You Still Here

[{"type":"text","text":"Thankfully, he had that pillow ready...."}]

Bonus video 6 17 24

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Bonus Video: Monday, June 17, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Thankfully, he had that pillow ready....

Bonus Video: Monday, June 17, 2024

 Thankfully, he had that pillow ready....

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Wyoming Life

“Ambitious” might be the only word big enough to describe Wyoming’s birthday party for America’s 250th. 

Instead of a single day of fireworks and fanfare, the Cowboy State is building monuments, commissioning new music, and mapping out trail rides that will outlast the holiday itself. 

This year’s Fourth of July is less one-off party and more permanent invitation to explore the Cowboy State’s place in the American story, from one corner of Wyoming to the next. 

From Buffalo to Newcastle, Cody, Dubois, Evanston, Jackson, Gillette, Casper, Cheyenne and more, communities are finding wildly different ways to extend that invitation and have fun doing so.

Runners will wolf down hot dogs on every lap of a 1.776K in Buffalo, for example, while in Cody people can raise a beer stein to toast America with an America 250 Pale Ale. In Newcastle, crowds will gather at the Weston County Courthouse steps to hear President Teddy Roosevelt’s 1903 speech brought to life again. 

In Cheyenne, concertgoers will hear a symphony orchestra piece written just for Wyoming by Hollywood composer Jeff Lippencott, timed to a fireworks display over the Capitol’s golden dome. 

Just down the street, four bronze panels have just been installed to tell the state’s history for at least the next millennium. 

Two C-130 jets from the Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Airlift Wing will take to the skies Saturday morning, each going in a different direction. They’ll pass over 16 communities at roughly 1,000 feet and 200 knots for a Fourth of July salute before reconvening in the middle and roaring back into Cheyenne at 1 p.m. for a Capitol flyover. 

In Dubois, the usual tank parade that draws thousands to this tiny mountain town is on, but it will be preceded Friday with some live vehicle demolitions and firepower demonstrations at the National Museum of Military Vehicles — a noisy day any true tank fan should adore. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"We’re All Americans"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Not all of the plans are noisy. "}]

New Mexico transplant Khristin Kaske has come up with her own idea for Cheyenne’s celebration.

She’s repurposed an old archway once used for her wedding into a red, white and blue selfie station for America’s 250th and put the word out: “Hey, ya’ll come!”

“I love to craft, so the decorating corner is just fun,” she told Cowboy State Daily. 

The idea started in November with a fall setup followed by Thanksgiving and Christmas. Kaske enjoyed it so much, she took herself to Hobby Lobby for its big after-Christmas sale and stocked up on decorations for every season.

“Their Christmas is all different colors,” she said. “So I could get stuff for any upcoming holiday.”

She also watches for cool stuff from thrift stores and yard sales, as well as cruising craft-store aisles for clearance items. 

So far she’s done Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day and now, America’s 250th. Next up will be a selfie booth for Cheyenne Frontier Days.

Kaske isn’t home much in the daytime, but she knows the selfie booth is popular. 

“I see lots of footprints out there,” she said. “And when I’m home, I do see people coming over and taking pictures.”

She’s put up a shepherd’s hook with doggy bags so people can bring pets — and so far, her visitors have all been considerate guests, cleaning up after their pets and helping to take care of this free resource. 

That warms her heart, especially for the Fourth, because this is a time when she feels, no matter how crazy, we need to remember that we’re all Americans first, second, and last.

“We still have a lot to be thankful for in this country,” she said. “Doing things just like this, for example. Being able to have the freedom to put up decorations and expressions. I think it’s important to hang onto the reality that we still have a lot of freedoms.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Echoes In Bronze"}]

A similar sentiment has inspired Wyoming’s latest bronze installation, which will be the 99th in Cheyenne’s Capitol Avenue Bronze series.

Four new bronze panels will be placed on the corner of Capitol and 22nd Street, each telling a different chapter of Wyoming’s place in America’s 250 years, according to Cheyenne and Laramie County America 250 Chairman Nathaniel Trelease. 

“The challenge was that Wyoming didn’t exist in 1776,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “So what we decided to do was take America’s founding principles and reflect how they echo in Wyoming history.”

That’s where the installation’s name, "Echoes: Wyoming at America 250", comes from. 

The first panel depicts Wyoming as it was at America’s birth, 250 years ago, with all manner of wildlife hiding in a forest scene. A moose turns its head toward a wolf, which appears to be eating something, while deer scamper and play in a dreamy, far-distant background. There are beavers and birds and more — but it will take considerable time and study to find them all. 

Another panel traces Native American trade routes and the great overland trails that funneled settlers west through Wyoming. A third focuses on the state’s economic development. Mines are started and railroad tracks laid, even as explorers such as Lewis and Clark came to map out the newly added western territories. 

The fourth panel highlights Wyoming’s trailblazing role in women’s suffrage and early civil rights as the first state in the union to allow women to vote. 

In it, Judge Esther Hobart Morris hands a flag with 44 stars to Wyoming Gov. Francis E. Warren, while in the center, Wyoming’s soon-to-be first female Wyoming governor Nellie Tayloe Ross watches women ascend steps to cast their votes. Louisa Swain, the first woman to vote in Wyoming, is depicted casting her ballot, along with a handful of other women lining up right behind her. 

Ross, Warren and Swain are all among bronze statues in the Capitol Avenue Bronze project, Trelease said. And that’s part of what the bronze panels aim to accomplish — tying together the many disparate pieces of Wyoming history scattered along the avenue for one coherent story of how Wyoming has come to matter so much to a country that began its life long before the territory was a state. 

It’s a story that, unlike fireworks and parades, won’t fade with the sunset. It will last at a thousand years or more, Trelease said. 

“This is leaving a visual footprint of where we were in 2026 for the Jubilees that will come in 50 years, 100 years, 150 years,” Trelease said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"250 Years In 76 Objects"}]

While the bronzes will give visitors a history they can see and touch, American Heritage Center’s Paul Flesher is working on a version that people can hold in their hands.

The book, tentatively titled, “Wyoming’s History in 76 Object”, will use photographs of carefully chosen artifacts to tell the state’s history. Some of the artifacts are small. A coal mine whistle, for example, and a battered cowboy hat.

Others are large. Historic landmarks such as Devils Tower, for example, or the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s old Yellowstone supercomputer. 

“We’ll talk about buffalo and horses and cattle and sheep,” Flesher said. “And we’ll hit the railroad, the transcontinental railroad, and we’ll talk about the oldest buildings in the state.”

Each object chosen for the book comes with a 400-word essay, giving just a thumbnail sketch of its history.

“We couldn’t possibly include everything,” Flesher said. “So the question became, what objects best capture the role Wyoming has played in America’s history?”

And which items serve as the best invitation to explore and find out more. The book will debut as an e-book sometime in July, with a print edition to follow.

“The e-book will allow us to continue to make this available for years to come, even after we sell all of the printed copies,” Flesher said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A New Happy Trail"}]

Just as the bronzes and book are meant to last, so, too, the “American Patriot Hymn,” written by Hollywood composer Jeff Lippencott especially for Wyoming. 

The three-movement work weaves narration from John Quincy Adams as well as portions of a poem attributed to Samuel Adams into a sweeping orchestral score meant to capture the grand sweep of Wyoming history.

Lippencott, who lives in Alpine, credits Wyoming’s wide-open spaces for helping inspire his symphonic work, including Grand Teton Suite and Pasturelands.

Even some of the state’s most adventurous America 250 plans are designed to stick around, such as the four-day 250 Trail Ride, which began in Evanston and follows a 500-mile, off-road route to Cheyenne, arriving just in time for the Fourth of July festivities.

Organizers have told Cowboy State Daily that the trail will become official with this ride, and will be available for future trailblazers who want to experience Wyoming in a unique way. 

Taken together — the bronzes, the book, the music, and even the new trail — it all says the same thing. Wyoming doesn’t just want to throw a 250th birthday bash. 

It wants to leave footprints that will still be visible when the next big anniversaries roll around.

Cody parade Chon Kit Leong via Alamy 7 1 26

<title>Wyoming’s Over-The-Top 250th Celebration Comes With Tanks, Flyovers, History | Cowboy State Daily</title>

From C-130 flyovers and tank parades to new monuments and a new state trail, Wyoming’s America 250 celebration isn’t a one-day bash. “We still have a lot to be thankful for in this country,” said one organizer about what's planned across the Cowboy State.

Wyoming’s Over-The-Top 250th Celebration Comes With Tanks, Flyovers, History

[{"type":"text","text":"This is why I'm a soft shell person....."}]

Bonus video 2 7 1 26

<title>Bonus Video 2: Wednesday, July 1, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

This is why I'm a soft shell person.....

Bonus Video 2: Wednesday, July 1, 2026

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Wildlife

A rancher near Choteau, Montana, caught video of six grizzlies strolling across his calving lot behind his barn late Monday, and said there were as many as seven bears on his property that night.

The next morning, rancher Neal Collins said agents from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks hazed as many as 10 grizzlies out of patches of brush across the road from his place.

Collins said no people or livestock were attacked by the bears on his place, and FWP used non-lethal “cracker” shotgun shells to scare off the bears.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A ‘Herd’ Of Grizzlies"}]

Sparky Wallace, a friend of Collins who also lives near Choteau, somewhat humorously described the group of grizzlies as a “herd.”

A group of bears is actually called a "sleuth." Or sometimes, an older term, a “sloth” is used to describe a gathering of bears. 

He told Cowboy State Daily he and some of his neighbors have had encounters with multiple bears, as the number of grizzlies out on the prairie has steadily increased.  

Chad White, a bear management specialist with Montana FWP, said the bears on Collins’ property were probably a “couple of family groups that have been hanging out in the area.”

Meaning, they were likely two related adult females such as “a mother and daughter” and their cubs, White said.

The Choteau area has been busy with bear activity this spring and summer. The bears wander from the Rocky Mountain Front onto the prairie along the Teton River, which flows past Choteau. 

The bears might be feeding on green vegetation and other natural food sources, then taking shelter in brush patches.

“It may be that he (Collins) has the natural shelter for day bedding and they were traveling around the area,” White said. 

White said the FWP bear manager responding to Collins’ call told him as many as 10 grizzlies fled once the hazing stared.

FWP personnel fired cracker shells into the brush where the bears were holed up. Cracker shells fire a small explosive charge with a delayed fuse, designed to explode in the air and ward off predators such as bears and wolves.

“The six or seven bears in the family groups ran off in one direction, and two or three more ran off in another direction,” he said.

It’s not known where the other two or three bears might have come from, White added.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Alarm Barks"}]

Collins said he was first alerted to the bears’ presence Monday when one of his dogs started frantically barking at about 9:30 p.m.

“We’ve got this one dog that’s supposed to be a cow dog, but she’s really not,” he said. “She was just barking, barking, barking. She barks on occasion, but not like that.” 

He said he stepped outside to investigate and saw a “flash of a bear.”

So, he immediately went back into his house, shooing the dog inside with him.

A camera he has mounted on the backside of his barn caught video and photos of the bears.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘You Get Immune To It’"}]

Collins’ ranch is about 35 miles out on the prairie from the Rocky Mountain front.

Grizzlies are usually associated with mountain habitat. However, they were originally a Great Plains species, and were driven into the mountains as the West was settled.

Grizzlies have been growing in number and expanding their range in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho in recent decades. In Montana, they’ve been pushing ever-farther onto the prairies.

Collins said his father was in his 70s before he ever saw a grizzly anywhere near Choteau. But the bears have become a common sight of late.

When asked if having the bears around worried him, Collins said, “I suppose, but you get immune to it.”

Even so, he’s not happy about the growing number of prairie grizzlies.

“There here, even though I don’t want them here,” he said.

In Wyoming, grizzlies attacking cattle is frequently listed as the leading cause of human-bear conflict.

Collins said he hasn’t lost any livestock to bears yet.

"Even so, they sure don’t help them (the cattle) even if they don’t kill them,” he said. "They move through the cattle herd and stir them up.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bird Hunting Gets Wild"}]

North-central Montana is a bird hunter’s paradise. And in decades past, grizzlies would have been the furthest things from bird hunters’ minds.

That’s not the case any longer. In 2023, 

 between bird and whitetail deer hunters in separate incidents.

Those occurred in the vicinity of the Freezeout Lake Wildlife Management Area. It’s between Choteau and Fairfield, Montana, about 40 miles west of Great Falls.

Collins said that several years ago, a bird hunter had to shoot and kill a charging grizzly across the road from his place.

“He ended up with a scratch on his arm, because the last shot was right at the end of the gun barrel,” he said.

Wallace, a horse trainer and saddle maker, said he’s run into multiple grizzlies while bird hunting.

“I hunt ducks a lot. And even on the little prairie potholes out here, you’ve got to walk in there loaded and ready for bears,” he said.

Herd of grizzlies 2 6 30 26

<title>Holy Cow! Montana Rancher Spots 'Herd' Of 7 Grizzlies On Property | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Montana rancher Neal Collins said a camera on his barn captured a "herd" of seven grizzlies on his property Monday night. The next morning, agents from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks hazed 10 grizzlies out of brush across the road from his place.

Holy Cow! Montana Rancher Spots 'Herd' Of 7 Grizzlies On Property

Julie Mankin

Around Wyoming

Eighth-grader Chaney Akin of Cody didn’t just dominate the National Junior High Finals Rodeo last week on her diminutive – but nationally famous – horse in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

Akin won the pole bending aggregate by almost a full second and capped the week by taking home All Around Cowgirl honors to rake in nearly $6,000.

Akin’s time of 19.60 seconds in the first round Tuesday morning – thought to be a Lazy E Arena record – came aboard her 19-year-old former trail-riding mare officially named Chick's Keen O Pocopoo but known affectionately by the family as “the little Paint donkey.”

“That was my fastest run ever in the poles,” said Akin, who had been awake all through the previous night thanks to tornado-related evacuations. “When I first looked at the scoreboard, I thought it said 19.9. But then I heard everyone screaming.”

The NJHFR drew more than 1,200 contestants from 40 states and six countries. Akin also finished 16th in barrel racing, on a gelding she trained, to secure the coveted All-Around Cowgirl award and lead the Wyoming girls to fourth in the team standings.

Two of the only other four sub-20.00 runs were posted by Casper’s Lanai Garnhart and Gillette’s Bella Moore. Garnhart finished second and 11-year-old Tinlee Thompson of Yoder third in the All Around Rookie Cowgirl standings behind a girl from Mexico.

[{"type":"text","text":"The Famous Horse"}]

It was Akin’s first NJHFR qualification, but her horse was already famous.

“Paint” became a rodeo Cinderella story in 2020 when Akin's mother, Brittney Sporer, took her all the way to the National Finals Rodeo in barrel racing despite the mare’s diminutive size and cowhorse breeding.

Many of the sport’s top fans didn’t realize at first that Akin was riding the same Paint. But the mare is distinctive.

She stands barely 14 hands tall and has such a narrow rear end that saddles must be custom-made. She got her wild red-and-white color from her sire, Mr. Dominator, and she’s out of a granddaughter of cowhorse legend Smart Chic Olena.

[{"type":"text","text":"She also has had cancer in one eye."}]

“She doesn't know she's 19,” Sporer wrote of Paint on Facebook after her daughter’s world titles. “She doesn't know how many miles she's traveled or how many memories she's made. She just knows she gets to load in the trailer and go somewhere with us to do the jobs she loves.”

Sporer grew up in Bakersfield, California, where she was sent Paint in 2016 for barrel-racing training when the mare was already 9. The duo made the California Circuit Finals Rodeo twice, and Sporer bought her along when she moved to Stephenville, Texas.

Since marrying Cody native Sid Sporer in 2022, she’s also made the Montana Circuit Finals twice on Paint. She said Paint has earned more than $300,000 running barrels.

“I did not like her at first,” Akin said of her mother’s rough-riding mare. “I hit a lot of barrels on her and don’t have much confidence on her in that event.”

But once the duo began winning at the poles, she’s decided she loves competing on Paint. Bending through all six poles six times at the NJHFR without a penalty for knocking one over is quite a feat.

“You just have to use your feet and not pull on her reins,” Akin said. “In the second round, I was a little handsy and had a 20.1. She lined out, after that.”

The NJHFR venue is smack in Tornado Alley. Last week, hundreds of families spent half of two nights evacuating horses from stalls and sheltering in the arena.

“The group of people who rodeo in Wyoming are amazing,” Sporer said. “One of the dads ran around to all of the trailers knocking to wake us up, and said, ‘We’ve got to go; there’s a tornado; we’ve got to get to the barn’. We hadn’t even gotten warnings on our phones. We loped our horses bareback up to the arena and sheltered for almost two hours.”

As of Monday, mother and daughter were eager to get home by July 2, when Sid Sporer is scheduled to compete in team roping at his big hometown rodeo in Cody.

Brittney Sporer admitted she and her daughter have started training all of his roping horses on the poles. He might not get them back, she joked. 

[{"type":"text","text":"However, Akin owes him."}]

 rodeo,” Brittney recalled. “At the time, I told my husband I was going to sell my horses. He said, ‘Absolutely not.’ Well, I texted him yesterday and said, ‘Thank you for not letting me sell my horse.’”

She said Akin, a home-schooled 14-year-old, has enjoyed living in Wyoming the past five or six years.

“She loves Wyoming, and the parents and the kids here are just amazing,” said Brittney, who still has a house in Texas and goes there “when it snows.” That’s why Chaney has decided to compete for the Cowboy State next year as a high school freshman.

“Ever since we left Texas, people were saying it was because the rodeos in Wyoming would be easier to win,” she said. “But all four Wyoming girls made the NJHFR short round in barrels. So, that is not the case. We went to Wyoming because it’s harder to qualify. In Texas, the qualifiers are whoever does well one day.”

And by now, winning the NJHFR has become a stepping stone for many of today’s top pro rodeo contenders. 

[{"type":"text","text":"None could say they won the world title on as unlikely a horse as Paint."}]

In fact, Brittney loves Paint so much she bought her dam as well, and is now training two half-brothers, including a 6-year-old Wyoming stallion Casino Heist. Plus, she has three babies from Paint, including a 3-year-old stallion by Wyoming’s top-producing barrel-racing sire Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.

The rarity is not just that Paint is a winner, Brittney said. It’s that she’s still sound and still winning after a million miles, through 10 years of racing and cancer.

“We have ridden her in an English saddle and jumped her,” she said, noting she once turned down a blank check to sell Paint. “She literally will do anything. She’s a special mare.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Now ridden by a world champion eighth-grader."}]

Akin pole bending at NJHFR credit NHSRA

<title>Cody Girl Wins Two World Rodeo Titles On Famous Horse At National Junior High Rodeo | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Chaney Akin of Cody didn’t just dominate the National Junior High Finals Rodeo last week on her diminutive – but nationally famous – horse in Oklahoma, she took home two world rodeo titles. Her famous horse has earned more than $300,000 running barrels.

Cody Girl Wins Two World Rodeo Titles On Famous Horse At National Junior High Rodeo

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Libby Lane of Red Lodge, Montana, was going about her usual business Monday at the Top of the World Resort on the Beartooth Highway. As of 1:30 p.m., it was still snowing up there.

“We’ve got about three inches of snow, and it's still snowing,” Lane told Cowboy State Daily. “It's blowing and melting off the road, but the road looks slick, icy, and slushy.”

The only vehicle Lane had seen was a snowplow that drove past in its effort to clear the highway, heading for Cooke City.

“I was hoping they’d open it today,” she said. “I haven't heard anything from anybody. Sometimes we're the last to know. Unfortunately, we have to look for the cars coming over the pass to know when it’s open.”

The Beartooth Highway was temporarily closed at 4:53 p.m. Sunday in anticipation of incoming snow. Monday’s snow vindicated the precautionary closure.

This is Lane's fourth season living and working at the Top of the World on the Wyoming side of the pass. When the Beartooth Highway closes, she and her coworkers are stranded at the summit until the road is deemed safe enough to traffic to resume. 

However, this wasn’t unusual from Lane’s perspective. Snow-related closures, even in late June, are “not a surprise at all.” 

“It’s very common,” she said. “We got our boots out this morning and just kept working.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Yellowstone’s Dunraven Pass Closes"}]

Dunraven Pass in Yellowstone National Park also closed Monday morning due to “winter weather conditions.”

“We’re looking at an inch of snow in Cooke City, Montana,” said Tessa Stetzr, with the National Weather Service office in Billings. “We were forecasting around 1 to 2 inches along the Beartooth Pass and 6 inches in the higher elevations.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Snow also fell farther south in Wyoming."}]

Stuart Pierson of Centennial was heading over the Snowy Range toward Saratoga when he encountered “a pleasant surprise.”

“I left my house around 10:30 a.m., and there was light snow as I went over the top near Barbara Lake Road,” he said. “Nothing was sticking yet, but there was a lot of snow in the air.”

None of this winter weather was expected to escape the mountains, and a cooler-than-average Monday will give way to temperatures in the 80s and low 90s by July 4.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Where’s That Coming From?"}]

The snow in northwest Wyoming came from a cold front moving across Montana, originating in the Pacific Northwest.

“There’s an upper-level low over Montana,” Stetzr said. “That's allowing cooler temperatures to make their way into the state and lowering the snow levels to around 7,000 feet.”

Lance VandenBoogart with the National Weather Service office in Riverton said that’s not unusual for northwest Wyoming or Yellowstone, even in the last days of June.

“Yellowstone and any high-elevation spot in northwest Wyoming can see snow any time of the year,” he said. “The high at Old Faithful was 44 degrees, and that’s not even record-breaking cold for this time of year.”

Still, there were cooler-than-average temperatures across Wyoming on Monday. Daytime highs were in the low 70s in central Wyoming and only in the mid-50s to mid-60s in the Bighorn Basin.

Many spots in Wyoming would welcome an inch or two of moisture. VandenBoogart said they’ll be going without.

“It’ll fizzle out by this evening,” he said. “This weather system will be weakening as it pushes through the mountains. The Bighorn Basin might see a couple of rain showers, but we’re not looking for much notable precipitation from this.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Heat Of The Moment"}]

If it’s cool and wet on June 29, what does that mean for the upcoming celebrations of the United States 250th anniversary on July 4?

VandenBoogart and Stetzr agreed that Monday’s high-elevation snow was an anomaly. By Friday, it’ll look and feel like summer again.

“We'll continue to have daily chances for afternoon showers and thunderstorms, but we're expecting temperatures to return to the upper 70s and low 80s for the second half of the week,” Stetzr said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Central and southern Wyoming could get even warmer."}]

“We’re looking at the low to mid 80s through the middle of the week,” VandenBoogart said. “By the time we get to Friday, through the Independence Day holiday, we're going to be probably upper 80s to around 90, closer to mid-summer normals.”

As for the Beartooth Highway, the National Park Service said the road would be opened “when conditions improve.” Based on the amount of snow seen on webcams in Cooke City, that probably won’t be until Tuesday.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Don’t Read Into It"}]

After a record-breaking dry winter and spring, some might be inclined to see June snow on the Beartooth Highway as a promising sign. After all, El Niño’s on the way and promises to disrupt global weather patterns in a way that could, possibly, benefit Wyoming.

The latest outlook from the NWS’s Climate Prediction Center still favors above-average moisture for Wyoming this summer. VandenBoogart doesn’t think anyone should read into it too much.

“Climatology isn’t going to be your best forecast,” he said. “The latest update is a slight lean toward above-normal precipitation for the western half of Wyoming in July, August, and September. It's not a sure thing, just that the odds are a little better than normal.”

Meanwhile, the snow on the Beartooth Highway isn’t indicative of anything other than the fact that anything can happen at a 10,000-foot elevation.

“If Casper got snow right now, that would be impressive,” VandenBoogart said. “When you're getting it up in the mountains and Yellowstone, snow happens when these cold systems ride through.”

Libby lane snow 6 29 26

Winter is back in Wyoming as a late June snowstorm closed the Beartooth Highway and Yellowstone's Dunraven Pass. At 9,400 feet, the Top of the World store recorded three inches of snow. “We got our boots out and just kept working," said Libby Lane.

Bonus Video: Monday, June 17, 2024

In case you missed it

More in You Still Here

Bonus Video 1: Thursday, July 2, 2026

Bonus Video 2: Thursday, July 2, 2026

Steve Inman: Thursday, July 2, 2026

You Still Here? Thursday, July 2, 2026

Most read