A modern Sheridan College arts complex with a 422-seat concert hall, one of the largest in the region, plus studios for recording, ceramics, sculpture, and painting. The hall hosts concerts and performances open to the public through the year.

Summer polo at the Big Horn Equestrian Center, where the oldest club west of the Mississippi plays alongside the neighboring Flying H, drawing top players from around the world. Sunday matches are a sideline-tailgate scene with the Bighorns as a backdrop.

Wyoming's most-awarded brewery, with a downtown Sheridan taproom on Broadway pouring its core and seasonal beers. It's the anchor of the local craft scene and an easy spot to land after a day in the mountains.

A North Main wine-and-spirits lounge with a self-serve pour system, where you load a card and sample curated wines and whiskeys by the taste alongside small plates. It's a quieter, sit-and-linger alternative to the brewpubs a few doors down.

An unpretentious North Main corner bar with a pool table, fire pits out on the patio, and live music, karaoke, or theme nights several evenings a week. It's the local-vibe option, known as the biker hangout in summer, where the bartenders mix a deep list of specialty drinks.

Sheridan's marquee summer event, a July rodeo week that has run for over nine decades with PRCA bronc and bull riding, World Championship Indian Relay races, a parade, and a downtown that fills with the polo and ranch crowd. It's the one week the whole town pivots around the arena.

The 1913 Flemish Revival mansion of John Kendrick, a cattle baron who became Wyoming governor and U.S. senator. The house kept its original Burmese teak floors, a hand-cranked elevator, and a third-floor ballroom, all set on a hill above town with the Bighorns behind it.

A Western and American Indian art collection on the 620-acre Quarter Circle A Ranch outside Big Horn, with Remingtons, Russells, and the world's largest Hans Kleiber holding. The newer rammed-earth gallery building is built into the hillside, and the original 1893 ranch house is preserved as it was when Bradford Brinton lived here.

An 1893 inn once co-owned by Buffalo Bill Cody, who is said to have auditioned Wild West Show performers from the long front porch. The 69-dormer building has been restored with 22 rooms each themed to someone in his circle, and the Open Range bar centers on its carved late-1800s back bar.

A working saddle and tack shop on Main Street since 1946, with a back-room museum of saddles, Native American artifacts, carriages, and rope. Craftsmen still tool leather on site, and the rope room out back is stacked floor to ceiling.

The grounds of an 1866 Army fort on the Bozeman Trail, the flashpoint of the Fetterman Fight and the Wagon Box Fight against Red Cloud's forces. The fort itself is gone, but interpretive trails mark the outlines, and a visitor center lays out the conflict from both sides.

Open fields at the foot of the Bighorns where the Big Horn Polo Club, the oldest polo club west of the Mississippi, plays every Sunday in summer. The setting is pure ranch country, and locals tailgate along the sidelines rather than buying tickets.

A quiet hillside above Story where 32 soldiers and woodcutters held off Red Cloud's Oglala warriors from behind a corral of wagon boxes in August 1867. A 1936 CCC stone monument and a reconstructed wagon-box corral mark the ground, with the Bighorns rising right behind.