A few weeks ago, I wrote about why I prefer not to fly. What I didn't mention is how much I enjoy a long road trip.

I love the freedom of setting your own itinerary, eating what and when you please, taking along as much as you like/need and not having to leave the cat at home alone. I've enjoyed road trips ever since my family drove across the country in our 1954 Chevy station wagon in 1960.

But as they say: freedom has its costs. As you will see, road trips produce very significant carbon impacts.

In my no-fly post, I mentioned that a lot of Jackson Hole folks choose to drive to Idaho Falls or Salt Lake City to catch cheaper flights than they can get here, and I wondered what the carbon costs of this particular hybrid mode of travel might be.

Here's what the Terrapass calculators tell me (using my wife's recent trip to Santa Barbara as an example):

• round trip flight Jackson/Salt Lake = 409 miles and 261 lbs of CO2
• round trip flight Salt Lake/Santa Barbara = 1228 miles and 552 lob of CO2
• two round trips home/Jackson Airport = 42 miles and 39 lbs of CO2
• total = 852 lbs CO2

• round trip flight Idaho Falls/Salt Lake = 377 miles and 241 lbs of CO2
• round trip flight Salt Lake/Santa Barbara = 1228 miles and 552 lbs of CO2
• round trip drive Jackson/Idaho Falls = 200 miles and 157 lbs of CO2
• total = 950 lbs CO2

• round trip flight Salt Lake/Santa Barbara = 1228 miles and 552 lbs of CO2
• round trip drive Jackson/Salt Lake = 600 miles and 489 lbs of CO2
• total = 1041 lbs CO2

• round trip drive Jackson/Santa Barbara = 2153 miles and 1761 lbs of CO2

So friends, from a carbon impact standpoint, it appears that if you're traveling solo, y'all should be flying out of Jackson Hole Airport. (Of course, carpooling to Idaho Falls or Salt Lake would reduce the carbon impact of the drive by a factor of the number of people in the vehicle.)

One thing is certain: I should do everything I can to limit my driving (the carbon impact of two people driving from Jackson to Santa Barbara is about the same as two people flying from Jackson to Santa Barbara).

I am not, however, going to revert to flying.

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