Fruit Trees for Evanston, Mountain View, Lyman and Fort Bridger, Wyoming

In the cold snap around January 6, 2017, the Woodruff station, just past the edge of this map and down at 6,315 feet on the Bear River, read −46°F. The station a mile east of Evanston read −24°F, and Mountain View, over in the Bridger Valley, bottomed out at −4°F. Not every winter spreads out like that, but where the cold air drains and where it stops decides a lot about fruit trees for Evanston, Mountain View, Lyman and Fort Bridger.

The map covers Uinta County in Southwest Wyoming: Evanston, Almy and the town of Bear River on the Bear River; Fort Bridger, Urie, Mountain View, Lyman, Millburne and Robertson in the Bridger Valley; Carter and Elkhurst to the north; and the high country between. Type your address in the box on the map to get the number for your own place, and the list of what we sell that has come through it. If you're up in Kemmerer, the Kemmerer and Hams Fork map covers you, and out toward the Green River, the Rock Springs and Green River map does.

How to read this map

Every spot gets a 30-year planning low, the same number our cold hardiness calculator uses. It's a safe planning number that leans a little cold; it isn't the record, and it doesn't promise how often a night like that comes. The MFTC zone is that number in half zones, the typical winter is an average year's coldest night at the spot, and the spring layer shows how much warmer or colder a still, clear night at bloom runs than Evanston, the reference town.

Evanston plans for −26°F, MFTC zone 4a, with a typical winter low of −15°F. The middle of the growing ground plans for −27°F, and half of it falls between −28°F and −25°F. The warm end, around −23°F, is bench ground a few hundred feet up, like Burnt Hill just southwest of downtown Evanston. The cold end is the low country at the north end of both rivers: the town of Bear River plans for −33°F (zone 3b), Carter −32°F, and Elkhurst −34°F, the coldest planning low of any named place on the map.

Why the map looks the way it does

Two rivers split this map. On the west the Bear River comes off the north slope of the Uintas and runs north through Evanston to Woodruff Narrows Reservoir and the Utah line. On the east the Blacks Fork comes out of Meeks Cabin Reservoir, runs northeast past Millburne and Fort Bridger, then swings east toward the Green River. Each river drains its own cold air, so this page really holds two airsheds side by side.

On a clear, calm night the ground loses heat to the sky, the air against it chills and gets heavy, and it slides downhill into the draws and bottoms. Both rivers run north, so the cold runs north with them and collects at the low ends. The Bear River floor drops from about 6,800 feet on Evanston's east edge to 6,532 feet at the town of Bear River and about 6,400 to 6,455 feet at Woodruff Narrows, the lowest ground on the map. The Blacks Fork side drops from 6,978 feet at Millburne to about 6,500 feet at Carter. Those low ends carry the coldest numbers, −32°F to −34°F.

The name Woodruff Narrows says something too. A valley that pinches down below a stretch of open floor tends to hold cold above the pinch, since the cold collects faster than it can drain out. Within 3 miles of the town of Bear River the floor plans a median −34°F. The Woodruff station, farther down the river, has averaged a yearly low of −30°F over 98 years, against −21°F at the station east of Evanston over 99. In every one of the twelve big outbreaks we pulled, Woodruff read colder than Evanston, by as little as 1°F in January 1963 and as much as 35°F around February 1, 1985 (−45°F against −10°F).

Above the pool sits warmer air, and ground that reaches up into it stays milder on still nights. That's the thermal belt. Around Evanston the benches 100 to 700 feet above the floor plan a median −23°F, against −27°F on the floor; around the town of Bear River it's −27°F against −34°F. The airport station at Burns Field, about 390 feet above downtown Evanston, has averaged a winter low of −8°F since it started in 2000, against −14°F at the station east of town since 1995. Utah State sees it in the high valleys just southwest of here, where Park City, 1,500 feet above Henefer, gets nearly twice the freeze free season.

It doesn't hold every night. When arctic air comes in on a wind, or clouds hang over the valley, the pool never sets up and higher ground can run colder. Around February 2, 2011, the airport read −19°F while the station east of town read −8°F.

Water doesn't help: the only sizable water is reservoirs, and Woodruff Narrows and Sulphur Creek are both ice fished, so they're frozen when it counts. Built-up ground holds a little heat, and downtown Evanston plans about a degree warmer than the floor around it. Snow matters more, for the roots. Mountain View averages about 64 inches a year and Evanston about 47, in country that gets only 11 to 12 inches of precipitation. Snow over the roots keeps them alive even as it chills the air above; bare, frozen, windswept ground is what kills roots.

Evanston, the Bear River floor and the benches above town

Evanston sits at about 6,750 feet on the Bear River, where the Union Pacific put a division point in 1868. The Bear River Greenway and Bear River State Park follow the river through town. The map puts downtown, around Depot Square and Front Street, 40 feet above the local floor, planning for −26°F (zone 4a). Within 3 miles, the floor plans a median −27°F, the benches −23°F, the warmest tenth of the growing ground −22°F and the coldest tenth −27°F.

Climb out of the river bottom and it gets better fast. Burnt Hill, just southwest of downtown at about 7,015 feet and some 300 feet above the floor, plans for −23°F (zone 4b), with a typical winter of −11°F and a spring reading 13°F warmer than Evanston. The frost drains into the river bottom while the slope stays in warmer air. Don't go all the way to the top, though. Medicine Butte, north-northeast of town at 8,558 feet and 1,520 feet above the floor, also plans for −23°F but reads about even with Evanston on a spring night, since a top that high pokes up out of the warm band.

A downtown lot can take anything we sell that's come through −30°F or colder, and the apples have the most room: Haralson (−45°F), Honeycrisp (−45°F), Zestar!® (−40°F). Save the sweet cherries, apricots, plums and pears for a sloped yard or the benches, where the spring reading runs warm.

Almy, Three Forks and the town of Bear River

North of Evanston the Bear River floor drops and opens out. Almy, the old coal camp about 5 miles north of downtown, sits right on the floor at 6,589 feet and plans for −29°F (zone 4a). Three Forks, a couple of miles east of the town of Bear River at 6,638 feet, plans for −30°F. The town of Bear River sits at 6,532 feet, about 217 feet below Evanston, and plans for −33°F (zone 3b), with a typical winter of −19°F. All three read about 3°F colder than Evanston on a spring night.

What matters most out here is the spread. Within 3 miles of the town of Bear River the floor plans a median −34°F and the coldest tenth of the growing ground −35°F, while the benches plan −27°F and the warmest tenth −24°F. That 11°F swing is the widest around any of the map's towns, and it's the best argument on this page for getting your trees up off the bottom.

On the floor, stick with what's come through −35°F or colder: Norland (−50°F) and Wealthy (−50°F) apples, Kerr (−50°F) and Trailman (−55°F) applecrabs (if you only plant one tree, make it one of those two), and Montana Black Currant (−50°F). We've never seen winter damage on Montana Black Currant, even in October cold snaps of −10°F to −20°F, which are rougher on a plant than January cold because nothing has hardened off yet.

Fort Bridger, Millburne and the Blacks Fork

Fort Bridger, where Jim Bridger and Louis Vasquez built their trading post in 1842 or 1843, is on the Blacks Fork floor at 6,674 feet, 30 feet above the local floor by the map, and plans for −28°F (zone 4a), with a spring reading about even with Evanston. Within 3 miles, the floor plans a median −28°F and the benches −26°F. The old Fort Bridger airport station, about 350 feet above the townsite, ran a median 8°F warmer on the year's coldest night than the Evanston station from 1941 to 1965, though the two sit 29 miles apart in different drainages.

Upstream, Millburne, on the Blacks Fork southwest of Fort Bridger at 6,978 feet, sits on a bench about 100 feet above the floor and plans for −27°F, with a spring reading 3°F warmer than Evanston. A Fort Bridger yard on the floor does best with apples, tart cherries and bush fruit, like Wolf River apple (−50°F), Meteor tart cherry (−40°F) and Boyne raspberry (−50°F). Millburne's warmer spring reading makes it a better bet for plums. Toka (−45°F) is a good pollenizer for Superior (−35°F), and our pollination maps show what else blooms with what.

Lyman, Urie and Mountain View

East of Fort Bridger, the Bridger Valley Historic Byway loops through Urie, Mountain View and Lyman, a little higher than Fort Bridger. Lyman, at about 6,710 feet, is on a terrace the map puts 160 feet above the nearest bottom. It plans for −25°F (zone 4b), typical winter −12°F, and reads 7°F warmer than Evanston on the spring layer, the best spring reading of any of the map's towns. The floor within 3 miles plans −28°F, while the townsite plans as warm as the warmest tenth of the ground around it: the terrace, plus a little town warmth. For stone fruit, start in Lyman.

Urie, between Lyman and Mountain View, sits 170 feet above the floor at 6,784 feet and also plans for −25°F (zone 4b), but its spring reading is only about 1°F warmer than Evanston. Mountain View, the "Gateway to the High Uintas," is at about 6,800 feet, 90 feet above the floor, and plans for −26°F (zone 4a), spring about 1°F warmer than Evanston. The map finds no true valley floor within 3 miles of it, and the coldest tenth of the ground nearby plans −27°F, so yards in town land close together. The Mountain View station's coldest since 1995 is −26°F, right at the map's number, but it read −41°F in 1990, so varieties with room to spare are the safest bets.

With Lyman's spring reading you can grow nearly the whole list: Lapins and Gold sweet cherries (−35°F), Westcot apricot (−45°F), Summercrisp pear (−45°F) and Siberian C peach (−35°F), the hardiest peach we know of. Lapins and Gold are the hardiest sweet cherries we've found; a grower of ours in Cowley, Wyoming saw no damage on Lapins at −33°F. Siberian C ripens very late, so give it the warmest spot you've got. In Mountain View and Urie, plant the same trees but put the apricots and sweet cherries on the highest, best-drained part of the lot.

Robertson, Fort Supply and the climb toward the Uintas

South of Mountain View, Robertson, at about 7,290 feet, is on a bench 110 feet above the floor and plans for −27°F (zone 4a), with a spring reading 2°F warmer than Evanston. That's about 600 feet above Fort Bridger, yet a little warmer on the planning low. The Fort Supply site on Willow Creek, about 2 miles southwest of Robertson at 7,428 feet, plans for −28°F, with a spring reading even with Evanston. The trouble up here is the season. Fort Supply's settlers lost most of the crops they hadn't harvested to an early September frost in 1855. Taper the water from mid-August so trees harden off, and lean on trees with room to spare, like Kerr applecrab (−50°F) and Red Lake currant (−40°F).

Piedmont, Aspen Mountain and the high divide

The Union Pacific climbed over Aspen Mountain here until the Aspen Tunnel bypassed the grade around 1910. The named places sit at 6,850 to 7,250 feet with middling winter numbers: Hilliard and Beartown −26°F, Altamont and Aspen −27°F, Piedmont and Byrnes Crossing −28°F, all zone 4a. Spring is where it gets tricky. Beartown, on a valley floor at 7,100 feet, reads 7°F colder than Evanston on a still bloom night. Aspen and Altamont sit in draws within a couple of miles of Aspen Mountain, and draws carry cold air down at night; they read 4°F and 2°F colder. Piedmont, the ghost town on Muddy Creek where three of the 1877 charcoal kilns still stand, reads 3°F colder.

The good ground is up off the bottoms. Bald Knoll, 410 feet above the floor about 2 miles north of Byrnes Crossing, plans for −25°F (zone 4b) and reads 15°F warmer than Evanston on a spring night. In this country a yard in a draw or on a creek flat should stick to apples, applecrabs, haskap and currants, and the stone fruit belongs on a slope where the cold has somewhere to drain.

Carter, Elkhurst and the low country to the north

North of the Bridger Valley towns the ground drops, and this is where the Blacks Fork side does its pooling. Carter, on the Union Pacific at about 6,500 feet, sits on the river bottom and plans for −32°F (zone 3b), with a spring reading 4°F colder than Evanston. Bridger, the little place about 12 miles west-northwest of Fort Bridger (not the fort or the town), plans for −30°F and reads 7°F colder than Evanston in spring, tied with Beartown for the coldest spring reading of any named place. Elkhurst, at 6,431 feet, plans for −34°F, the coldest of any named place on the map, yet its spring reading is only 1°F colder than Evanston. It sits on a toe slope at the edge of the pool: the deep winter pool covers it, but the shallow spring frost layer drains on past.

Down here, plant what's come through −35°F or colder: Parkland (−60°F) and Carroll (−50°F) apples, Rescue applecrab (−60°F), Romeo dwarf cherry (−50°F) and sea buckthorn (−50°F). Pears and plums want higher ground than a river bottom.

Spring frost and bloom around Evanston and the Bridger Valley

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 give the frost dates. At the station a mile east of Evanston, the median last 32°F in spring comes June 14 and the first in fall September 3, about 88 frost free days, with the last 28°F around May 30; in a late year, one in ten, the last 32°F comes about June 24. The Mountain View station runs June 12 to September 14, 90 days. The airport station at Burns Field, about 390 feet above downtown Evanston, gets 108 days, June 9 to September 20, though its last 28°F comes about June 2, a few days later than the town station's; high ground isn't safer on every kind of night. No station with frost dates sits in Lyman, Fort Bridger or the town of Bear River.

The spring layer is a still, clear night at bloom, the kind that does the damage. It follows the same drainage as winter, but spring frost is shallow; the FAO's frost protection manual says the cold layer on spring frost nights usually tops out 30 to 200 feet above the ground. A layer that thin drowns the bottoms and draws and leaves the terraces alone, which is why Lyman's terrace, 160 feet up, reads 7°F warmer than Evanston and Burnt Hill, 300 feet up, 13°F warmer. Utah State puts it plainly: ground 50 to 100 feet above the valley floor generally freezes less.

Open blossoms of nearly every tree fruit start dying at about 28°F (Michigan State), but only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop (University of Minnesota), and fully open haskap flowers take 19°F. Utah State's bloom order runs apricot first, then sweet cherry, tart cherry, pear, plum and peach, with apples among the latest. So apricots, sweet cherries, plums and pears go on the terraces and benches with warm spring readings (Lyman, Millburne, Robertson, the slopes above Evanston), and apples, tart cherries, haskap and currants can take the floors. At our place, Red Lake currant and Montana Black Currant fruited well after their flower buds saw about 22°F, and Siberian C peach flower buds took 28°F without damage.

On a frost night in a small yard, Utah State says to put frost blankets or tarps on in the early evening and pull them once the air's back above 30°F. Through bloom, keep the grass under the trees mowed short and water a day or two ahead of a forecast frost; firm, moist, bare soil gives heat back at night. And with 88 to 108 frost free days at the Evanston, Mountain View and Burns Field stations, taper the water from mid-August so trees harden off before the first hard freeze.

What the weather records say

The coldest reading in each station's own NOAA record:

• Woodruff (6,315 feet, just past the map's edge): −49°F, December 12, 1932.
• Mountain View (6,800 feet): −41°F, December 21, 1990.
• Hewinta Utah (6,500 feet, past the edge): −41°F, February 1, 1985.
• The station a mile east of Evanston (6,860 feet, records since 1899): −38°F, February 12, 1905.
• Burns Field, the Evanston airport (7,139 feet, since 2000): −19°F, February 2, 2011.

Our planning low is built from winters since 1995 to 1996, and the decades before were rougher. Evanston's −26°F is a little colder than anything the station east of town has recorded since 1995 (−24°F, in January 2017). But that same station read −35°F in January 1963, and Mountain View −41°F in 1990. USDA's 2023 zones are built on an average winter's coldest night, about −15°F in Evanston by our map, so they read warmer than ours.

What you can grow here

Most of the map plans between −28°F and −25°F, so much of what we sell clears winter here. Pick by where your ground sits and how it reads in spring.

Terraces, benches and town lots that plan for −25°F or warmer

Lyman, Urie, Burnt Hill and the benches around Evanston. Apples: Honeycrisp (−45°F), Liberty (−35°F), Sweet Sixteen (−40°F). Pears: Summercrisp (−45°F), Flemish Beauty (−40°F). Plums: Toka (−45°F), Superior (−35°F). Cherries: Lapins and Gold (−35°F), Rainier (−30°F). Apricots: Westcot and Debbie's Gold (−45°F). Peaches: Siberian C (−35°F), Contender and Blushingstar (−30°F). Tom McCamant grows Contender at Forbidden Fruit Orchard in Paradise, Montana, and it's the only commercial peach we know of that has taken −32°F. Put the early bloomers where your spot's spring reading is warm.

The valley floors, −26°F to −30°F

Downtown Evanston, Fort Bridger, Mountain View, Millburne, Robertson and Almy. Apples: Wealthy and Wolf River (−50°F), Frostbite (−45°F), Zestar!® (−40°F). Applecrabs: Kerr (−50°F), Trailman (−55°F). Cherries: Evans Bali and FE tart (−45°F), Meteor (−40°F), Nanking (−50°F). Plums like Mount Royal (−45°F) only where the spring reading beats Evanston's, as at Millburne. Berries: honeyberry (−50°F), Pixwell gooseberry (−40°F). Keep pears off the frosty low ground.

The cold bottoms around Bear River, Carter and Elkhurst, −31°F to −35°F

Apples: Parkland (−60°F), Norland, Carroll and Wealthy (−50°F), Haralson (−45°F). Applecrabs: Rescue (−60°F), Trailman (−55°F), Kerr and Centennial (−50°F); Ed Schultz saw zero winter injury on Centennial after a winter that hit −47°F. Cherries: Evans Bali and FE (−45°F), Romeo (−50°F). Plums: Brookgold (−50°F), on bench ground, never the bottom. Berries: Consort black currant (−50°F), Sophia raspberry (−55°F), buffaloberry (−50°F).

Roots, site, soil and water

Roots are the weak link, and snow is what protects them. At Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F with no rootstock damage, under snow. On windswept ground, hold snow over the roots, mulch, and keep the soil moist into winter. Never run a windbreak across the slope below your trees, where it'll dam cold air back up into them. Bob Purvis's rules from our grower manual apply: an east-facing slope is ideal, and you want a slope but not a windswept hilltop and not the valley bottom. Montana State recommends a 4 to 8 percent grade.

The Evanston soil series, described from a site south of town, is well drained loam over clay loam, with free lime starting 8 to 20 inches down and a pH around 7.2 at the surface and 8.4 deeper. The Uinta County Conservation District in Lyman does soil testing. In country this dry, drip is the only irrigation we'd use on fruit trees. Utah State lists deer, rabbits, voles and ground squirrels as the usual pests in these high valleys and calls fire blight endemic in Utah, so guard trunks, fence for deer and watch for blight.

Fruit history here

Mormon settlers built Fort Supply on Willow Creek near Robertson in 1853 and had fenced fields by 1856, but it burned, along with Fort Bridger, in 1857. We haven't found a published history of orchards in the Bridger Valley or around Evanston. Statewide, Wealthy and Haralson make up about a third of the old survivors UW's Wyoming Apple Project has identified. The old Wyoming bulletins cited Yellow Transparent, Northwest Greening, Wolf River and Wealthy as often as anything, and we still sell all four (Yellow Transparent as seedlings). None of the sites in the project's 2019 paper are in Southwest Wyoming, so if you know an old apple tree in Uinta County, we'd like to hear about it.

Questions people ask

What growing zone is Evanston, Wyoming?

Evanston plans for −26°F, MFTC zone 4a, with a typical winter low of −15°F. The benches above town plan around −23°F (zone 4b) and the town of Bear River −33°F (zone 3b). USDA's zones are built on an average winter's coldest night, so they read warmer than ours; ours are built on the bad night you plan for.

When is the last frost in Evanston, Wyoming?

At the NOAA station a mile east of Evanston, the median last 32°F in spring (1991 to 2020) is June 14 and the first in fall is September 3, about 88 frost free days. In a late year, one in ten, the last spring frost comes about June 24. The airport station at Burns Field, about 390 feet above downtown, runs June 9 to September 20, 108 days.

Can you grow apples in Evanston and the Bridger Valley?

Yes. Haralson and Honeycrisp have come through −45°F, Wealthy −50°F and Zestar!® −40°F, all well below Evanston's −26°F and Lyman's −25°F. In the cold bottoms around the town of Bear River and Carter (−32°F to −33°F), go with ones that have come through −45°F or colder.

Why does Mountain View sometimes get colder than Evanston?

Most winters it doesn't; both stations have averaged about −14°F on the year's coldest night since 1995. But they sit in different river valleys, and a cold snap can settle into one harder. In the December 1990 cold snap, Mountain View hit −41°F while the Evanston station's low was −31°F; in January 2017 it was −4°F at Mountain View and −24°F at Evanston.

Where are the frost pockets around Evanston and the Bridger Valley?

The lowest ground at the north end of each river: the Bear River floor around Almy, Three Forks and the town of Bear River (−29°F to −33°F), and Carter and Elkhurst (−32°F to −34°F). On spring nights the coldest named places are Bridger, west of Fort Bridger, and Beartown, southeast of Evanston, both about 7°F colder than Evanston. Lyman's terrace reads 7°F warmer.

Warmer spots, colder spots

Here's the number to plan for at named places on the map, warmest first. Each one is the 1-in-30-year low for that spot: the cold hardiness calculator's number from the same weather stations, sharpened by our microclimate model for the ground right there. Zone is our MFTC zone, set by that one bad night, not by an average.

The weather stations behind it

These are the long-record stations in and around this map, with each one's own numbers since the winter of 1995-96. The last column is this map's 30-year number right at the station, which won't match the station exactly: it's a blend of the stations around it, the way the calculator works everywhere.

Source: NOAA records through ACIS, winters 1995-96 through 2025-26. What the "carried forward," "gaps filled" and AWOS rows mean is explained in how our microclimate maps work.