During our route through the Nebraska Sandhills to Breckenridge, Colorado we went through Cheyenne, Wyoming. We had a bit of time in the afternoon and the following morning to find things to do.
After a bit of research I found the Terry Bison Ranch. Since we’ve had a theme of bison/buffalo over the last few weeks we thought this was a good additional to the trip.
The bison ranch was much better than expected. They had a number of animals for you to view, but the main attraction was a train that took you out to the field to view bison up close. You actually get to feed the bison from the train. It’s about a 40 minute ride, and a lot of the time is spent feeding the bison.
The bison herd near the train tracks know that they are going to get feed, so as soon as the see/hear the train they start to make their way over.
While on the train ride we discovered that the ranch has an RV area as well as a few cabins for rent. Since we didn’t have any accommodation booked for the night, we decided to see if they had any cabins available. Lucky for us they did.
All of the cabins overlook the field where the train travels. You can see the bison from the cabins, which has a small porch to sit and look out over the field. At the ranch they also have a nice restaurant that serves bison different ways. I’d never had bison/buffalo before, but it was delicious. Ben had the steak and I had the ribs. The restaurant is quite large, with a bar along one side. The night we stayed, the restaurant had a live band playing. It was a great meal, we great entertainment.
The next morning, before making our way to Breckenridge we decided to look around the Cheyenne area. We didn’t have much time, because we were meeting family for dinner in Breckenridge and still had a few hours left in our drive.
I found a museum online that had great reviews, so we decided to check it out. Messenger’s Old West Museum is a large building full of items from one man’s personal collection.
When you first pull up to the museum you aren’t sure exactly what to expect. It is part of a storage facility, so the signs out front are for storage, but there is a sign for the museum (so you know you are in the right place).
When you walk in the person at the front, points to the back of the building into the museum. When you walk around the corner it’s a bit surprising how big and impressive it is. The museum doesn’t charge an admission fee, but does kindly request a donation.
The collection included a mix of displays including old stage coaches to old cars. The displays were really well laid out. By one food/chef coach they had all the cooking supplies on display and a fire pit with a fake fire crackling away.
On some of the displays there are stories of the owner and his sons taking some of the old coaches out for adventures – some are well worth a read.
While we were looking at the displays, the owner of the museum came over to introduce himself. He talked about the items on the display, how the cars still ran (his wife was driving one of the old cars around the parking lot the other day). If we had more time, I’m sure he would have had some great stories to share.
If you have time, I would recommend making a stop of this private museum – it’s well worth it.
After the museum, we walked around and checked out a few shops near the train depot. From what we saw (which unfortunately wasn’t much), it looked like a great place. Ben and I would both like to go back again and spend a bit more time – especially since Ben saw a pinball arcade (Flippers). It wasn’t open until later in the day, but looked awesome through the windows.
From there we headed into Colorado to finish our roadtrip in Breckenridge, Colorado.