Wyoming is among the wildest states in the United States, ranking as the second least densely populated state behind Alaska. Given its expansive landscape and incredibly geography, there’s probably a lot you don’t know about the state. Here are 50 geography facts about Wyoming that sound like they could be fake, but aren’t.
10 Facts About Wyoming That Sound Fake (But Aren’t):
- Two Ocean Pass: North Two Ocean Creek in the Teton Wilderness splits, with one stream flowing to the Atlantic and the other to the Pacific, a globally rare hydrological wonder protected by treaty.
- Heart Mountain Slide: 50 million years ago, a mountain slab larger than Rhode Island slid across Wyoming at over 100 mph on a cushion of superheated CO2 gas, defying geological physics.
- Yellowstone’s Supervolcano: Beneath Yellowstone lies a 45-by-30-mile supervolcano that erupted 640,000 years ago, capable of burying Texas in 5 feet of ash, powering the park’s geothermal features.
- Singing Sand Dunes: The Killpecker Sand Dunes, spanning 109,000 acres, produce an eerie low-frequency hum when wind moves the sand, with a 400-foot volcanic spire, Boar’s Tusk, rising from them.
- Bighorn Medicine Wheel: This ancient 80-foot stone circle on Medicine Mountain aligns with the summer solstice and stars like Sirius, suggesting prehistoric Native American astronomical knowledge.
- Sinks Canyon River: The Middle Fork of the Popo Agie River vanishes into a cave in Sinks Canyon, reappearing a quarter-mile downstream with more water, gained from hidden springs in a geological mystery.
- Devil’s Tower Name Mistake: America’s first national monument (1906) was mistranslated from the Native “Bear Lodge” to “Devil’s Tower” in 1875, with ongoing petitions to restore its original name.
- Rare Archaeopteryx: Thermopolis’ Wyoming Dinosaur Center houses the only authentic Archaeopteryx fossil outside Europe, a 150-million-year-old link between dinosaurs and birds.
- Oldest Dinosaur: In 2025, Wyoming revealed North America’s oldest dinosaur, Avedom bond duaviche, a 230-million-year-old feathered species named in Shoshone, rewriting dinosaur history.
- Great Divide Basin: In the Red Desert, the Continental Divide splits, creating a 4,000-square-mile basin where water never reaches an ocean, evaporating or forming ghost lakes, dubbed “Nature’s Hotel California.”
