Moose jam backs up US-89 north of Jackson for up to 10+ miles; Alpine roundabout trial snarls canyon traffic
Moose-watching traffic jam clogs US-89 north of town for hours.
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- Moose-watching traffic jam clogs US-89 north of town for hours. At 16:30 a complaint aired (TG 113 mutual aid) of traffic backed up a reported ~12 miles at the US-89 roundabout near mile 161 from drivers stopping to photograph a moose. At 17:02 a WHP unit (100) reported the backup starting near mile 162, roughly 10 miles, said he'd moved multiple people off the shoulder but called it "an ongoing issue" and left it on the board for the next dispatcher. Complaints continued to 18:20 (a report from mile 117 was clarified on air as a separate Alpine issue), and at 19:26 residual slow traffic north of Airport Road was referred to Grand Teton National Park.
- Semi with smoking brakes at the WY-22 runaway truck ramp; later gone. At 12:45 dispatch aired a motorist assist at the lower truck ramp on Highway 22: red tractor-trailer, smoke from the brakes, no flames, pulled over. At 13:11 a unit reported driving to the top of the pass (mile 11) and was unable to locate the truck; cleared.
- Alpine's trial roundabout backs up Snake River Canyon; START delayed. At 17:49 a START driver (TG 1820) reported running 19 minutes down with traffic backed up through the canyon toward Palisades; at 18:31 the cause was identified as a trial-run roundabout — parking blocks — by the Ace Hardware in Alpine, "backed up every way you can think of."
- Two residential fire-alarm runs for Engine 11. 15:21: alarm on Powderhorn Lane [suspect spelling] that had activated four times in an hour; Engine 11 and Battalion 3 investigated and cleared by 15:40. 15:57: alarm on Lodgepole Lane with six activations; determined at 16:07 to be a cooking incident, no hazards found.
- Man harassing joggers and cyclists on the bike path. Reported 07:43 between Spring Gulch and Indian Springs (TG 1801) — male on foot trying to stop bikers. A deputy located him near the Brown Ranch Road turnoff; dispatch noted he is a known local with recent mental-health contacts. Cleared 08:11, no violations observed.
- Three minor collisions, no injuries reported. 09:08: driver clipped a motorcycle pulling out of the Virginia RV Park lot and left before units arrived (follow-up assigned). 12:24: two-vehicle, no-injury crash on N US-89 at the Museum of Wildlife Art (mm 157), vehicles clear of the roadway, WHP responded from Teton Pass. 13:33: cold-reported collision, information already exchanged, report requested. A cold report on Cache was also handled at 09:41.
Also on the air
A heavy but routine day: roughly 41 plate checks and 26 records checks, mostly traffic stops on US-89, WY-22, WY-390 and downtown ending in verbal or written warnings; one stop at 14:35 returned a non-extraditable New Mexico failure-to-appear hit (unpaid fines) and a protection-order respondent — code 4, cleared. A commercial burglar alarm on West Cody Lane at 05:41 (third this month) was put on hold. Five parking complaints (bike-lane parking on Willow, a blocked driveway on N Millward, an alley blocker, a car in a red zone, a box trailer parked a week on Flat Creek Drive), a truancy check resolved with a parent, a wrong-address drug-delivery report, dump trucks running a stop sign, a median-driving BOLO on S US-89, found- and lost-property reports, and a child-safety report taken in person at the senior center. Medic 20 shuttled a flight crew and patient between the airport and St John's (15:16–17:05); Medic 50 ran a ground transfer at 21:26. TG 6599 carried all-day alternating one-lane traffic for a bucket-truck crew on Teton Pass (Glory/Phillips area), plus staging an avalanche truck for helicopter loads today. School buses (TG 1812) worked through end-of-day stop mix-ups — all children accounted for — a blocked exit at a trailer court due to pipe-laying construction, and a tire punctured at the Shell station.
By the numbers
- 2,215 transmissions across 676 exchanges (379 short status-only exchanges omitted from the log).
- Busiest talkgroup: TG 1801 Teton County law dispatch, 1,061 transmissions; TG 6599 (unidentified, apparently Teton Pass work crew) second at 496.
- Busiest hour: 10:00 with 263 transmissions; near-silence 01:00–05:00 (zero at 03:00).
- Categories: status 277, unclassified 240, plate-check 41, medical 32, records-check 26, transit 19, crash 8, traffic-complaint 8, fire 6, traffic-stop 5, noise-parking 4, suspicious 3, animal 3, alarm 2, domestic 1, hazard 1.
Caveats
- TG 13751 is Fremont County EMS paging (Lander/Riverton/Dubois) — about 18 pages today, including a 19:47 injury accident at milepost 42 on US-26 near Crowheart/Dubois, are not Teton County traffic and are excluded from the incident log. Likewise most TG 109/6382/6386 traffic was WHP I-80 districts (Rock Springs, Green River, Evanston, Lyman), including a 06:20 officer-safety bulletin for Sweetwater/Uinta counties about a subject allegedly threatening law enforcement and a mass shooting — no Teton nexus. TG 5960 was a statewide PHPR radio-check net.
- Machine transcription is rough today: street names (Powderhorn/"Paddlehorn," "Linwood," "Olanian"), unit numbers and several locations are inconsistent; entries marked [suspect] are low-confidence. TG 6599 and TG 1812 are unidentified talkgroups (context strongly suggests a Teton Pass road/avalanche crew and school-district bus dispatch respectively).
- The 03:00 hour shows zero transmissions — possibly a genuine quiet hour, possibly a receive gap.