Elk Mountain, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Elk Mountain, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Elk Mountain lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Elk Mountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elk Mountain — the short answer
Elk Mountain, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 132 days between hard freezes, across 177 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~132
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 177 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5a is Elk Mountain's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elk Mountain's 132-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elk Mountain
Each reading below is measured for Elk Mountain itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElk Mountain runs about 132 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredElk Mountain sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Elk Mountain is in
Elk Mountain sits in the Wyoming Basin — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Elk Mountain's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carbon County.
What Grows in Elk Mountain
Every plant below cleared Elk Mountain's own zone 5a and its 132-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elk Mountain?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Elk Mountain
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elk Mountain. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Double 8 RanchUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Bow River Work CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Basin RanchUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Norm Palm RanchUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Elk Mountain Trading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Town of Elk MountainUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- 20-080-20cbb01Nitrate · 2600 ft
- 20-080-21cc 01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- Pete McKee RanchUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Elk Mountain ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Elk Mountain TowingUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- WY Department of TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elk Mountain's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Elk Mountain.
Total Sites
33
within ~10 miles of Elk Mountain
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
20 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elk Mountain
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elk Mountain, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Elk Mountain. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Elk Mountain
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elk Mountain average
Your land is one point inside Elk Mountain
Everything above resolves to Elk Mountain as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 177 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Elk Mountain Average
Elk Mountain Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Elk Mountain
- ●One soil character for all of Elk Mountain
- ●Frost dates read at Elk Mountain's scale: May 14 to Sep 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elk Mountain's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elk Mountain
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elk Mountain, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elk Mountain averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elk Mountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elk Mountain average
How we know this about Elk Mountain
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Elk Mountain’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Elk Mountain
When does frost risk typically end in Elk Mountain?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elk Mountain typically lands around May 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Jun 4.
When is the first frost in Elk Mountain?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elk Mountain typically arrives around Sep 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 9, so the watching starts about Aug 24 — about 132 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elk Mountain?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elk Mountain sees about 132 frost-free days — roughly May 14 through Sep 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 4 to Sep 9, about 97 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elk Mountain?
The federal record around Elk Mountain is light — 33 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Elk Mountain?
With about 132 frost-free days between hard freezes, Elk Mountain rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 160 to 188 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 14 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Elk Mountain's scale — its 5a band and its 132-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elk Mountain's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Elk Mountain’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Elk Mountain's own scale — its own ~132-day season between 28°F freezes, the 177 acres it covers and 33 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elk Mountain's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elk Mountain's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 14 and Sep 23 and the ~132-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 33 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elk Mountain, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elk Mountain's boundary and the 177 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~132-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elk Mountain's own centroid, the Wyoming BasinUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elk Mountain's 177 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carbon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carbon County
- The growing challenges every Wyoming grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Wyoming
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Carbon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elk Mountain's 177 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elk Mountain you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 177 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Elk Mountain-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wyoming
Wider growing context
What grows across WyomingElk Mountain sits outside our named growing regions, so Wyoming as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides