ROCK SPRINGS , the largest town in southwest Wyoming, is also wholly unremarkable, a down-at-heel mining community that experienced its latest short-lived boom in the 1980s. If you need to stay , there's the Knotty Pine Lodge at 1234 Ninth St (tel 307/362-4515; up to $35); not far away, the Santa Fe Trail Restaurant at 1635 Elk St (tel 307/362-5427) serves fresh Tex-Mex.

Ramshackle GREEN RIVER is fourteen miles west. Wedged between high buttes, and sliced through by the railroad, the interstate and the Green River itself it's not an easy place to find your way around. Embers , 95 E Railroad Ave (tel 307/875-9983), is the most popular eating spot, while the Coachman Inn , 470 E Flaming Gorge Way (tel 307/875-3681; up to $35/$35-50), is a good-value motel. Campers should note that both Green River and Rock Springs lie within easy reach of Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area . Roads south from either town run through the empty hills, looking out over incandescent orange rocks and a dramatic artificial lake.

Rock Springs and Green River

• Rock Springs and Green River
• Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid

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