State Parks

Southwestern Wyoming's diverse collection of State Parks, State Historic Sites, and State Monuments offers many choices to guests of Little America.

Bear River State Park is a year-round park that offers nearly 300 acres for picnicking, hiking, wildlife viewing, bicycling, skiing, and many other activities. The park is home to a small head of captive bison and elk kept for public viewing. Three miles of foot trails are within park limits; the foot trails in the park also double as cross-country ski trails in the winter.

Sinks Canyon, another year-round State Park, features a geologic phenomenon in which the Popo Agie River vanishes into a large cavern (the Sinks) but reappears in a pool, the Rise, about half a mile down the canyon. A visitor center features wildlife and recreation exhibits, viewing sites and interpretive signs about wildlife and habitat requirements. The park contains hiking trails and offers camping, rock climbing, and fishing.

Jim Bridger and Louis Vasquez established Fort Bridger Historic Site in 1843 as an emigrant supply stop along the Oregon Trail. It was obtained by the Mormons in the early 1850’s, and then became a military outpost in 1858. There are several restored historical buildings from the military time period, a reconstruction of the trading post operated by Bridger, and an interpretive archaeological site containing the base of the cobble rock wall built by the Mormons during their occupation of the fort.