Jackson and Other Holes

I recently returned from a trip with a group of my high school friends. This is the fourth annual trip we’ve taken as a group, and we covered a lot of ground, visiting three states and two national parks. Here’s what we got up to.

#Day 1

We arrived at Jackson Hole Airport (JAC) on Wednesday afternoon. This airport is the only one located in a national park. That fact coupled with a flight path that brings planes in from the north means we got a stunning first look at the Teton1 mountains from the plane.

Four craggy peaks rise into a low cloud layer. A streak of flow streaks off of the tallest peak like smoke from a candle. The foothills around these mountains are covered in trees.
The view of the Grand Tetons on approach to JAC.

We stopped for beers at Snake River Brewing in Jackson, Wyoming before heading over the Teton Pass to our AirBnb, about six miles outside of Driggs, Idaho.

The four Teton peaks appear dramatically above a cluster of buildings in the middle of a field.
The Grand Tetons from the Teton Valley, where our Airbnb was.

The Teton mountains are quite striking. I couldn’t get enough photos of them, especially with the pastoral foregrounds of farm buildings and fields. The photo above is from the deck of our Airbnb, on the opposite side of the range from the one I took from the plane.

#Day 2

Our first full day was a relaxed tourist day in Jackson. We had lunch at Grand Teton Brewing in Victor, Idaho, then drove over the pass to Jackson. The town is situated around a central square that’s surrounded by shops and restaurants.

The Jackson Drug Company storefront at the corner of Cache and Deloney in Jackson, Wyoming. There are white benches out front and clusters of Halloween pumpkins decorating the doorway. The windows advertise ice cream, meals, and alcohol for purchase.
Jackson’s town square is full of quaint shops and local color.

We spent the afternoon wandering in and out of the local stores, and stopped in the delightfully kitschy Million Dollar Cowboy Bar for drinks and a round of pool.

Nine people sitting along a bar, smiling at the camera. The restaurant is full of old-timey western decorations. Behind the group is a set of pool tables with red felt.
The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar is quite a place. All the seats along the bar are saddles!

Dinner was pizza from Pinky G’s in Victor.

#Day 3

We were up early today to drive into Yellowstone National Park.

The Teton mountains lit from behind by the rising sun. The sky is colored dramatically in blues, pinks, and purples. In front of the mountains is a mist layer and sillouettes of several farm buildings.
The sunrise this morning was stunning, with the mountains lit from behind.

We opted to spend our day in the west and south side of the park, touring the Grand Prismatic Spring and Old Faithful. I enjoyed reading about the geology of the area, and how the volcanic activity below the surface drives the geysers, mud pots, and hot springs the park is best known for.

The Prismatic Spring was a bucket list item for me, so I was thrilled to get to see it.

A large hot spring surrounded by flat barren fields. Around the rim are dramatic orange, blue, and yellow rings. Steam billows from the surface.
The Grand Prismatic Spring

We hiked along the Fairy Falls trail to the overlook and spotted our first megafauna of the trip: a bison! He was grazing along the trail. We named him Barry.

A bison in a field. In the background, steam rises from unknown sources.
We spotted Barry the Bison grazing on the grasses along the Fairy Falls trail, on the way up to the Grand Prismatic Spring observation point.

From there we drove down the road to the Old Faithful Visitor Education Center. We’d just missed an eruption, so we opted to hang out until the next one. Meanwhile we had some lunch and wandered the visitor center’s exhibit on the various geothermal features in the geyser basin.

Our last stops of the day were the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone – a name this group of Arizonans found somewhat bewildering – and Hayden Valley. The Canyon didn’t disappoint; is indeed grand.

A V-shaped canyon of solid yellow stone. A large waterfall pours water into a river running along the bottom of the canyon. Trees cover the canyon walls.
The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

On the way out of the park, we came across a group of elk, including a particularly feisty young male who was determined to put a traffic cone in its place.

A young elk with a small set of antlers stands in the middle of a road. Cars wait for him to pass.
This guy kept circling back to the ditch on the far side of this road to attack a traffic cone that, presumably, had committed some egregious offense.

We stopped for dinner at the Slippery Otter in West Yellowstone before heading home.

#Day 4

The first of two days at Grand Teton National Park started with sandwiches from a small deli in Moose, Wyoming. This town, along with the airport, also sits within the national park boundaries. A little ways down the road we came to Jenny Lake.

A paraoramic photo of a clear, blue lake. Immediately behind it are tree-covered mountains. On the far right of the frame, a person makes a peace sign and sticks out their tongue at the camera.
A panorama of Jenny Lake. Photobomb by Alex.

We also hiked around Leigh Lake, the next in a chain of lakes at the immediate base of the mountains.

A still lake reflects the image of the mountains behind it. In the near foreground are various water plants.
Leigh Lake

We wrapped up this day with a drive up Signal Mountain2 and an unsuccessful moose-spotting drive down the Moose-Wilson Road.

A broad landscape perspective showing a river running through a thick forest.
A landscape perspective showing a wide flat plain, partially covered in trees. Roughly in the middle is a lake.

Before bed, a bunch of us enjoyed the hot tub and beautifully clear night skies. We found Jupiter and Saturn, as well as several constellations. The Milky Way was overhead as well. I always enjoy stargazing, and don’t get to do it nearly enough under dark skies. This was a real treat.

#Day 5

Our first stop in the park was Mormon Row, a chain of houses and farm buildings constructed by Mormon homesteaders in the early 20th century.

Two weathered cabin-style buildings. The Teton mountains are in the background.
A couple of the farm buildings in the Mormon Row area. These were built in the early 20th century, and lived in until the 1970s!
A two-story barn with a variety of siding on each level. The roof of the main part is a traditional barn shape. On the left is a small trapezoidal extension. The Teton mountains are visible in the background.
One of the barns at the farthest-out settlement along Mormon Row. Hard to complain about the view, but the wind out here was brutal.

Seeing how these people carved a living out of a relatively harsh environment3 is awe inspiring.

In a dead field of short grasses a small path cuts through. Farther along the path a person wearing a white shirt follows the cut. In the background are a few buildings and one person.
Following the cow paths through the fields.

We drove further down the road to Lower Slide Lake to spend a little time relaxing and waiting for sunset. We skipped rocks and built cairns at the lakeshore, and admired the scenic views of the farms across the lake.

Our last scheduled stop was an attempt to catch the sun setting behind the peaks. We drove out to Schwabacher Landing and hiked a little ways in. This spot was a gorgeous place to wait for the sun. A bunch of the group climbed into a fallen tree for a particularly silly group photo.

Seven people almost all wearing sunglasses standing on a fallen tree. The tree has numerous branches off of the main trunk.
Most of our group, minus Tess and me (taking the photo).

We also caught some duck butts!

Five ducks in a pond. Four of them have bobbed down into the water, with their tail feathers pointing up.
Butts. Lol.

I managed to take a time lapse video of the sun setting. It was going great until the wind blew it off its jaunty perch on a branch.

The sunset from Schwabacher Landing

On the way home we took another shot at catching a moose along the Moose-Wilson Road, and this time we were successful! A short way down the road, we came to a clearing where not one but two moose were grazing in the sagebrush.

A moose stands in a field of sagebrush near a single tree.
Oh my god, there’s a moose on the loose!

Given our prior unsuccessful attempt, several of us had tempered our expectations going into this drive. That made seeing two moose so quickly into the drive all the more exciting.

#Day 6

Time to head home. 😢 We broke camp at the Airbnb in the morning and said goodbyes to a few of our group with flights out of Bozeman, Montana. Due to a complication with our rental cars, I drove twice over Teton Pass to get everyone to JAC who needed to be there.

A framed painting of a pig on a dark background. The pig looks sideways at the viewer. The painting has a small caption plate saying "A Most Noble Pig". The painting is mounted on a wall covered in a busy wallpaper showing leaves, mushrooms, flowers, and pigs.
The Most Noble Pig, proprietor (I assume) of Cafe Genevieve in Jackson, Wyoming.

Trent, Tess, and I had a last lunch at Cafe Genevieve in Jackson. Then, we returned the rental car and caught our flights home.

#Hasta Luego

This group means a lot to me. We’ve hung together through the worst of the pandemic, and make time every year to spend a few days together. There are challenges and small conflicts every year, but we always make it through and continue to put in the work to make these trips happen. I’m so grateful for that.

  1. Tess informed me shortly after landing of the meaning of the French word téton. A fact that delighted me for the entirety of the trip. Two lesbians traveling to the middle of the country to check out “the great tits” is about as on the nose as it gets, isn’t it? ↩︎

  2. The view from the top of signal mountain is breathtaking, however I couldn’t help notice one of the water features bears a certain phallic resemblance. ↩︎

  3. Some of the signage here explained that the homesteaders picked this spot because the nearby butte sheltered them from the wind. Several of us found this fact unbelievable considering how windy it was that day. ↩︎