Head west out of Laramie on a route taken by pioneers in the 1860s as they followed the Overland Trail to California. I-80 between Laramie and Elk Mountain is over a winding, hilly terrain because it lies close to the Medicine Bow mountain range. You'll skirt north of the mountains until passing by Elk Mountain – which the American Indians called Medicine Butte – and then the landscape flattens and opens with broad vistas.

As you drive, imagine this: railroad workers welding the nation together as they constructed the Union Pacific Railroad. Picture John C. Fremont, Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, and dozens of mountain explorers as they mapped the West, American Indian families as they traveled from winter homes to summer hunting areas, gold seekers with covered wagons, the stagecoaches of Ben Holladay's Overland Mail, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid riding hard with plunder from robbed railroad cars. All these folks traveled right along this same route making their mark on and creating the stories that are now Western legend.

Although it is small, don't bypass the community of Elk Mountain. This ranching town has a population of fewer than 200, an elementary school, a store, and a wonderful hotel that has been restored to 1905 elegance. They have lodging in period rooms, serve meals in the dining room, or you can enjoy a quiet interlude on the hotel porch.