Commuting From Victor, ID to Jackson, WY

[R_Cowgirl]

Originally Posted by banjomike

The pass is just like a bunch of others, no worse or better. The avalanche factor is the only ting that makes it notorious. A 4WD with good ice/snow tires and/or chains can drive it safely, but slowly, when it is at it's slickest, and it's more attended to than many others I've driven over. I have never needed to chain up on it.

The wind is another big problem, for sure. On a real windy day, the pass can white out. But again, the same thing happens on other passes.

With your Wyoming experience, I don't think you will have any problems the rest of the folks who live in Victor don't have. You will do fine as long as you don't try to push it when it's bad. Even when it's perfect, the pass is still a slow one.

Hi BanjoMike! So if I move to Victor, what I'm hearing is that I 1) need to get a four wheel drive vehicle, 2) need to make sure I have great internet service if i just have to work from home for a week, and 3) it takes a whole lot longer than the "30-45 minutes" we've been told during the winter. Correct? And is there more than one way out of Victor towards Jackson?

thanks

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by R_Cowgirl

Hi BanjoMike! So if I move to Victor, what I'm hearing is that I 1) need to get a four wheel drive vehicle, 2) need to make sure I have great internet service if i just have to work from home for a week, and 3) it takes a whole lot longer than the "30-45 minutes" we've been told during the winter. Correct? And is there more than one way out of Victor towards Jackson?

thanks

A 4WD is just a good year 'round vehicle for living in Victor. I've driven the pass in a lot of different vehicles, most 2WD with all-season tires and/or you name it. If you are living there, you learn fast when the pass is going to be tough or not. Victor is a small town with relatively undeveloped streets and stuff, and a 4WD is good at pulling out of mud, or driving on the unpaved roads that are all over up there year-round. Subarus are the most common car, but Jeeps, and many others are driven, and all kinds of pickups, but so are 2WD sedans, just like you'll see anywhere in mountain country.

Whatever's happening in Victor is happening on the pass. If it's storming in Victor, it will be storming on the pass. The pass is almost never blocked for a week these days; that kind of time is long in the past, but it can be blocked for 48 hours on relatively rare occasions. The traffic is light for an important pass; it's not anything like trying to drive over Donner on the Interstate during a blizzard, or Snowqualmie Pass in Washington. Both of those are much scarier to me than the Teton Pass.

Slow depends... it's one of those things that, once you start, the other end is over there, so I never kept track of the time it took. Fast would be 30 minutes any time of year. As with any pass, you will find people who drive it like it was a road rally and those who take their time.

It's best to keep things in perspective, too. The snow on the pass is just like anywhere the country is high and snow country. For most of the winter, the road is dry. And the winter is only part of the year- about 1/3 at the most. Living in Victor the other 2/3 of the year, the pass is nothing but a twisty road with lots of scenery on either side.

The more important question to ask is whether or not you will like living in a small town that's rather remote. Some folks prefer living in Driggs, further down the road but a slightly larger town that has better access to Rexburg & Idaho Falls, both larger and much better shopping/entertainment towns.

While living in Jackson can be hard, it's always possible to do. Lots of folks split the rent on a house, and there are a lot of informal arrangements there- some people need year 'round housekeepers for their vacation homes, etc. Some people who work in Jackson live Alpine, Bondurant, in the Hoback Junction area, Moose, Freedom or Thane, Afton, and other small Wyoming towns. For all of them the river road is always used., and it's more open year 'round.

The river road is Hwy. 26 to the Alpine junction, and 191 into Jackson. The only problem with it is landslides, which close it every few years. The country is steep over there, and that road is prone to rock and landslides sometimes during the spring, which can block the road sometimes for up to a week or so. When the river road is blocked, folks go around and take the pass.

Life in that area is like that and has always been. Folks who live and work there just accept it's part of living in that neck of the woods.

[Janelady]

How long will it take me to drive over the Teton pass from Jackson Hole to Victor ID? In Minutes or Hours?

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by Janelady

How long will it take me to drive over the Teton pass from Jackson Hole to Victor ID? In Minutes or Hours?

It really depends on a lot of factors.
There are lots of people who make the commute, so some drive times are going to be longer if there's more traffic on the road, because most of the pass is very hard to pass a slow car.

In clear weather with dry roads and low traffic, about 45 minutes

Winter traffic is really variable because the road goes over a summit, and the upper part is pretty high. It might not be snowing in Victor, but it could be, at the summit. There's always more snow depth up there as well; the area can get snow slides and avalanches, so sometimes the pass can suddenly become closed until the plows can clear the road. Whenever there's a snowstorm, the plows go right after it most of the time.

When the winter roads are dry and clear, about an hour or more. There are always shady spots, and the road is typically icy in them.

Driving it in the winter is really a matter of patience. A person has to drive it at the speed that's most comfortable to them, and the trip takes what it takes in terms of time. Impatience can put you off the road, and being 30 minutes late is much better than being 4 hours late after they finally dig you out.

One thing the pass is prone to year round are rock falls. The rocks are mostly small, but you never know. A person has to always be conscious there may be a big one up ahead somewhere.

There are 2 routes; the other one from Victor requires going the opposite way, downhill, until you reach Swan Valley, and then the route follows the Snake River past the Palisades Reservoir and into Wyoming, where it follows the S. Fork of the Snake to the Hoback Junction. Turn left (north) at Hoback and go into Jackson Hole.
This route is less dramatic than the pass, and is an easier drive, but a lot longer from Victor. From the Swan Valley area, both are about the same distance. The river route is a longer distance but a faster drive than the pass.

The river route is prone to landslides. While they don't happen all that often, some are big enough to require Cat bulldozers to clear the roadway. A few years ago, a whopper closed the road for most of the summer. This is the route most commonly taken from Idaho Falls or other towns in the lower valley.

At Victor, the pass begins on the outskirts of town, so most folks who live in Victor and Driggs use the pass most often.