Ever since Independence Day in Washington, DC 2017, James has been terrified of fireworks. That year, DC decided to go ahead with the fireworks even though we had thick and low cloud cover. We couldn’t see the fireworks but the entire sky lit up with colors and large booms were heard. It actually felt ominous – like the city was being bombed. We watched from the Georgetown waterfront since it was a few blocks from our house. James was not having it and he just wanted to walk home. Fast forward a few months to New Years Eve in Treviso, Italy and James was in full-on shock mode over the fireworks. You can see that video here. The crazy thing is James was born in Florida and grew up just down the street from Universal Studios. We had fireworks every night and they never bothered him there!
Now we try to plan ahead for 4th of July and New Year. Sometimes we get it right. But we are also realizing it is REALLY hard to get away from fireworks!
We decided to head to one of our favorite towns in Wyoming for Independence Day. Wyoming is VERY dry and fireworks are usually not allowed. We were in the Tetons for the 4th of July back in 2018 and it was a nice quiet evening.
Pinedale, Wyoming is a great little town about an hour from Jackson, Wyoming. We looked online and sure enough, fireworks are not allowed. Hooray! When we arrived we asked a few people about fireworks and everyone kept saying, “They used to be downtown but they quit doing that a few years ago.” Someone mentioned the fireworks were too close to houses and people complained and someone else said they weren’t doing the fireworks because of Covid. But then we noticed something being set up right next door to our campground. In the above photo, you can see the setup and the RVs in the background. I looked and FINALLY found it – it was fireworks! Right next to our campground!!!
I started talking to other RVers and no one knew about these fireworks! We knew we needed to work on a plan to get out of town in the evening.
There was a free concert in the park in the early afternoon so we decided to relax a little before we ran off chasing the sunset.
As you head west out of Pinedale and towards Jackson, 191 goes through a nice long mountain pass. It is beautiful and you lose cell service for a good 30 minutes. We decided to find a little spot at the beginning of the pass to pull over and watch the fireworks from far, far away. We didn’t bring our mosquito spray so we had to stay in the car. We were able to see the fireworks but we couldn’t hear them and James wasn’t fazed.
We have a Wyze security camera we use in the RV and I decided to point it out the window to see if I could get any fireworks videos. You can’t see the fireworks but you can see them light up the sky and you can hear the booms. I’m so glad we didn’t stay there for the show. It would have taken James a week to recover!
The grand finale:
I popped up the drone for a few photos a few days later and this one shows where the fireworks were set up:
