Curt Gowdy State Park is a public recreation area covering in Albany and Laramie counties in

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It is located on Wyoming Highway 210 (Happy Jack Road), halfway between

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...

and Laramie, about from each. The state park is known for its extensive trail system, fishing reservoirs, and Hynds Lodge, which is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. The park is managed by the

Wyoming Division of State Parks and Historic Sites The Wyoming Division of State Parks and Historic Sites is the Wyoming state agency that administers its state parks. Also known as Wyoming State Parks, Historic Sites & Trails, the agency is headquartered in Cheyenne, Wyoming. See also *List of ...

History

The park was established in 1971 through a lease agreement with the City of Cheyenne and the

Boy Scouts Boy Scouts may refer to: * Boy Scout, a participant in the Boy Scout Movement. * Scouting, also known as the Boy Scout Movement. * An organisation in the Scouting Movement, although many of these organizations also have female members. There are ...

. It was originally called Granite State Park and covered . It was renamed in 1972 in honor of national sportscaster and outdoorsman

Curt Gowdy Curtis Edward Gowdy (July 31, 1919 – February 20, 2006) was an American sportscaster. He called Boston Red Sox games on radio and TV for 15 years, and then covered many nationally televised sporting events, primarily for NBC Sports and ABC S ...

(1919–2006), a Wyoming native, born in

Green River Green River may refer to: Rivers Canada * Green River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Lillooet River *Green River, a tributary of the Saint John River, also known by its French name of Rivière Verte *Green River (Ontario), a tributary of ...

and raised in Cheyenne where his broadcasting career began. He was a two-sport varsity athlete (

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

, tennis) at the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

in Laramie. The park originally included the Crystal and Granite Springs reservoirs. It was expanded in 2005 to include the Upper North Crow Reservoir, the area of Hidden Falls, and the canyon below the dam at Crystal Reservoir. In 2006, the park saw initiation of an

International Mountain Bicycling Association The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) is a non-profit educational association whose mission is to create, enhance and preserve trail opportunities for mountain bikers worldwide. IMBA was formed in 1988, when five California-based ...

(IMBA) trail improvement project. The trail system earned the IMBA's "Epic" designation in 2009. In 2009, Wyoming began a program to build additional hiking trails in several Wyoming state parks. Curt Gowdy State Park served as the pilot project for the program, with 32 miles of additional trails. The state required that the newly built trails do not fundamentally alter the landscape of the park. Funding for the trails came from federal and state funds and private donations. Trail improvements resulted in a substantial increase in visitorship with number of annual visitors to the park increasing from 56,000 in 2006 to 120,000 in 2013. To accommodate the park's newfound popularity, a new state-of-the-art, green-certified, visitor center was opened in 2014.

Geography

Park terrain consists of rolling hills and sharp granite outcroppings in the foothills of the Laramie Mountains. Elevation ranges from to over . Wildlife that can be found include:

kokanee salmon The kokanee salmon (''Oncorhynchus nerka''), also known as the kokanee trout, little redfish, silver trout, kikanning, Kennerly's salmon, Kennerly's trout, or Walla, is the non-anadromous form of the sockeye salmon (meaning that they do not migrat ...

perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Per ...

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model us ...

rainbow A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows c ...

and

lake trout The lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush'') is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, and grey trout. In Lake Superior, it can also ...

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

, and

mule deer The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related whi ...

. The park is divided into seven sections centering around three reservoirs: Granite Springs, the largest, Crystal, the smallest, and the isolated North Crow, located northwest of the main park.

Activities and amenities

The park offers over of trails for biking, hiking, and horseback riding. Other activities include boating, canoeing, water skiing, fishing, camping, rockhounding, and archery.

References

External links

Curt Gowdy State Park
Wyoming State Parks, Historic Sites & Trails
Curt Gowdy State Park Brochure and Map
Wyoming State Parks, Historic Sites & Trails
Curt Gowdy State Park Trails Brochure and Map
Wyoming State Parks, Historic Sites & Trails {{authority control State parks of Wyoming Protected areas of Laramie County, Wyoming Protected areas of Albany County, Wyoming Protected areas established in 1971 IUCN Category III 1971 establishments in Wyoming