Retiring In Wyoming in 2026

[gemutlichkeit2000]

Hello,

Hoping to find someone who has retired to Wyoming. I was interested in Casper. Got a subscription to the local newspaper and it has been no help. Mostly junk in it. Are there any small town local papers or websites not owned by some giant corporate conglomerate? Any information would be appreciated. I am single and would need only a small place to live. I would like to work part-time if possible. I prefer cold weather over warm. You can always wear more clothing right? Thank you for reading this

[GoshWyo]

What specific questions do you have?

[Wytempest]

Blessed by the great Lord to live/retire in Wy.

Trying to finish a little cabin. Wy, great state to live/retire.

The trib in Casper falls hard to the left. Cowboystatedaily.com, not too bad but there are at least one past rino and one liberal columnist. Among other rino legistor, special commentarys bashing conservatives while telling you how conservative they themselves are after passing HUGE record breaking budgets. I don't even bother reading their trash. I use to like reading Pinedaleonline.com a bit.

Warning: fact is there could be a few tell you you how mean Wyoming residents are. If your one that needs to be coddled and have a huge social gathering, you'll probably not like Wy.

There's always room in Wyoming for conservatives! Still an on going battle with the majority, tax til you bleed, spend happy, Rino's in our legislature.

[volosong]

When I was looking to relocate upon retirement just less than a decade ago, Wyoming was my first choice. After having conducted geological research for a few years as part of a NASA project, I fell in love with the place. My preferred location was somewhere on the west side of the Bighorn Basin. After an in-depth investigation, I decided that Wyoming was not where I would retire.

There are too main reasons for this decision. "Nobody" in the state plays tennis. (Well, duh! It's Cowboy/Rodeo country after all.) And, the house pricing seems to have been "out-of-line", meaning what you get for what you pay was not in alignment with other places in northern Rocky Mountain areas. This was then, it may be different now. I was told that the expensive housing is a product of the 'boom and bust' economy based on mineral extraction that is prevalent in Wyoming.

Perhaps if Northwest College in Powell were more serious about hiring me as an adjunct professor, my life would have turned out differently and I would now have a bucking bronco on my license plate instead of "Famous Potatoes".

[sunsprit]

I'd recommend that you come visit your Wyoming areas of interest with the focus on possible housing, possible part-time employment, and your other concerns ...

for your retirement years, do check out the transportation, shopping, medical, entertainment, restaurants, recreation, insurance needs, costs of living (utilities, fees, daily expenses); ie, all the aspects of living here that you will require.

In my experience, many folk have a "disneyized" concept of what awaits them in Wyoming, and the realities of living here may be far different than what they expect to find. Your time to travel here and investigate first-hand for yourself in preparation for a move here will prove to be most valuable.

PS: while a summertime visit can be very pleasant travel and access, do plan visiting in Feb-May months when life is a bit different. There's little things that can become a very big deal living here which you'll not appreciate until you've experienced them first-hand ... like extended cold weather, strong winds & gusts, inclement driving conditions, seasonal business closures, potential few recreational opportunities ... the list of what makes Wyoming what it is is very extensive. Bear in mind that what can be "OK" for a couple of days ... such as extreme winds ... takes on a whole different perspective when presenting for months on end. As well, there are many aspects of life here that simply aren't readily available as they are in other areas of the USA ... and folk don't miss that for awhile, but when it's an ongoing long term fact of life, it takes on a whole different dimension in your happiness here.

In the decades here, I've seen these issues present time and time again to the most motivated and well-intentioned folk. The result has frequently been the "gone in 2" syndrome where people go through a winter and realize that they're not going to do another.

For an example ... we had some very nice folks from WI move into a gorgeous prairie palace near us on 80 acres where they could keep their horses. Retired, with multiple pensions, SS, and a handsome investment portfolio, their income was quite sufficient to be very comfortable here. Moreover, due to the husband's career track, he was getting unsolicited consulting offers in his line of expertise from former employers ... to the tune of $10,000/week + 1-st class travel + hefty per-diems + bonuses when the projects were brought in on time; a week here, a week there type work. He literally got to choose among the projects that didn't interfere with his recreational travels, horse trail rides, fishing & hunting ... where he was knocking down at least another $100,000 per year with very little effort. They enjoyed a beautiful late spring and very nice summer & fall 1st year ... then November weather arrived and by January, it wasn't all so pleasant anymore. They wound up visiting WI a few times that winter ... and decided that WI winters weren't as difficult for them as here in SE WY. There's more than just the "weather" that comes to be an issue ... the difficulties of access to medical care, getting their kids to school and to their sports/activities, inconvenience of trying to go out to a nice restaurant 3-4 times per week ... so many less than obvious factors that come in to play ....

They stayed through the 2nd summer ... when Fall came, they decided that they weren't prepared to deal with another WY winter. They went back to WI, bought a house there in September, and with the very active RE market here ... put their WY house on the market for a $225,000 increase over what they'd paid for it. (I was kinda' shocked by the asked price, I figured they were going to be disappointed) They had multiple full-price offers on the 1st day it hit the listing; sold full price on a cash deal with a 1-week later close (since all the survey and other paperwork was recent, and the well & septic tests were clear).

Bottom line: do your due diligence about a possible move here before making an informed decision.

[GoshWyo]

^^^^^^^^^
This right here. This should be required reading.

[Milwaukee City]

Those weren't real Wisconsinites possibly FIBS that have relocated to Sconnie and now call themselves Wisconsin people.



We vacation in Wyoming in the winter all the time, have no issues and have found the winters to be the same but with more snow drifts in the roads.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

Those weren't real Wisconsinites possibly FIBS that have relocated to Sconnie and now call themselves Wisconsin people.

Yeah ... they only had a family HVAC contracting biz in Madison for 40 years. The contract work that he was getting from WI was new commercial building HVAC installs and balancing the buildings. His specialty was the computerization controls and balancing the buildings that apparently were worth the GC's bringing him in to manage. They brought him back as the "troubleshooter" for the systems that their guys were having difficulty to work properly.



We vacation in Wyoming in the winter all the time, have no issues and have found the winters to be the same but with more snow drifts in the roads.

There's a huge difference between living here full time and dealing with the lack of access to entertainment/recreation/medical/shopping/restaurants/schools & related activities in SE Wyoming compared to the ready access to that stuff those folks apparently enjoyed in Wisconsin.

Their dissatisfaction with the Wyoming scene was that Wisconsin apparently did a much better job of keeping the roads clear, and access to wintertime activities and all the rest of the daily living necessities was way better than here in Wyoming.

If you're "vacationing" in Wyoming in the tourist oriented locales, such as Jackson ... where wintertime is a relatively pleasant experience, you're not dealing with the inclement conditions of SE WY. That's why there's a ski resort in Jackson, because you can readily access and enjoy being outdoors and the snow activities ... but that's the beauty of the "tourist" areas which are definitely not the norm of much of the rest of the state, which gets shut down for much of every winter.

The bottom line is that living through a SE Wyoming winter involves a lot more than just dealing with the weather and comparing total snowfall, degree heating days, winds, and closed roads ... there's so many more factors which didn't work out for these neighbors ... just like I've seen for so many other folk moving in and back away in very short time frames.

[Milwaukee City]

I agree Sunsprit, I am just questioning their Wisconsin toughness. I have never vacayed in Jackson in Winter, we hit all the local places in the big horns and the Winds and the Medicine Bow we have made the drive from Gillette to Douglas numerous times in hell-ish weather in winter. We drive out from Wisconsin 3 times every winter from Milwaukee to WYO and sometimes Big Sky and then drive down to Denver to visit family and then back up to Greybull and then back home. Cheyenne's only 30 min from Fort Collins, not that bad of a drive even in winter. This last winter when temps were -35 below and 60 mph winds we somehow made it from Big Sky all the way down to Denver with them closing roads right behind us, now that was fun



I admit most people aren't as crazy as we are, snowshoeing and skiing in -15 degrees which isn't bad out as long as the sun is out. There is no inappropriate weather only inappropriate clothing. If you choose not to find joy in the snow, you will have less joy in your life but still the same amount of snow.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

I agree Sunsprit, I am just questioning their Wisconsin toughness.

They told me they chose to move to Wyoming for their equine activities, which gave them much better trail riding opportunities than they had in WI. They raised and trained quarter horses, and trailered them around the state for trail riding/camping trips into the wilderness areas only accessible by foot or horseback.

Even the nearby public lands riding near Cheyenne or just West of Laramie give an opportunity to ride in mountain areas that are essentially untouched from the days of statehood ... very rough, rugged terrain and very lightly used. I've ridden back there many times and encountered no one else except a rider in my group for the day.

But when the SE WY winter presented, it apparently was way more of a hassle for them than they had in WI for the daily activities, recreation, entertainment, restaurants, and kid's activities than WY.

Myself, not having any familiarity with WI ... I can't say what was the attraction/benefits there compared to SE WY. All I know for certain is that I've seen the choice to leave WY in a very short time has been oft-repeated by many folk that moved to this area ... and the rationale has always been the same: "it's easier to get through a winter "back home" than it is here in WY, we're moving back", along with "we hate the constant winds".

You've been lucky to have had so many passable trips on Wyoming winter roads. Even now, in the springtime driving conditions, today & tomorrow ... many of the roads have difficult driving conditions, some are closed due to ice/snow/accidents, and several present only 1/4 mile visibility in the blowing snow.

I don't care if you've got the monster winter equipped AWD vehicle ... when the visibility is 1/4 mile or less and the road has "disappeared" due to the blowing/drifting snow so you can't even tell where the road is at (and you will frequently see the tracks of vehicles that took off-road excursions), and/or the gusts are so strong that your vehicle is blown off the road even when you're steering it straight down the highway ... travel here in much of WY in wintry conditions is way beyond just "challenging". It's treacherous, even if the road is still officially "open" per WYDOT. I've seen the results of this way too many times in the stretch of I-25 from Cheyenne to Ft Collins.