Fort Bridger, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Bridger, 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 Fort Bridger 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 Fort Bridger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Bridger — the short answer
Fort Bridger, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 127 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~127
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Fort Bridger's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Bridger's 127-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Bridger
Each reading below is measured for Fort Bridger itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Bridger runs about 127 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
MeasuredFort Bridger 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 Fort Bridger is in
Fort Bridger sits in the Wyoming Basin — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Fort Bridger's own centroid rather than borrowed from Uinta County.
What Grows in Fort Bridger
Every plant below cleared Fort Bridger's own zone 5a and its 127-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Bridger?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Fort Bridger
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Bridger. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Wagon Wheel Motel and CaféUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Fort Bridger Cash Store, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- 16-115-33ccd01Nitrate · 650 ft
- 15-115-04 01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 16-115-34acd01Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- Feehan Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Old West Auto SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Fort Bridger VortacUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- AYRES BAKER-POST & POLEToxics Release Inventory · 3.7 mi
- 15-115-20cba01Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- 15-115-12add01Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- BLACKS FORK TIMERBrownfields · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Bridger'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 Fort Bridger.
Total Sites
85
within ~10 miles of Fort Bridger
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Bridger
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Bridger
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Bridger, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 44 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Bridger. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Fort Bridger
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 Fort Bridger average
Your land is one point inside Fort Bridger
Everything above resolves to Fort Bridger as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Fort Bridger Average
Fort Bridger Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Fort Bridger
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Bridger
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Bridger's scale: May 20 to Sep 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Bridger's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Bridger
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Bridger, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Bridger averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Bridger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Bridger average
How we know this about Fort Bridger
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 Fort Bridger’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 Fort Bridger
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Bridger?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Bridger typically lands around May 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Fort Bridger?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Bridger typically arrives around Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 10, so the watching starts about Aug 25 — about 127 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Bridger?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Bridger sees about 127 frost-free days — roughly May 20 through Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 10 to Sep 10, about 92 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Bridger?
The federal record around Fort Bridger shows 85 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (44), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Fort Bridger?
With about 127 frost-free days between hard freezes, Fort Bridger 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 155 to 183 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 20 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Fort Bridger's scale — its 5a band and its 127-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Bridger'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 Fort Bridger’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fort Bridger's own scale — its own ~127-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,274 acres it covers and 85 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Bridger's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Bridger's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 20 and Sep 24 and the ~127-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 85 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Bridger, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Bridger's boundary and the 1,274 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~127-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Bridger's own centroid, the Wyoming BasinUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Bridger's 1,274 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Uinta County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Uinta 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 Uinta County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Bridger's 1,274 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Bridger you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,274 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 Fort Bridger-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wyoming
Wider growing context
What grows across WyomingFort Bridger sits outside our named growing regions, so Wyoming as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides