Jackson Hole

By Jim.

Jackson Hole, Wyoming seems to have been custom-made for sightseeing and recreation.  

The Grand Tetons form the area’s western border; the Gros Ventre Range is to the east.  They frame the “Hole” – a lush valley that is virtually flat and punctuated by the Snake River.  The combination of rugged mountains and tabletop valley almost looks fake, it’s so perfect and pronounced.

There’s a lot of pleasure to pick from, including horseback riding, golf, fly-fishing, biking and hiking, plus great restaurants and a pretty good brewpub.  The winter skiing is reportedly superb (we even encountered some skiers Sunday, who had gotten themselves up the mountain we were hiking to ride some of the remaining snow).

Our five days there weren’t enough to do everything that’s available, but we had a blast trying.   Our only disappointment was never seeing an elk or a moose (or squirrel, or Boris or Natasha…I blame Trump), except some droppings during our hikes.

Sunday, we drove through an elk refuge in the valley up to the Gros Ventres.  Snow blocked the trail, preventing us from getting to the top, plus we forgot to bring bug spray, so when things started sounding like a Luftwaffe attack around us, we headed back down.  That didn’t stop us from admiring the Tetons (and the ski trails, carved out of the trees) across the valley.

After our hike, we explored the town of Jackson, which has everything from arches of elk horns…to tourist bars…to a municipal softball field with its own Green Monster.  The little ski mountain literally abuts the street grid in downtown Jackson – imagine being able to ski on your lunch hour!

Monday, we continued disrupting the vacation of Mike & Lisa Foster by teeing it up with them near Teton Village.  That’s Mike’s Sparty head cover photo-bombing the pic, trying unsuccessfully to extract some revenge for the 2015 Sugar Bowl shutout.

In additional to Spartans and the Crimson Tide, there were Beavers on the course.

Tuesday, we did a serious hike around Jenny Lake in Teton National Park.  (Yosemite spoiled us for waterfalls – this one was relatively ho-hum.)

Wednesday, we got in some downtime.

Thursday, we got out of our comfort zone (literally and figuratively) and went horseback riding.  The poor  horses must get bored having to plod around carrying city-slickers.

Friday, we said goodbye to Jackson Hole and Wyoming and headed to Montana – our tenth state of the trip, so far.  We’ll be back in Wyoming later this month, after Yellowstone and on our way to Mount Rushmore.

After spending a couple of relatively quiet days in Missoula (we’re getting our first rain of the trip since early April), we’ll head north around the magnificent Flathead Lake, the Lake Tahoe of Montana (image courtesy of Google)…

and up to Glacier National Park.