thinking of moving to Wyoming, need advice (Cheyenne, Casper: 2010, crime)

[cpeggy3]

My husband and I are from Seattle and last year we moved to Corpus Christi, TX. We do not like it here at all. We miss greenery, trees, fall colors, etc. We do not like the extremes here. Meaning: severe storms with rain that floods in less than an hour. Rain so hard you cannot see an inch in front of you when your driving. The possibility of tornados. The possibility of hurricanes. Yeah, we knew most of that when we moved here but thought we could deal with it. Due to my job I now live in the country which is okay but we would like to have a smalled drive for my husbands work.

So what we are looking for is a place with distinct seasons like washington had. I have been to wyoming and I know you get a lot more snow that we did in washington. Is there anywhere in wyoming that has distinct seasons, low tornado possibilites, is much more beautiful to look at than south texas. Also, my husband currently works as a cook but has done construction, warehouse and landscaping. We would like to drive no more that 20 minutes to work. I do home caregiving so I am sure I can find some work.

Is any of that possible without being in 10 feet of snow in wyoming during the winter? I have only traveled there in the summers before.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

[wycowboy2]

Even tho we are a high-plains, semi arid mountain state, we really don't get that much snow - with exceptions: Thermopolis -sits in a valley surrounded by hot springs; Yellowstone & Teton NP - but no one actually lives there year-round; the top of the Bighorns and along the Wind River Range.

For the most part - it's wind-blown snow that "snakes across the highway" piling into the barrow ditches. You'll need a 4wd truck or fwd car (Subaru's) and snow tires with studs or chains for serious back country recreation.

Most of the state is owned by either the state or feds. If you get a copy of the backcountry map of the state, you'll see a patchwork quilt of who owns what. As in Teton Cty for example 90% of the county is owned by the Feds (NPS, USDA, BLM).

Some of us drive 30 min to 1.5 hrs to get to work, because we don't want to live there or just prefer living in the sticks. Most of the state is barren, with a few trees and lots of hills.

[GEORGIAINMT]

Originally Posted by wycowboy2

Even tho we are a high-plains, semi arid mountain state, we really don't get that much snow - with exceptions: Thermopolis -sits in a valley surrounded by hot springs; Yellowstone & Teton NP - but no one actually lives there year-round; the top of the Bighorns and along the Wind River Range.

For the most part - it's wind-blown snow that "snakes across the highway" piling into the barrow ditches. You'll need a 4wd truck or fwd car (Subaru's) and snow tires with studs or chains for serious back country recreation.

Most of the state is owned by either the state or feds. If you get a copy of the backcountry map of the state, you'll see a patchwork quilt of who owns what. As in Teton Cty for example 90% of the county is owned by the Feds (NPS, USDA, BLM).

Some of us drive 30 min to 1.5 hrs to get to work, because we don't want to live there or just prefer living in the sticks. Most of the state is barren, with a few trees and lots of hills.

I lived in the Big Horn Basin the first 30 some years of my life, including 13 years in Thermop. There was very rarely much snow in the area. There was a lot more snow here in Gillette this past winter than I ever remember in the BHB. We were close to the mountains, where there was more snow, but not in the Basin itself.

[Crazymomof3]

We're leaving Texas! We're in Houston and I have spent my last summer here. Thank heavens!

I was really done after Ike last year. I don't ever want to go through another hurricane...that was devastating to us.

I don't know much about other parts of Wyoming; we're moving to Laramie. My husband's job is there, and I will finish school there as well. We loved it and found it lovely. After reading many posts on here, there are lots of places I cannot wait to visit!

Good luck! I have been in TX wayyyy too long and I'm welcoming the lovely change WY has to offer.

[Dinowy]

I started typing a reply earlier but my computer glitched . Anyway, what cowboy says is absolutely correct - you need to keep in mind that the majority of the state is for all practical purposes desert. A great amount of the state is lucky to average 12" of precipitation annually, and even the "wet" parts of the state don't average a whole lot more than that. So you won't find the same type of greenery like that you're used to in the NW because it simply doesn't rain that much here. And when it does rain it seems to be all at once so all it does is run downhill. Sun comes out 15 minutes later and its dusty again.

So keeping that in mind our snow is kinda the same way, we do get quite a bit of snow here (depending on where you are in the state and the year) but most of our "winter" snow tends to be dry powdery snow. This is stuff that once it gets above freezing it settles down to practically nothing. During the fall and spring we can get some wet heavy snows but during those seasons it typically doesn't stay below freezing for too long. I know of a lot of areas that get a lot more snow than we do - more the problem here will be the combination of snow and relentless wind. The wind likes to pile all the snow up for miles around and put it into nice drifts harder than concrete on the roads. Out at our old place it wasn't unusual to be snowed in even though it hadn't snowed in 2 weeks and there was bare dirt showing. That's the type of snow we have here. Don't let that detract you though because anybody can agree there are no shortages of very beautiful areas in the state - it is however a very different climate.

Tornadoes are relatively few, the farther west you go in the state the fewer. The eastern side of the state is just on the very fringes of "Tornado Alley" - certainly nothing even anywhere close to approaching what Texas gets.

[wyolady]

Originally Posted by cpeggy3

So what we are looking for is a place with distinct seasons like washington had. I have been to wyoming and I know you get a lot more snow that we did in washington. Is there anywhere in wyoming that has distinct seasons, low tornado possibilites, is much more beautiful to look at than south texas. Also, my husband currently works as a cook but has done construction, warehouse and landscaping. We would like to drive no more that 20 minutes to work. I do home caregiving so I am sure I can find some work.

Is any of that possible without being in 10 feet of snow in wyoming during the winter? I have only traveled there in the summers before.

I would add the Guernsey/Torrington Hwy 26 corrider in eastern WY to your list to look at. We have distinct seasons, with warmer summers than the rest of the state and mild winters. As was already posted, we are on the edge of tornado weather, getting a few each season. But keep in mind our tornados are funnel clouds - not mile-wide tornados like other parts of the nation might get.

We definitely have milder winters and get less snow/wind than the rest of the state. As for employment, Torrington has a brand new prison opening in Jan 2010 and they are hiring/training as we speak. We definitely have an older population so I think home care is a possibility.

[Darrow]

Check out Cody and around the Big Horn Basin. Cody has a few more restaurants that the other Big Horn Basin towns. We don't get gobs of snow, but the wind can be brutal.

[Itz]

No seasons... Winter... and a brief summer.
Bring a parka! (Casper and Cheyenne areas... I25 area)

CODY Is absolutely gorgeous - not so windy..

And brutal does NOT describe the wind... I think I had a windy wyoming face peel last xmas.. NO JOKE.. stepped outside and was like - OMG!

[Happy in Wyoming]

For moderate snow and not much wind, Evanston would be about perfect. A ninety degree day is a very hot day and the humidity is very low. Evanston sits just west of the blizzard belt, so unless snow is really heavy, there is no problem driving to Salt Lake or Ogden.

Evanston has hardly any crime and friendly people. For living in greener mountain country, it's about a forty mile drive southeast.

[wycowboy2]

Originally Posted by Itz

CODY Is absolutely gorgeous - not so windy..

And brutal does NOT describe the wind... I think I had a windy wyoming face peel last xmas.. NO JOKE.. stepped outside and was like - OMG!

Unless you live on the South Fork - then the storm winds gust up to 90 - no lie!