Laramie, WY Outdoor Activities

Straddling the border between Wyoming and Colorado, Two Chicks Paintball's unpredictable terrain throws obstacles and tactical diversions at players. Recreational soldiers carrying the field’s rented Tippmann 98s can maneuver through the trees and hide in forested fields as they strategize attacks and retreats. They can take cover behind looming boulders, which protect from opponents' quick spray of paint and give shooters a chance to catch their breath or recite their favorite inspirational movie monologue to their team before advancing. At the range’s speed-ball field, players can engage in short stints of fast-paced warfare before retreating to the picnic area to refuel their stomachs. For those who arrive unequipped, all the accouterments are available for rent, including paintball guns, safety gear, supplies, and camouflage jumpsuits.

As garage doors slowly open, the spartan practice room is revealed; an indoor golf studio with a green carpet floor specked with square golf hitting mats that transforms into a covered driving range. Located inside a stately, sandstone-brick clubhouse, the practice area serves as ground zero for the Golf Academy at Harmony Club, where golfers consult PGA-certified instructors about their golf swing rather than waiting in vain for Jack Nicklaus’s spirit animal to appear in their dreams.

Outside of the hilltop clubhouse, instructors conduct playing lessons at the Harmony Club’s 18-hole course. The 7,331-yard layout is a useful training ground, as golf pros can help players deal with uneven lies on mounded fairways, splash shots out of cavernous sand traps, and bribe towering trees to move out of the way when an errant shot is approaching.

Terry Sandmeier, informally known as Captain Sandy, began cultivating his lifelong passion for sailing as a boy growing up on the Gulf of Mexico. He first acquired the taste for sailing while cruising along the gulf coast from Texas to Mississippi. Today, with more than 35 years of experience, Captain Sandy alternates between sailing Colorado's mountain lakes and the warm waters off the Florida Keys. He imparts his experience to burgeoning sailors aboard his US Yachts 18, teaching them skills from interpreting the wind to lassoing passing clouds on breezeless days.

Collindale Golf Academy's PGA Director of Instruction Vince Buelk calls upon 18 years of experience to shore up the pin-hunting panache of golfers of all abilities. The passionate pedagogue develops the academy's club-flailing curriculum and puts it into practice at its stately facilities, which include a full-length driving range, an oversize putting green, and a practice bunker ideal for wedging balls out of sunken lies and replacing them with incriminating scorecards. The academy's thriving junior program strives to develop an affinity for the game at a young age, and club-fitting services pair each unique swing with its crooked-stick soul mates. Though the academy's kempt lawns, mountainside vistas, and lush pines affect a sense of old-time rusticity, its instructors utilize the latest in technological teaching aides, including V1 video-swing-analysis software and pitching wedges that double as prosthetic hooks for grabbing cookies on the high shelves.

The Urban Assault Ride challenges cyclists to speed from obstacle course to obstacle course across their city during eco-friendly scavenger hunts that benefit local charities. Teams draft a road map to try to thwart the competition and be the first to complete the race, pausing at a series of checkpoints, where they must surmount such active roadblocks as slip 'n' slides, bike jousting, and reciting the Iliad in Pig Latin. The first team to conquer each challenge and cross the finish line is declared the victor, but all participants celebrate their efforts at a lively after-party stocked with snacks, beer, nonalcoholic drinks, and prizes.