Sheridan Vs Buffalo Wyoming: Where Should You Stay Instead?

Stay in the larger of the two if you want more lodging options, dining variety, and a bigger town feel with easy Bighorn Mountains access. Stay in the smaller one if you want an even quieter historic town with its own charm and equally close access to the southern Bighorns and the Cloud Peak Skyway scenic drive.

Wyo Stays hosts guests choosing between these two towns constantly — they sit about 30 miles apart along the base of the Bighorn Mountains, and travelers cross-shopping them are usually trying to figure out which one better matches the pace of trip they want. Here's the honest breakdown.

What's The Basic Size And Character Difference?

Sheridan is the larger of the two, with a population in the high teens of thousands, a more developed downtown, and a wider range of restaurants, shops, and lodging. Buffalo is considerably smaller, with a tight, walkable historic downtown and a quieter, slower pace. Both share genuine Old West character — this isn't a case of one being "authentic" and the other not — but Sheridan gives you more options day to day, while Buffalo gives you a more intimate small-town experience.

Sheridan Vs Buffalo Wyoming: Bighorn Mountains Access

Both towns connect well to the Bighorns, just from different sides. Sheridan connects to the northern Bighorns and the Cloud Peak Skyway (Highway 16) heading toward Buffalo, while Buffalo sits at the western end of that same route and has its own access points into the southern Bighorn National Forest. If your main goal is mountain access, either town works — the deciding factor becomes which specific trailheads or drives you're after.

Locals know the Cloud Peak Skyway itself, the highway connecting the two towns, is one of the most scenic drives in the state — so staying in either town puts you at one end of a drive worth doing regardless.

Category	Sheridan, WY	Buffalo, WY
Population size	Larger, high teens of thousands	Smaller, a few thousand
Lodging & dining options	More variety	Fewer, but solid quality
Downtown feel	Larger historic downtown, more shops	Tight, very walkable historic core
Bighorn Mountains access	Northern Bighorns, Cloud Peak Skyway east end	Southern Bighorns, Cloud Peak Skyway west end
Best for	Travelers wanting more amenities and options	Travelers wanting a smaller, quieter home base

Is One Town More Affordable, And Which Has More To Do?

Pricing between the two tends to be broadly comparable, with variation driven more by season and specific property type than by which town you pick. Neither functions as a high-priced tourist-trap market the way some Western gateway towns do. Pick based on the experience you want, not an assumed cost gap, and compare actual current listings for your dates.

Sheridan has more built-in variety for a multi-day stay — museums like Trail End and the Bradford Brinton, a bigger dining scene, more shopping, and events throughout the year. Buffalo's draw is more about its own history — it played a real role in frontier-era Wyoming — and as a jumping-off point for the southern Bighorns. For a longer stay, Sheridan gives you more to fill days with in town; for a shorter, focused mountain trip, Buffalo's simplicity can be a plus.

Can you visit both in one trip? Easily. Once you get past the sheridan vs buffalo wyoming debate itself, most travelers realize they don't have to choose — they're about 30 miles apart via the Cloud Peak Skyway, one of the best scenic drives in the region. A lot of visitors base in one town and simply drive over for a day in the other, treating the drive itself as part of the experience rather than a chore. Book direct at book.wyostays.com — skip the OTA fees — and use Sheridan as your base with an easy day trip over to Buffalo built in.

Which Town Fits Families, Workcations, And Shoulder Seasons Better?

Sheridan generally works better for families needing more options — more restaurants for picky eaters, more activities for down days, and a wider range of lodging types. Buffalo can work well too, particularly for families who want a simpler, slower-paced trip centered on the outdoors rather than in-town entertainment. A few quick pointers for matching your trip type to a town:

• Choose Sheridan for a family trip that needs backup options on a rainy or low-energy day.
• Choose Buffalo for a focused mountain trip where quiet matters more than amenity variety.
• Choose Sheridan for a multi-week workcation — faster infrastructure, more grocery options, a bigger rental bench.

Sheridan's larger vacation rental inventory and broader downtown amenities — coffee shops, faster general infrastructure, more grocery options — make it the more practical choice for a longer remote-work stay. Buffalo can still work for a shorter workcation, particularly if quiet and minimal distraction matter more to you than amenity variety, but most visitors doing a multi-week stay gravitate toward Sheridan simply because day-to-day life is easier to manage there. Wyo Stays is a licensed, insured Wyoming vacation rental brokerage, and our Sheridan rental bench is built exactly for this kind of longer, settle-in stay.

Sheridan's larger size means spring and fall keep more businesses open and more going on downtown, since the local economy doesn't lean as heavily on a single tourist season. Buffalo, being smaller, can feel quieter in the shoulder seasons — some visitors like that hush, especially if they're there primarily for a Cloud Peak Skyway drive or a Bighorns hike rather than in-town activity.

Buffalo carries real frontier-era weight — it sat near the center of the Johnson County War in the late 1800s, and its historic downtown still reflects that older Wyoming character in a tighter, more concentrated footprint than Sheridan's. Sheridan built its identity more around the ranching and horse culture that flowed out of the Bighorns, plus a downtown shaped by early-1900s cattle and rail money that gave it grander buildings and more architectural variety. Neither town is manufacturing history for tourists — both are simply living on top of the actual history that happened here.

Buffalo's downtown, being smaller and more compact, is arguably the easier one to fully explore on foot in a single afternoon — you can cover the whole historic core without much backtracking. Sheridan's downtown is larger and spread out a bit more, so while it's still walkable, you'll cover more ground and likely want a car for getting between the downtown core and outlying areas like the Bighorn foothills trailheads or the Trail End historic site.

Book Direct — No Channel Fees — browse our current Sheridan vacation rentals and see the full Sheridan Vacation Guide once you've picked a base.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Sheridan or Buffalo, Wyoming — which is better to stay in? A: Sheridan offers more lodging, dining, and downtown activity. Buffalo offers a smaller, quieter historic downtown. Both provide close access to the Bighorn Mountains from opposite ends of the Cloud Peak Skyway.

Q: How far apart are Sheridan and Buffalo, Wyoming? A: About 30 miles, connected by the Cloud Peak Skyway (Highway 16), one of the more scenic drives in the region.

Q: Is Buffalo, Wyoming smaller than Sheridan? A: Yes, considerably. Sheridan has a population in the high teens of thousands, while Buffalo is a few thousand — smaller and more tightly concentrated in its historic downtown.

Q: Which town has better restaurants? A: Sheridan has a wider range of dining options overall due to its larger size. Buffalo has fewer options but solid quality within its smaller downtown.

Q: Which town is better for accessing the Bighorn Mountains? A: Both offer good access, just from different sides — Sheridan connects to the northern Bighorns, Buffalo to the southern portion of the range.

Choose Your Base

For a full rundown of things to do once you've picked a base, see our Sheridan Vacation Guide, and browse current Sheridan vacation rentals. Book direct at book.wyostays.com — skip the OTA fees once you've made the call.