Add These To Your Vocabulary Before You Visit Wyoming

Are you new to Wyoming?

Are you just visiting the Cowboy State?

There are a few things out there that you might have never seen before.

Here is a helpful guide to what they are and what they are called.

Buttes

Let's say you're driving in the plane's area of northeastern Wyoming and you see this large lump of ground every so often. What the heck are those little hills? Those are called BUTTES.

Buttes are formed when hard rock is covered by soft soil. Sometimes the rock is exposed DEVILS TOWER IS ALSO A BUTTE, BUT A VERY BIG ONE!

You might also see tall cliffs in what looks like a canyon area. That's not called a cliff.

Bluff

Bluffs may form along a river where it meanders or curves from side to side. River currents on the outside of the curve erode or wear away, the lower part of a river bank. No longer supported, the upper part of the bank breaks off, leaving the high wall of a bluff. A perfect example of Buffs is found as you drive through Chugwate Wyoming on Interstate 25.

Look at all those wonderful Wyoming buffalo!

You won't see Buffalo in Wyoming

If you see buffalo then you are no longer in Wyoming.

Wyoming doesn't have buffalo.

Wyoming has BISON!

Bison have a massive head, but buffalo have a head that is smaller and more “cowlike.” Buffalo live in generally warmer climates than bison.

Pronghorn

Those deer-looking things you see all over Wyoming are Pronghorn, which are a type of antelope.

They are indigenous to western and central North America.

Though it is not really an antelope, it is known colloquially in North America as the American antelope, prong buck, pronghorn antelope, and prairie antelope, because it closely resembles the antelopes of the Old World.

The pronghorn's closest living relatives are the giraffe and okapi. The Antilocaprids are distant relatives of deer, bovids, and moschids.

The pronghorn is the fastest land mammal in the Americas, with running speeds of up to 55 mph.

There, now you have a little idea of what you are looking at.