The state of Wyoming found itself in the spotlight on “Good Morning America” this week as the program aired a five-minute piece covering various highlights of the state.
Wyoming was the latest state to be featured on the GMA segment “Rise and Shine,” which gives each state a spotlight episode to share some highlights as the U.S. comes out of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Wyoming is so interesting [because] it’s the least-populated state and during COVID, it fared better economically than many other states, in part, because their tourism motto last summer was ‘Wyoming Is Wide Open,'” reporter Becky Worley said. “From the views we’ve seen this week, boy, is it.”
The first stop on the tour of the state was the ski lifts at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort that take people to an altitude of 9,000 feet in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. The resort’s waffles also got a mention as Worley got an order with peanut butter and bacon.
Worley also interviewed Idaho skier Kai Jones, who regularly skis at the mountain resort.
Next, Worley headed to the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, which she described as Wyoming’s “landmark watering hole.”
“[This bar] is famous for its genuine saddles for bar seats, as it is for Western dancing,” she said.
After the stop in Jackson, GMA headed to Cody to feature the Mountain Meadow Wool Mill in Buffalo, which produces up to 40,000 pounds of wool a year.
“[When COVID hit], we started marketing more to our online customers with kits where they could knit and they got everything delivered to their door, everything they needed to create a project and that really took off,” mill owner Karen Hostetler said. “People were knitting a lot in their houses and so that kept us going really well.”
Worley also visited a dude ranch and a horse sanctuary on the Wind River Indian Reservation. The segment did not feature any visits to Yellowstone or Grand Teton national parks because both were inundated with visitors.
“There’s something you can’t help but feel as you experience all the majesty that is Wyoming,” she concluded.
