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Have been offered my dream nursing job in Riverton, WY! I understand it's not the social party of a city but that is what appeals to me. Thoughts about safety of the area for a young, single woman? Any ideas about "good" and "bad" parts of town? Any specifics on where to find rentals? Looking to move at the end of July.
Check Landertalk or Riverton Talk for rental ideas...they are hard to come by. If you can commute the 25 miles, I'd live in Lander (personal preference). Can't speak for safety, but if you take care I wouldn't think your safety would be any worse than anywhere else of comparable size.
Where are you moving from?
There aren't any "bad" areas of town... there are people who might behave badly (lots of blue-collar type work with the oil fields, the reservation and sometimes the college kids can be annoying), but just being aware of your surroundings will keep you safe. I never had issue with my 5'4", 100-nothing lb wife walking around in Riverton, even at night. And there are some less economically 'gifted' areas of town too, but if you have standards of living higher than a 30 year old trailer home, you'll probably never even find those sections.
They covered the rentals above, they're hard to come by but do exist. One other avenue you may try is the nursing dept at CWC, they may offer some assistance and they may not, but it never hurts to call and ask. Same with the HR dept at the hospital.
Thank you all for your advice. I'm moving from West Lafayette, IN and originally from a suburb of Chicago. Is it common to commute from Lander to Riverton? I am very excited for this move but still nervous about finding my place in the community.
the corridor from Lander to Riverton at 25 miles distant is close enough that folk do make that commute.
wintertime travels can be an adventure in this area when storms settle in. Be prepared with an appropiate vehicle and plan ahead as needed in view of the forecasts and road reports. Don't be surprised if the road is closed due to wintertime conditions for awhile. Bear in mind that even if the road is open, prevailing low visibility and slick road surfaces can be a challenge to any driver (and no matter what vehicle you're driving, you can't overcome low visibility in blowing/drifting snow); some winters will have more, some fewer, of these situations.
The question you've got to deal with is how much you want to deal with this variability of road hazards and the reality of the commute time/cost if you have to be to work on a fixed schedule.
Some folks on this forum are pretty hard core winter Wyoming travelers and will casually dismiss these challenges, often stating that they've been doing a given commute for years without incident. All to their credit ... and I'm one of the hard-core travelers with over 50 years of experience driving these areas without an accident or vehicle damage. But I wouldn't tell you that it's always been easy or painless to do this, and part of the commute routine is to exercise your good judgement about when it's a time to press on or time to do a trip earlier than planned or postpone until conditions improve. My point is that you will be taking on a significant factor in your life if you choose to do the commute, and you may find it a worthwhile choice in view of the living accomodations/cost that you find. Be aware that it will cost you to do the commute far in excess of a simple mileage/normal acheived fuel economy calculation.
OTOH, recognize that there are daily opportunities for less than a good outcome in the bad winter weather commuting here in Wyoming and the winter inclement conditions can present over 4-5-6 months in a year. Early Fall and late winter/early spring storms aren't uncommon.
I really enjoyed living in Lander, and took advantage of the community swimming pool, attended co-ed softball games in the park, and just had fun. I was a single mom of an 8 year old at the time, and I would say there is plenty to do in the area for singles. (with or without kids ) Good luck in your search.
I was born/raised in Lander and my mom was the director of the nursing dept at CWC, so she commuted daily for ~20 years. Many years later when I returned to Lander, I worked for the library system (again, living in Lander) where I had to commute to both Riverton and Dubois frequently.
First, I have absolutely Never seen nor heard of that highway (789) being closed. There are no gates, no lights, no signage to close the road short of some sort of barricade erected on the highway. That's not to say it's always a good idea to drive it (I got caught out on a night with particularly bad black ice, was one of nearly 60 vehicles in the ditch the next morning), but with better judgement than I had at 18 years old one could have made that trips without issue. There are a significant number of people that commute between the two towns.
Second, Lander housing market is significantly worse than Riverton. Higher prices with less options, but you May luck into something with the online sources posted above. I like Lander over Riverton for the general feel of the town and given the option to move back, I would pick Lander every time. But, I'll be the first to admit I'm biased.
While it may not be strictly interpreted as an absolute "road closed" situation, I've encountered Hwy 789 as being posted by WYDOT as "no unnecessary travel" conditions due to "black ice" and "winter driving conditions" in recent years.
IMO, a good warning to heed. The road was slick black ice and the blowing snow limited visibility to not much further out than a few feet in front of the hood of my vehicle.
In particular, I recall one late winter storm 2011 where I set out from Lander in an early evening to head on a route of sales calls to Greybull, with stops in the towns along the way. I'd intended to stop at an RV park in Riverton for the night, make a sales call there at a major tire/repair shop, and then on my way northward. Confident in my vehicle's ability to deal with the conditions and still feeling fresh for the drive, I set out on my way after my last sales call on the south side of Lander without checking WYDOT on my iPad. Got a few miles out of Lander and the earlier moisture falling
had melted on the road and refrozen into a sheet of black ice miles before I even reached Hudson (where I'd planned on dining at Svilar's). There were no other vehicles on the road, and after a couple of miles in slick conditions with limited visibility, I pulled over to check the WYDOT report. The road I was on was posted in red with multiple conditions. I turned back to Lander, knowing that it was only a couple miles back to where the road didn't appear to be too bad when I'd set out. Made it OK back to town, thankfully encountered no other cars in that drive time, and stealth camped in the supermarket parking lot on Main Street for the night.
For the next day, the area forecast was clearing skies in the AM and air temps that would melt the roads clear, but another deep frontal passage was forecast to arrive later that night. I made sales calls to Riverton and only up to Thermopolis that day and ran out of time to keep heading north. So I turned south to Shoshoni, still on clear roads but only a short time frame from the approaching serious storm front. Made it to Shoshoni and headed to Casper on USHwy 20. Got to the Waltman rest stop and was beat from a long day of travels and lack of sleep the previous night, so I stopped for dinner and a nap in my RV. Woke up about 11 PM, still in clear conditions, so I set out again to Casper. Got through Casper in clear conditions and believed that I was sufficiently ahead of the storm frontal passage to be able to stop when I was tired of driving. Since I was feeling good at the time, I continued on my path to Cheyenne, south on I25. Thinking that the worst of the storm and road conditions would be north of Douglas, I continued on until I was finally so tired out again that I pulled into the Orin rest stop. Still in clear conditions, I thought I'd nap for awhile and continue onward in a couple of hours. I awoke three hours later to find my van in at least 6"-8" of heavy wet snow and very limited visibility; the storm front had finally caught up to me and passed on southward.
Thinking that with the storm front just having arrived, I could head south on I25 and again be ahead of the storm very soon. I checked WYDOT and I25 was not closed at the time, so I got going. Only to find that I25 was one treacherous mess, typical white out conditions and sloppy/icy going which effectively limited me to about 25-30 mph. The semi's were still passing me at about 50-60 mph which caused the usual total white-out from the spray their wheels kicked up. As each one passed me, it was prudent to slow down to about 15 mph just to speed up their passing so I could see where I was going again while trying to keep the van in a straight line down the highway. The conditions were daunting and I felt it best to wait it out when I got to the USHwy 26 exit rest stop after only 34 miles ... which took well over an hour to reach. Can't tell you how happy I was to be off the road and snugged down for the rest of the night. By then, WYDOT was posting area-wide road closures and no unnecessary travel due to winter conditions which included the corridor from Lander all the way up through to Cody and the highway from Shoshoni to Casper was closed. Cheyenne, OTOH, was still in the clear and the cut-off of the frontal moisture was a couple miles north of Chugwater. Later that Saturday morning, I was able to continue south on I25 without much difficulty at 50-55 mph and then back up to my usual cruising 65 mph for the balance of the trip homeward.
Please note how quickly this weather sequence took place. From clear conditions to severe winter time driving conditions in a matter of hours and then clearing dramatically in time or local areas. It was a not unusual highly localized storm frontal passage. If you'd needed to travel in the storm area during that time frame, it would have been a very imprudent thing to do. I didn't need to travel, so I headed to the first reasonable place off the road to wait out the conditions.
I've had more than a few times when the highway between Shoshoni and Casper was an accident looking for an opportunity, and the storm had blown up in a matter of minutes from winter roads into a blizzard condition. I've spent more than a few nights at the Waltman rest stop to wait out the situation, parked amongst a lot of semi's who also decided to wait for better conditions. In the Riverton area, I've been thankful that the Casino has placed power outlets for RV'ers on a few of the light poles in their parking lot; sure helped me to run my ceramic heaters in the RV when the cold and snow was keeping me stuck in the area for a day or so (and a lot less expensive than the RV park on the East side of Riverton that stays open all year for transients). I've gotten to know an antique shop in Riverton all too well in the past few years because I've had more than a few extra days in my travels stuck there with roads closed in the region ... you can only spend so many hours hangin' out with your clients in the area before you're a nuisance and need to find something to do to pass the time until you can be out on the road again.
Further, I'd mention that this type of storm frontal passage has caught me out more than a half-dozen times in that area in the last three years. That's on top of the normal winter time travels through the area where I knew heading in that the roads were typical seasonal winter time driving conditions and needed to plan my travels and sales calls with reasonable expectations as to how many miles I could cover in a day.
I'd also mention that many roads throughout WY do not have physical barriers/gates that are closed when the road closures are in effect. Local examples close to home for me are USHwy 30 from the NE border through to Cheyenne, or USHwy 85 from the WY/CO border up through to Torrington. Nevertheless, WYDOT posts the road closures and police, highway patrol, and deputies enforce the closures.
As recently as the last two snowstorms of the past weeks this year, these roads were posted as closed during the height of the storm passages. For example, a week ago Monday, it wasn't until the late afternoon that WYDOT "opened" those roads from a major storm that was active since Sunday evening. Laramie County was on a Category 2 alert which meant that only those county employees living close by in Cheyenne were to report for work with the rest having the day off; schools were closed for the day. I looked at the road cameras through midday Monday and the road closures were a prudent measure due to the black ice, drifting snow in excess of the ability of the Highway department plows to keep the roads clear, and frequent zero visibility conditions ... and this was one of the storm passages where the winds were mild and the heavy wet snow was falling straight down. The entire road system in SE WY was solid red on the WYDOT system and as the storm front developed adverse conditions, I-80 was CLOSED from the NE border all the way to Evanston during that storm passage. You could watch the progression of the closures from NE to Cheyenne, Cheyenne to Laramie, then Laramie to Rawlins, and then all the way West as the storm passed through the area.
Bottom Line: WYDOT does close the roads throughout the state highway system in accordance with reported adverse inclement conditions and it behooves travelers to check with their website, interactive maps, or call in for their reports. Weather band radio will also. Local travels of modest distances can be just as affected as those travelers on the interstate highways.
For folk like Brian M who left the state a few years ago, they may not be aware that WYDOT has adopted newer standards for road closures or "no unnecessary travel" postings than of years past. Some of this is due to enhanced information/road reporting of recent times, some of this is due to increased traffic densities compared to years ago, and some of it is due to a more pro-active safety policy to keep folk like a young Brian M without "better judgement" from being another statistic off the road in the AM which require services to clean up the mess. The big issue is prevention of more serious accidents in the adverse conditions which place first responders at an increased risk and strain the financial resources of the communities and state ... simply because somebody doesn't exercise good judgement to wait out a treacherous situation. The time, inconvenience, and money saved by closing the roads is more than justified with the lessened accident rates.
As I've posted on these C-D pages before ... there are a multitude of C-D folk with Wyoming hard core winter travel experiences who will make it sound like they had no difficulties in this area commuting for years. Those days, however, are now in the past. Road closures by WYDOT are triggered much sooner to be proactive for traveler's safety and more frequently; the threshold to declare a road closed is much lower than years ago. Particularly noteworthy for me is all the folk who talk about how they commuted between Laramie & Cheyenne for years without incident ... maybe they did, but in recent years with the aggressive closures of I80 over the pass, it simply isn't possible anymore. And WYDOT doesn't necessarily close the highway in both directions at the same time. We saw many I80 road closures this last winter where the road was closed only in one direction for awhile ... either due to inclement conditions or due to an accident and they wanted to keep the road clear for emergency responders.
PS: in every one of the storms I've been in throughout WY over the past decade, there's been one very consistent landscape feature: either vehicles off the road (usually abandoned), stuck until they are retrieved, or the clear tracks of a vehicle that was stuck and had been retrieved. One of the reasons why that storm travel for me from Orin to the Guernsey exit took so long was that there were two groups of emergency vehicles (highway patrol, and tow trucks) blocking the roadway while assisting vehicles in the median that had taken off-road excursions during the night. Traffic was slowed to a standstill or a crawl ... which is how I wound up again in the groups of semi's that had passed me some miles before, and had to slow down for their passing me a second and yet again a third time.
Last edited by sunsprit; 05-19-2014 at 11:21 PM..
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) Good luck in your search.
