Wild, Wonderful Wyoming!

Recently, Alan and I decided to take a trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I had been to Jackson Hole in my “previous life” but Alan had never been. In spite of a last-minute snafu in our lodging arrangements, we still made it…

We had a Trusted Housesitter in attendance for a Kansas City wedding. We tacked our Jackson Hole trip on the back end of that trip to KC. We were home for one night before we took off again, this time in the opposite direction. We didn’t go directly to Jackson Hole, opting instead to add a few hours to our trip to visit a friend in Utah.

Next week’s post is about the Wind River Wild Horse Sanctuary located on an Indian Reservation that we passed through on our way home. This post will be more about our trip there and back, and the incredible topography of Wyoming.

One of our first stops was Flaming Gorge Reservoir, located in the Ashley National Forest. It is absolutely beautiful. However, I could find no horse camping facilities in the area. There are liveries if you don’t want to ride your own horse.

The Bridger-Teton National Forest encompasses a massive amount of acreage in Wyoming. We drove through it on the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway, also known as Highway 191. Sadly, no matter where we seem to be, we see evidence of forest fires.

Early in our journey out of Colorado, we viewed the location of the start of the Cameron Peak Fire that so badly impacted us last summer. As we drove into the Bridger-Teton National Forest, we saw evidence of the Roosevelt Fire from 2018. The beetle kill was heavy in this area as well… something we have seen in so much of Rocky Mountain National Park. With so many trees already dead from beetle kill, it is no wonder that forest fires spread quickly.

Other than large areas of beetle kill and forest fire damage, Wyoming is an incredibly beautiful place. As we passed Jackson Lake, we were shocked at how low the water level appears to be. This article states that levels are currently at a historically low point due to drought. The further north we went, towards the point of the lake, the less water we saw.

Jackson Hole itself is a pretty classic tourist town. It is a ski resort in winter and similar to Estes Park in the summer. Folks come to shop and tour the two National Parks. It is an *expensive* place! On our last day there, the community of Jackson Hole passed a mandatory mask mandate. Apparently, 70% of the locals were vaccinated, but infection rates were rising due to the tourist influx.

On our way out of Yellowstone, we did see a bear crossing the road. Since we live all summer in a wildlife-populated area, it wasn’t quite the same rarity for us as it is for many tourists. However, I do think there is more wildlife density per human in Wyoming than we have in our area. There are signs everywhere to remember that the wildlife is wild. Some of the things that people do… what are they thinking?

I realize that talking about geysers is not necessarily horse-related, but I shot some awesome footage of several impressive geysers in Yellowstone. The beginning of this video shows the Grand Geyser… way more impressive than Old Faithful. We waited OVER TWO HOURS for this to erupt… it happens roughly every seven hours. Normally, I shoot videos horizontally. However, I used vertical footage to capture the height of these impressive natural wonders. The Grand Geyser eruption lasted more than 5 minutes and I captured the end of it vertically.

The Beehive Geyser at the end of the video erupts about every 20 hours. We just got lucky on that one and only waited for about 10 minutes. While we were waiting for the Beehive to erupt, we watched Old Faithful go off in the distance.

I hope you enjoy these photos depicting the beauty and majesty of this impressive area.

Although I am not sure of the exact date, there is a new podcast coming! I have collaborated with Sandra Sullivan of Horse Habit TV to create a weekly podcast about All Things Horse. We expect it to be launched by the end of September. We have recorded several episodes thus far. Topics range from equine business-related information to medical issues.

While Sandra facilitates the non-medical topics, I arrange for experts in the field to educate us about everyday horse husbandry. Even though I have a veterinary degree, I am a huge advocate for reaching out to experts on any subject I am uncertain about. I was also a huge advocate for client education when I was in small animal practice. I believe an educated client is a better animal owner.

Some of our recorded podcasts as of now include: