FARSON — Who would have thought this little burg at the crossroads of Nowhere and The End of the Earth could be a great place to view Saturday’s “ring-of-fire” solar eclipse?
Standing in front of the famous Farson Mercantile, Alli Roghair and Bryce Campbell were outfitted with powerful eye protection as they scanned the southern sky between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. They were beyond delighted with what they were seeing.
Despite the fact that the epicenter of maximum viewing was in Beaver, Utah, almost 400 miles away, they said their view of the eclipse was spectacular.
This event was called an “annular” eclipse, which is slightly less spectacular than a total solar eclipse. The moon is a little farther away from the earth on an annular eclipse, thus a ring of fire emerges around the moon during the event. It is still pretty much regular daylight during the event.
In August 2017, a total eclipse was nearly 100% total over Wyoming, which was way more spectacular as the day turns into night.
But this one was pretty cool, too.
Alli Roghair and Bryce Campbell watch Saturday's eclipse from in front of the Farson Mercantile. (Bill Sniffin, Cowboy State Daily) 
The sun was at 10% above the Green River during Saturday's eclipse. (Bill Sniffin, Cowboy State Daily) 
Saturday's eclipse viewed from the National Weather Service office in Riverton (National Weather Service, Riverton)
Still Spectacular
Saturday morning across the high plateau country in northern Sweetwater County, the atmosphere was noticeably odd.
West of Farson near the Green River, the sun was quite dim. You could not tell what was happening with the naked eye or even with sunglasses, but it was an eerie twilight-type view.
Farson really is a major crossroads of Highways 191 and 28 with thousands of vehicles passing through each day.
Looking through approved solar eclipse glasses, it revealed less than 10% of the sun was shining. The rest of the sun was covered by the moon. It was spectacular.
There were plenty of spots in rural Wyoming that provided great views, like the Pilot Butte Historical Site on Highways 28 between Farson and Green River.
And in Farson, where Alli and Bryce were watching excitedly.
The Farson Merc is home of “The Big Cone” and serves some of the best ice cream in Wyoming. But on this day, the eclipse was the sweetest thing going.
It was a bluebird day in Wyoming. The temperature was about 40 degrees with nary a whisper of the Cowboy State’s famous wind. The sky was brilliant with some faint white clouds high above. Some earlier cloud formations had scooted out of the way just in time for the big event.
