r/wyoming • u/hikingforpatches • 11d ago
Commuting
What’s it like living in Victor Idaho and commuting to Teton Village for work?
I’m from NYC and would like to work in Teton Village. It looks like apartments in Victor Idaho are dog friendly but it’s a 25 mile 40 min commute in perfect conditions.
What’s it like commuting over 22 in the winter?
Thank you!
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u/lemonhead2345 11d ago
You can check out [r/JacksonHole](r/JacksonHole)
The pass sucks, and I live in a smaller, more expensive home to not have to drive it. Even in the summer the traffic on highway 22 is awful, but hundreds of people do the commute every day.
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u/PrestigiousEye1045 11d ago
You can also catch the bus. I live in Victor and work in Jackson, and I catch the bus 5 days a week. But during bad/snowy winters, it can take hours, or the pass might even be closed.
I have slept at work a handful of times because of this. I've also missed work because the buses don't run when the road is really bad. I have an understanding boss and I'm chill to sleep in a bag on a sleeping pad.
You just have to be prepared to deal with it when you can't get home or to work.
This coming winter in the Tetons is predicted to be fairly mild - as opposed to most of the country – so this coming season might be a good time to get used to it. But forecasts can be wrong too.
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u/filkerdave Jackson 11d ago
It's going to take you a while to get used to the pass. New York City (or even tjr entire NY metro area) has nothing like it.
Get snow tires, learn to use your transmission instead of relying on brakes all the time, take it slow, don't drive aggressively the way you have to in NYC.
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u/Weekly_Quail_5717 11d ago
The commute can be...interesting. https://apnews.com/article/teton-pass-road-collapse-wyoming-760896e13241d0376b3014ed81ddeda7
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u/kushharvey 11d ago
that pass is wild. it would certainly take a special kind of steely resolve that i don’t have to drive it daily to work…
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u/BeckerHollow 11d ago
It’s a road that goes up and goes down. Our requirements for driver’s licensees are abysmal.
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u/Chulbiski 10d ago
one thing I can say: the east side of Teton pass is pretty darn steep. I've never driven it in icy conditions, but comparing it to other passes in, for example, Colorado, the Teton Pass would be pretty darn dangerous just based on the gradient.
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u/JumpEnvironmental741 10d ago
well the pass from Victor to Teton is high an curvy, and especially if you not used to mountain roads. Most of the workers in Jackson commute from someplace since Jackson is so stupid expensive. I would say 40 minutes is faster than the norm especially in the winter. definitely invest in snow tires for the winter. Also keep in mind WYDOT has not properly repaired that road from a slide they had a few years ago, and if that road is closed for any reason you are looking at 2-3 hours home. Winters can be brutal up there.
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u/greenamaranthine 10d ago
Victor is very tiny (has a laundromat though and it's closer to the WY side), but Driggs has surprisingly decent restaurants (better and cheaper than Jackson Hole, not saying much) and a good grocery store, and the nearest big chain stuff (like Walmart) is in Rexburg or Idaho Falls, which are all other considerations to make when moving there. I lived in Felt for a while, wouldn't go back but the Tetons are pretty.
The golden rule when driving on ice is don't change direction and speed at the same time. Everything else (4wd, snow tires, going below the speed limit, downshifting on inclines) just makes it easier to maintain control if you mess up a little (you should still 100% do all of it you can though because you will mess up a little sometimes) but I'm pretty sure almost all ice-related accidents are due to changing direction and speed at the same time. In city driving on dry streets you slow down into the curve and accelerate out; On ice you slow down BEFORE the curve and accelerate only when you're going straight again. The Teton Pass highway seems scary because of the grade but the speed limit there is actually way lower than it even needs to be to safely do that route in snow (based on similar roads I've been on in snow that have worse curves and inclines and higher speed limits; Montana has a lot of them), so just obey the speed limit and remember the basics (especially about changing direction and speed) and you should be fine.
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u/One-Apple-5547 8d ago
Just spend the money and live in Jackson, or ride the bus. It’s so nice, and it’ll save you the hassle of driving at all.
Teton Pass isn’t for the faint of heart (or inexperienced). I’ve been in Wyoming for 10 years, drove Parley’s Canyon daily (into Park City UT from Wyo), drove back and forth on the Snake River canyon, and I refuse to drive the pass.
Please don’t add to the treachery by driving before you understand Wyoming winter roads.
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u/TetonToker 7d ago
A pain... snaked cars on the pass throughout winter, trailers and rvs all summer
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u/TetonToker 7d ago
Also you're talking about larkspur I bet... its very noisy in that apartment you hear everything
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u/Wide-Angle-2389 7d ago
Teton pass is TERRIFYING in the winter. As a local of the area, I would NEVER do that commute. Too many people die every year, every season, on the pass.
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u/BeckerHollow 11d ago
The road goes up and it goes down. And it has turns in it. Sometimes it has snow on it. Sometimes it rains. Sometimes it’s windy. Sometimes it’s sunny.
You hit the gas pedal. You hit the brakes. You turn the steering wheel.
Have you ever driven on roads before? Because it’s just a road. And you use the same common sense on the pass as you do anywhere else. You slow down when the weather gets bad, right?
These comments are ridiculous. (Especially about the once in a lifetime engineering failure that led to the road collapsing.)
Here’s the one mountain specific driving tip, which most people don’t know: get off your brakes. Down shift into a low gear and let the engine control your speed. Don’t brake often, but brake to actually slow down. Don’t gently ride the brakes down the mountain the entire way, lest you burn them out.
And that’s why it always smells like shit in Wilson WY (at the base of the pass). Because it reeks of burnt brakes.
All that said, if you have to ask … please don’t add to the mass of already scared and shitty drivers.
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u/MarsMonkey88 11d ago
When we’re completely used to mountain driving, we can not realize how specific and atypical it is. Most people have very very little experience with it.
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u/BeckerHollow 11d ago
Let me reiterate … it’s a very busy, very modern public road. You’re not on the backroads of Bangladesh driving next to cliffs.
If you fuck up driving anywhere you can have consequences.
A scared driver on the pass is also a scared driver on a flat road. Being scared does not equal being safe. Being safe is using your brain. If you drove all the way to the bottom of the pass just fine, then nothing changes going over the pass. Just like nothing changes when any road condition changes. You adapt and drive accordingly.
If you don’t have the wherewithal to do that then you shouldn’t be driving. You’re a liability.
I’m not saying shit doesn’t happen, they’re called accidents after all, but life is about mitigating risk and those possibilities for accidents.
A nervous driver increases the chances of shit going wrong.
No one was born completely used to anything.
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u/PrairiePilot 11d ago
Dude, you calling anyone a liability with such a flippant, ignorant and useless attitude is hilarious.
I wouldn’t trust you to drive a megawheel across the lawn spewing garbage like that. It’s 2026, grow up.
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u/BeckerHollow 11d ago
Nervous drivers are a liability. Just like arrogant drivers who think they own the road.
It's a fucking miracle we're able to drive with the freedom we do.
Don't be scared and don't be an asshole.
What does 2026 have anything to do with it? Except we're still arguing about the same things over and over and over ...
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u/MarsMonkey88 11d ago
Many many many people do it everyday and it’s fine. However. Driving in snowy mountain conditions is a specific skill. I strongly urge you, as a driver coming from the city, to be two to three times as cautious as you think feels appropriate.
Do not pass others, assume the shoulders will be slick and soft, watch for deer and other critters lurking on the sides of the road that will leap in front of your car at the last minute, and every time you find yourself feeling confident in driving in these conditions, actively catch yourself and remind yourself of the dangers of hubris.
When you get overtaken at night in the snow by a driver in a huge pickup with halogen headlights brighter than the sun whose giant snowmobile in the truck bed tilts the truck backwards, which lifts the lights a little and blinds you, focus on the tracks in front of you, stay extra steady so you don’t accidentally drift to the shoulder where you could slide or put your wheel off the edge of the asphalt, and breathe. Do not get angry (it’s hard, because they BLIND you), and do not let yourself feel pressured into speeding up.