Thank you to Visit Casper for sponsoring this post, all opinions are my own.
I never knew Casper, Wyoming belonged on my bucket list until I took a trip there, but I’m telling you now to add it to yours! Especially, if you have a family. We had so much fun and made such incredible memories with our little crew. It was the most magical kick off to the Christmas season complete with festive activities. I’m going to go through our entire itinerary in detail so you can get a really good feel of our trip. Make sure you bookmark this page for when you’re planning your visit to Casper!
Day 1:
Direct flight from the SLC airport to Casper, Wyoming! This was honestly the biggest part of the reason we went to Casper. When traveling with kiddos, a quick, direct flight is the easiest and safest option for us. With overall less travel time, there’s less risk of catching bugs during cold and flu season. I was also super impressed with how many sanitizer stations I saw at every stop on our Casper itinerary. There’s also great signage for social distancing which made me feel really good about our decision to travel. I know as parents navigating life through a pandemic can be tricky, but I truly have no regrets and am so grateful for the priceless memories we made on our trip!
When we arrived to Casper we loaded up the rental car (they even provided a booster for Kai) and headed to the hotel. We checked in with the friendly staff at the C’mon Inn and ordered pizza to the room. The hotel was amazing and SO kid friendly! They had an indoor pool including a cute kiddie area, 5 hot tubs, and a pond with fish in it that you can feed twice a day.
One of my biggest musts when traveling with the boys is a separate room for them. Jax goes to bed pretty early so being able to put him in his own space and still be able to talk/move around the other room is invaluable! We had a king suite with a balcony and everyone in the family loved it. So much so that my husband and his friends went back the following week as they drove through Casper on a hunting trip. Twice in one month, you know that means its a good one!
Day 2:
We hit the ground running and started the day bright and early with Breakfast at Johnny J’s Diner. It was so cute and old fashioned. I regret not getting a baked good, because the giant cinnamon rolls look amazing!
After breakfast Jax was ready for a nap so we took a little drive to Casper Mountain. We drove all around checking out the views and gorgeous pine trees and was surprised to find so much snow since Casper itself wasn’t too cold! After the baby got a good car nap, we bundled up and took a little walk to check out Garden Creek Falls. It was so beautiful and my mountain loving boys were SO excited to get out and explore. We also met the kindest people there that offered to take a family photo for us!
After our morning adventure we went down to the Tate Geological Museum. If you go there be sure to ask for Russell, he showed us around and explained all about the different animals and fossils. We were all blown away by how knowledgable he was. This was free too! They do accept donations if you can spare a few dollars to help fund the amazing work they’re doing.
For lunch we went to Wyoming Ale Works and it was incredible! Probably my favorite restaurant of our whole trip. They had a big menu, great drinks, and everything we ordered was fantastic. Definitely recommend!
After lunch we were planning on heading to Nicolaysen Art Museum, but it was closed for the holiday weekend. So instead we decided to head back to the hotel to put Jax down for his second nap because we had lot’s of fun plans for the night and wanted him to be well rested for the festivities.
In true Krychele fashion I also fell asleep with Jax, and we took the best 2 hour nap! We woke up feeling like a million bucks and headed downtown to take advantage of Small Business Saturday. We only made it to Floral Rhino because I didn’t realize most of the stores close around 5pm. Totally my fault for not checking first! They had so many fun things though. I scored a sweater, candles, and candle holder. So many fun souvenirs.
When we finished our shopping we went to David Street Station for the annual Christmas tree lighting! This was seriously out of a Hallmark movie! It was so adorable with the ice skating rink around the tree it was such a magical site. After the countdown and tree lighting, we went to our spot for the Christmas parade. Visit Casper hooked us up with a front row spot, hot soup, and treats to snack on! Each float in the parade picked a Christmas movie for their theme so it was super fun to spot our favorite characters and see how they brought their displays to life. When the parade ended we went back to the hotel with tired babies and rested up for another adventurous day!
Day 3
To start our last full day in Casper, we went back downtown to Eggingtons and LOVED this place! Amazing food, very nice people, and super family friendly. Then, we headed to National Historic Trails Interpretive Center. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect here but we all learned a lot about the pioneers, and even a ton about our very own Utah. It was also very interactive and Kai loved getting to cross the North Platte River in a covered wagon. This was another free activity which I thought was really cool!
Then we went to Artisan Alley to get our paint on. We loved getting to paint a Jack Skellington in a Santa hat since Kai had just watched The Nightmare Before Christmas a few weeks earlier. None of us have a lot of artistic ability, so the instructor guiding us step by step was awesome. We loved this activity, but I will say it was a little challenging to paint with a 9 month old haha! If you have really small kids, I’d plan on just one parent painting. We still had a great time though and I was so impressed with how well Kai payed attention and tried his best.
After our paint class we went back to David Street Station to Ice Skate! It had been a lot of years since I have put on skates but it’s crazy how things like that just come back to you. Kai was so brave and tried it out for a little but was too nervous. I think we’ll try again in a few years! If your kids are up for it they have great little stands for them to hold onto and balance on. David Street Station is definitely a must during a visit to Casper!
For dinner we went to The Branding Iron and once again can’t say enough good things about this place. Who knew Casper Wyoming was such a hot spot for foodies?! They also had Sunday Night Football playing which was a big draw for Roman lol!
We spent the rest of the night at the hotel swimming and hanging out as a family.
Day 4
We woke up bright and early, took our rental car back, and caught our 7:30am flight back home. It was early, but perfect because Roman was still able to get almost a full day of work in since it’s just a quick 45 minute trip back to Salt Lake! It was another very smooth and safe travel experience full of masks, hand washing, and social distancing to keep my crew safe.
As a tradition after a trip we always go around and talk about our favorite parts of the vacation. For Kai the walk to the waterfall and painting were the best parts of the trip for him. Roman said he liked the tree lighting best, and my favorite part of it all was just getting to go to new places with my favorite boys! We often get stuck in the same routine of restaurants and activities that is was so refreshing to go to a completely new place and live like locals for the weekend. Huge thank you to Tia and the rest of the team over at Visit Casper for planning an incredible itinerary and setting up all of our accommodations and reservations! Can’t wait to plan our next trip!
xx
-Krychele
