Reflections in Totality: My 2017 Solar Eclipse Experience

Written by Emily Auskaps

Photo Courtesy of Marty Resnick/iStock

As the total solar eclipse of 2024 draws near, I have been reflecting on the incomparable experience I enjoyed in the path of totality during the 2017 total solar eclipse. I watched the August 21, 2017 eclipse from a campground on Casper Mountain, Wyoming. I was lucky enough to be invited to join a friend of mine who had the foresight to reserve the space well ahead of time and the camping equipment to keep us (relatively) comfortable. It was an exciting and incredibly rare chance to travel mere hours by car to be able to witness the majesty of a total solar eclipse directly on the center line of peak totality.
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Casper, Wyoming was an absolute zoo the entire time I was visiting for the eclipse. I was surprised and delighted by Casper, a place that felt distinctly unique to other parts of the state that I have visited. Approximately 1 million people flocked to Wyoming for that eclipse, and the city and its residents handled the influx marvelously. Nights in Casper leading up to the eclipse were like one giant block party.

Nights in Casper were also a glorious chance to eat fresh food and to use the indoor plumbing of the restaurants we visited. I have never been so excited to wash my hands with actual running water. I could pretend otherwise, but who are we kidding… my enthusiasm for the outdoors dwindles substantially around bedtime. I have been camping a total of 3 times in my life, including for the eclipse. I tell you this to help illustrate how magical I found the eclipse itself: I even enjoyed camping for it.

The actual total eclipse lasted a little over two minutes from where we observed it. It’s been years, but it seems we spent two to three hours enjoying the event in total. The clearing we were camping in became magical and otherworldly during that time. Someone much cleverer than I had prepared a spot-on playlist that included "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden and "Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd that played during the morning while we waited.

It does get nearly as dark as night during a total solar eclipse. It also got incredibly chilly, the degree of which quite surprised me, despite the fact that that time of day is usually quickly warming. The birds got eerily quiet around us. I found myself musing on what the very earliest humans must have thought was occurring during such a phenomena. It wouldn’t be hard to picture one fearing the end has come when night suddenly falls during the day and all the animals behave as though night has indeed arrived.

Day soon returned to us, though, and thus began the mass exodus of revelers back to their homes. My friend, who was far, far wiser than I, waited around Casper most of the day and headed back closer to nightfall. I foolishly got myself stuck in an epic traffic jam on I-25 because I was desperate to get home to my dog. I do not remember how many extra hours it took. I mostly remember my panic when I came to a rise where I could see unmoving taillights stretching past the horizon. I began turning off my engine during the periods where we weren’t moving at all. I finally managed to get to Cheyenne gas station and discovered one, if not two grades of gasoline entirely empty, but I did manage to get enough to make it home.

​Again, I add this part of my experience because despite a stressful drive home that probably took twice as long as it should, I consider witnessing a total solar eclipse out in the serenity of nature one the very best experiences of my life, if not the best. It was the most spectacular natural event that I have ever witnessed, comparable to none. I would recommend the experience to everyone, although maybe not the camping.

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