It was at about this time in my narrative journey that I returned to Wyoming. I needed to continue my classes, and it was no longer possible to take online classes which meant that I had to move to Laramie, WY, to continue studying at the university proper.

After returning to the United States following my 3 months in South America, I moved to Laramie. While there, I studied and worked a lot, but I also made some friends and we would explore the surrounding area together. This post isn’t only about the area around Laramie but rather of just some general reflections on Wyoming in general.

I was lucky to come from such a beautiful area. Jackson, WY, is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, and I lived there or in the surrounding area for the first 18 years of my life.

The following 2 photos of me are from when we hiked up a mountain near our old house in Etna, where we lived for a few years about an hour south of Jackson.

While driving back from Chicago one time, I snapped these photos. This isn’t even the prettiest scenery in Wyoming, but it still beats a lot of other places!

I used to ski when I was younger. The Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is very well known and offers a lot of routes which attracts skiers and snowboarders from around the world. When I was in high school, I switched to snowboarding, and here is a picture of me on the slopes looking down on Teton Village.

The previous pictures are from the area around my hometown, Jackson. Unfortunately, I don’t readily have too many other photos even though I spent a lot of time hiking and camping in the surrounding area.

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Jumping to 2011, I had just moved to Laramie. The scenery pales in comparison to Jackson, but it’s still very nice. I would often go to Vedauwoo, which is only half an hour east of Laramie, and camp. Many times, some friends and I would go out on Friday or Saturday night, set up our tents, and make a fire to simply enjoy an evening in the outdoors.

On the other side of Laramie, to the west, lies the Medicine Bow National Forest. That was also a really beautiful area that my friends and I spent some time in.

 

There are also other things to explore around Laramie such as some interesting buildings. During the Cold War, the first type of missile that reached ICBM (InterContinental Ballistic Missile) status was the Atlas missile. Since the Midwest, including Wyoming, was so sparsely populated, it proved to be an excellent place to base these missiles. The Atlas missiles were housed in big warehouse-like buildings with retractable roofs so that the missiles could be raised upright, fueled, and then launched. I can’t recall how long it took to open the door, fuel the missiles, and then launch them, but I think it was only a couple minutes before they would be ready to launch for the USSR.

I had to actually sneak onto the property where these warehouses were located, but luckily, I wasn’t shot or caught. This missile site is nothing compared to the Titan I underground missile silo a friend and I snuck into later, but I will post about that adventure in the future.

These were just some of the locations and adventures I had in Wyoming. Having spent a cumulative 20 years there, though, there are plenty more that I haven’t gone over. Notably, I don’t have too many photos of my earlier years in Jackson. Driving convoys of cars up the Gros Ventre Canyon and camping, camping and hiking in the Grey’s River Canyon near Alpine, going to Phelps Lake and jumping off the rock into the river, and many other memories will always be held dear by me.

And for anyone that doubts just how beautiful Wyoming is, I implore you to just look at one photo of right where I grew up.