Wyoming Traffic Jumps By 217,000 Vehicles for Solar Eclipse
Visitors have been flooding into Wyoming ahead of today's solar eclipse, boosting traffic counts statewide by over 217,000 vehicles compared to average, according to WYDOT.
Laramie County leads the pack in traffic increases over the five-year average for Saturday and Sunday, seeing increases of 12,174 and 44,794 vehicles respectively. Laramie County, of course, is where Interstate 25 crosses into Colorado, and where Interstate 80 crosses into Nebraska.
Teton County saw 17,775 more vehicles on Saturday and over 33,000 more vehicles than average on Sunday. Jackson is one of the best places to see the eclipse due to its location, and airport traffic was anticipated to be particularly heavy.
Fremont County saw increases of 11,978 vehicles on Saturday and 19,456 on Sunday. Converse County saw jumps of 5,717 vehicles over Saturday's average and 19,394 on Sunday.
Natrona County, which includes Casper, saw relatively small increases of 4,465 vehicles on Saturday and 11,166 vehicles over Sunday's five-year average.
While visitors have trickled into the state over the past several days, authorities expect most of them to leave immediately or soon after the eclipse ends. That would make for extremely congested highways, particularly on I-25.
Be prepared to stop, and expect long delays. The Wyoming Highway Patrol advises travelers to pack plenty of food, water and fuel for the trip home.