Tell me about Wyoming?

[JesterGrin_1]

Anyone Live up in Wyoming?

Please tell me about it?

I have never been there and always lived in South TEXAS. But I thought about a plot of land up in Wyoming with some Trees?

Thank You. :)

[runfiverun]

well if you forget about the trees part you'll open up the other 95% of the state.
the wind blows.
it's from 6500' up.
there are more antlope than people.
water is scattered.
it's cold in the winter.
they have all 12 species of sagebrush.
there is a lot of blm and state land.
motorcycles and 4 wd trucks are real popular.
they have natural gas and mines.

[sljacob]

Trees are not abundant throughout the state, although there are some very nice places here and there with forest , but with higher property values. The thing that I love most about Wyoming is the wide open spaces and remotness. Great people everywhere you go. You got to get used to the relentless wind:evil: seems like it never stops blowing.

[MtGun44]

I do not live there, but have been hiking and backpacking and hunting Wyoming since 1973.

The mountains are as wonderful as any in the world, beautiful lakes and streams. Lots of trees
from about 8000 ft to 10,000-11,000 tree line, depending on exactly where you are. Most of
the treed and mountain land is public land. Private land is the "low" 6500-7500 ft elevation
flat country. Not a lot of water, and as runfiverun says, lots of sagebrush country. SE part
is particularly dry, north and northwest are high, mountainous and beautiful (Yellowstone
Park and the Tetons Park, for example). The Wind River range is spectacular, I have walked
almost all the trails in the whole range on the west slope, many multiple times. Less so on
the east slope, huge Indian reservation there, have not investigated the requirements to hike
in the reservation.

Very rural, except for Cheyenne (very nice city) and Jackson (touristed up pretty bad in the last
30 yrs). Nice folks, great attitudes. Very cold in the winter!

Bill

[starmac]

Did anyone mention the wind. lol

[JesterGrin_1]

Well come the first of October if you draw a straight line between Dobious and Jackson hole Wyoming that is pretty much where I will be for Elk Season. :)

I guess I will have to take a look see while I am there. It should be an experience for this Southern TEXAS Boy. :)

[runfiverun]

nope, it will look the same as home.
except there are mountains in the backround.
the J-hole area is really nice except the billionairs are pushing the millionairs over into star valley.

[JesterGrin_1]

nope, it will look the same as home.
except there are mountains in the backround.
the J-hole area is really nice except the billionairs are pushing the millionairs over into star valley.


Well I think it will be colder lol. And I do not think I will have to worry about Rattle Snakes, Cactus of all kinds and 2" + Mesquite Thorns lol. :)

[Linstrum]

If you want to know all about Wyoming, read John McPhee's book "Rising From The Plains". That book is a combination of Wyoming's climate, geography, what living there is like, some of its history including a little about Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, a LOT of its geology, and the biography of the recently late Wyoming State geologist David Love. David Love is the man who went out in the boondocks and located part of the uranium used to make the two atom bombs we dropped on Japan.

rl 1,176

[uscra112]

Well, fella I knew years ago that had grown up in Nebraska used say that in the winter there wasn't nothin' between him and the North Pole but a barb-wire fence. In Wyoming there's no fence.

I once spent 4 days living in my camper in a WalMart parking lot in Rock Springs on that account.

Seriously though, if I could afford to live in the Green River country I'd be there in a heartbeat. The high plateau in the middle, you might as well be living on the moon. Eastern part is already filling up with people from Denver. Near Cody is nice, but too many people. Sheridan is pretty tolerable. Broke down there once.

I've got that David Love book around here somewhere. Great read.

[square butte]

Hate to say it in public - But - I really like the area around Ten Sleep. Kinda like Thermopolis too.

[popper]

Chi just calls itself the windy city, they have no clue. Had my first bison burger in Cheyenne. Loved hiking on wind river range. My son wants to move there but being from Texas, he's never shoveled snow.

[bayjoe]

Anybody mention its cold and windy. And a LONG WAY between towns

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Hate to say it in public - But - I really like the area around Ten Sleep.

I vacationed in WY for a week or two in the summers of 87,88,89,90. I loved the Big Horns...yes Ten Sleep and Shell...well the whole west side of the Big Horns. The perfect vehicle to see it is a street legal trail bike.

during that period, I looked for work there so I could move out there, My daughter's Mother was living in Evanston at the time...never found a Job.

[wgr]

when you guys say water is scattered does that mean the whole state. and what do the folks there do for water. like here i heat with wood now that would not work their. so is it gas heat coal are what. reason i ask i would love to get some land there

[SlippShodd]

The water is scattered by the wind.
The great thing about WY is lack of police cars on the interstate to inhibit your speedy crossing of its expanse in search of someplace habitable. Scenery along the way consists of the 12 aforementioned species of sagebrush, skinny cattle, wind farms and animal carcasses.
Wyoming -- The Dead Badger State.
I was doing 90 on the freeway a few years ago and got passed by an 18-wheeler. Like I was standing still. Not uncommon to have one of them trying to get you out of the way while you're passing someone else.
Gorge country is nice. Wind River area is nice. Yellowstone Park is nice. I hear the Cody Museum is nice. East side of the Tetons is nice, but like all those other places, you can't live there.
I don't know how all the dedicated prairie dog shooters dope the wind to record all those kills, 'cuz maybe nobody mentioned it: The Fargin' Wind Blows Incessantly!
And going to Wyoming to avoid rattlesnakes is an effort in futility.

But, the Snake River starts there as well as several others, and if you can hang out in the shelter of those west slope mountains, the fishing is worth the trip. Go to Jellystone, hang out with Yogi and Boo-Boo, fish the Yellowstone and the Firehole, and the Gallatin and, and. Recurring theme inserted here.
We usually say that the wind blows in southern Idaho all the time because Utah sucks. However, we do touch Wyoming and it could just be that there's something beyond her borders that's causing the sucking.

mike

[starmac]

I had forgotten about ten sleep, beautiful country, even with 50,000 on the deck. The truck didn't like it though.

Very, very few trucks will come close to 90 any more, and only those drivers that are wanting out of the game for awhile.

[runfiverun]

they heat with natural gas.
most of the economy of the western part of the state is driven by the gas industry.
places like rock springs and green river's economy is driven by gas production it makes for about 50% of their income.
it also is why their economy is cyclic.

water is available in most places if you drill to about 4500' in depth,one of the things we had to be very concious of when fracking was that we were right above the water table [by about 15'] in many places.

most people live in town and just drive the 5 minutes to the desert/mountains to do whatever.
there isn't a lot of "mountain cabins" and that sort of thing as there isn't really a need for them.

[Greg]

uh, jester

I hate to burst your bubble...

but you'll might find rattlers in October, Prickly Pear and maybe get to know some sand burrs too plus the wind


Well I think it will be colder lol. And I do not think I will have to worry about Rattle Snakes, Cactus of all kinds and 2" + Mesquite Thorns lol. :)

[JesterGrin_1]

Well Then I guess it will just be a nice Place to Visit and Elk Hunt. :)

Maybe that is why the Elk are so Big there so they will not blow away lol. :)

[Matt_G]

There is a bit of everything in Wyoming.
Some of the most beautiful country in this nation resides within its borders.
Also some of the most desolate, out side of Nevada.
And about that wind everyone keeps mentioning...

63114

[Phoenix]

It doesn't say "Like No place on earth" for no reason. The wind never stops. It can be 85 and sunny here. and 30 miles away it can be 30 deg and snowing. I never saw weather anywhere like in Wy. I like the state. Thought about moving there but it just didn't fit my wants for somewhere to live. And it really wasn't as 'old ways' as I thought somewhere with under 500k population would be. You can thank Jackson Hole for some of that. Buying anything in the NW of the state that isn't expensive is a serious challenge.

Just found out they dumped that slogan. It was definitely the truth though. (turns out they changed it 12 years ago)

[462]

Last June, while traveling from Salt Lake City to Cheyenne, we stopped at Rawlings for gas and a pee. When I got out of the car, I was unexpectedly blown off balance by at least a 35 mph wind. (While driving, it had been a tailwind, so it had gone un-noticed.) I asked the attendant if that strong of a wind was normal for that time of year. His reply was, "What wind?"

Later, while driving from Keystone (Mt. Rushmore) to Billings we stopped in Sheridan for gas, and found that octane ratings were calculated to the half-percent. First time I'd seen it done that way. Weird.

[dk17hmr]

Its windy, everyone is drunk all the time, antelope poop all over the place, no water, no trees, lots of smelly sage brush, very dusty, no work either....yep better stay out of Wyoming nothing to see here just keep on moving right into Utah.

[Jumptrap]

Anybody mention its cold and windy. And a LONG WAY between towns

How's that any different from southern Colorado? LOL!

[41 mag fan]

They dont call it windyoming for for nothing!!
I was coming back from riverton 3 weeks ago, 50-65mph wind gusts, blowing snow.
Noticed my tonneau conver wass flipped up by the tailgate. Found a place i thought the wind wasn't blowing.
Got out of truck and the wind gusted, ripping my tonneau cover up and slamming it on the truck cab. Couldn't get it off of cab the wind was so strong.
Finally got it layed down in bed of truck, and went maybe 5 mi and it out of the blue stopped. About 10 mi outside Laramie.
Wouldn't want to live in Rawlins...wind is ridiculous

[joepb]

What wind?........Joe

[DeanWinchester]

You're also sitting on top of one of the biggest volcanoes on earth. If that bugger ever goes it'll take half the country with it and bury the other half in ash.

Happy times!!!

[Agent1187]

Anything you could ever want is somewhere in the state. It's just a long, long drive to get there.

Unless you like big cities, then you're completely SOL.

[waksupi]

You're also sitting on top of one of the biggest volcanoes on earth. If that bugger ever goes it'll take half the country with it and bury the other half in ash.

Happy times!!!

I wouldn't worry about that too much. You would need to be east of Omaha, or north of Calgary Alberta to be outside of the initial blast area. West coast? Forgeddaboudit.

[2thepoint]

a little SW of where you'll be are the towns of Smoot & Afton. Twenty or so years back Afton used to have a neat taxidermy shop..
Good Luck!!

[JesterGrin_1]

a little SW of where you'll be are the towns of Smoot & Afton. Twenty or so years back Afton used to have a neat taxidermy shop..
Good Luck!!

Since you know the place how in the World did you end up in Jersey?

[Matt_G]

a little SW of where you'll be are the towns of Smoot & Afton. Twenty or so years back Afton used to have a neat taxidermy shop..
Good Luck!!


Since you know the place how in the World did you end up in Jersey?

Maybe the wind blew him there...

[Idaho Mule]

I gotta share a story about a young man from central Wyoming. This took place about 17 or 18 yrs ago. He was a college student, going to the U of I in Moscow and I first met him at a local watering hole, dance hall. Great kid, long, tall, lanky and always happy. He got himself hooked up with a gal (student) that hailed from Sandpoint, Id. One Sat. night I was bs'ing with him at the bar and he told me he had been invited to go elk hunting with his girlfriend's family up in the Lochsa country. I said that was neat, and assured him he would enjoy it. I had a moose hunter going in to the upper Selway country at the same time and said we may somehow see one another. Well when I was heading in with my hunt I saw the young man with a small bunch of folks , trucks, and horses as they were unloading at Wilderness Gateway trailhead as I hauled my load on up the Lochsa. I honked, waved he recognized me and waved back as I shot on by. Couple weeks later I ran into him at the bar again and asked how his hunt went. He alluded to the weather being pretty good, some snow, rain, sleet, but the wind was very calm. Then he added, you know where you saw me? I said yes. He said, I couldn't believe it but after we got mounted up and headed up the trail, we went up that mountain all day long and when we stopped to camp that night you could look down AND STILL SEE THE TRUCK!!! Said he had never seen anything like that before, but I sure got a chuckle out of it. Oh, they got a couple bulls and I think he ended up marrying that little gal. JW

[runfiverun]

glad doug reminded me of the dust.
i remember sliding off a dirt road out by eden one time going straight.
the dust was so fine and so deep i [wanna say hydroplaned] dirt planed right off the road in a 115,000 pound heavy haul 18 wheeler.

i was just driving along then poof [literally poof] couldn't see, couldn't steer,couldn't stop.
everything just went brown.

[SlippShodd]

everything just went brown.

Including...?

[KinkBreaker]

ive been there a few times, where we lived in colorado it was closer to go to cheyenne to get things than to get to fort collins CO. we drove up that hwy that goes from cheyenne to the close encounters of the third kind mountain thing, somebody mentioned the very few cops in the state but i found one and he caught me doin 85 in a 55. by the time i got done explainin that i lived in colorado but had a tennessee DL and surely couldnt have been going that fast he just chuckled and wrote me a $385 fast drivers award and bid me a nice day. happened somewhere around where theres a rock that looks like its flippin you the bird while you headed up the road. everybody i met was super nice and its pretty funny to see the occasional small car sized tumble weed run across the road

[km101]

It's the only state shaped like it's license plates!

[sljacob]

I have see it many times on the red desert where you would be standing in six inches of mud and the wind will still blow dust in your face.
I spent the winter before last, south of wamsutter in a place called desolation flats leaning on the brake handle of a compleation rig. I have never been so cold since the winter I spent in prudhoe bay alaska.
All in all I have a great love for the state, if my roots were not so deep here where I live now I would still have a bucking horse on my licence plate.

[SlippShodd]

It's the only state shaped like it's license plates!

So what's Colorado?

[shunka]

- It is impossible to say enough about the wind!
- there seem to be 4 kinds of employment: working for the govt (state, local, military), ; working for big oil; tourist industry; jobs supporting of the above
- there are sections of the state that are nothing but dirt and pump jacks as far as you can see
- You will find some of the most amazing scenery and finest people on earth
- there is a place where the Great Divide splits and makes a bowl of desolation, centered in this is the town of Sinclair, WY
former home of the Sinclair Refinery, ( drive with care and buy Sinclair; Dino the Dinosaur)
- the Bighorns, Yellowstone, and the Tetons, Tensleep and Cody make up for the vast empty prarie

[Linstrum]

If the wind doesn't get you, the mud will! No one has mentioned Wyoming's "killer" mud yet.

One of my long-ago very close friends was born back 103 years ago in Powder River, just northwest of Casper. That was back before there was any pavement to speak of, and he told me that back in the 1920s cars were useless when it rained because the Bentonite clay that a good part of Wyoming is covered with is as slippery as any grease, and it is enough to bog down a horse when deep enough.

During the spring and summer of 1993 everything east of the Rocky Mountains was flooded, and I was doing some geology work in Wyoming that summer. I had stayed on paved roads until I got to Muddy Gap just north of Rawlins. I knew enough not to drive off road, but I thought I could walk out aways off the highway to get some photos of the beautiful rock formations at Muddy Gap. I took ten steps off the shoulder of the road and sank up to my butt in soft tan-colored Bentonite. I had to sit down to get my legs out, and thankfully I had on lace-up boots, otherwise I would have lost both shoes down 30 inches deep in the muck. I spent the next hour scraping mud off my pants before I dared get back in my car with its wall to wall carpeting and "mouse fur" seat covers. Now, I knew all about Bentonite clay because I worked in the oil fields and had been around drilling mud made with pure Wyoming Bentonite, but I had never seen where that stuff comes from and is part of the landscape. Wet Bentonite has the consistency of cooked oatmeal and is slippery as all get out, so watch out after it rains because even four wheel drive won't get you back to pavement if you are on a dirt road and it rains. When my father was a kid he used to travel in the same kind of country down in Tooele, Utah, out to a sheep camp to deliver supplies, and in the winter they drove after sundown when the mud froze enough not to be slippery.

The source of the Bentonite is the volcanic ash from the several strato-volcanoes that Yellowstone is part of, which are the volcanoes that DeanWinchester and Waksupai mentioned. Ash from those volcanoes has covered most of the Midwest on up into Canada at one time or another! At Badlands National Park near Rapid City and Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, as well as the badlands of North Dakota where Teddy Roosevelt's ranch is, it is the deep ash beds that form the badlands.

rl 1,177

[Ghost101]

First time up there was in 1969. Did a Disney movie called "Wild Country". I worked between Jackson Hole an Dubois for that summer. I loved the summers. The Wind river is a great place, just don't take a bet to try an swim across it. Check out Crow Heart Butte an listen to its history. I met a lot of great folks up there. It sadden me to go back with my family in the 90's an see how it has grown. If your headed east the wind isn't to bad, but turn around an hello. One word of advise, watch out for those "Jackalopes". Pesky critters.

[Lloyd Smale]

I loved my visits to the cody area. Wyoming would be one of my first choises if i ever moved but i dont think i could take it for the long haul. Ive lived around trees, swamps and homes with grass in there yard for two long. I think the brown would get to me after a while. I told my wife the first time there that i could make millions digging up trees on my own property and take them out there to sell. Another thing that would hold me back is that 20 years ago a guy could get a small parcel of say 40 acres fairly cheap. No more though. Id have to sell my home and property just to buy a lot near town around cody anymore. I think michigan ought to do a swap deal with wy. We will trade a tree for an elk or two mule deer!! Sure wish we had the hunting oportunitys that wy. has. Days of giant mule deer and elk may be in the past but youll still see more game in a one hour drive out there then youll see in a month here.

[runfiverun]

I have see it many times on the red desert where you would be standing in six inches of mud and the wind will still blow dust in your face.
I spent the winter before last, south of wamsutter in a place called desolation flats leaning on the brake handle of a compleation rig. I have never been so cold since the winter I spent in prudhoe bay alaska.
All in all I have a great love for the state, if my roots were not so deep here where I live now I would still have a bucking horse on my licence plate.

too bad you didn't make it over to the other side to siberia ridge.
they named that appropriatly.
only place i have ever stood in mud when it was -20.

[Para82]

Really like Wyoming.If I ever leave WV thats where I'm headed. Been out there to WY 3 times on vacation and plan on going again this yr sometime.Could spend a week in the Buffalo Bill museum in Cody. Everybody should see Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons and Bighorn Mountains at least once. Never seen weather change so fast!
Para82

[MtGun44]

If you are from KS you don't notice the wind in Wyoming much. :bigsmyl2:

Bill

[MT Gianni]

For me Wyo is a lot hotter and drier in summer than MT is. I like many natives of the Rockies laugh when we hear WY and tree in the same sentence. It has some great country and tax wise beats MT all to pieces for cost of living.
There are still some ranch jobs but the old adage still applies to them: "Plenty of work but there ain't too much pay".

[reloader28]

Wind, cactus, wind, rocks, wind, dust ,wind, rattlers, MANY griz, wind, sagebrush more dust and uh, oh yah wind.

It aint too bad right here though for wind. We get a few 70-80mph every spring. The highest I've clocked in the last 3 years was 135mph at my house. But if you go to the Clarks Fork canyon a few miles from here it really blows hard there. Its literally rolled pavement from the road and tore apart 2 weather stations.

If you do move to Wyoming, dont build a house right off the bat like all the other noobies that have moved here. Buy or rent to start and after a year decide whether you want to stay. Theres alotta houses for sale here from people that moved back where they came from after a year or 2.

[clodhopper]

Wyoming is rifleman country.

If you can't shoot because of a little wind, then I guess you can't shoot.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

a tab off topic but...here is a little story about WIND in Minnesota.

the Metropolitans of Minnesota are gettin' real soft, our last snow event, THEY called it a storm, but it wasn't. We got 10" to 12" of snow and THEY put out warnings of WIND. Yes Warnings !!! 5 to 10 mile per hour winds !!!

In Glencoe I think the wind got up to 5 miles per hour :-?

WARNINGS ??? really ???
Yes the Metropolitans of Minnesota are gettin' real soft.
Jon

[GOPHER SLAYER]

We drove across Wyoming in the summer of 1978 and it was a big disapointment to us. We thought we would see cows and cowboys in the small towns. Didn't happen. We saw lots of antelope though, didn't see one cow. The nicest place we saw was Fort Jim Bridger. There is a small creek there and plenty of aspen trees. We went to visit my nephew who lived in Newcastle at the time. That area is really in the Black Hills to my mind. In all our vacations to show our children the country all they wanted to do was get to the motel and jump in the pool. When we spent the night at Little America the girls put on their swimsuits and charged out to the pool. In a few minutes they were back and a curious thing had happened, they had turned blue and shivering like it was January. In July? I must confess, in our time there we experienced no wind. We did go through a nice summer rain in Rawlins, complete with a beautiful rainbow.

[dk17hmr]

So everyone understands we put I80 through the ugliest part of the state for a reason. If you really want to see Wyoming for what it is get a copy of "8000 miles of Dirt" by Dan Lewis. There are several day trips in this book and most of the driving is on dirt roads.

http://wyomingnaturalist.com/dirt_book.html

I found one of my favorite places to elk and deer hunt because of one of the trips in this book, and several awesome camping spots of the beaten path. If your in the area and you have the time take the Louis Lake Road from Highway 28 up to Lander although I wouldn't like to pull a camper behind my pickup on that trip it is awesome.

I tell everyone that comes out to see us that you cant see Wyoming from the interstate...start looking for Wyoming passed where we stopped paving the roads, its out there and its great.

[TheGrimReaper]

Um where I went it wasn't too great! Really wind and plain.

[gkainz]

I grew up 30 miles from the eastern border in the Black Hills and now live 100 miles from the southern border... I like Wyoming. I didn't like it so much building power line around Gillette, or Kaycee, or Jay Em, but running around the Big Horns or antelope hunting around Shirley Basin has always been fun.

Since a severe case of anti-gun has taken over the Colorado government, I may have to consider a move north...

[Cane_man]

my son is a senior in HS and is going to UW in Laramie in the Fall... he was born and raised his entire life here in Kalifornistan, and he can't wait to move out there, as he is excited to open carry loaded in public and have nobody care... i am jelous because i want to leave this pit as well... so for us here stuck on the left coast Wyo looks like paradise...

[historicfirearms]

I've got family in Sundance, in the northeastern corner of the state. This is black hills country and it is one of my favorite places in America. I even love the open sage brush plains and grasslands. It's something we don't have here in Michigan, the openness gives me a real sense of being free.

[1Shirt]

Wy has some of the best P-dog shooting that anyone could ask for!
1Shirt!

[tinsnips]

My brother in law lives in Sheridan WY I like it there. Now Gillette is another deal all together not that nice. The wind blows there but so does it in North Dakota, the air is clean, an buy the way the state isn't broke unlike a lot of other states.

[JesterGrin_1]

I kinda like Trees lol.

[starmac]

Lots of trees in wy, there is a lot of different country in wy from beautiful mountains to rolling treeless prairies. I will say this The worst day in wyoming would be better than the best day in some states I have been to. lol

[BRobertson]

I have gone down to Wyoming a few times to fly wildlife surveys.
A friend of mine had a aviation research outfit, Western Air Research, in Alta Wyoming.
He was killed in 95 as he was returning from a grizzly survey.

The thing that impressed me the most about Wyoming is that they hate the federal government almost as much as us Alaskans!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was nice to see the different country, and I met a lot of great people, we covered Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, North Colorado, Nevada,also

Bob

[JesterGrin_1]

I have gone down to Wyoming a few times to fly wildlife surveys.
A friend of mine had a aviation research outfit, Western Air Research, in Alta Wyoming.
He was killed in 95 as he was returning from a grizzly survey.

The thing that impressed me the most about Wyoming is that they hate the federal government almost as much as us Alaskans!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was nice to see the different country, and I met a lot of great people, we covered Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, North Colorado, Nevada,also

Bob

Bob Sorry to hear about the Loss of your Friend. May he Forever Dance in the Clouds.

Well I hope to see some of the Country while I am there.

[BRobertson]

Jester,
Thank you, he was a great person!!

Speaking of the wind in Wyoming, ........

Flying in the mountains, and always low to the ground, I had my ashtrays emptied a few times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JesterGrin_1]

Jester,
Thank you, he was a great person!!

Speaking of the wind in Wyoming, ........

Flying in the mountains, and always low to the ground, I had my ashtrays emptied a few times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am sure you did lol. And he Must have been a Great Pilot to fly in the winds there in a light Aircraft.