If you're in the Laramie area, please call us ( Optical Fashions / WesternPhotography.com) - (307) 745-3682 or visit our gallery at 305 S. 2nd St. (just 2 doors South of second and Grand) in the Optical Fashions building in Historic Downtown Laramie.
Outside the Laramie area (toll-free):
Optical Fashions / Camel Rock Images: 1-888-PRO-EYES
e-mail: grabophoto@westernphotography.com
WHAT TO SEE IN AND AROUND HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LARAMIE:
Our gallery is the perfect place to begin your trip by seeing stunning vistas of the scenic gems of the surrounding area (address and phone shown above.)
Our building was built in 1910, and has housed a brothel, a boarding house, a spacious, 1200 square foot Historic Downtown Laramie apartment (now for rent), a billiard parlor, a teen-age night club (in the 1950's), a yarn store, a climbing equipment store, an optical / sunglass store (still here - that's our other business), and more.
Laramie is the perfect stop on your way west to Yellowstone or Utah or California, or wherever.
Visit The Wyoming Territorial Park (refurbished 1890) territorial prison, where Butch Cassidy stayed as a "guest of the governor". It's also a wild-west theme park with old-west blacksmiths and other artisans, an old-west town, the national U.S. Marshalls' Museum, a country dinner playhouse, and even occasional shoot-outs in the streets. Step into a cell and close the bars, and see what an old-west prison was like. You can easily spend a day at the park; and there is great shopping in Historic Downtown Laramie, about a mile away (take the historic walking tour!)
You're coming out here to see the old west? This is it! You and the kids will love it. Check ahead, most attractions at the park are closed in winter. (307) 745-6161.
Laramie is the birthplace of Women's rights: the first woman voter, the first woman juror, and the first woman bailiff all did their duty in Laramie. Come see the monument to all this in the garden of the Laramie Plains Museum (the old Ivinson Mansion, where Wyoming's first banker and his wife lived.) By the way, Wyoming also had the first woman governor.
Don't miss the Laramie Plains Museum, a victorian mansion in the heart of Laramie, built by Edward and Jane Ivinson. Mr. Ivinson was our first banker. The mansion is filled with portraits of pioneers who settled here, fascinating antique gadgets, old coaches and wagons, and other memorabilia. A monument to the ladies mentioned in the paragraph above can be found in the garden. The guided tour took about an hour the last time I took it. And on the wall, I recognized old friends of me and my grandparents (my family first came to Laramie in 1878.) (307) 745-4448
I am available personally to guide you on your trip around our area (since my family has lived in the Laramie area since 1880, I know lots of legends and lore), or to give photography tours and lessons - but be sure to reserve my time well in advance so we can make necessary arrangements.
And don't miss our photo gallery in the Optical Fashions building at 305 S. 2nd Street, downtown - we can show you the sights from my lens' view, and tell you how to get there! And why pay Jackson, Aspen, or L.A. prices for those beautiful photographs you want to grace your wall at home? (If you want to pay for some New York photographer's high-rise loft, that's up to you, but we live a little simpler out here - God's awesome creation is our penthouse.)
Many of the Colorado and Wyoming photographs in this website were taken within 60 miles of Laramie. There are many National Park quality scenic gems in our area, which are not even on the maps or recommended by the chamber of commerce or tourist bureaus. We can get you off the beaten path and away from the crowds. Call us at 1-888-PRO-EYES, or (307) 745-3682.
Explore the Snowy Range, west of Laramie via Wyoming Highway 130: meander this national scenic byway through the pronghorn antelope-laden prairie, through the charming village of Centennial and up and up and up, until you're in the land of high cliffs with summer snowbanks, rising out of the highest lakes you've probably ever seen. Your map probably doesn't even show this magnificent scenic wonder.
And, no trip to Laramie is complete without a visit to Vedauwoo, a wonderland of towering granite domes in the Laramie Mountains east of town. Vedauwoo is an Indian word meaning "earth-born." With abundant wildflowers and natural wonders, Vedauwoo is about 15 miles east of Laramie, just north of I-80 (it even has its own exit!)
The enchanting, forbidding area of Chimney Rock, also known as Camel Rock, is southwest of Laramie. If you go there, you will think you've gotten lost and ended up in Moab Utah, or something. The area is filled with towering sandstone cliffs and granite canyons, not very far from the majestic Rawah Wilderness, filled with snow-capped peaks nearly 13,000 feet above sea level. Most of these things are not on your map at all, and they're not crawling with tourists. See my Laramie Area Tour to whet your apetite.
Snowy Range Ski Area. Lots of the white fluffy stuff, lots of fun - with trails from beginner to expert, without the astronomical price tag you see at the more famous areas. Call 1-800-GO-TO-SNOW and tell them Grabo' sent you!
The University of Wyoming hosts many museums, including the UW Geology Museum (housing great dinosaur skeletons), the UW Art Museum and American Heritage Center, and one of the largest Herbariums in America.
This is only a small part of what Laramie has to offer you on your trip West (or East, for that matter!) Enjoy your stay in scenic, historic Laramie, the "Gem City of the Plains!"
Ordering / Information:
1-888-PRO-EYES
grabophoto@westernphotography.com
This entire website and all images have been registered with the U.S. Patent Office.
WesternPhotography.com