Wyoming (Part One)

Welcome to the West!

(6/5/22 – 6/9/22)

Our first truly Western state. Due to major flooding, we did not visit the northwestern part, which includes Yellowstone and the Tetons. But I promise we go back and visit those places later! The rest of the state is grasslands and sagebrush desert. Sagebrush desert…gets very old very fast. I think it’s safe to say that I am not a big fan of the sagebrush desert biome, which is a huge bummer because we were far from finished with it. This was the first state that was drastically different from the environment in Illinois. I was shocked by the lack of trees here, and the constant forest fire smoke in the summer bothered me. Those are two things I never got used to. Other than the fires, the weather was great. It was hot, but it was a dry heat, not the musty thick heat we were used to during Illinois summers. However, I have concluded the dry heat is not worth the price of constant summer fires. Not even close. And don’t get me started on the wind. Desert wind is relentless. It’s one of my least favorite types of weather because it’s hard to dress for. If I’m hot, I can wear more layers. If I’m cold I can add layers, but if it’s windy? There is nothing I can do. I don’t like to use the word hate here, but I HATE it.

Driving into Wyoming, I knew it was the least densely populated state in the lower 48. However, actually seeing it in person is weirder than I could have imagined. Wyoming had a total of four Planet Fitnesses for us to shower, and we visited three of them. I grew up in what I considered a small town in Southern Illinois with about 10,000 people. Compared to half of the cities in this state, that is not small. It made me redefine the area I grew up in and appreciate my hometown more. The countless times in high school that I felt like we lived in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do I was being ungrateful. The people out here TRULY had nothing to do. I at least had the advantage of living close to a Walmart and large city.

The remoteness of Wyoming made some aspects of vanlife difficult. Finding water to fill up in the desert is hard (shocking, I know). But we just fill up our jug at water fountains most of the time (no need to find a spigot or fancy water fill-up station), and we couldn’t even find those in desert parks or visitor centers. We learned to stop at every grocery store and gas station we saw because we never knew when the next one would be. These grocery stores were little and privately owned in these small towns, so the prices were not cheap, and one time we went over 100 miles without gas on a single highway (the closest we have ever come to running out).

I really started to struggle with being away from home here. The initial excitement of starting this trip had finally worn off, and I realized I wouldn’t see my family again for months. The longest I had ever been away from home is a couple of months, and I began to realize I was about to spend almost a whole year’s worth of time away from people I used to see every day. I tried my best to talk to my parents and little sister as often as I could, but I had no cell service often. I was homesick, and having nothing to do but drive through the sagebrush desert all day was not helping to distract me.

As I am writing this, it may sound like I hated my time in Wyoming, but I really didn’t. It was just the first place where I think the harsh realities of this trip became apparent to me. Places were going to continue to feel different from home, and I was going to continue to miss my family. During our first visit to Wyoming is where we really got the hang of using public lands. We were able to determine which places were easier to camp for free than others and which camping apps were the best for us. The strategies we developed here are ones we used to camp for free throughout our time in the entire western United States.

Our thru-hike of the John Muir Trail was getting closer and closer, and I was itching to get to California. I had given up on enjoying myself anymore in Wyoming this time around, and I knew next time would be better when we were actually able to spend time in the northeast, which people seem to love.

Places visited:

-       Devil’s Tower National Monument

-       Casper

In-state miles hiked: 16.73

Total miles hiked: 95.91