Drinking Wyoming: Bear Mountain Junction In La Grange Has Beer, Killer Cinnamon Rolls

Cowboy State Daily’s 'Drinking Wyoming' is presented by Pine Bluffs Distilling.

LA GRANGE — The previous owners of the Bear Mountain Stage Stop liked to call the place an “inconvenience” store, because of its location in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming.

But the new owner, Darla Hays, has a completely different idea. 

The stop may not be located in the most populated place in the Cowboy State, but it is still somewhere, particularly to the people who frequent this little nerve center, which sits snugly between Cheyenne and Hawk Springs on U.S. Highway 85.

No need to worry about bears at the Bear Mountain Stage Stop, which Hays plans to rename the Bear Mountain Junction, just as soon as she can get new letters for the business. The only bears here are the cute kind that get sold in the gift shop now and then.

Hays added the gift shop not long after buying the business, because people kept asking her all summer if she had anything with Wyoming on it.

Now she has little hoodies with Wyoming’s bucking horse logo, as well as T-shirts, magnets, and coffee cups. They sit next to a row of Wyoming-made, freeze-dried candies, sold under the state’s Food Freedom Act. 

That’s not the only Wyoming-made item for sale at Bear Mountain. Hays also has Wyoming-made cinnamon rolls for sale, and they’re to die for. The fluffy rolls sit almost 5 inches tall, and they’re iced with a creamy icing that couldn’t be more perfect. 

“She won’t bring them in unless they’re perfect,” Hays added. “If they don’t rise enough, she won’t even bring them in at all.”

The cinnamon roll lady also helps Hays, now and then, with a little grocery list from the Sam’s Club in Cheyenne, to restock the store. 

“They always let me know a couple days ahead of time to get my list together,” Hays said.

That sparks a predictable conversation. 

Hays will ask which vehicle they’re taking, because if it’s the smaller car, she doesn’t want to overwhelm them.

And they’ll reply, “Well, it depends on your list.”

Meaning they want her to put down everything she needs, regardless of how long the list might be.

It’s just how things get done in the middle of not-really-nowhere Wyoming. The people in the community help each other, no matter what. And they’re more than willing to help lift up what should logically be an impossible store, in an impossible place, and help keep it going, even in the winter.

Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues

Winters do get hard, Hays admitted.

And this winter was harder than most, because there wasn’t as much snow to help push the geese into the area for hunting. 

“That really hurt me,” Hays said. “We usually get a lot of ducks and goose hunters. They stop in for ice and stuff like that.”

Wyoming Game and Fish also sets up nearby on the first day of the season, which helps bring people into the little store, which sells a variety of convenience items, as well as gifts and souvenirs. The bar offers drinks, and there are sandwiches and malts, too. 

“I get tired,” she said. “I’m gonna admit that I get burned out, especially when it’s really slow. I go into a depressed state. Like, ‘How am I going to do this?’”

Fortunately, there’s always someone who stops in at the store to help talk her out of these winter blues. Often, it’s her official shopper, David Makinen. He helps her acquire goods for the store, as well as helping bartend now and then, so she can rest her knees for a spell.

“There’s a lot of the community who try to support me,” she said. “And I do tell them if there’s anything you need and David happens to be in town, we can pick it up and bring it out to you.”

The Malts Are Addictive

Hays needs a shopper because she can’t get many distributors to stop at her tiny store in a tiny community that so many think is nowhere at all.

“There’s so many that require a minimum buy,” Hays explained. 

That’s particularly true for the milk truck. 

Even though she uses a lot of milk in the summer, she still can’t meet the minimum buy. So, she can’t get the distributor to even slow down in front of her store, despite the fact it passes by her business every week on a regular basis.

Milk is an essential ingredient for her popular malts. Like most grandmothers, she’s learned a thing or two over time about how to make things nice and delicious. That includes an elaborate system for making malts. Her arsenal includes homemade ice cream, Cool Whip, and milk, topped off with a cookie and some sprinkles. 

“I should probably charge more for my malts,” she said. “With all those things in it, I don’t make very much on each one.”

She’s found she can’t use generic brands for ingredients. They just won’t hold up to her exacting taste standards. 

The malts are among her biggest sellers in the summer. On July 4, she sold around 65 of them to customers, many of whom were just passing through on their way to somewhere else. It’s a testament to their flavor that she has so many repeat customers. 

But it might also have to do with Hays herself. Since so many of them will also say, “I just had to stop and see how you were.”

Hays loves the summertime. She gets to meet a lot of new people — part of the reason she decided to try the business for her retirement. Her grandson also usually visits during the summer for a while, helping her run the store.

“We meet a lot of neat people,” she said. “Last summer, my grandson was so excited to help me here because he got to meet people from five different countries, and he just loved it.”

Where Old And New Friends Meet

“Cheers” made an entire television franchise fly off the slogan, “Where Everybody Knows Your Name.” 

It would be an apt slogan for the bar Hays operates inside the Bear Mountain Junction, because it’s just like someone’s living room, and just about everyone in that living room knows everyone else’s name.

But Hays’ official slogan is “Where Old And New Friends Meet.”

It’s pretty apt, too, because if you, as a stranger walk in, not only will your name soon be known by all in the room, but you’ll make new friends. They’re such a friendly bunch, they don’t mind at all making a stranger feel welcome.

Most of the group are ranchers, so their topics often revolve around what the cattle markets are doing. A big concern right now is also how big the drought is getting. 

But they’ll also talk up the neighbor girl who’s tearing up the rodeo circuit in barrel racing for a while — until someone mentions the foggy weather forecast for I-80. Then they start rattling off a list of who is likely on that stretch of road that very night. 

It’s also clear they’re making mental notes on who to check in on later. 

The conversation soon meanders back to the rodeo circuit, and a list of who did well at the College Finals, as well as who all is headed to the National Finals Rodeo from Wyoming.

Before long, Hays has noticed the particular angle of the beer cans, signaling that it’s time for another round. She’s already placing fresh beer cans out on the bar, well before the first cowboy steps up to get a replacement. 

She pries the tab off each empty can that’s passed to her in a wordless exchange, then carefully places it in a glass. When she gets a large quantity of them, she’ll donate them to a charity that helps pay medical expenses for children. 

Seven Days A Week, No Dress Code

The bar is open seven days a week in the summertime, and you don’t have to worry about a dress code. People come as they are, and everyone’s welcome.

Some of Hays’ summer help have even been known to sing a tune or two, so if you want to bring a guitar, be assured, no one will mind at all. Just be ready for everyone to sing along. 

The star of the bar is beer — though there’s a selection of hard liquors, too, like whiskey and gin. 

“They like to come in and just sit and visit and drink their beer,” Hays said. “If it’s really cold out, they might have liquor instead. I don’t have a lot of choices for liquor, and I don’t make fancy drinks because I don’t know how to make them.”

But she does make a great gin and tonic, one that often comes with a fresh twist of lime. When, that is, she can get them.

The lime trucks aren’t any more interested in stopping by the Bear Mountain Junction than the milk truck.

But you, dear reader, should be interested. Because this is one of those little places in Wyoming where there’s quiet enchantment happening every night, the kind that only happens when new and old friends gather together and meet. 

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.