Little America

The story of Little America begins with a young sheepherder caught out overnight in a fierce blizzard on the high desert of southwest Wyoming. Nearly freezing in the storm with no shelter in reach, he is said to have vowed that if he lived through the night, he would someday build a place on that spot where travelers could find warmth, food, and rest.

Years later he made good on the vow, establishing a travel stop on the lonely highway across the desert. The name is said to have been inspired by accounts of a famous Antarctic expedition base, a fitting choice for a refuge born of a night in the cold, and an emperor penguin became its emblem.

Little America grew into a full service oasis on one of the emptiest stretches of the interstate west, offering fuel, a dining room, a store, and rooms for the night. For travelers who had driven for a long time across sagebrush country with little in between, it became a natural place to break the drive.

The surrounding landscape is a big part of the appeal. The high desert here is wide, dry, and wind swept, crossed long ago by emigrant wagons and transcontinental rail lines. Against that emptiness, a bright, welcoming stop with everything a traveler needs takes on an outsized presence.

Over the decades Little America became a genuine landmark of western road travel, known well beyond Wyoming through highway signs and the memories of countless family trips. Pulling in became a small ritual of the long haul across the interior West, the kind of stop people remember years later.

That reputation grew alongside the great age of the American road trip, when crossing the country by car was an adventure in itself and a reliable oasis in the desert was worth remembering. The name spread to other locations, but the original stands here on the Wyoming high desert where the story began.

The stretch of southwest Wyoming around Little America is still one of the more demanding drives in the region, especially in winter, when wind and ground blizzards can close the interstate for hours. In that context a warm, well stocked stop remains as welcome to modern travelers as it was to those who came before.

For a road trip, Little America makes a fitting pause on the way to the red rock canyons of Flaming Gorge to the south or the ghost towns and desert of the surrounding country. It is a reminder that in this part of the West, the spaces between places are part of the journey.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is a place we chose through independent editorial review, never a paid placement.

Little America, along the interstate in the wide-open high desert of southwestern Wyoming, is a famous travel stop and landmark, a large highway oasis known for generations to road-trippers crossing the state. Named for the Antarctic base after a traveler's snowbound ordeal inspired its founder to create a refuge in the remote desert, it grew into a well-known travel center and lodging stop offering fuel, food, and rest amid the vast, lonely stretches of southwestern Wyoming. Its distinctive signs and long history make it a nostalgic icon of the American road trip. Little America offers a classic travel-stop landmark in southwestern Wyoming.

Little America got its name from the Antarctic exploration base of the same name. According to the well-known story, the founder, as a young sheepherder, was once caught in a brutal snowstorm on the open Wyoming desert and dreamed of a warm refuge for stranded travelers, later comparing the frigid, empty landscape to Antarctica. When he built his travel stop in that remote country, he named it Little America after the polar base, and adopted a penguin as its symbol. This memorable origin story is part of the landmark's enduring charm in southwestern Wyoming.

Little America is primarily a travel stop and highway oasis, a place to refuel, eat, rest, and break up the long drive across the wide-open desert of southwestern Wyoming, with its distinctive signs and penguin mascot making it a nostalgic road-trip landmark. It is more a classic pit stop and piece of Americana than a sightseeing destination, valued for the welcome respite it offers on a lonely stretch of highway. For road-trippers crossing Wyoming, Little America is a well-known and convenient place to pause, a friendly waypoint amid the vast desert of southwestern Wyoming.

As a highway travel stop, Little America is open year-round and useful whenever you are driving across southwestern Wyoming, offering a welcome break in any season, though winter can bring cold, wind, and snow to this exposed desert country, when it becomes an especially appreciated refuge, while summer brings warm, sunny days. Its value is greatest as a rest and refuel point on a long drive. Whenever you are crossing this remote stretch of interstate, Little America makes a convenient and characterful stop in southwestern Wyoming.

Little America is in the high desert of southwestern Wyoming near the towns of Green River and Rock Springs, within reach of Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, Expedition Island in Green River, the Killpecker Sand Dunes, and the route toward Fort Bridger and Fossil Butte. That makes Little America a convenient travel-stop landmark to pair with Flaming Gorge, Green River, Rock Springs, and the other attractions of southwestern Wyoming on a drive across the state.