Each July, the inhabitants of Cheyenne Wyoming and neighboring towns gather together to celebrate their Frontier roots and traditions. Many towns in Wyoming (and the West in general) have a version of Frontier Days, but none do it up as extravagantly as Cheyenne!

The 2012 lineup for Cheyenne Frontier Days will blow your mind. From July 20th through the 29th, there is an ENORMOUS schedule of events with everything you could possibly think of to entertain yourself and your family: concerts, rodeos, demonstrations, exhibitions, museums, rides, carnival games, and lots and LOTS of food. The FREE pancake breakfast comes highly recommended by the vast network of my husband’s cousins that live in Cheyenne and Laramie. They tell me it is the town of Cheyenne’s chance to practice their emergency response and disaster recovery skills, by feeding a vast amount of people in record time.

The concert lineup includes the Zac Brown Band, Journey, Hank Williams Jr., Blake Shelton, and Brad Paisley. Make sure you buy your tickets early!

If you’re coming in from out of town, I recommend the Little America Cheyenne or the Hampton Inn – they’re elegant yet reasonably priced. And if the whole frontier/western/cowboy thing isn’t for you… well, first visit during some other time – they’re ALL FRONTIER ALL THE TIME during this stretch of July. Second, check out the Historic Governor’s Mansion, the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens, or the Wyoming State Museum.

Photo by Tiffany Joyce.