Cheyenne, Wyoming Sunrise & Sunset Times

Cheyenne, the capital of Wyoming, sits on the high plains at over 6,000 feet elevation, where the Great Plains meet the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Known as the "Magic City of the Plains" for its rapid growth during the railroad era, Cheyenne retains a frontier spirit with its annual Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo, historic Union Pacific Depot, and wide streets built for cattle drives. The high altitude and open terrain mean big skies, relentless wind, and a clarity of light that makes distant objects look deceptively close.

Around the summer solstice, the sun rises at 05:25 and sets at 20:36, providing 15 hours 11 minutes of daylight — long days on the high plains when afternoon thunderstorms roll in from the Rockies and the evening light stretches golden across miles of grassland. During the winter solstice, sunrise arrives at 07:19 and sunset at 16:35, with about 9 hours 15 minutes of daylight. Cheyenne winters are cold and wind-blasted, with ground blizzards sweeping across the open plains, but the dry air and high altitude often bring brilliantly clear skies between storms, with the low winter sun casting sharp shadows across the snow-covered prairie.

The difference in sunrise times between summer and winter spans 114 minutes, a seasonal shift that high-plains residents mark by the changing angle of light on the Laramie Range to the west. For photographers, the morning blue hour (04:52 – 05:25) and golden hour (05:25 – 06:25) illuminate the Wyoming State Capitol's golden dome and the historic cattle baron mansions along Carey Avenue in warm, low-angled light. The evening golden hour (19:36 – 20:36) through blue hour (20:36 – 21:09) is when the high plains deliver their signature spectacle — an enormous, unobstructed western horizon that catches every shade of amber, crimson, and violet, with the distant Rockies forming a jagged silhouette against a sky so vast it seems to curve at the edges.