It was Wyoming’s finest hour.  Its finest this year.  Perhaps its finest this century.

         I just can’t quit writing about the big solar eclipse event that tripled and maybe quadrupled Wyoming’s population a week or so ago.

         After discussing it and cussing it for three years, the event lived up to its hype and exceeded it. The weather was perfect and the crowds showed up. Did they ever show up!

As a publisher, I hope someone does a coffee table book about the eclipse.  There is no shortage of photos and no shortage of great stories.

         The best photographers in Wyoming were busy snapping amazing images.  Check out Facebook for some unbelievable shots.  Some talented folks were using drones to film the shadows crossing the valleys and town sites. Both Jackson and Casper had videos taken by drones of the totality occurring.

         So far the most amazing eclipse photos taken were in Crowheart and Jackson.  They included a series of photos taken near Crowheart, which managed to capture the International Space Station crossing in front of the partially obscured sun.

         On a famous Jackson Hole ski run called Corbet’s Couloir, a photo was snapped of a man walking along a high wire with the totality in the sky behind him. Wow!

The eclipse was eerie and spectacular.  Seeing it in person was astonishing.  No photo or video could give you the same experience as actually standing there and seeing that amazing image as cool air and darkness and surrounded you.  The sounds of crickets, birds acting odd and roosters crowing all added to the mystique.

         On Boysen Lake, State Sen. Ogden Driskell said fish started jumping out of the water at the moment of totality. Not sure if insects were falling out of the sky or if the fish were confused.

         Without bragging too much, but I was just about the only one who predicted 1 million people would come to the state for the event. But I was wrong about the source of all those people. I thought the weather would be bad in other places and the predictable Wyoming sunshine would draw them in. No, it was the friends and relatives who came that tipped the numbers into the seven-figure range. 

         Based on the fifteen family members I hosted, well, if you multiply some number like that across the 150,000 families in Wyoming, you get an additional half million people easy.

         On a lesser scale, I also predicted that all those tee shirts would sell out. Folks looking for souvenirs after the event were disappointed.

         People climbed mountains, descended into deep valleys and visited historical areas to enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime event.

         And yet, as big as the eclipse story was, in its own right, the biggest story, by far, was the clogged highways.  Nobody has ever seen anything like this in Wyoming.

         Sure, it can get crowded in Cheyenne around Frontier Days. And the interstates can get backed up during winter conditions. But to see cars stacked up bumper to bumper on a sunny day with clear roads was the scene all over the state.

         Here in Lander, the entire Main Street was blocked as cars were packed bumper-to-bumper for eight miles on Highway 287-789 to what is called the Rawlins Junction, where the roads divide. Carol Baron counted license plates over a five-block stretch in Lander and found 30 different states represented, including Hawaii.

         Muddy Gap was clogged as two main highways came together. Interstate 25 north of Cheyenne was probably the worst.

         Teton National Park had the largest visitation in its history during a time when the roads are already clogged with the highest tourism concentration of the season. It was very slow moving around Jackson Hole.

         Wind River Canyon is a natural bottleneck and it sure was on Aug. 21. 

         There were a few reports of road rage but mainly folks were in good spirits. They were patient as they sort of soaked up the California freeway atmosphere with a normal good-hearted Wyoming attitude.

         Most folks now do not want it to be a once-in-a-lifetime event. I know we have our sights set on Texas in seven years for the next totality in April 2024.

         CLARIFICATION: I have not changed my political beliefs. In a recent column, I quoted Larry Wolfe of Cheyenne, saying he was becoming a Democrat. Sorry about the confusion.  I have endured a lot of ribbing and some nasty criticism by folks assuming it was me who was changing my politics. Not so.