Wyoming
From the 50 State Visitor Guide :
Wyo. Stat. 2021 §§7-19-301 through 7-19-320
AWA Compliant
Registration Triggers and Deadlines:
Three business days for initial registration and updates, including temporary trips and vacations. “Temporary residence” includes hotels, motels, camping areas & parks. §7-19-301(xi)(C).
Visitors must register within 3 business days. §7-19-302(c)(iv).
Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:
Residence restriction: Adults “who are required to register … pursuant to §7-19-302” may not reside within 1,000 ft. from schools. §6-2-320.
Presence restrictions: Adults “who are required to register … pursuant to §7-19-302” may not enter school grounds if s/he “has reason to believe children … are present and are involved in school activity or when children are present within 30 minutes before or after scheduled school activity” and may not “knowingly loiter on a public way within 1,000 feet from the property line of school grounds.” Various exceptions apply. §6-2-320.
NOTE: Because §6-2-320 says these restrictions apply to adults “who are required to register … pursuant to §7-19-302”, and visitors in state for less than three business days are not required to register, such visitors would, in theory, not be subject to these restrictions. However, this theory remains untested.
Duration & updates:
Lifetime; petitions for removal available. §7-19-304. Updates: §7-19-302.
Most recent visit: September 2023
Wyoming is yet another one of those states where visitors are required to register within three business days. Partial days count and the third day triggers your obligation to register, so make the most of the two business days you actually get here. The silver lining is, if you enter the state on Friday morning and include a weekend, you can be in Wyoming for four days.
Also, Wyoming has no limitations on the number of return visits per month or year. This is an important consideration for registered visitors because it means that if you leave the state for at least two nights and one day (so that the intervening day can’t be counted against you as a “partial day”) you can return and restart the clock. You can leave Wyoming late on Monday, spend Tuesday to Thursday somewhere else, then return for another extended weekend in Wyoming.
As noted above, because Wyoming’s law explicitly says that its residency and presence restrictions only apply to adults “who are required to register … pursuant to §7-19-302”, and visitors in state for less than three business days are not required to register, such visitors would, in theory, not be subject to these restrictions.
However, this theory remains untested and I’m not going to be the one to test it. My advice is to act like these restrictions apply to you anyway while in Wyoming just in case. Fortunately all of Wyoming’s restrictions involve schools, which are relatively easy to stay away from unless your son has invited you to attend your granddaughter’s middle school graduation. Then you’re screwed.
Grand Teton National Park
In September 2023 I was in Wyoming for parts of three consecutive days, but because that third day when I was out before 8:30 am was a Saturday I was in compliance with state law no matter how harshly you interpret it.
I entered Wyoming from Idaho early on Day 1 on State Road 22. My plan was to spend the morning at Grand Teton National Park, which I knew from a 2015 visit wouldn’t be nearly enough time to see it all. Nevertheless I got many fine photos of the mountains, gawked with a crowd watching a few moose frolicking in the water of the Laurence S. Rockefeller Preserve, and walked the Lakeshore Nature Trail near the Colter Bay Visitor Center.
As rushed as my time at Grand Teton was, I was still running behind my planned schedule by the time I was heading east on U.S. 26. I had thought I could make it to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center and Hot Springs State Park in Thermopolis before they closed for the day but it soon became obvious that wasn’t going to happen, so I stopped in the dumpy little town of Shoshoni where I spent the night at its nice new town RV park.
Wind Canyon - a Wyoming must-see
Wind Canyon
My revised plan to see Thermopolis in the morning turned out to be a much better idea. On my 2015 trip to Wyoming I had entered Thermopolis from the north, made a quick hit at the Dinosaur Center and zoomed off toward Yellowstone without seeing the Hot Springs – which are amazing.
Furthermore, because I was approaching Thermopolis from the south this time I drove, both coming and going, through Wind Canyon on U.S. 20. What? I hear you say – Wind Canyon? Never heard of it! I hadn’t either but it’s absolutely breathtaking! It’s also contained entirely within Boysen State Park and the Wind River Arapahoe and Shoshone Reservation, so it’s completely protected.
At one of the scenic overlooks on my return trip through the canyon I happened to meet a geologist who was there making videos to use in his university classes. He couldn’t stop gushing about how important this canyon is, how its exposed rock layers show the geologic history of the region, etc. etc. And yet this canyon isn’t on anybody’s map. I mused that the tribes must consider this canyon sacred and would rather keep tourists away but he said Nope! The Arapahoe and Shoshone tribes were both dragged here from somewhere else, the canyon is not sacred, these two tribes are not exactly bff’s and live uneasily together on the reservation.
To which I say: Dudes! If the canyon isn’t sacred, stop bickering and start monetizing it – there is a lot of tourist money to be made here! Turn most of the scenic pull-offs into “fee areas” and create canyon nature trails to justify the fees. Run canyon tours like the Navajo do at Antelope Canyon, and be sure to include a side trip to Sacajawea’s grave which is right on your reservation. The Museum of the American West and the National Bighorn Sheep Center are also nearby. But don’t stop there – set up a “historic train ride” on the railroad that already goes straight through the canyon. Be sure to offer tours of the Dinosaur Center and the Hot Springs (for an extra fee of course) while the train is waiting in Thermopolis.
And last but not least, you need to get this set up on your reservation before those greedy white men up in Thermopolis steel this idea. There is a lot of money to be made here, and a lot of jobs for your people. But unfortunately I’m quite sure no enrolled tribal member of the Wind River Reservation will ever even read this little travel blog, never mind act on it.
Anyway, from Wind Canyon I proceeded east on U.S. 20 and I-25, stopping to take in Hell’s Half Acre (which is actually 320 acres) and Ayer’s Natural Bridge on my way to my planned campground in Medicine Bow National Forest. That campground turned out to be waaaaaaay more remote than it looked on the map, but it was also completely empty so I had the whole place to myself.
The next morning I got an early start and zoomed out of Wyoming. I made it home to eastern Iowa by that night.
No comments:
Post a Comment