Impasse at the Pass

I had been blessed with pretty good weather up until the day I left Yellowstone. I intended to head to Cody from the East Entrance but it was closed due to snow. No problem, I thought, I’ll just leave via the South Entrance and head east on US 20.

Starting out there was a persistent slushy rain but the roads were fine. Then the road gradually starts climbing, and climbing, and climbing. The rain becomes snow and the road is beginning to ice over. At around 9000 feet, I see a driver putting chains on his truck. And I’m not talking about the sissy EZ-on type chains that I have in the trunk. I’m talking about CHAINS here. The kind with big ass iron links. To my further dismay, a bit farther along, an SUV in front of me turns around and starts heading the other way. A freaking SUV.

Do I tuck my tail between my legs and turn around to head to Jackson or do I forge on? Keep in mind that I’m on a two lane highway and not the Interstate. There’s not much of a shoulder and the turnouts are spaced pretty far apart. There are no signs informing whether chains are required or not and I haven’t heard anything on the radio. Do native Wyomingians just know when to use them or not? What the hell does a Hawaii kid know about driving in snow anyway? While contemplating this, I noticed another dinky Civic drive by chainless so I figured, oh why not?

Three or four 360s later (I’m kidding, traction was pretty good the whole way and I was driving very slowly), I reached the other side of Togwotee Pass (for comparison, Snoqualmie Pass is about 3000 ft).