Jackson Hole Magazine // Summer 2021

Jackson Hole SUMMER 2021

GREEN RIVER DRIFT A historic cattle drive in Sublette County

[COMPLIMENTARY COPY]

HIKING GEAR

CANOE CAMPING

INDIAN ARTS IN THE TETONS

A life lived wild is a life well lived.

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FEATURES JACKSON HOLE SUMMER 2021

ON THE COVER: In this image from photographer Ryan Dorgan, cowboy Chance Sloan rides through the morning fog during the Green River Drift. Started in 1896, the drift brings cattle from the Little Colorado Desert north to summer grazing lands. See and read more about the drift on page 116. Follow Dorgan on Instagram @itsdorgan.

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MOVING MOUNTAINS, TETON ST YLE Scientists are widening our understanding of the Teton Fault, which shapes and shakes Jackson Hole.

BY MIKE KOSHMRL

102

OVERTOURISM Jackson Hole is a gorgeous, unique, and wild place loved by visitors from around the world.

Can we keep it from being loved to death?

BY MOLLY ABSOLON

108

INTO YELLOWSTONE, THE YEAR BEFORE ITS FOUNDING The 1871 Hayden Expedition’s meticulous and vivid documentation inspired awe, convincing Congress to designate the first national park the following year.

BY MIKE KOSHMRL

116

P H O T O E S S AY: THE DRIVE ALONG THE DRIFT Thousands of Sublette County cattle spend their summer grazing the Upper Green River high country, and cowboys still drive them nearly sixty miles to get there.

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READY FOR THE WILD Of course we don’t want to get ill or injured in the backcountry, but sometimes accidents (and blisters) happen.

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SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

BY LILA EDYTHE

B R A D LY J . B O N E R

BY MIKE KOSHMRL PHOTOGRAPHY BY RYAN DORGAN

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CONTENTS JACKSON HOLE SUMMER 2021

BY SOFIA MCGULICK

Ready to Travel

BOOKS

Read These

Jackson Hole Pathways MY JACKSON HOLE LIFE

Rocky Vertone ALL YOU NEED

Hiking

GO DEEP

Coolers

48

Triangle X

JH PANTRY

Mursell's Sweet Shop

Meet Reed Finlay, Hailey Morton Levinson, and Lindsay Linton Buk BLAST FROM THE PAST

The Virginian Lodge

SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

TASTE OF JACKSON HOLE

Pizza on the Deck at Calico

BY MELISSA THOMASMA

66

ART

Indian Arts in the Park

BY DINA MISHEV

70

CULTURE

He Can Create Forever

BY WHITNEY ROYSTER

76

DESIGN

The Ultimate Adventure House

BY LILA EDYTHE

80

HELLO

BY SAMANTHA SIMMA

16

64

JACKSON HOLE ICON

BY JIM MAHAFFIE

40

62 62

132 132

SAMANTHA SIMMA

ANATOMY OF

BY LILA EDYTHE

38

BY WHITNEY ROYSTER

BY SAMANTHA SIMMA

BY DINA MISHEV

36

BY SAMANTHA SIMMA

Guillermo Esteves

BY MAGGIE THEODORA

32

Picnic with a Purpose Foraging the Local Flora

BY MAGGIE THEODORA

30

FOOD

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

BY JIM MAHAFFIE

28

64

HEALTH

Antidotes to What Jackson Throws at You

BY MELISSA THOMASMA

84

CHOOSE YOUR

OWN ADVENTURE

Need a Break From Being a Tourist?

BY WHITNEY ROYSTER

anoe Camping in C Yellowstone

BY BRADLY J. BONER

136

Rock On

142

Car Camping 101

144

Hit the Gravel Road

148

JACKSON HOLE MAP

150

CALENDAR

152

AS THE HOLE DEEPENS

BY MOLLY ABSOLON

BY WHITNEY ROYSTER

BY DINA MISHEV

BY TIM SANDLIN

B R A D LY J . B O N E R

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56 56

EXPLORE

DISHING MAGAZINE

38 26

ENJOY

R YA N D O R G A N

LOCAL LIFE

HOWDY EDITOR'S LETTER

I

I hope you have as " much fun exploring the

magazine’s new look and content as I, art director Elise Mahaffie, photo editor Bradly Boner, and the rest of the Jackson Hole magazine team had in making it happen."

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SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

f this issue of Jackson Hole magazine looks different to you, you’re not imagining things. For the past two years, we’ve been working to completely redesign and reimagine the magazine. The result is the most dramatic overhaul of Jackson Hole magazine’s look and content in its forty-five-year history. I, and the rest of the team, couldn’t be happier to finally share our work with you.

One department is unchanged, because why mess with perfection?— “As the Hole Deepens,” p. 152. Local author (and founder of the annual Jackson Hole Writers Conference) Tim Sandlin has been sharing his humorous take on life in the valley with Jackson Hole magazine readers since 1993, and, because each new column he comes up with is my favorite and makes me laugh out loud, there was no way retiring it was an option. We’ve added a second humor column, too: Whitney Royster’s “Need a Break from Being a Tourist?,” p. 84.

She has created Choose-Your-OwnAdventure pieces for the magazine for the past couple of issues; they’ve been so popular that, going forward, she’ll have one in every issue.

Also unchanged is the depth of the reporting found in the magazine’s feature well. In this issue, journalist Mike Koshmrl goes deep in two features, “Moving Mountains, Teton Style,” p.

94 and “Into Yellowstone, the Year Before Its Founding,” p. 108. Most people know that Yellowstone National Park sits atop a supervolcano that is overdue for an eruption, but in “Moving Mountains,” Koshmrl makes the case for the fault that runs along the base of

the Tetons being the more likely natural disaster to hit the valley.

The year 2022 marks the 150th anniversary of Yellowstone National Park.

In “Into Yellowstone,” Koshmrl revisits the expedition without which the national park would not exist—the 1871 Hayden Expedition. If you’re looking for a unique way to explore Yellowstone, the magazine’s photo editor, Bradly Boner, shows himself as adept with words as with images with his story about canoeing and camping on the park’s Shoshone Lake (p. 132), the largest lake in the lower forty-eight that is inaccessible by road.

Boner’s story is part of the magazine’s new “Explore” pages. With these, we hope to take readers on armchair adventures and/or inspire them to try some of our favorite local adventures.

Maybe you’ll read journalist Molly Absolon’s “Rock On,” p. 136 and find yourself interested in rock climbing?

The new “Enjoy” section focuses on the valley’s art, culture, and food scenes and design and wellness trends and news. This issue, meet Mursell’s Sweet Shop, Calico restaurant, and the Guest Artist program for Native American artists at Grand Teton National Park’s Colter Bay Visitor Center, among other things.

Last but not least (it’s actually the first section), “Local Life” highlights the uniqueness of the Jackson Hole community and how you can engage with and experience it. This issue, Town of Jackson mayor Hailey Morton Levinson shares a classic recipe from her family’s inn (“Hello,” p. 42), and I share essential hiking gear, which I’ve been diligently researching for more than twenty years now.

— DINA MISHEV

@MYSPIRITANIMALISATREX

@JACKSONHOLEMAG

THE CENTER

Jackson Hole S U M M E R 2021 // J A C K S O N H O L E M A G A Z I N E.C O M

What’s one place, thing, or experience you make sure all of your visitors do or see?

PUBLISHER Kevin Olson ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Adam Meyer

Take the chairlift (or walk) up Grand Targhee for a spectacular view of the Tetons and an amazing display of wildflowers.

There’s almost always a moose wandering around Wilson or the Village, and if not there, then up Antelope Flats Road past Kelly.

Grab a bike and hop on the bike path. Yes, they’re endless, and yes, we live here!

WE ARE A HUB FOR THE ARTISTIC, CULTURAL, AND CREATIVE ACTIVITY IN JACKSON HOLE

Float what I believe to be the most scenic section of the Snake River—from

Deadman’s Bar to Moose.

EDITOR Dina Mishev ART DIRECTOR Elise Mahaffie PHOTO EDITOR Bradly J. Boner COPY EDITOR Bevin Wallace

Have a drink at Dornan’s, which has the best mountain view from any bar in the West!

The summit of Snow King because it has the best views of town and the mountain ranges that surround Jackson Hole.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Molly Absolon Bradly J. Boner Lila Edythe Mike Koshmrl Jim Mahaffie Sofia McGulick Whitney Royster Tim Sandlin Get out of town to Samantha Simma Maggie Theodora experience the depth of Melissa Thomasma a quiet, starry night.

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Price Chambers Ryan Dorgan Guillermo Esteves Travis J. Garner Kelly Glasscock Aaron Kraft Dina Mishev Angus M. Thuermer Jr. Kathryn Ziesig ADVERTISING SALES Alyson Klaczkiewicz

ADVERTISING ACCOUNT COORDINATOR Tatum Biciolis

AD DESIGN & PRODUCTION Sarah Wilson Lydia Redzich Heather Haseltine Luis F. Ortiz Chelsea Robinson DISTRIBUTION Candace Whitaker Jeff Young

VISIT OUR

CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR OUR SUMMER LINEUP AT JHCENTERFORTHEARTS.ORG

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SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

© 2021 Jackson Hole magazine. All rights reserved. No part of this production may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. No responsibility will be assumed for unsolicited editorial contributions. Manuscripts or other material to be returned must be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope adequate to return the material.

Jackson Hole magazine is published semiannually. Send subscription requests to: Jackson Hole magazine, P.O. Box 7445, Jackson, Wyoming 83002. (307) 732-5900. Email: dina@jhmagazine.com. Visit jacksonholemagazine.com.

Reconnect W I T H F A M I LY

( 8 4 4 ) 2 1 6 - 0 4 0 4 · T H E C L E A R C R E E KG R O U P.C O M

JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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CONTRIBUTORS MOLLY ABSOLON (“Rock On,” p. 136) is a freelance writer based in Victor, Idaho, who writes about sports, leadership, people, and mountain living. Absolon earned a masters degree in journalism from UC Berkeley in 1991, but the lure of mountain living drew her to Wyoming, where she worked as an instructor for NOLS for fifteen years before returning to writing.

Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, and she has a regular column, “Mountainsides,” in the Jackson Hole News&Guide.

Molly has also served on the Victor City Council since 2014.

SAMANTHA SIMMA (Picnic with a Purpose, p. 56) moved to Jackson Hole in 2012. Her writing has appeared in Dishing, A Grand Wedding, and Teton Family magazines. Simma also writes about snowmobiling, hunting, and fishing for DSG Outerwear and is the social media manager for New Thought Digital. This summer, she looks forward to having adventures with her locally adopted pup, Timber, and also to slowing down a bit. “Summers in Jackson are packed with activities, but writing about wildlife watching and picnicking gave me ideas of ways to slow down,” she says.

PUB-JHM21

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SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

Journalist WHITNEY ROYSTER (“He Can Create Forever,” p. 70) moved to Jackson in 1993 and has worked as the environmental reporter for the Jackson Hole News and the Casper Star-Tribune.

She has also shoveled snow off the roofs of condos and is pretty much totally awesome at charades. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley School of Journalism, she lives in town with her two kids.

AARON KRAFT

CONTRIBUTORS A native of the mountainous terrain of northwestern Wyoming, photographer AARON KRAFT (“The Adventure House,” p. 76, and pictured here with his daughter Lily) carefully composes photographs of the built environment informed by years spent observing the natural world, mountains, and foreign environments. His work has been commissioned by architectural and interior design firms, hospitality services, restaurants, furniture designers, and commercial marketing agencies. Follow him on Instagram @krafty_photos.

HOW TO BE A GREAT HOST? BE OUR GUEST. Like you, we look forward to visiting family and friends, but it can be overwhelming. Let us help by designing a custom, private excursion. Whether it’s a national park tour, a day of activities and adventure, or a unique family celebration, your guests are our guests.

LET US BE THE GUIDE.

307-222-0412 G R EAT W EST ERNEXPEDIT IO NS.C O M DESIGN YOUR OWN ADVENTURE GROUPS FAMILIES EVENTS JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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LOCAL LIFE PEOPLE AND PL ACES THAT ARE JACKSON HOLE

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SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

B R A D LY J . B O N E R

HIKERS LEAP INTO THE FRIGID waters of Amphitheater Lake in Grand Teton National Park on a hot summer day. The lake, situated at almost 9,700 feet beneath the craggy spires of the Tetons, is the reward at the end of a 5.1-mile trail with an elevation gain of 2,980 feet.

JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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LOCAL LIFE LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

Guillermo Esteves

“I try not to think too much if something has been photographed before. I just want to do a better image than I have before.” // BY SOFIA MCGULICK

Porcupine near Ditch Creek, Wyoming.

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SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

G

Grizzly 679 walking in Grand Teton National Park.

uillermo Esteves didn’t get into photography until 2012 when he moved to the U.S. (from Venezuela), and he didn’t get into landscape and wildlife photography until he moved to Jackson Hole in 2018. This past spring, one of the twenty-five images he submitted to London’s Natural History Museum’s annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition was named one of four finalists—out of 49,000 images—for the People’s Choice Award. Since then, Esteves, who turns thirty-nine this summer, has been interviewed by the BBC and the French edition of GEO (similar to National Geographic) and is using the popularity of his finalist image to raise awareness of how to safely interact with wildlife.

“Close Encounter” is a photograph of a moose looking into a parked SUV through the passenger window while a dog sitting in the passenger seat—no more than a couple of feet from the moose—calmly returns its gaze. “The driver of

Esteves's finalist image, "Close Encounter."

LOCAL LIFE BOOKS

the car parked a little too close and didn’t get a chance to move before the moose approached,” Esteves says. “In Grand Teton, you can be no less than twenty-five yards away from a moose, elk, or bison; and if you’re more than twenty-five yards away but they’re still reacting to you, you should be even farther away.”

While “Close Encounter” was the image of his that most caught people’s attention, Esteves only submitted it at his wife’s insistence. “Knowing the caliber of the photos entered, I wasn’t planning on sending that one at all,” he

While Esteves is inspired by Adams, he says we are in a different era now. “His work did a lot to promote and protect the parks, and we’re now in an era where a photograph can go viral and people will flock to that place and ruin it." says. “I thought it was funny and lighthearted, and usually the photographs are related to conservation or very unusual animals.” Entries of his that he likes more include an image of grizzly bear 679, a boar known as Bruno, walking through the woods, a portrait of a porcupine taken near Ditch Creek, and a portrait of the “Close Encounter” moose. “That was probably one of the biggest bull moose I had ever seen,” says Esteves, who always has two Fujifilm X-T3 cameras with him—one with a zoom wide-angle lens and the other with a zoom telephoto lens.

Having grown up looking at Ansel Adams photographs, Esteves says that in his landscape images he’s been trying to focus less on obvious subjects like the Tetons and more on details. “I’ve always admired Ansel Adams’s ability to be in the middle of Yosemite with Half Dome and El Capitan in front of him, but he can focus on the beauty of a leaf, or a tree,” he says. Esteves is further inspired by Adams to capture images in black and white.

“But I’m also red/green color blind, and that makes colors less compelling to me,” he says. “More compelling are texture, shape, and light.”

While Esteves remains inspired by Adams, he says we are not in the Ansel Adams era anymore. “His work did a lot to promote and protect the parks, and we’re now in an era where a photograph can go viral and people will flock to that place and ruin it. I want to be respectful of the land and showcase the beauty of the park and protect it. I don’t want my photographs to cause any harm,” he says. Follow Esteves on Instagram at @gesteves or at allencompassingtrip. com. Read more about local wildlife watching on p. 56. JH

Read These

// BY JIM MAHAFFIE

TRUE STORY

The Martyrdom of Collins Catch the Bear Gerry Spence Collins Catch the Bear was a Lakota Sioux wrongfully charged with the murder of a white man in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1982. His trial lawyer was the author, a Wyoming native who established a practice in Jackson decades ago and, in 2009, was inducted into the American Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame.

THE GUIDEBOOK

Jackson Hole Hikes: A Guide to Grand Teton National Park, Jedediah Smith, Teton & Gros Ventre Wilderness and Surrounding National Forest Land Rebecca Woods “This is our go-to guide for hiking the Tetons,” says Cliff Sobin, an avid hiker from Teton Village. “You’ll always find it in our daypacks.” The indispensable resource is now in its fourth edition (2015). Though currently out of print, it’s available in local bookstores.

THE MEMOIR

Travel Light, Move Fast Alexandra Fuller Jackson Hole resident Fuller wrote about her childhood in “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight,” which The New York Times named one of 2002’s Notable Books, and recounted major life events in subsequent memoirs. Here she writes about her father, Tim Fuller, a larger-than-life character who moved from England to Africa to fight in the Rhodesian Bush War before becoming a banana farmer in Zambia.

THE COFFEE TABLE BOOK

The Last Great Wild Places: Forty Years of Wildlife Photography Thomas D. Mangelsen From the man who made grizzly bear 399 a national icon, this amazing collection spans forty years of favorite photos taken on seven continents. “I try to catch the spirit, or the character, or the gesture of an animal… I have no claim on that, but I watch an animal for a long enough time to be able to know or predict where it might go, and I’m very aware of the background,” Mangelsen says. JH

JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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LOCAL LIFE ANATOMY OF

Jackson Hole // BY MAGGIE THEODORA // ILLUSTRATION BY ELISE MAHAFFIE

T

oday the Jackson Hole pathways system includes more than twenty-seven miles of paved shared-use paths and twenty miles of sidewalks. There are also pathways in Grand Teton National Park (GTNP). It is possible for cyclists and pedestrians to get from the east side of the valley to the west side and from downtown Jackson to GTNP while being separated from cars. “Our pathways definitely distinguish us from many other similar mountain communities,” says Katherine Dowson, executive director of the non-profit group Friends of Pathways. This robust pathway system didn’t happen overnight, though. Talk of integrating bicyclists and pedestrians into the valley’s transportation plan started in 1990. After working on a comprehensive county pathways plan as a volunteer for a couple of years, Tim Young was hired part-time in 1992 as the first pathways director, a position he held until 2002. The valley’s first pathway opened in 1996. “We’re so fortunate with our pathway system,” Dowson says. “I don’t ride my bike anywhere but pathways. My kids don’t even know what it means to share a road with traffic.”

28

1

Named for the deceased son of former Jackson mayor Abi Garaman, the Russ Garaman Trail was the first pathways section to be built.

Opened in 1996, it was financed in part by a bequest from Russ’s estate and today is one of the most used sections of the system. “It was incredibly challenging, but we knew this was the best way to get our pathways started. We needed something that was big enough to be meaningful, but small enough that we might get it done,” says Young.

2

According to Brian Schilling, Jackson Hole Community Pathways coordinator, the pathway from Jackson to the Gros Ventre River, which goes through the National Elk Refuge, required the highest level of environmental analysis and planning—more than any other stretch of pathway. “It is a pathway on a national wildlife refuge, and there was a significant amount of collaboration and teamwork between the county and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,” he says.

3

The Stilson Ranch to Emily’s Pond section of the longer Path 22 along WY Highway 22 is short but was the most expensive piece to build because it includes two major structures, the tunnel under WY390 and a 770-foot-long bridge over the Snake River. A steel girder bridge design was used here (rather than the steel truss bridge that spans the Gros Ventre River on the north pathway) because it allowed for a lower profile.

4

Look for how the pathway along South Park Loop Road was constructed to allow for the movement of wildlife, including gaps in retaining walls. “If animals want to move through an area, you don’t want to make them go out of their way to go around a retaining wall,” Schilling says.

SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

5

With the major skeletal components of the valley’s pathways system in place, “We’re now focusing on filling in shorter missing links that make connections to neighborhoods and destinations that are currently disconnected from the system, like the south side of WY22,” Schilling says. “People who live here can see the pathway but can’t get there safely because WY22 is a major barrier.”

6

The murals in pathway tunnels are done in collaboration with JH Public Art. Some are painted by professional artists; others are done by art classes at various valley schools. The tunnels by Skyline Ranch and under WY390 feature new murals this summer.

7

“It was epic to get approval,” says Young about the Wilson Centennial Trail. To make it happen, he worked with the Jackson Hole Land Trust and the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort to get easements and protect open space. The pond next to the pathway near Wilson Elementary School was originally a cow pasture.

“We excavated the pond and used that fill to build the base of the pathway,” Young says.

7 5

8

“The bollards on Snow King Avenue are a temporary and imperfect way of separating bike and foot traffic in an area where it is not practical to do a separated pathway,” Schilling says.

9

In GTNP, part of the pathway between Moose and Jenny Lake honors Gabriella Axelrad, who was struck by a van and killed at age thirteen in July 1999 while cycling in the park with her family.

There was not a pathway in the park yet; GTNP’s first pathway opened in 2009. JH

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2 3 6

1

8

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LOCAL LIFE MY JACKSON HOLE LIFE

Rocky Vertone (aka DJ VerT-OnE)

// BY MAGGIE THEODORA

COURTESY PHOTO

Rocky Vertone DJs as DJ VerT-OnE.

HERE HE SHARES SOME HIGHLIGHTS

R

ocky Vertone didn’t even know where Jackson Hole was, but he knew he needed to head there after he graduated from the Art Institute of Philadelphia in 1991. “This was before the internet, and my buddy had a little Jackson Hole Ski Resort catalog,” he says. "I saw 4,139 vertical feet and a picture of the tram and was like, ‘Oh man, let’s go there.’” That October, Vertone, a native of New Jersey, packed up his Dodge Daytona and made the drive west. Somewhere in Kansas, his fifth gear blew out. “I drove from the middle of Kansas to Denver in fourth gear on I-70. It took half of the money I had saved to move to Jackson to fix my transmission,” he says.

“That winter was just nuts,” he says of his first season in the valley. Although Vertone left at the end of that season, he was back the next winter and stayed until 1994. “A friend in Philly was opening a picture-framing shop and offered me a job,” Vertone says. “But I was always thinking about Jackson. This place, obviously everyone gets sucked in—that’s the story for so many people.” Vertone moved back in 1996 and hasn’t left since, getting married and becoming a father along the way.

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SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

FROM HIS JACKSON HOLE LIFE.

HIS FIRST HOUSE “My first place was in the trailer park next to Calico. We arrived here at night, in the dark, so I didn’t really see anything but Hoback Canyon. Waking up on the Village Road, I was like, ‘Oh my God this is nuts.’ The Tetons—I had no idea. There were the photos in that catalog that got me out here, but walking out the front door and seeing these mountains, they looked impossible. I was coming from the East Coast and had never been out to Western mountains. We went right up to [Teton] Pass and skied there. That trailer park’s gone now, and it’s the Fireside Resort.”

FOUNDING A BUSINESS “I started DJing in 1996. Carl Gulbish—his DJ name is ISM409—taught me how. I slowly bought a turntable and then a mixer. Around 2000, [King] Weep, who was a friend from Jersey, and I started Four4 Productions. We’d do raves at the Elks Club and weddings and parties. For fifteen years, I gigged pretty heavily, so I got really burned out. I still do weddings and stuff and play at The Rose. I love playing out and having people around. I’m a social guy.”

FOUNDING ANOTHER BUSINESS

COURTESY PHOTO

“My dad was a woodworker and furniture maker, and I’d had a crash course in picture framing at my friend’s shop in Philly, so I was doing framing for photographer Henry Holdsworth at his Wild By Nature Gallery. Since Weep and I had already started Four4, I knew I liked not having a boss. I bought some equipment from a dude in, maybe, Casper, and I found a spot on North Glenwood, and that was the start of Full Circle Frameworks (2002). I was in the same spot until early 2020 when the building was sold and I lost my lease.

Now my shop is at 65 Mercill.”

FINDING A NEW HOBBY

Rocky at Full Circle Frameworks

FLY-FISHING

"

“I didn’t pick up dirt biking until after I’d been here for maybe ten years.

But my friends rode dirt bikes and I always wanted to. It’s definitely not as easily accessible here as mountain biking is, but it’s really frickin’fun. The St. Anthony Sand Dunes—they’re so amazing. Other riders say they don’t like the dunes—that they want technical trails—but the dunes are like riding powder.

And they’re huge. You can go for hours and keep riding. The scene can be pretty crazy there some days; you wouldn’t believe the rigs people bring— Razors, buggies, sandrailers. The railers can go 100 miles an hour. To avoid the scene, we do it dawn patrol–style and are done by noon.”

I wait for opening day on Flat Creek, but then I miss it.

I’m always so crazy busy now I can’t be as hardcore of a fisherman as I used to be."

MARRIED AND A KID

“My wife and I had a kid pretty quick after we got married; [Rocky Jr.] was born in 2003. I don’t really remember the first ten years. I was burning the candle at both ends— DJing and working like crazy at my shop. I didn’t sleep for like ten years. It was just mayhem. It was awesome, but it wasn’t easy.”

RAISING A KID IN JACKSON HOLE “Rocky Jr. is eighteen now. So crazy. I wouldn’t trade his growing up in Jackson Hole for anything. I wouldn’t want my kid growing up anywhere else. We always have to remind him about how amazing his childhood is. We’re in la-la land here. I do encourage him to move away from Jackson and go live someplace else though, especially the city. I think every kid should move to the city if even for a year. It kind of hardens you a little bit.”

DINNER OUT “We’re not fancy and don’t go out to dinner a ton, but we like the Tiger. Ryan Haworth [the founder and owner with his wife, Sununta] is my friend, and the food is consistent. It’s a good place to go. Pica’s is right around the corner from our house and makes for easy take-out.

I haven’t tried Coelette, downtown next to Thai Me Up, yet. I need to go there.” JH

JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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LOCAL LIFE ALL YOU NEED

Hiking Black Diamond’s Distance Carbon FLZ Trekking/Running Poles are stiff, adjustable, durable, collapsible, and lightweight. $189.95; available at Teton Mountaineering (170 N. Cache St.) Stio’s Divide Tee (the women’s version is the Divide Shift Shirt) is made from DriRelease fabric, which simultaneously wicks, dries, breathes, and cools without added chemicals. Seams don’t rub when you’re carrying a daypack. $59; available at Stio Mountain Studio (10 E. Broadway Ave.) The Meridien LL sunglasses from Dragon Alliance work as well on the hiking trail as they look good at the brewpub. The sleek frames are made from injection-molded materials, and the lenses are lightweight and durable. $129; available at dragonalliance.com The Eddy Shirt (available in men’s and women’s cuts) from Stio is made from stretchy fabric that is wind- and water-resistant and quick drying; it’s the perfect piece whether you prefer to hike in long sleeves to protect against the sun or want something to throw over your tee when you stop for lunch. $129; available at Stio Mountain Studio (10 E. Broadway Ave.) Hikers often fall into one of two camps about footwear: those who like to hike in running shoes and those who like to hike in boots. If you’re in the former camp, try Hoka One One’s Speedgoat 4, which features a breathable mesh upper and super grippy Vibram sole. $145; available at Teton Mountaineering (170 N. Cache St.) Smartwool’s Merino Sport Hike shorts (the Merino Sport 10” Short for men) are made from a stretch-woven fabric that’s lightweight, fast drying, and perfect for any hiking adventure.

A waistband lined with Merino Sport 150 fabric is odor resistant, durable, and breathable. $60; available at Teton Mountaineering (170 N. Cache St.)

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SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

SET YOURSELF UP FOR A SUCCESSFUL HIKE WITH THIS GEAR. // BY DINA MISHEV

How Howdoes doesaa goal goalbecome become aareality? reality?

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SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

“For our First Republic team, serving nonprofits is more than just a job.

It’s a personal commitment.”

Dancers’ Workshop 24

Babs Case, Artistic Director Jackson, Wyoming | Client Since 2019 SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

For Babs Case, supporting artists is just as important as being one.

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Smartwool’s new Performance Hike Light sock combines merino wool with recycled nylon and has mesh zones for added breathability and barely-there toe seams to help keep blisters at bay. From $19; available at Skinny Skis (65 W. Deloney Ave.) You don’t want to get caught out in the rain, but if you do, you’ll want the new Stio Ender Paclite hooded jacket. The Gore-Tex storm shell packs small and breathes deeply. Not pictured but something else you’ll want if it rains are Black Diamond’s StormLine stretch rain pants. They’re waterproof, breathable, and windproof, and squish down to the size of a grapefruit. Jacket, $249; available at Stio Mountain Studio (10 E. Broadway Ave.); pants, $99; available at Teton Mountaineering (170 N. Cache St.) Available in seven flavors, Kate’s Real Food bars are organic, gluten-free, and delicious, and the company is based in Teton Valley, Idaho.

From $2; available at local grocery and outdoor stores

Kodiak’s Skogan Mid boot is made with a breathable, waterproof membrane, full-grain waterproof leather, sealed seams, and a rubber outsole. $140; available at kodiakboots.com JH

JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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B R A D LY J . B O N E R

Gregory’s unisex Arrio daypack comes in 18-, 22-, and 25-liter capacities, and its shoulder straps and mesh back panel are so breathable you might forget you’re carrying a pack. The brand’s 3D Hydro Trek three-liter bladder easily clips into the Arrio via its SpeedClip attachment system. 3D Hydro Trek, $44.95; Arrio, from $79.85; both available at Skinny Skis (65 W. Deloney Ave.)

LOCAL LIFE GO DEEP

Coolers

WE TESTED THESE SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO. // BY LILA EDYTHE

DOMETIC CFX3 POWERED COOLER

Tested in the extreme heat and rugged conditions of the Australian Outback, Dometic’s CFX3 series are the coolers to rule all coolers. Thanks to a VMSO3 compressor, they freeze down to -7 °F using less energy than a 60-watt light bulb.

Taiga’s 27-quart Terra cooler is the first high-performance cooler made using bio-plastics. (Its polypropylene walls are filled with a 25 percent hemp-based insulation instead of a conventional fossil fuel based polymer.)

WHAT'S COOL?

You don’t need ice to keep this cooler cool, and it has an integrated ice-making compartment. Also, don’t worry about it draining your car’s battery; it monitors battery power and turns itself off when low voltage is detected. It can also be charged with a 100-watt solar panel.

Taiga is a veteran-owned company that manufactures in the U.S., and its coolers are highly customizable; through the company’s custom cooler shop, you can upload a photo that can be made into a UV-protected, vinyl lid graphic.

NOT COOL?

If you’re looking to feel like you’re leaving the world and technology behind, a cooler that connects to your phone with WiFi or Bluetooth and is controlled by a mobile app will harsh your buzz. Also, powered coolers do not come cheap.

The cooler smelled a little funny for the first couple of weeks, and the seams on both side handles were rough and required we file them down. As big as the Taiga’s footprint is, it can only hold twenty-four cans (and one bag of ice).

BEST FOR?

Being a conversation starter wherever you take it.

Those looking for an Americanmade premium cooler.

DETAILS

Dometic CFX3 coolers are available in sizes from 25 to 100 liters. From $839.99; dometic.com

The Taiga’s exterior dimensions are 23”x 15.5”x 15”, and its dry weight is 20 pounds. $199; taigacoolers.com

1 ORCA WALKER 20 TOTE

WHAT IS IT? A burly, waterproof, leakproof softsided tote cooler with a capacity of 20 liters and 50 pounds.

WHAT’S COOL? The Walker Tote is the exact perfect height to accommodate wine bottles.

Also, it has a water-resistant dry bag front pocket, an oversize top zipper opening that allows easy access to the tote’s interior, and a removable padded shoulder strap.

NOT COOL? While this cooler’s construction can handle a 50-pound load, neither the magnetic split handle nor the shoulder strap make carrying that amount of weight comfortable.

BEST FOR? Keeping post-adventure drinks and snacks cold in the car while you’re out playing.

DETAILS. The Walker Tote weighs 3.6 pounds when empty and has exterior dimensions of 15”x 9.5”x 15.25”. $179; visit orcacoolers.com to find a

local retailer

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SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

3

WHAT IS IT?

2

TAIGA TERRA 27

HYDRO FLASK DAY ESCAPE SOFT COOLER PACK

4

YETI HOPPER FLIP 18

YETI TUNDRA 45

STYROFOAM

5

6

7

Hydro Flask’s new Day Escape cooler is a 20-liter, ultra-lightweight, waterproof, leakproof soft cooler backpack that keeps its contents cool (with ice) for about thirty hours.

The Yeti Hopper Flip 18 is a virtually indestructible, waterproof-leakproof 18-liter soft-sided cooler with side handles, a removable shoulder strap, a flip-top lid, and the capacity to hold twenty cans of beer (using a two-to-one ice-to-can ratio by volume).

In 2006, two brothers dreamed of making the world’s coldest, most durable cooler. Coolers in Yeti's Tundra line are made through a process called biaxial rotomolding—the same way kayaks and orange street barricades are made—and they are the realization of Roy and Ryan Seiders’s dream.

Coleman introduced the first portable cooler in 1957—an invention made possible because of expanded polystyrene foam (EPF, aka styrofoam), a petroleum-based, lightweight, insulative product.

This is the ultimate cooler for a hiketo or ride-to picnic with friends—or for bringing the beer to a backcountry bonfire. (It holds thirty-six cans of beer.) Being a backpack makes it easy to carry, and handles on the side make it easy to move around once you’ve arrived at your destination.

No other soft cooler tested came close to keeping things cold for as long as the Flip 18. Bonus points for fun colors (that won’t fade thanks to the exterior material being UV-resistant), lots of loops to use as attachment points, interior ease-ofaccess, and buoyancy.

Go ahead and stand on a Tundra, then ask a couple of your friends to join you. It’s that strong. (The Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee approved it as grizzly proof.) Anything on it that is breakable is easily replaceable. Depending on how you pack and use it, ice can stay cold in a Tundra for more than a week.

Styrofoam exists because Dow Chemical was looking for an alternative to rubber during World War II. Dow research engineer Otis McIntire came up with EPF, which Dow patented as Stryofoam. Today McIntire is in the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

With the only access through a top zipper, and the cooler being taller than it is wide, it can be difficult to reach to the bottom of the cooler or to look for items in it without taking other stuff out. When carrying the max number of beer cans, our shoulders wished the pack had a hip belt.

You’d think a soft-sided cooler would be less expensive than a hard-sided one, but no. The Hopper Flip 18 costs $50 more than the brand’s 35-liter hard-sided cooler.

When Tundra’s predecessor, the Sherpa, debuted in 2006, it was ten times the cost of the average Igloo or Coleman cooler. Since then, other companies have begun making premium coolers; Yetis do not cost ten times as much as these, but they are still the most expensive.

Styrofoam coolers break easily, ice will not last longer than one day in them, and EPF is non-biodegradable and made of non-renewable petroleum products. (Yes, the latter goes for many other cooler materials, but those coolers are built to last, versus the single-use nature of EPF coolers.)

Picnicking a couple of miles from the parking lot.

The Hooper Flip 18 rules the weekend road trip and the day-long float trip with friends.

When you’re ready to think of a cooler as a long-term investment and never want to have to buy another one.

Shipping things that need to stay chilled; one-time cooler needs; sitting in a landfill for centuries.

The exterior size is 17”x 18”x 8.5”, and empty the pack weighs 2.5 pounds. $199.95; hydroflask.com

Empty, this cooler weighs 5.1 pounds, and its exterior dimensions are 10.75”x 13”x 16.25”. $299.99; visit yeti. com to find a local retailer

Tundras come in capacities from 35 to 312 liters. From $249.99; yeti.com

Most coolers made from EPF weigh between 1 and 2 pounds and can cost as little as $3. JH

JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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LOCAL LIFE JACKSON HOLE ICON

// BY JIM MAHAFFIE

Triangle X In 1926, John S. and Maytie Turner bought a 160-acre homestead that included their favorite campsite in the valley, which had sweeping views of the Tetons. They immediately began building the main house, and they greeted their first guests—big game hunters—that fall. Today, the Turner’s Triangle X is the last dude ranch concession still operating in a U.S. national park. (This summer marks its ninety-fifth anniversary.) Despite the ranch’s longevity, the Turner family owned it for only three years. They’ve been leasing it since 1929, when they sold it to John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s Snake River Land Company. In 1943, the ranch was part of 35,000 acres the Snake River Land Company gifted to the U.S. federal government that later became part of Grand Teton National Park. Since then, the family’s landlord has been the National Park Service. There are now fifth-generation Turners who guide trips, work in the gift shop, and run amok around the ranch, greeting guests and enjoying their great- greatgreat-grandparents’ great idea. JH

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R YA N D O R G A N

TRIANGLE X CELEBRATES FIVE GENERATIONS OF WELCOMING GUESTS

JACKSONHOLE.COM

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LOCAL LIFE

REED FINLAY

The Evolution of a Ski Bum

// INTERVIEW

BY MAGGIE THEODORA

FAVORITE BIKING & HIKING TRAILS AT JHMR

Q A

The summer after he graduated with a degree in history from Davidson College, in his home state of North Carolina, Reed Finlay worked on a dude ranch in Montana. At the end of that season, many of his co-workers were moving to Colorado to work at ski areas. “I liked the idea of working at a ski area, but I thought Colorado was too cliché,” Finlay says. “I decided I wanted to go to Wyoming.” Finlay got a job as a liftie working the Apres Vous chair at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (JHMR), although, since this was 1992, it was still called the Jackson Hole Ski Corp. “I didn’t come here with any kind of plan,” Finlay says. He’s now in his twenty-ninth year working at JHMR (fifteen of which have been on ski patrol), married to the managing editor of the Jackson Hole News&Guide, and raising a son, Kershaw, eight.

I like the smell of the Wildflower Trail—that sappy smell of subalpine forest. And, of course, it does have great wildflowers. And then there’s the classic hike from the top of the [JHMR] tram down into Grand Teton National Park and Granite Canyon. My favorite biking trail, the Hoback Trail, has been closed the past couple of summers because of construction, but it should be open again this summer. It’s a cross-country trail.

—REED FINLAY

What jobs have you had at JHMR? RF: I was a liftie for five years, then a foreman, and, since 2005, a ski patroller.

What about in the summer?

RF: I led scenic river trips in Grand Teton National Park for Barker Ewing for twenty-five years. When JHMR founded a summer mountain patrol, I moved to that.

Was there a specific point when you realized Jackson would be the place where you would build your life?

B R A D LY J . B O N E R

RF: The more I lived here, the more I realized that it was a bigger version of where I grew up in western North Carolina.

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SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

You must have grown up in a very small town then?

RF: Arden, outside of Asheville— but I don’t mean bigger in terms of people, but in terms of mountains and space and outdoor activities.

R YA N D O R G A N

HELLO REED FINLAY

Did you ever think about leaving the valley?

RF: When I first moved here, I left for a summer to work in an outdooreducation program in Virginia, but as soon as I got there, I was like, “I want to come back to Jackson.”

How did you meet your wife, Rebecca?

RF: We met at a New Year’s Eve party in 1999. Soon after that, a mutual friend asked me if I wanted to go skiing in [Grand Teton National Park], and she brought Rebecca along. We got married five years later.

Was the wedding here?

Your Guides to the Jackson Hole Lifestyle

RF: No. We got married at Chico Hot Springs, in Montana. I could think of some places here I’d like to have had a wedding, but they’re off the beaten path and maybe all of our guests could not have gotten to them. Chico was easy.

Did you guys know you wanted to raise kids here?

RF: We knew that we really enjoyed living here and weren’t thinking about leaving, so it was more like, “If we decide to have kids, they’re going to raised here.”

What is your favorite part of being a Jackson Hole family?

RF: The whole valley is a playground, and you can go to any corner and make your own adventure, from walking the back alleys of town looking at funky architecture to pulling over on Little Greys River Road and finding our own swimming hole. It’s so easy to be creative finding new things to do here. JH

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JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

41

HELLO

LOCAL LIFE

HELLO HAILEY MORTON LEVINSON

Hailey Morton Levinson AS TOLD BY

Jackson’s mayor, whose full-time job is innkeeper, shares how the latter prepared her for the former, and why she enjoys both.

n hospitality you learn how to let other people talk, and you listen to them. You’re often with people who have differing backgrounds and thoughts, and you want to make it so that you don’t have any fights over the breakfast table, especially since I’m one of the breakfast cooks! (Sara Trent and I come up with all the menus and make everything from breakfasts to baked goods.) As an innkeeper, I see myself bringing people together over common ground. Before being elected mayor last fall, I was on the Jackson town council for eight years, and I saw immediately how my hospitality background helped. The jobs— inn-keeping and local politics—are different enough to provide an interesting challenge, yet similar enough that each helps me be better at the other.

The best thing about being an innkeeper here in Jackson is meeting new people and sharing this place with them. I love it. Every day I am reminded of what I love about Jackson and why we—I have a husband and two kids (ages three and five)—live here. To see people experience Jackson for the first time is wonderful. So is welcoming back guests who have stayed with us for twenty years.

While my family bought Inn on the Creek in 2011, my parents moved here when I was one, and they had already owned and run the Sundance Inn from 1987 to 2008. It was bittersweet when they sold it.

We joke that my brother, sister, and I worked our way up from cleaning the inn’s parking lot to working at the front desk. My parents’ plan was to retire after selling the Sundance, but that only lasted three years, un-

B R A D LY J . B O N E R

R YA N D O R G A N

I

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SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

Precision Aviation, Inc. excellence in aviation since 2002

til they heard the Inn on the Creek was available. I didn’t officially start managing the Inn on the Creek until 2014, after I had gone to Washington D.C. for college (Georgetown) and stayed in that city for several years after graduation.

I loved being in D.C., but eventually started missing the outdoors and the small town community. I moved back to Jackson in 2010 with my boyfriend, Nate, who is now my husband. When I moved back, I didn’t do it like someone who had grown up here. Nate and I did it like other college kids; we were ski bums. After one winter, I could see why so many people do that. It was cool.

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LEFT: While the Morton family’s Sundance Inn was razed in 2011, the family commissioned local artist Greta Gretzinger to paint a mural on an exterior wall on the back side of the Wort Shops, near where the inn once was. The mural includes Hailey (as an eleven-year-old), her brother, Cooper, and sister, Sally, their parents, several family pets, and Homer Richards, who originally built and owned the Sundance.

It was after we decided we’d stay that I got into politics. While I was growing up, my parents were very involved in the community, and so was I. Politics and the town council weren’t specifically on my radar, but a family friend pointed out that there was not a young woman on the council. “You should run,” they said. I was twenty-six when I was sworn in, in 2012. I served eight years on the town council with three different mayors, who all had very different personalities. I feel like this helped prepare me to be mayor. As mayor, my vote carries the same weight as that of a councilor, but I feel like I have more opportunity to influence the items and priorities the council talks about. I’m very much a team builder, but I’m excited to lead in this sense.

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excellence in aviation JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

43

LOCAL LIFE

HELLO HAILEY MORTON LEVINSON

Lemon Ricotta Cake with Huckleberries

"

One of my favorite things to bake at the inn."

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and grease a 10-inch springform pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper and spray the parchment.

2. With a hand- or stand-mixer, use the paddle attachment to cream together the butter and sugar.

INGREDIENTS

8 Tbsp. butter, room temperature 1 cup granulated sugar 3 large eggs 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 tsp. salt 1 cup fresh full-fat ricotta cheese Zest of 1 lemon 1 tbsp. baking powder 1 apple, peeled and grated 1/2 cup huckleberries (blueberries will work just as well) Powdered sugar

3. On medium speed, add eggs one at a time.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

4. Add the flour, salt, ricotta, lemon zest, baking powder, and grated apple. Mix on medium speed until well combined.

5. Lightly flour the berries and fold in to the batter.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25–30 minutes, or until a knife inserted comes out clean. If the top begins to darken beyond golden brown, tent a piece of tin foil over the top.

7. Cool the cake for about 10 minutes, then turn the cake out of the springform pan and let cool completely.

?

8. Dust with powdered sugar.

HAILEY'S JACKSON TRIVIA

My family and I love trivia as much as we love Jackson. Here are three of my favorite bits of Jackson trivia:

1. J ackson elected the country's first 2. N inety-seven percent of our all women town council in 1920, which is fondly known as the Petticoat Rules.

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SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

valley is publicly owned land, and it is one of the most intact ecosystems in the lower forty-eight States.

3. T he first person to ski the Grand

Teton was local Bill Briggs, who, when I was five years old, taught me how to ski (although I don’t think I’ll attempt the Grand!). JH

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Memberships are currently on a wait list for summer 2021 so

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LOCAL LIFE

HELLO LINDSAY LINTON BUK

Lindsay

PROFILE

Linton Buk Introducing the women of Wyoming to the world.

1 U.S. 16 from Ten Sleep to Buffalo over Powder River Pass is absolutely gorgeous.

2 Outside of Cody, the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway (shown above) into Sunlight Basin is so scenic, and many people don’t know about it.

3 Wyoming 28 from Lander to Farson goes up and over the Wind River Mountains and down into the desert. I love the transition from mountains to big open spaces.

4 The Wind River Canyon between Thermopolis and Shoshone is great for people who enjoy geology.

Jackson photographer Lindsay Linton Buk, a fifth-generation Wyoming native, started her Women in Wyoming project to learn how women were filling the void and expressing their full capacity in the rural West today.

B R A D LY J . B O N E R

Because she drove more than 10,000 miles across the state while working on Women in Wyoming, we consider Buk an authority on scenic drives in the state.

Here are four of her favs that aren’t in Jackson Hole.

DINA MISHEV

// BY DINA MISHEV

W

hat would you do if you had no limits? The great, great-granddaughter of Wyoming homesteaders, photographer Lindsay Linton Buk asked herself that question in 2014 and came up with the idea for Women in Wyoming, a multimedia project featuring portraits, profiles, and interviews of women across the state. Between 2016 and 2018, Buk, who grew up in Powell, photographed and interviewed twenty-two artists, politicians, ranchers, writers, business women, and community stewards like Casper’s Nimi McConigley, the first woman of color to run a TV news station and the first Indian-born person in the country to be elected to state government; Lynette St. Clair, a Shoshone linguist, cultural preservation-

THREE LOCAL INSTAGRAM ACCOUNTS LINDSAY LOVES

@carrie_patterson and I are alumnae of the same photo school (Northwest College), and she was the first photographer to hire me when I was in school. Her wedding photos are beautiful and timeless.

The work of @jimmychin allows me to escape to faraway places. @ikiseek is so creative. He’s a Balinese transplant and has an artful and original perspective in capturing Wyoming.

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SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

See Women in Wyoming at the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts from August 6 to September 30, 2021

See the portraits and profiles online at womeninwyoming.com. JH

Enjoy a scenic float trip IN GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK

Photo by B-E boatman Jim Stanford

ist, and education consultant on the Wind River Reservation; Rita Watson, a Black woman who grew up in the Jim Crow South and today is the longest-serving employee at the Wyoming Department of Education (she started at the department in 1974); and Lauren Gurney, Wyoming’s only female Army MEDEVAC pilot and the owner of Jackson Hole Cake Company.

When deciding on the women to include, Buk says she looked for those who energized her and about whom she was curious to know. “Each subject was a huge investment of time— between forty and fifty hours—so I had to be 100 percent on board to tell this woman’s story and share the wisdom she has collected,” she says.

Portraits from Women in Wyoming were on display at Cody’s Buffalo Bill Center of the West from October 2019 to August 2020, and then moved to the University of Wyoming. The exhibit makes its way to Jackson late this summer before beginning a national tour.

“In a state as rural as Wyoming, we’re often isolated, so it is vital for women everywhere to see their peers here and the important work they’re doing,” Buk says. Look for the Women in Wyoming podcast, which includes edited conversations between Buk and each of the twenty-two subjects, in your favorite podcast app.

WITH THE ORIGINAL

Barker-Ewing barkerewing.com (307)733-1800

≈ (800)365-1800 JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

47

LOCAL LIFE

KATHRYN ZIESIG

BLAST FROM THE PAST

The Virginian Lodge // BY SAMANTHA SIMMA

Bargoers gather outside the Virginian Saloon on a warm summer evening.

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SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

“W

hen you call me that, smile!” adorned the front desk of the Virginian Lodge for years. It was an homage to the main protagonist of Owen Wister’s Western novel—and the proceeding television series—The Virginian, for which the hotel was named. It was serendipitous that the wife of the property’s developer and original owner, Glenn Napierskie, was named Virginia.

Enthralled by its unparalleled hunting and fishing opportunities, Napierskie began visiting Jackson Hole from his hometown of San Diego, California, in the 1950s. (Two of his trophies—taxidermied big horn sheep—were displayed for years above the bar of the hotel’s saloon.) In the early 1960s, Napierskie noted a lack of lodging in Jackson for families en route to Yellowstone National Park. In 2005, Napierskie told the Jackson Hole News&Guide: “Families would sleep in their cars, or tents. I said, ‘I’m going to take care of them.’” He proceeded to purchase a parcel of hay pasture from brothers Jess and John Wort. On that fifteen-acre property along Flat Creek, he built a motel with just over one hundred rooms arranged in a horseshoe shape around Jackson’s first swimming pool.

The Virginian opened on the cusp of Jackson Hole’s transition from cow town to tourist destination—in 1965, the same year ski lifts started spinning in Teton Village. At the time, it was one of only three motels in Teton County that were open during the winter. Since then, the valley has evolved, as has the Virginian—adding another seventy rooms, the saloon, a conference room, restaurant, RV park, and liquor store.

Over the years, it’s been the host to a variety of characters, including the cast of ABC’s The Monroes, which filmed at the restaurant, and also a large contingency of firefighters who battled the wildfires that burned in Yellowstone in 1988. Predominantly, its Western charm and low prices accommodated the budgets of visiting families and seasonal workers.

Napierskie died in a car crash in Grand Teton National Park in September of 2006, at the age of 81. The Napierskie family, which includes son Phillip and daughters Connie and Kristie (youngest son, Gary, preceded his father in death), continued operating the Virginian until 2020. When their mother passed away in May of last year, the family decided it was time for a change. The property was sold in August 2020, and the new ownership group began a refresh of the property and its facilities in October. The bar and motel should be back this summer, and, with any luck, the bar will still have its former kitschy charms and Glenn’s taxidermied trophies. JH

TRAVIS J. GARNER

In the early 1960s, Napierskie noted a lack of lodging in Jackson for families en route to Yellowstone National Park. “Families would sleep in their cars, or tents. I said, ‘I’m going to take care of them.’”

ABOVE: The Virginian Saloon used to host karaoke nights.

TRAVIS J. GARNER

"

K E L LY G L A S S C O C K

The Virginian's founder Glenn Napierskie at his former office in the motel.

LEFT: The Virginian was popular among pool sharks and sometimes hosted tournaments in the winter.

JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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PEAK A D V E R T I S I N G

F E AT U R E

TETON HEADWATER RANCH

PROPERTIES

T

he factor that makes the Jackson Hole real estate market so unusual is the relative scarcity of private land. Ninetyseven percent of Teton County, Wyoming, is publicly owned—either national park, national forest, or wildlife refuge. This computes to just 75,000 privately held acres in a county spanning 2.5 million acres. The guaranteed open spaces and unobstructed views these surrounding public lands afford make the remaining private land a real treasure. Add the abundance of recreational opportunities found in and around the valley, and the quality of life one can enjoy in Jackson Hole is simply unbeatable.

Moreover, many of the properties featured here are secluded, scenic retreats located in the midst of prime wildlife habitat. Most existing and prospective property owners in Jackson Hole cherish this notion, and serve—or will serve—as stewards of nature.

One cannot put a dollar value on waking to the Teton skyline, skiing home for lunch, or listening to a trout stream gurgling through the backyard. In Jackson Hole, “living with nature” is not a fleeting, vicarious experience a person has while watching TV. Here it’s a fact of life, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

AT A GLANCE 48.92 ACRES

—

BEDROOMS

—

BATHS

1,100,000 DOLLARS

20-3165 MLS#

CONTEMPORARY HOME & GUEST HOME

AT A GLANCE 5,400

SQUARE FEET

5

BEDROOMS

4.5

BATHS

This extraordinary custom home offers a unique combination of high-end finishes, a shop or RV space, views, paved roads, guest home and much more. Designed for both natural light and low maintenance, this home features concrete exterior finishes, aluminum clad windows and low maintenance landscaping. Luxury interior finishes include European plaster, concrete countertops, exposed steel and wood beams throughout and much more. Located minutes from Driggs, ID & Grand Targhee Resort.

50

GROVER 360

360

ACRES

—

BEDROOMS

—

BATHS

2,500,000

DOLLARS

MLS#

TETON VALLEY REALTY Mark Rockefeller - (208) 351-1411 tetonvalleyrealty.com

AT A GLANCE

1,980,000 21-432

A rare offering, the “Teton Headwater Ranch” offers 48.92 acres with approximately 18 acres between scenic State Highway 33 and South Leigh Creek and 30 acres South of the creek. The property boasts 2 wells, a spring water source, fenced pasture, and a towering grove of Cottonwood trees along the banks of South Leigh Creek.

Dramatic “four-peak” Teton Views are available from both the 18 acres North, and 30 acres South of the creek.

DOLLARS

TETON VALLEY REALTY Tayson Rockefeller - (208) 709-1333 tetonvalleyrealty.com

SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

—

MLS#

The Grover property consists of 360 acres with exceptional Teton and Big Hole Mountain views, minutes from downtown Driggs, Idaho. Numerous spring sloughs, sub-irrigated pastures and natural terrain create beautiful wetlands on a good portion of the property and provide excellent onsite waterfowl hunting opportunities. With habitat enhancement and pond creation, this property could be an exceptional duck hunting property.

LIVE WATER PROPERTIES Tate Jarry Associate Broker - (307) 413-2180 Office: (307) 734-6100 tate@livewaterproperties.com LiveWaterProperties.com

A D V E R T I S I N G

GOOSEWING RANCH

AT A GLANCE 45

ACRES

—

BEDROOMS

A turn-key guest ranch, located in the Gros Ventre River Valley, just 40 miles from downtown Jackson. Surrounded by endless miles of wilderness and national forest lands for horseback riding, pack and hunting trips, glamping, and fly fishing on the Gros Ventre River. Learn more about this exclusive opportunity, GoosewingRanch.RealEstate

—

DOLLARS

—

MLS#

—

BEDROOMS

LIVE WATER PROPERTIES JACKSON HOLE Latham Jenkins - (307) 690-1642 latham@livewaterproperties.com LivewaterJacksonHole.com

Considering building? This very desirable 1.5 acre lot offers iconic Grand Teton views and comes complete with a set of architectural “shovel ready” plans. Adjoining this property is over 145 protected acres set aside to allow for the migration of elk--- just out the back door. Located in Bar B Bar, it is difficult to find such a set of desirable amenities anywhere in Jackson Hole.

—

DOLLARS

21-993 MLS#

5

BEDROOMS

Contemporary mountain home with main level living offers sweeping views of the ranch lands below, and the majestic Snake River Mountain Range from its private location at the Amangani Resort in Jackson Hole. Outdoor access from every bedroom plus over 1,500 square feet of patio space complete with fire pit and hot tub makes this a true mountain sanctuary for both owners and guests alike.

Enjoy all the amenities at the exclusive Amangani Resort and Spring Creek Ranch Resort. Offered furnished. Excellent rental potential.

8,750,00 DOLLARS

—

MLS#

SPACKMANS & ASSOCIATES 307-690-8156 spackmans@jhsir.com

SOPHISTICATED MOUNTAIN LIVING IN TETON PINES

AT A GLANCE 4,389

SQUARE FEET

4

BEDROOMS

4

BATHS

1,620,000

SQUARE FEET

5.5

AT A GLANCE

ACRES

4,963

BATHS

LOVELY GRAND TETON VIEWS

1.5

AMANGANI VILLA

AT A GLANCE

BATHS

INQUIRE

F E AT U R E

BATHS

JACKSON HOLE SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY Pamela Renner - (307) 690-5530 Pamela.renner@jhsir.com

INQUIRE DOLLARS

—

MLS#

A sophisticated mountain home with boundless natural light and views of Rendezvous Mountain, this 4 BR/3.5 bath haven offers elegant wood and stone finishes inside and out. The kitchen is luxuriously appointed with Thermador appliances, custom walnut cabinetry and granite counter tops. Solid oak floors and trim, white clear cypress ceilings with exposed beams and Jerusalem stone fireplace create an ambiance of western warmth and refinement.

Situated on a private wooded lot in the gated community of Teton Pines, the property is highlighted by a free-flowing stream, impeccable landscaping and abundant wildlife.

JACKSON HOLE SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY HUFF/VAUGHN/SASSI (307) 203-3000 • mercedeshuff.com

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A D V E R T I S I N G

F E AT U R E

TETON VILLAGE BEST LOCATION LUXURY BUILD

AT A GLANCE 7,010

SQUARE FEET

6

BEDROOMS

8

BATHS

11,950,000 DOLLARS

20-3021 MLS#

AT A GLANCE One of the Sellers is a licensed Wyoming Realtor. A custom new build luxury home in the heart of Teton Village. The ultimate adventure and ski house on McCollister Drive at the base of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort features every essential and high-end amenity. Designed for the active Jackson adventurer, begin and end activity-filled days with easy gearing up and coming home from this thoughtfully designed, warm and contemporary luxury residence.

DESLAURIERS REAL ESTATE Rob DesLauriers - (307) 413-3955 Rob.DesLauriers@deslauriersrealestate.com robdeslauriers.com

PACIFIC CREEK CABINS

AT A GLANCE 1,644

SQUARE FEET

2

BEDROOMS

2

BATHS

1,750,000 DOLLARS

20-3717 MLS#

52

PRIVACY & MOUNTAIN VIEWS, INDIAN SPRINGS

6,734

SQUARE FEET

5

BEDROOMS

5.5

BATHS

13,900,000 DOLLARS

20-1324 MLS#

Set at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac, this 6,734 square foot home & 1,123 square foot guest house enjoy a very private setting in Indian Springs Ranch’s exclusive, gated community with clubhouse, pool, stables & hiking trail amenities. The 17.75 acre property features two lined ponds & mature landscaping, framed by lovely mountain views. The home features an open floor plan with the kitchen, dining and living room looking out onto the ponds.

JACKSON HOLE SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY Tom Evans - (307) 413-5101 tomevansre@jhsir.com

PACKSADDLE BENCH RANCHES

AT A GLANCE Located inside the gates of Grand Teton National Park, this serene property is the quintessential cozy cabin in the woods you’ve been dreaming of. This 1 acre property is located within the Pacific Creek neighborhood, a sought-after wilderness location, unique in its access to both the National Park and National Forest. The property is directly bordered by millions of acres of Bridger Teton National Forest and a short walk from incredible fishing on Pacific Creek.

BUDGE REALTY GROUP JACKSON HOLE REAL ESTATE ASSOCIATES Rebekkah Kelley - (307) 413-5294 budgerealtygroup@jhrea.com budgerealestate.com

SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

20-400 ACRES

—

BEDROOMS

—

BATHS

UPON REQUEST DOLLARS

—

MLS#

The historic PACKSADDLE BENCH named by the Hayden Expedition is one of the most unique and beautiful land areas in the Yellowstone ecosystem.

Elevated 600 to 1200 feet above the surrounding valleys offering unparalleled views of the Tetons, Yellowstone, and 11 Mountain Ranges in 3 States. Wooded canyons, ranchland, mature aspen, and spruce forest and abundant moose, elk, deer, game birds and eagles enrich the landscape . Own a smaller ranch (20-50 acres) or a larger ranch (50-400+vacres), each with its own unique history.

A county public trail system accesses 3 direct entries to national forest and Packsaddle Lake. Teton River 5miles; Driggs 12 miles; Yellowstone 27 miles; Jackson Hole 33 miles; Grand Teton NP 21 miles.

PACKSADDLE BENCH PROPERTIES, LLC (307) 264-8832 (208) 201-6088

Improving Lives Through Philanthropic Leadership

ROOTED IN COMMUNITY cfjacksonhole.org

JACKSONHOLE.COM

Eat, drink and be merry with incredible views at 9,095’.

The best view in Jackson Hole can be found at The Deck at Piste. After a short gondola ride, you are greeted by expansive views and nightly drink specials. Don’t miss the summer menu of appetizers and shared plates from the chefs at Piste Mountain Bistro. There is no better way to cap off an amazing day in the great Jackson Hole outdoors than drinks and appetizers on The Deck at Piste.

SCAN CODE TO VIEW MENU AND HOURS

ENJOY

PRICE CHAMBERS

ARTS, CULTURE, FOOD, AND DESIGN

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PICNIC

with a Purpose To satisfy multiple senses, pack a picnic and head out on a self-directed wildlife-watching adventure. // BY SAMANTHA SIMMA

W

PRICE CHAMBERS

ildlife biologist and photographer Tenley Thompson (@jacksonholeecotours) has been sharing her passion for the animals and landscapes of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem for thirteen years. “Every day is different,” she says. “Every day is an adventure, and I never know what surprises are in store when I wake up.” Make wildlife watching even more of an adventure by pairing it with a picnic.

Planning the perfect picnic takes a combination of good food, fair weather, fun people, and a great view.

Spots THE

upine Meadows: At the base of 12,326-foot-tall Teewinot, a mountain south of L Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park (GTNP), Lupine Meadows lives up to its name. In the summer, this area, usually dominated by sage, teems with blooming lupines—and often wildlife. “It’s rare to visit and not see mule deer, elk, moose, [or] pronghorn antelope,” Thompson says. There are several turnouts along the dirt road that leads to the trailhead you can pull into for a tailgate picnic. illow Flats Overlook: An easy pull-off for a picnic from Highway 191 in GTNP W between Colter Bay and Jackson Lake Lodge, this overlook is slightly elevated above an expanse of willows and grasses that meets the shores of Jackson Lake in the distance. “Below, it’s very common to see moose and elk,” Thompson says.

While some overlooks in GTNP do have picnic tables, this is not one of them, so make sure to bring a blanket or chairs.

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ayden Valley: If you want to see bison, H the drive to Yellowstone’s Hayden Valley on the eastern side of the park’s Lower Loop is worth the effort. “See bison thundering below and bald eagles flying overhead,” Thompson says. You might also see bears or wolves here. While you’ll need a few camp chairs for this spot, there’s an official picnic area a few miles south, before Fishing Bridge. ntelope Flats: If you have the time, A drive the entire loop between the Gros Ventre Road and Antelope Flats, picking a pullout that suits your fancy for a tailgate picnic. Bison herds tend to graze on the meadows of Antelope Flats.

a

Feasts THE

e r u t n e d v he re is

ioneer Grill at Jackson Lake Lodge: Thompson likes P the Thai chicken wrap here, and she suggests you grab a huckleberry milkshake, too.

OPEN 11 A.M.–10 P.M. DAILY MAY 17–OCTOBER 3; 101 JACKSON LAKE LODGE RD., MORAN; 307/543-3100, GTLC.COM

ornans in Moose: Thompson recommends you drive D

by Dornans on your way to each of the wildlife-watching spots. A historic, family-run compound of businesses, Dornans includes a small grocery store with a big deli.

SCENIC-SAFARIS.COM 307-734-8898 | JACKSON,WY

OPEN 10 A.M.–5 P.M. DAILY; 12170 DORNAN RD., MOOSE; 307/733-2415, DORNANS.COM

icnic: A sister restaurant to Persephone, the valley’s P favorite bakery cafe, Picnic’s menu includes highly transportable sandwiches and salads and an array of sweet treats. Thompson likes the Cobb Salad and Kouign Aman pastry.

OPEN 7 A.M.–3 P.M. DAILY; 1110 MAPLE WAY; 307/264-2956, PICNICJH.COM

reekside Market: According to Thompson, Creekside C Market is an absolute must for stocking your picnic basket.

It offers made-to-order, build-your-own, and specialty sandwiches, salads, and sloshie frozen cocktails.

OPEN 6 A.M.–8 P.M. DAILY; 545 N. CACHE ST.; 307/733-7926, CREEKSIDEJACKSONHOLE.COM

JOIN US IN MAKING STREAMS HEALTHIER, WATER CLEANER, AND FISHING BETTER IN THE UPPER SNAKE AND SALT RIVER WATERSHEDS, NOW AND FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS, IN ONE OF THE

THE LAST, BEST PLACES FOR CUTTHROAT TROUT

between yourself and most animals; for bears and wolves, it’s one hundred yards. These are just estimates, though; if an animal is reacting to you, you’re too close, even if you are farther than what the law says.

2. Do not approach or pursue animals, and back away from animals that move closer to you.

3. Utilize roadside turnouts and parking areas so you do not block traffic.

4. Never position yourself between an adult animal and its young.

5. Do not feed wildlife; it is illegal and can get the animal killed. JH

Photo: Eric Seymour

WILDLIFE WATCHING GUIDELINES: 1. The law requires you keep a distance of at least twenty-five yards

FOR MORE INFORMATION: LESLIE.STEEN@TU.ORG | 307-699-1022 | WWW.ARCG.IS/DPVYY

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Foraging the Local Flora // BY WHITNEY ROYSTER

E

dible plants and berries abound in Jackson Hole. Not just for animals, but for humans, too. “It’s important to have knowledge of the plant world before anything is eaten,” cautions Cathy Shill, owner of the Hole Hiking Experience. The diets of the Shoshone included the camas flowers of the lily family; the root of the blue camas is high in fiber. Members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition consumed these roots with a poor result, though. “I am verry Sick to day and puke which relive me,” Clark

wrote in the fall of 1805, after becoming ill from eating the roots. Shill says Native Americans connected with the cycles of the year in order to use the land’s natural resources. For example, local tribes roasted camas roots in winter only.

Worse than getting sick from not preparing blue camas roots correctly?

Incorrect preparation of the juice of Zigadenus, aka the death camas. It was highly useful to the Shoshone, but not as a food. They poisoned the tips of their arrows with it.

HERE ARE SOME PARTS OF THE LOCAL LANDSCAPE YOU CAN EAT:

1

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Chanterelles It’s a good idea to carry bear spray when you go looking for these mushrooms in late summer. Head for higher altitudes and scan the ground near berry bushes and pines. Back at home, chanterelles are great sautéed and served with meat or added to omelettes.

2

Fireweed Blossom When they appear in summer, fireweed blossoms are multitaskers; eat them raw or sautéed, use them as a garnish, or make them into jelly.

As you’re collecting these blossoms, make sure not to take all the blossoms from one plant. When young, these blossoms are mild in flavor; older blossoms can be bitter.

3

Wild Rose Wild roses grow in forest understories with moist soil. Reportedly high in vitamins A and C, wild rose hips stay on the plant through the winter.

In the summer, leaves can be boiled for tea and petals sprinkled on salads.

Dried, the flowers might help with heartburn.

4

Huckleberries The state berry of Idaho cannot be commercially grown. Huckleberries grow only in the wild— especially near lakes and bogs—and ripen in Jackson Hole around midsummer. Eat these like you would blueberries—in pancakes, with vanilla ice cream, by themselves. A favorite local huckleberry preparation is Victor Emporium’s huckleberry milkshake.

5

Fireweed Shoots Eat “the asparagus of the North” in the late spring.

Find fireweed growing alongside many trails around the valley, especially on the backside of Snow King Mountain. Once the fireweed is found, snip the shoots and, back home, sauté them and enjoy the extra vitamins C and A, flavonoids, and beta-carotene you’re getting. JH

What every visitor to Grand Teton National Park needs, all in one place.

A FULL SERVICE RESORT, OFFERING:

(307) 543-2831 signalmountainlodge.com

• Lodging • 2 Restaurants, Pizzeria and a Full Service Bar • Camping (electric hookups) • Public Showers and Laundromat • Boat Rentals • Gift Shops

• • • •

Guided Fishing Scenic Snake River Float Trips Gas/General Store Located on Jackson Lake, 25 miles from Yellowstone

Signal Mountain Lodge L.L.C. is an authorized concessioner of Grand Teton National Park

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Ready to Travel These dishes are made for takeout. // BY SAMANTHA SIMMA

G

R YA N D O R G A N

etting food to-go isn’t as simple as picking what sounds best on a restaurant’s menu. A dish that’s delicious if eaten immediately might not be as awesome an hour later after you’ve brought it back to your home, hotel, or campsite. Here are our picks for togo meals that travel well.

n CAFE GENEVIEVE’S FRIED CHICKEN Crispy breading spiced with paprika and cayenne locks in the juiciness of this fresh-as-can-be fried chicken during transport. Brined overnight before being battered and fried to order, this hearty helping (which includes a breast, leg, wing, and thigh) will leave you satiated. The texture and flavor— accentuated by a subtle kick from Crystal hot sauce—of the accompanying mac and cheese is protected during transport by a sauce with American and cheddar cheeses. $25; open 8 a.m.–9 p.m. daily for takeout; 135 E. Broadway Ave.; 307/732-1910, genevievejh.com

n STREETFOOD AT THE STAGECOACH’S POKE BOWL One of Streetfood at the Stagecoach’s best sellers, this bowl of ginger-and-garlic-soy–marinated raw tuna atop avocado, pickled veggies, edamame, fried onions, and rice (rice is the only warm component) won’t lose its flavor when eaten cold or on-the-go. “[It is] a great, light option for anyone looking to [eat] healthy,” says owner Amelia Hatchard. “People love it for the convenience, the flavor, and that it is something different from the usual burgers or sandwiches.” $21; open 11 a.m.–9 p.m. daily for takeout; 5755 W. Highway 22, Wilson; 307/200-6633, streetfoodjh.com

n TETON THAI’S PAD GAR POW Pad Gar Pow is a classic Thai stir-fry dish. Teton Thai’s version includes basil, bamboo shoots, bell peppers, and a garlic chili sauce, with your choice of chicken, pork, tofu, beef, shrimp or—the most popular—duck. With the rice in its own box for takeout, the two are ready to be tossed together in the comfort of your home or hotel room. $22–28; open 11:30 a.m.–9 p.m. Monday–Saturday for takeout; 7342 Granite Loop Rd., Teton Village; 307/733-0022, tetonthaivillage.com

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n LOCAL RESTAURANT & BAR’S BURGER When you’re craving something beyond the usual burger, look to Local Restaurant & Bar, which is all about customization and where add-ons include brie and foie gras. Whether you opt for a beef, buffalo, steak, or veggie patty, it comes on a brioche bun, used because it has the density to absorb the patty’s juices and with the happy side benefit of making this burger travel friendly. You won’t get it home only to bite into a soggy bun. Burgers here come with the choice between a side salad or hand-cut Idaho fries; if you go for the salad, it travels better if you get the dressing on the side. From $10; open 11:30 a.m.–9 p.m. Monday–Saturday for takeout; 55 N. Cache St.; 307/201-1717, localjh.com

n FIGS’S FIVE MEZZE The most popular to-go item at Figs is the Five Mezze plate, a smorgasbord of Middle Eastern fare that includes falafel, za’atar fries, hummus, baba ghanoush, tabbouleh, and pitas. Dining in, the falafel—a blend of chickpeas, fava beans, parsley, and garlic—is served warm, but it can be enjoyed at room temperature. Same goes for the fries tossed in za’atar— a Middle Eastern spice used liberally in Lebanese cuisine. But if you’ve got the ability to reheat them (and maybe the pitas, too), it’s worth it. The rest of the plate is meant to be room temperature. $29; open 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.– 8:30 p.m. daily for takeout; 120 Glenwood St.; 307/733-1200, hoteljackson.com/eat-drink/figs

n SILVER DOLLAR BAR

& GRILL’S ROCKY MOUNTAIN SPARE RIBS

B R A D LY J . B O N E R

With the Memphis rub and huckleberry-chipotle BBQ sauce on these hickory-smoked St. Louis ribs, there’s no need to worry about layers of flavor being compromised by travel time. You might have to worry about not eating them all while driving them to their final destination. $20 for half of a rack or $29 for a full rack; open 11 a.m.–9 p.m. daily for takeout; 50 N. Glenwood St.; 307/732-3939, worthotel.com

Poke Bowl from Streetfood at the Stagecoach in Wilson.

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// BY SAMANTHA SIMMA // PHOTOGRAPHY BY RYAN DORGAN

Mursell’s Sweet Shop Open 10 a.m.–6 p.m. daily; 125 N. Cache St.; 307/264-1508, Instagram @mursellssweetshop

J

ohn Frechette and Christian Burch, the co-founders of successful valley shops MADE and Mountain Dandy, never imagined adding a candy store to their portfolio. But when their dying friend Mursell McLaughlin couldn’t find anyone to take over the store she had founded and run for 34 years, Mursell’s Pottery and Chocolate, the pair asked if they could. (Mursell’s is across Gaslight Alley from MADE.) It turns out that was what McLaughlin had wanted all along. The Jackson Hole News&Guide reported that she told Frechette, “I thought you’d never ask.” Today’s Mursell’s is different from when McLaughlin ran it. McLaughlin’s Mursell’s sold candy made on the premises and her own pottery, stained glass, and other crafts. The reinvented Mursell’s, which opened in 2018, sells candy sourced from more than 200 confectioners around the world.

Here’s a sampling.

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Atlanta-based Beautiful Briny makes sea salt and cane sugar blends—including Magic Unicorn, Hot Steve, and Campfire—that aren’t available anywhere else in the valley. Each cannister of salt includes suggestions for use, like the recommendation to add Hot Steve to margaritas, soups, chili, and Mexican fare. From $8 BEAUTIFUL BRINY

Frechette and Burch became captivated by Melt Chocolate while on a trip to London in 2019.

They brought samples back to share with their team, and the consensus was that the chocolates were melt-in-your-mouth incredible. Mursell's manager Sarah Nicholson, a trained pastry chef, says she loves the adventurous flavors: “They do this fun popcorn milk chocolate bar and a toast and marmalade bar,” she says. $11 MELT CHOCOL ATE

Creekside Mallow Co. Marshmallows are made from scratch in Caldwell, Idaho, and include traditional and unusual flavors.

The former include vanilla and hot chocolate; the latter include cotton candy and cookies and cream. From $7 CREEKSIDE MALLOW CO.

Montana-based Huckleberry Haven makes small-batch huckleberry goodies from hand-picked berries. Among the sours, jelly beans, starlites, and gummy grizzlies at Mursell’s, the grizzlies are the biggest hit. $5 HUCKLEBERRY HAVEN

Add a Queen Bee Gardens’ Honey Stick to a cup of tea or eat it solo for a sugar boost. Made in Lovell, Wyoming, from all-natural mild clover Wyoming honey, the sticks are available in a variety of flavors, including peach chipotle, spiced chai, orange, blue raspberry, and caramel. $.60 QUEEN BEE GARDENS

"

Childhood friends opened Omnom Chocolate in a converted gas station in Reykjavík, Iceland, in 2013. A pioneer in the “beanto-bar” movement, Omnom was on Mursell’s shelves prior to being featured on Netflix’s Down to Earth documentary series.

Beyond the beautiful packaging, the chocolate is award-winning; in 2018 it won gold for best milk chocolate bar in the world at the International Chocolate Awards. From $9 OMNOM CHOCOL ATE

We love when customers can find a candy they haven’t had in years, but we also want them to find something they have never seen before, whether that’s chocolate from London, gummies from Sweden, or a small-batch brand from down the street.”

—JOHN FRECHETTE

The Mursell’s tasting team appreciated the big flavor, texture, and gift-friendly packaging of the caramels from Boston’s McCrea’s Candies. Look for flavors like cinnamon clove, single malt scotch, and rosemary truffle sea salt.

From $4.50 MCCREA'S CANDIES

Ritual Chocolate bars are made in Park City, Utah, and boast unique flavor profiles like Juniper Lavender, S’mores, Pine Nut, and Bourbon Barrel Aged. The line is 99 percent vegan, so those with a dairy allergy can indulge as well. From $9 RITUAL CHOCOL ATE

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DISHING MAGAZINE

TASTE OF JACKSON HOLE

CALICO’S HISTORY

Calico started its life in 1905 as a church in Mormon Row, an early homesteading settlement about fourteen miles north of downtown Jackson along the northeast crease of Blacktail Butte. Today Mormon Row is part of Grand Teton National Park and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Most of the twenty-seven families that homesteaded there had moved on by the late 1950s, and the church was abandoned. In 1966, ski bum Tom Jewell bought the building for $600, moved it to its current spot on the Moose-Wilson Road, and opened it as a restaurant and bar. In 1971, Jewell expanded and renovated.

He moved the bar into the space that was formerly the church and added a dining room.

Calico’s most recent facelift happened in 1995 when Jeff Davies bought the restaurant (he still owns it). In homage to the pizzeria’s original red-and-white gingham tablecloth vibe, the building was painted a bold rust tone, and the deck a balance of natural wood and bright white.

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Pizza on the Deck at Calico // BY MELISSA THOMASMA

S

it on the petunia-ringed deck at Calico Bar & Restaurant in the summer with some of its wood-fired pizza, and time slows down. (Although it does not quiet down thanks to the restaurant’s generous lawn where gaggles of kids constantly run and play.) The Italian restaurant has a lovely indoor seating area, but it’s the deck, built in 1971, that is iconic. In non-Covid times it has about two dozen tables, and it is covered by a white awning strung with festive lights. Even

SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

on drizzly evenings, it’s a delightful spot.

You can order something other than pizza, but you shouldn’t. Every pie is hand-tossed and cooked in a 700-degree oven heated by hardwood from fruit trees like apple, peach, and cherry. The mozzarella cheese is housemade, and some of the greens and herbs on the pizzas come from Calico’s own garden, which is hidden at the back of the lawn where kids won’t trample it. The Ski Bum and the Godfather pies are among the most popular. The

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Calico built its deck in 1971, and on summer days, it's the place to be, especially for pizza.

former is loaded with pesto, spinach (often from Calico’s garden), Canadian bacon, artichoke hearts, olives, tomatoes, pine nuts, and parmesean. Meat lovers love the Godfather, which is topped with imported capicola, prosciutto, pepperoni, and salami, house-made mozzarella, and basil (sometimes from Calico's own garden). Open at 5 p.m. daily; 2650 WY-390, Wilson; 307/733-2460, calicorestaurant.com JH JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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Indian Arts in the Park

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Grand Teton National Park’s Colter Bay Indian Artist Museum closed a decade ago, but the park still hosts the American Indian Guest Artist Program and displays portions of the museum’s collection at the Colter Bay and Craig Thomas Visitor Centers. // BY DINA MISHEV

An exhibit featuring pieces of Native American artwork from the David T. Vernon collection and the private collection of Laine Thom is on display at the Colter Bay Visitor Center and the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center until October 2021.

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here are twenty-four Native American tribes associated with Grand Teton National Park (GTNP), from the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma to the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and the Northern Arapahoe Tribe, both of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming, and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation, Idaho.

These tribes are tied to the lands that are today GTNP for a variety of reasons—some having seasonally lived and hunted here— and others passing through the area as they were forced from their ancestral lands onto reservations by the U.S. government. “It is —BRIDGETTE GUILD, GTNP MUSEUM CURATOR important that we understand the relationship between Native Americans and this land,” says Bridgette Guild, GTNP museum curator.

It is important that we " understand the relationship

between Native Americans and this land.”

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or four decades, GTNP was home to the Colter Bay Indian Arts Museum, which displayed the David T. Vernon Collection, a world-class assemblage that included art and artifacts from one hundred tribes. That muse-

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um was closed in 2011 so the collection, half of which had been on continuous display since the museum opened in 1972, could be conserved. This meticulous conservation work was finished in 2020, but, to ensure the collection’s long-term preservation, now only about one hundred items from it at a time are displayed. (The rest are in storage.)

The current exhibit, Living Traditions, Reflections on the Past at Colter Bay, is divided between the Colter Bay Visitor Center and the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center. It includes thirty-one items from the Vernon Collection and forty-seven items on loan from the private collection of Laine Thom, a former park ranger (interpretation) of Shoshone, Goshute, and Paiute descent, and an artist. “For me to loan pieces to the park was to allow people to interpret the culture’s past, present, and future,” says Thom. Living Traditions will be on display through this summer, although access could be limited due to Covid-19.

Colter Bay is also home to the longrunning American Indian Guest Artist Program, which allows Native artists to demonstrate, talk about, and sell their work over week-long residencies from late May through mid September.

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Laine Thom retired from the National Park Service in 2020. Of Shoshone, Goshute, and Paiute descent, Thom is an artist himself and also a collector of Native American artifacts.

He loaned pieces from his personal collection to accompany artifacts on display from the David T. Vernon Indian Arts collection.

Artists in Action Many guest artists have been coming to Colter Bay for years.

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olter Bay started hosting Indian artists from across the country in the 1970s. This program was, and remains, as popular with guest artists as with park visitors. “The park has a roster of artists who love to come back,” says Clyde Hall, an artist of Shoshone/Metis descent who has been a guest artist at Colter Bay annually since the early 1980s. Andrea Two Bulls, an Oglala Lakota artist born, raised, and still living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, first came to Colter Bay when she was ten or eleven and her father, acrylic painter Edward Two Bulls, was a guest artist. “We loved it in the park,” she says. For more than twenty years, Ms. Two Bulls has been a guest artist herself, sharing her painting, photography, and jewelry. “Buses come with people from across the U.S. and JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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R YA N D O R G A N

ART

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE PHOTO

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE PHOTO

Pieces from the David T. Vernon collection and the private collection of Laine Thom are on display at the Colter Bay Visitor Center and the Craig Thomas Visitor and Discovery Center through October 2021.

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from countries like Japan, Germany, and England. Some people would buy our work and we’d know where it went in the world and it would have greater meaning for them after talking to us about it,” she says. Hall says the program “gave me the opportunity to inform people about what I do—beading and quill work—and we’d meet people who had never met an Indian before. You were the first Native American they talked to. We could familiarize them with a little bit of Native culture and our art.”

Originally part of the Colter Bay Indian Arts Museum, the program changed when the museum closed, but not how you might guess. “People came to the museum because it was world famous. They were looking for Native American art and artists,” Hall says. “Nowadays, people come upon us cold. They stumble into the gift shop and stumble onto us—here are these Native American artists demonstrating and selling their craft work. They’re delightfully surprised.”

The residencies are informal. “We’re just working, and people can talk to us,” Hall says. For the full roster of this summer’s Indian guest artists, go to nps.gov/ grte/planyourvisit. Hall is taking this year off because of Covid-19, but look for Andrea Two Bulls and also Thom. Thom was a constant presence at the guest artist program because of his position as a ranger (interpretation) at Colter Bay, but this will only be his second time as a guest artist. (In 1981, he took the summer off from the NPS and was a guest artist. He’s able to be a guest artist now because he retired from the NPS last year.)

LEFT ABOVE: Lyle Miller, Sr., painting as part of the American Indian Guest Artist program at the Colter Bay Visitor Center.

LEFT BELOW: National Park Service conservators with artifacts from the Grand Teton National Park Museum Collection.

The Vernon Collection

Are there still good buying opportunities you should consider?

An unlikely, expansive collection that brought Indian art and artifacts to GTNP.

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avid T. Vernon’s collection of Native American art and artifacts started with arrowheads found on a Lake Michigan beach. It was the early twentieth century, Vernon was a Boy Scout, and arrowheads were cool. He began combing beaches regularly looking for more. By the time he was a teen, his interest in arrowheads had widened to include the culture of the people who had made them. In high school, Vernon worked on dude ranches in Wyoming and Montana and came to know the Crow and Blackfoot tribes. He bought as much work from their artists as he could afford. After establishing a career as an illustrator, Vernon continued collecting and became known as an expert collector, particularly of the Reservation Period (1875–1900). By the 1960s, he had one of the finest collections of Indian art and artifacts in the country; it included pieces from one hundred tribes.

Vernon’s goal was to one day open his own museum, with his collection as the main exhibit, but he was not able to make this happen. Wanting his collection to be shared, in the late 1960s he sold it to Laurance S. Rockefeller, then president of the Jackson Hole Preserve, an organization committed to the preservation of the history of the West, on the condition that it be displayed in a museum.

In 1972, the Colter Bay Indian Arts Museum opened to exhibit Vernon’s collection, which Rockefeller first loaned to the park before donating it in 1976. Google Arts & Culture includes two online exhibits about the Vernon Collection. Find them by searching for “David T. Vernon” at artsandculture.google.com.

Hidden Away

Putting a collection into long-term storage.

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or forty years, more than half of the 1,428 pieces in the David T. Vernon collection of Indian art and artifacts were on continuous display at the Colter Bay Indian Arts Museum. Starting in 2005, pieces that were not on display went through meticulous conservation work at the Western Archaeological Conservation Center (WACC) in Tucson, Arizona. The museum was closed in 2011 so that the pieces on display could go through the same conservation process. By 2020, the 1,357 items in the collection that required conservation work were finished. “The whole point is to slow deterioration and minimize loss from the collection,” Guild says.

“Thanks to this conservation work, the objects are going to exceed all expectations of how long they will last.” To ensure they continue to last, at any given time the majority of the collection will be in storage. JH

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JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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He Can Create Forever

Writer-actor-comedian-collaborator-director Andrew Munz is a force in the valley’s arts and culture scene. // BY WHITNEY ROYSTER

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Actor and playwright Andrew Munz grew up in Jackson, and his work sometimes pokes fun at the valley's cliques, from ski bums to the uber-wealthy.

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R YA N D O R G A N

guy who entertains in person, online, and in books, Andrew Munz is a local celebrity and a major tailwind for the valley’s arts community. In 2020, he took the silver in the town’s “Best Actor” category (second to Harrison Ford) and in 2021 won gold in the same category. Between 2014 and 2019, Munz developed and executed the comedic series of plays, I Can Ski Forever, which lampoons Jackson life, sells out, and has fans clamoring for more. The videos of his character Your Girl Catherine, which he developed

“The setting is everything at this event, but with Donald Runnicles in charge, musical quality is assured.”

THE NEW YORK TIMES

WELCOME HOME JULY 2–AUGUST 21 M U S I C D I REC TO R S I R D O NAL D RU N NI C L E S JAC K S O N HO L E , WYO MI NG

D E TAIL S & TICKETS

ENJOY

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CULTURE

Director Andrew Munz goes over notes from a run-through of The Normal Heart at the Pink Garter Theatre in 2018.

ANDREW ON HOW TO SUPPORT LOCAL ARTISTS

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Seek out artists you like and ask them how you can help them bring their projects to life. Without time, space, or resources, our most brilliant ideas often vanish under the stress of trying to ‘make it’ in Jackson.”

SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

early in the pandemic for Instagram, have thousands of views and an avid fan base. In 2008, Munz, 33, helped start Laff Staff, the local improv theater troupe. As a member of the Jackson Hole High School class of 2005, he’s also a true local, but quick to point out that he’s atypical.

Munz says he doesn’t see Jackson through the same lens as many other visitors and locals. Instead of an adrenaline-packed outdoor adventure, Munz experiences Jackson Hole as a thriving artistic community with a trove of talent looking for an outlet and connection. “We are good at providing entertainment and events, but when it comes to putting resources into the hands

of people who can make a difference, that’s one thing that Jackson certainly lacks,” he says. Mainly, this means helping local talent entertain and create for residents and visitors.

Munz’s I Can Ski Forever plays—to date there have been four—feature local actors. Rather than write the script first and then cast it, he is proud to cast the production first and then write the script to showcase each actor’s talents and give them a spotlight moment. “I cast locals, and I bring people who want opportunity on stage next to me,” he says. That’s part of his success and locallegend status. “Every person you put in your cast that lives here and has a life in Jackson, you add more audience mem-

ON INSPIRATION

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One of my favorite things to do is drive south to Alpine. I love to take long drives to brainstorm ideas. I need to trap myself in my car, and when you’re driving in Snake River Canyon, you’re encased in it. You can’t see the beginning and can’t see the end.

Every turn you make, there’s this beautiful mountain vista or burned forest. That whole process instills a lot of creative encouragement into me.”

bers—friends of theirs who are coming to support their friends,” he says. This results in sold out shows and a feeling of connection in the community.

“They want to be a part of something special, just like everybody else in this damn town. We’ve bred a culture of feeling a need to belong,” he says. “In a transient town…everyone wants to separate themselves from a transient person and be someone who matters.” He says, though, that the transient nature of Jackson Hole can be a good thing— by bringing diversity and bucking trends in which the valley may be stuck.

Creating a culture of community is a top priority for Munz. Theater allows

that. So do other artistic events like the JH Pride Dance Party he hosted at a now-defunct local theater (think hundreds of people dancing jubilantly to Whitney Houston) and open mic nights he’s brought to cafés.

Munz, who works a day job at the Grand Teton Music Festival as a patron-services manager, says he would love to do more live theater for locals, but, like other area artists, he struggles to find affordable spaces to rent. “My relationship with Jackson is complicated,” he says. “I love to hate it and hate to love it. It’s never as perfect as I want it to be. But that doesn’t stop me from trying to improve it.”

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ON LOCAL ARTISTS TO WATCH

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Bland Hoke, who works out of a shop; Caryn Flanagan wrote the absolutely poignant book Heaven in Your Bones; Josh and Kjera Strom Griffith are writers; Riley Burbank for music.”

ON LOCAL ARTS EVENTS

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Dancers’ Workshop and their performances equal a bunch of local kids showing their talent. It’s amazing to see these kids perform to a packed house on the center stage.”

SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

B R A D LY J . B O N E R

Actors in a sketch in Munz's I 2 Can Ski Forever, which debuted in 2015 at the Center for the Arts.

I CAN SKI FOREVER

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he four plays, one of which is a musical, in this series debuted in 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2019 to rousing success. Late last year, Munz published the series as a single book, also called I Can Ski Forever. The concept for the plays was born out of his involvement with the improv group Laff Staff. “After getting into improv as an art form, I knew that comedy felt very natural,” he says.

When performing with Laff Staff at the Black Box Theatre in the Center for the Arts, Munz saw that observations and commentary on life in Jackson resonated with the audience. “The truth itself is what resonates the most with everybody,” he says. “It’s a symbiotic relationship between the performer and the audience.”

So, I Can Ski Forever, which Munz wrote in collaboration with other artists, namely Josh Griffith, skewers Jackson’s bro-bra culture, the wealth it sees, and many of the characters that make the town hum. “It’s the honest jokes that get the most laughter,” Munz says. “That’s the philosophy of I Can Ski Forever.” Buy I Can Ski Forever the book for $28 at valley bookstores including Jackson Hole Book Trader, 910 W. Broadway Ave.

YOUR GIRL CATHERINE

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atherine is “a quarantined cougar mom living it up on her seven acres in #JacksonHole,” according to her Instagram profile. Catherine is “your girl” because locals latched on to Catherine like she was one of their own. “That’s why I called it ‘Your Girl.’

She’s everybody’s,” says Munz, who created and performs the character.

“It was spontaneous and just silly, and it was such a hit early on when people were desperate for anything during quarantine.”

Catherine is a part-time Jackson Hole resident—she’s also got an apartment on the Upper East Side and travels anywhere from the Seychelles to Bali and Venice—with a wild wig of hair, a sometimes beard, Jackie O–style bejeweled glasses, a private jet at her disposal, and three ex-husbands, one of whom, Mark, becomes an ex over the course of season one. Catherine doesn’t fit in with the mainstream crowd but lives in “her own version of Jackson,” says Munz. Over the course of twelve fourish-minute-long Instagram videos, Catherine has looked for a new house (she ended up buying in Shooting Star); watched for moose; rented out West Bank Persephone so she could enjoy a skinny oat milk latte, a bottle of bubbly, and gluten-free biscotti without having to deal with other people; and visited a historic dude ranch.

Limping through isolation and quarantine like the rest of us, Catherine also showed fans how to craft her favorite cocktail, which she calls the roundtrip—“’cause obviously who couldn’t use a round-trip right now?” she asks— and also how to make hand sanitizer.

Catherine says the latter is “a very simple recipe” that she modifies by substituting Icelandic vodka for rubbing alcohol and vanilla extract for essential oils, and, finally, when it doesn’t thicken as promised, adding cornstarch. Catherine also voted, which promoted one woman to criticize her for making a “mockery” of the process. Fans swooped to Catherine’s defense, and, as Munz says, “just lambasted the poor woman.”

Although Catherine signed off on season one in June of last year, she did check in from Iceland over the summer, and, more recently, hinted at a potential future project in a video in which she tested several taglines for Real Housewives of Jackson Hole. Our favorites? “You’re going to have to adjust your bindings if you want this boot” and “How do I wax my skis? Brazilian.”

Meet Catherine on Instagram at @yourgirlcatherine.

Follow Munz on Instagram at @munzofsteel. JH

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THE

ULTIMATE Adventure House // BY LILA EDYTHE

// PHOTOGRAPHY BY AARON KRAFT

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If Jackson Hole were a house, it’d be this one, where there’s a ski lift out the back door, entire rooms dedicated to gear and training, and with artwork that includes a painting of an ice climber.

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ou’d think being able to ski from your back door to the Moose Creek ski lift at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort would be enough to make an “adventure house.” But a retired Teton Village couple that has been adventuring together for more than forty years—and also adventuring with their two sons, both now in their thirties—created an entire house built around fun and adventure, and decorated it with mementoes of past family adventures.

“We have been married for forty-two years, moved thirtyone times, and lived in fifteen different states and three different countries. After that amount of change and opportunity to experience different things, we had figured out what we wanted in a house,” say the homeowners. The couple worked with architect Larry Berlin to make their ideas reality. While the house was in its design phase, a neighboring home came up for sale. The couple bought it and lived in it while the main house was under construction. When the main house was finished, they remodeled the neighboring home too, adding even more adventure elements. “We went from the idea of an adventure house to an adventure compound,” the husband says.

1 “My wife did most of the major design of the house, but this ski room was all mine,” says the husband. “I started with a large boot dryer, and then I decided where I wanted cabinets, hanging space, and hooks. I designed everything around getting ready to ski and coming back from skiing.”

Not visible in the photo are drains in the middle of the floor for snow that might melt off gear. The homeowners keep their gear in the bins on the left side of the room and usually save the right side for their two adult sons and other guests. The built-in benches on the left hide additional storage. “I wanted to have a place for stuff that we don’t use often but want around,” the husband says.

While designed to be a ski room, in the summer it transitions to a hiking room. “Ski boots and gear are replaced on the boot dryer by hiking boots and clothing,” the husband says. The painting of an ice climber in the hallway outside the room is by Juan Salvador Llobet, a breakdancing speed painter who goes by “Salvador Live!” It was a surprise gift to the homeowner from a foundation board he chaired. “They knew I was into climbing,” he says. “He painted and performed at a big event of ours. He painted it upside down and no one could figure out what it was; the arm holding onto the ice axe was one of the last things he painted, and that was when I figured it out.”

2 Exiting the ski room, you can either go directly outside or into the garage. While other spaces in the house transition from winter to summer, this ski-storage area doesn’t. The other side of the garage is the bike-storage wall. Both of these walls are covered in TekPanel, a product from GarageTek that supports clippable cabinets, shelving, activity racks, and accessories and is easily modified. “You can put two by fours and panels up in a garage, but that is so permanent,” says the husband, who has used TekPanels in four homes since discovering them around 2004. “But with these panels, everything is moveable instantly. If you have a little bit of vision of how to organize, it’s easy. This wall took a day or two.” Included in TekPanel’s clippable storage pieces are ones specifically for bikes and golf clubs, in addition to the ones for snowboards and skis seen here. The panels can hold hundreds of pounds of gear and equipment.

SKI/HIKING ROOM 1

THE GARAGE

2

SKI-TUNING ROOM 3

3 In the winter, the husband tunes his own skis. “Ski tuning is relaxing, and the concept of tuning your own skis so that you’re responsible for how they perform is pretty cool. The more self-sufficient you are when something happens, the better the chance you can work yourself out of it,” he says.

When ski season is finished, this room, which features the same TekPanels as the garage, transitions into a space for tying fly-fishing flies and working on bikes. “I’m not any good at tying flies, but I like the concept of it and, like ski tuning, it is relaxing,” says the husband.

To make the transition from ski-tuning table to fly-tying bench, the clamps required for tuning are easily removed.

TRADITIONAL GYM 4 4 The homeowners turned the guesthouse’s two-car garage into a traditional gym. They added windows and French doors for natural light and stocked it with kettlebells, a Schwinn Airdyne bike, a Rogue brand squat rack and pull-up bar, resistance bands, and weighted vests, among other items.

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DINING ROOM

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5 A painting of prayer flags in the kitchen of the main house is a reminder of several adventures in Nepal the husband had with both of their sons. “I took a lot of photos—scenes with mountains and prayer flags,” he says. When his business office was being redecorated, the interior designer found an artist to paint a rendition of one of his photos to hang in the reception area. “When I retired, they gave me the painting. It’s nothing fancy, but I love it because it is a reminder of the trips with our sons.”

6 “A Pilates reformer is a phenomenal piece of equipment to keep flexible and stay strong in small muscles,” say the homeowners. The climbing wall’s easiest route, which the husband puts at about a 5.3 on the Yosemite decimal system (5.1–5.5 is generally considered “easy”) is made of multicolored holds and is popular with the homeowners’ grandsons. “Typically, before they come over, I stick a sucker in the top hold, and that motivates them to go straight up the wall,” the husband says.

The “13” over the door is a nod to the couple’s lucky number. “So many positive things have happened in our lives on the thirteenth of a month, including our oldest grandson being born and summiting Denali with our youngest son,” the husband says.

“Our motto in our life together has always been to take the road less traveled, and thirteen is a number that most people don’t want anything to do with.”

Through the door beneath the 13 are a combined sauna/infrared sauna and a full bathroom. “The bathroom was already part of the bedroom. We put the sauna in what used to be the bedroom’s closet.”

CLIMBING ROOM

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THE GEAR ROOM 7

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Near the traditional gym in the guesthouse is the gear room. “I’ve got equipment from forty years of outdoor adventure here,” the husband says. “My kids laugh at me; I don’t throw things away.” But this means that there’s gear in here to outfit guests for almost any activity they want to do during their visit.

“You’d have to be lucky with shoe size, but I’ve got boots to sleeping bags to tents, stoves, and climbing gear for guests to use.” It is all stored in clear, labeled bins.

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EARTHROAMER GARAGE

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6

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After converting the guesthouse’s original two-car garage into a gym, the homeowners built a detached three-car garage that could accommodate an EarthRoamer, an oversize solar/diesel hybrid four-wheel-drive expedition vehicle the wife has driven from Seattle to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. The center bay, where the EarthRoamer lives, is twenty-five feet tall. Another bay holds BMW adventure-touring motorcycles, which the husband and their sons have ridden to Alaska four times.

CLIMBING WALL

9

JACKSON HOLE'S

COMPLETE OUTDOOR SHOP

Located On the Iconic Town Square

FISHING | CAMPING | HUNTING APPAREL | FOOTWEAR GUIDED FISHING TRIPS 9 This room in the remodeled guesthouse was formerly a bedroom suite. The homeowners took advantage of the vaulted ceilings and installed a fifteen-foot-tall climbing wall. “Instead of using tape to mark routes, I used the climbing hold color,” says the husband, who set the routes himself. The route featuring all yellow holds is the husband’s favorite. “For a while, you have to have one foot on either side of the door,” he says.

“Yellow takes more arm strength than the brown one, but brown takes more balance, and you have to do some interesting moves to get over the problem.” Also in this room are a Pilates reformer and a Brewer Fitness Laddermill Ascender. The latter is a ten-foot-tall rotating ladder of which you can control the speed and pitch. “If I want the best aerobic conditioning in a short amount of time, the Laddermill is the finest piece of equipment I’ve ever used,” the husband says. The ladder rungs are deep enough to accommodate alpine climbing boots, which are much bigger than sneakers, and the husband has used this Laddermill to train, in his bulky plastic climbing boots, for climbing Himalayan peaks. JH

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Playing while in Jackson Hole is easier if you take care of yourself.

B R A D LY J . B O N E R

The elevation and climate that make Jackson Hole a paradise also make it hard on your body.

Take care of yourself. // BY MELISSA THOMASMA

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easy to get dehydrated at higher Ifeinet’selevations.

Drinking alcohol and cafcan dehydrate you more quickly, as

SUNBURN

Antidotes to What Jackson Throws at You

DEHYDRATION

can being active in the mountain sun and wind. Long-distance athlete and Jackson Hole Fire/EMS captain and paramedic Henry Cadwalader says that dehydration is something that he and his team see frequently, especially among visitors.

Common signs of dehydration include a headache, lethargy, dizziness, and a dry mouth. “People are very often dehydrated day-to-day, and coming to altitude only exacerbates it,” he says. “In a place like Jackson, you need to be drinking at least one hundred ounces of water a day—with some kind of electrolytes as well—just to stay at baseline.” (One hundred ounces is about four-fifths of a gallon.) If you’re hiking or biking especially hard, go for a full gallon at least. Sports shops and grocery stores around the valley carry NUUN drink tablets, which have electrolyes and are gluten-, dairy-, and soy-free. From $7

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ENJOY HEALTH

SORE MUSCLES

DRY SKIN

uring Jackson Hole summer here are so many trails to exD days, the relative humidity can T plore, mountains to climb, rivers drop as low as twenty-five percent. to raft, and horses to ride in Jackson Add in a mountain breeze, the extrapowerful sun, and the fact that few of us drink as much water as we should, and it’s no surprise that dry skin happens very quickly here. The skincare line Alpyn Beauty, which was founded here in 2018, uses plants foraged and/or grown locally to make superhydrating products like Plantgenius Melt Moisturizer and a Calming Midnight Mask with Melatonin & Wild Dandelion. (Get rid of existing dry skin with the brand's new Wild Huckleberry 8-Acid Polishing Peel.)

From $56

Hole. “All of the endorphins people release while exerting themselves in the mountains begin to sit in the tissue, and the muscles create waste,” says Amanda Jean, founder of Jackson Hole’s Massage with Amanda and Brandy and a massage therapist for almost two decades.

“Massage can be a great way to help alleviate muscle soreness. It can begin to break down and move the lactic acids out of the tissues and into the bloodstream, helping ease discomfort and get you back on the trail faster.”

RAPIDLY CHANGING WEATHER

n a ten-minute span in Jackson Hole, you can go from dripping sweat to Iready freezing. Enter dressing in layers. Start with a short-sleeve tee so you’re to enjoy the warmest part of the day, then add a long-sleeve layer like

Royal Robbins’s Expedition Pro L/S ($85). If the current weather doesn’t require a water- or windproof jacket, make sure to still have one handy. The new Black Diamond StormLine Rain Shell ($129) is lightweight, packable, waterproof, breathable, and windproof. In the mountains, you might want a lightweight puffy like the Outdoor Research Helium Down Hoody ($279), too.

ALTITUDE

oxygen. In Jackson Hole, the air contains about 16 percent effective oxygen.

This can leave you feeling dizzy or nausous. At the valley’s elevation, it usually takes about one week to acclimitize, although this is different for everyone. “Being conditioned helps a ton with [acclimatization], so doing some type of strength training with heart rate work before coming to altitude can really help,” Wright says. “Once you’re here, try to start with shorter hikes or bike rides, and work up to the tougher stuff. Also, good nutrition helps keep you energized and prevents headaches.”

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B R A D LY J . B O N E R

rystal Wright, the 2009 and 2012 Freeskiing World Tour champion and C founder of the Jackson gym Wright Training, knows that even the fittest folks can feel the effects of elevation. At sea level, air has over 20 percent

A long run in the mountains on a summer day can be rewarding so long as proper precautions are taken to prevent dehydration and sunburn.

SUNBURN

ecause the higher above sea level you are the less atmoB sphere there is between your skin and the sun, it’s easy to sunburn here. Every 1,000 feet above sea level means between 4 and 8 percent more UV intensity. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, if you’re standing at the top of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort tram (10,450 feet above sea level), UV radiation may be 35 to 45 percent more intense

than at sea level. To make combatting sunburn even more difficult here (where temperatures don’t often get above eighty), you might be burning without feeling hot. Protect yourself by proactively using, and reapplying every two hours, sunscreen. Jackson-based Trilipiderm makes All-Body Moisture Retention Creme with broad spectrum SPF 30. $39.95 for eight ounces

STIFFNESS FROM SITTING IN A CAR

hether you’re peeping thermal features in Yellowstone, W cruising back roads seeking a glimpse of a griz, or heading to one of Grand Teton National Park’s iconic vistas to catch

the sunset, sitting in a car isn’t easy. When you get out to walk around the Upper Geyser Basin, you might feel stiff. Chiropractor Dr. Laura Petersen Wright of JH Backcountry Health recommends a series of stretches to keep you feeling flexy.

“First thing to stretch is your hip flexors; they are in a short-

ened position and get tight when sitting,” she says. “Lunges are a great way to get them.” She also suggests a simple hamstring stretch: Keeping your legs straight, reach down and touch your toes. To maximize the stretch, keep your back as flat as you can. Finally, show your calf muscles some love. An easy, gentle stretch is to place your toes (while keeping your heel on the ground) on any immobile vertical surface, like a stair riser, or even a concrete curb. JH

GRANDTARGHEE.COM . 307.353.2300 . 3300 SKI HILL ROAD, ALTA, WY 83414

JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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ENJOY

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE // BY WHITNEY ROYSTER

Need a break from being a tourist?

ARE YOU EXHAUSTED?

Obviously.

No. Should I be?

CAN YOU GET AWAY WITH NAPPING?

CAN YOU WALK?

Yes!

No. I feel pressure to do something every day.

Nap.

That''s sad.

That

Yes.

Like, with my legs?

Check out Astoria Hot Springs.

Grab lunch at Pearl Street Market or order ahead at New Your City Sub.

DRIVE SOUTH ON U.S. 89. IMMEDIATELY BEFORE CROSSING THE SNAKE RIVER ON A BRIDGE, TURN LEFT ONTO A DIRT ROAD. THIS ROAD DESCENDS TO THE RIVER. PICNIC.

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SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

TAKE HWY 22 TO EMILY STEVENS PARK. PARK AND THEN WALK THE LEVEE OR AROUND EMILY'S POND TO FIND YOUR PERFECT PICNIC SPOT.

JACKSONHOLE.COM

YOUR

NEW

GET HIGHER ON THE MOUNTAIN THIS YEAR WITH THE EXPANDED BIKE PARK, ALL ACCESSED BY THE SWEETWATER GONDOLA.

With room to roam, it’s time to get outside.

Get some vertical this summer! Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and the team at Gravity Logic have been hard at work mapping, designing and building the best mountain-bike destination in the Tetons. Options abound for every level including novice trails for the uninitiated as well as eye-opening advanced trails and jump tracks. Sail over tabletops, flow around corners and then catch the Teewinot Chairlift for a 5-minute ride back to the top.

RENT YOUR BIKE ONLINE FROM JH SPORTS

GALLERIES Whether you’re passionate

about plein-air, a serious collector of Western paintings by contemporary or deceased masters, or a casual art fan searching for a keepsake to remind you of your time spent here, in Jackson Hole you have the opportunity to enjoy art in its multitude of forms. Over the past two decades, Jackson Hole has grown to become one of the most heralded art centers of the West, popping off the tongues of aficionados alongside the likes of Santa Fe, Palo Alto, and Scottsdale. Begin by visiting some of the galleries highlighted here that show the diversity of art available in the valley, from traditional wildlife and Western art to contemporary paintings and sculptures.

ALTAMIRA FINE ART

Specializing in the exhibition and sale of Western Contemporary artwork. We offer an active exhibition schedule year-round between our two gallery locations in Jackson, Wyoming and Scottsdale, Arizona.

Altamira offers fine art in a range of media; from oil painting, acrylic, contemporary glass, bronze and mixed media. Altamira is a great resource for design firms and corporate collections. We also buy and consign quality artwork.

THE COEUR D’ALENE ART AUCTION

Charles M. Russell, Frank Tenney Johnson, Albert Bierstadt, and Walter Ufer are among the featured artists in this year’s auction of the finest classical Western and American paintings. For over 35 years the Auction has represented past masters and outstanding contemporary artists. To be held July 31 at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada.

Contact us for more information.

172 CENTER STREET 307-739-4700 ALTAMIRAART.COM

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(208) 772-9009 CDAARTAUCTION.COM

DANSHELLEY JEWELERS

Experience a delightful look into the world of gems. A visit to this gallery is a must with designs that have been truly inspired by living and loving life at 6,000 feet. Pendant in 18kt gold with a custom-cut Blue Topaz and Diamond accents.

125 N. CACHE (307) 733-2259 DANSHELLEY.COM

GALLERY WILD

HINES GOLDSMITH

Gallery Wild is artist owned and operated, showcasing contemporary fine art inspired by wildlife and wild places from both established and emerging artists.

Our curated collection of photography, paintings and sculpture is directly influenced by thousands of hours in the field observing, studying and falling in love with all things wild. You are also welcome to explore the artist studio where Carrie Wild and visiting gallery artists share their techniques and artistic process as they create new work.

Celebrating 50 Years Hines Goldsmiths is Jackson’s Fine Jewelry, hand etched Crystal and Glass Gallery. Our famous Teton Collection is available in Karat Golds or Sterling Silver in a range of sizes and prices with our Diamond pave and inlays of Opal or Turquoise highlighting our superb craftsmanship. In our Jackson studio we also create the Wyoming Bucking Bronco and custom Elk Ivory jewelry as well as Wyoming’s largest collection of unique gold and silver charms. Our dazzling collection of crystal and glass bar and giftware is hand etched with local wildlife. Custom pieces can also be created for weddings, anniversaries or business promotions.

80 WEST BROADWAY (307) 203-2322 GALLERYWILD.COM

80 CENTER STREET (307) 733-5599 HINES-GOLD.COM

ODEN & KNAPP

Swiss watch boutique, fine jewelry, diamonds, colored stones and large selection of Estate Jewelry. OMEGA, TAG, NORQAIN, RAYMOND WEIL, BREITLING, SIEKO and more!

125 W DELONEY AVE (307) 733-4926 ODENKNAPP@GMAIL.COM

PEARLS BY SHARI

Specializing in Golden South Sea pearls and heirloom strands, Pearls by Shari brings the elegance of pearls to the heart of the Tetons. Founder Shari Turpin brings immense passion and over 20 years of professional pearl buying experience to each piece that is designed at 90 E. Broadway.

Whether you are memorializing your trip to Jackson or want to add a one-of-a-kind pearl design to your high-end jewelry collection, Pearls by Shari features the widest selection of high quality pearls in the United States. Make an appointment, or stop by our showroom located on the Square.

90 E. BROADWAY (307) 734-0553 WWW.PEARLSBYSHARI.COM

JACKSON HOLE JEWELRY CO.

Crafters and curators of fine jewelry.

Representing top Italian jewelry houses including Picchiotti and Fope. Service and quality above all else. Home of the iconic Teton Stacking Rings.™ In love with jewels, inspired to give back. Presenting sponsor of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Moonlight on the Mountains Event. Voted best jewelry store in Jackson Hole 2021.

60 EAST BROADWAY (307) 201-1722 WWW.JACKSONHOLEJEWELRY.COM

SUSAN FLEMING JEWELRY | WORKSHOP

Hand. Made. Things. Workshop is a boutique specializing in contemporary crafts by local and national artists and home to Susan Fleming’s jewelry studio. We offer a unique mix of locally handcrafted ceramics and jewelry, home goods, children’s gifts and apparel. We are located one block off the town square in the quaint grey house.

180 EAST DELONEY (307) 203-7856 WORKSHOPJH.COM

JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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TETON ARTS GALLERY

Downtown Driggs Association hosts the 10th Annual Driggs Plein Air Festival July 25 – Aug 1, 2021. The Opening Reception on July 25 starting at 6:30pm includes a free outdoor concert beginning at 4:30pm.

Competition Judging and Awards take place on Friday, July 30.

TURNER FINE ART

Turner Fine Art presents and shares uplifting, world-class contemporary wildlife and landscape art that engages visitors in a broader understanding and appreciation of beauty, creativity, and the natural world. It is a place where art inspires your spirit. Visit and meet the acclaimed artists who exhibit here, including owner and artist Kathryn Mapes Turner.

The West Lives On Gallery features fine art reflecting the rich heritage of the American West. Featuring Western, wildlife and landscape art in our traditional and contemporary galleries. The West Lives On Gallery has been representing over 100 national and regional artists since 1998.

The Exhibition & Sale will extend through September 12 in the gallery and online at www.driggspleinairgallery.com, and feature hundreds of plein air paintings of Teton Valley by 65 accomplished national artists.

60 SOUTH MAIN ST. 307-690-2234 WWW.DRIGGSPLEINAIR.ORG

WEST LIVES ON GALLERY

545 N. CACHE STREET (307) 734-4444 TURNERFINEART.COM

55 & 75 NORTH GLENWOOD (307) 734-2888 WESTLIVESON.COM

Gaslight Alley Downtown Jackson 125 N. Cache www.danshelley.com info@danshelley.com 307-733-2259 ALL DESIGNS COPYRIGHTED

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SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

Coeur d’Alene Art Auction Fine Western & American Art

The 2020 Coeur d’Alene Art Auction realized over $10.8 million in sales at the single largest event in the field of classic Western & American Art.

We are now accepting a limited number of quality consignments for our 2021 Auction to be held July 31 at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nev. Visit our website at www.cdaartauction.com 208-772-9009 • info@cdaartauction.com

Frank Tenney Johnson (1874 – 1939), The Horse Thief (detail), oil on canvas, 26 × 38 inches, Estimate: $ 300,000 – 500,000

CATCH OF THE DAY

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ONLINE ORDERING AND DELIVERY

307.734.PINK (7465) www.pinkygs.com 307.734.7465

Voted Jackson Hole’s Best Pizza every year since opening in 2011 W. Deloney Ave

www.pinkygs.com THE WORT HOTEL

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Voted Jackson Hole’s Best Pizza every year since opening in 2011 by JH Weekly

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9050 SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE W. BROADWAY • 1 BLOCK

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AWARD WINNING WINES MADE IN JACKSON HOLE WINE TASTINGS BY APPOINTMENT JACKSONHOLEWINERY.COM • 307.201.1057 2800 BOYLES HILL ROAD • JACKSON, WY

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- JH Weekly - JH Weekly

JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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DINING GUIDE

Bunnery Bakery & Restuarant |

|

307-733-5474 Breakfast, lunch, bakery & famous O.S.M. products

Dining In Catering & The Wildwood Room | Private events and in-home dining.

Pinky G’s Pizzeria |

|

307-734-PINK(7465) Voted Best Pizza in Jackson since opening in 2011

Snake River Brewing Co. |

307-739-2337 Family-friendly brewpub since 1994

JACKSON

208-787-2667

|

VICTOR, ID

JACKSON

|

JACKSON

Teton Thai |

307-733-0022 | TETON VILLAGE Best of JH: Best Overall Asian Restaurant

GRAND TARGHEE

Branding Iron Grill |

307-353-2300 | GRAND TARGHEE RESORT Rocky Mountain fare with fresh, local ingredients

Trap Bar & Grill |

307-353-2300 | GRAND TARGHEE RESORT Famous Wydaho Nachos, great food, and delicious drinks

Snorkels Café |

307-353-2300 | GRAND TARGHEE RESORT Homemade breakfast, lunch, pastries, & espresso bar

HOTEL JACKSON

Figs |

307-733-1200 | JACKSON Vegetarian friendly Mediterranean small plates/entrees

JACKSON HOLE MOUNTAIN RESORT Piste Mountain Bistro |

307-732-3177 Enjoy Rocky Mountain cuisine at 9,095

|

TOP OF BRIDGER GONDOLA

RPK3 |

307-739-2738 | TETON VILLAGE Dine under the Jackson Hole Tram

Tin Can Cantina | Casual tex-mex fare

TETON VILLAGE

SIGNAL MOUNTAIN LODGE

Leek's Pizzeria: Leek's Marina | Online ordering available

307-543-2494

|

GTNP

Trapper Grill/Deadman's Bar |

307-543-2831 X220 | GTNP Casual sustainable dining in a relaxed setting

SNOW KING MOUNTAIN

Kings Grill |

307-734-3351 | JACKSON Classic American menu. Happy hour. Families welcome!

Snow King Cafe |

307-201-5464 | JACKSON Sandwiches, burgers, beers and kids meals

THE ALPENHOF

Alpenhof Dining |

307-733-3242 Swiss cuisine/European wine & beer

|

TETON VILLAGE

THE CLOUDVEIL

The Bistro |

TOWN SQUARE French-American bistro, raw bar and European style dining

THE WORT HOTEL

Silver Dollar Bar and Grill |

307-732-3939 Breakfast, lunch & dinner. Happy hour & live music.

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JACKSON

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MOUNTAIN DINING FOR ALL TYPES OF ADVENTURERS

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TETON VILLAGE

Locally sourced food paired with stunning valley views.

Piste Mountain Bistro delivers a lively dining experience at the top of the Bridger Gondola. Just beyond the friendly bar scene are floor-to-ceiling windows that offer the best views of the mountain and valley. The outstanding locally sourced food and ambiance are further elevated by the excellent service. Be warned — you will want to return to this place time and time again. Reservations are recommended.

SCAN QR CODE TO VIEW MENU AND HOURS

JACKSONHOLE.COM

Average entree; $= under $15, $$= $16-20, $$$= $21+ JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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Among the youngest of ranges in the Rocky Mountains, the Teton Range was formed between six and nine million years ago by the upward thrust of west side of the Teton Fault, which runs roughly north to south along the base of the range's east side.

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SUMMER 2021 | JACKSON HOLE

MOUNTAINS,

TETON STYLE // BY MIKE KOSHMRL

Scientists are widening our understanding of the Teton Fault that shapes and shakes Jackson Hole. yan Thigpen’s aha moment came as he gazed at a plastic topographical Jackson Hole map hanging on the wall at a scientific research station on the shores of Jackson Lake. What if, the environmental sciences professor pondered, the Tetons and the fault line that created them once continued farther north, but were seared into oblivion by ancient movements of the North American plate over the gargantuan Yellowstone hotspot? “I was literally having a rain day at the AMK Ranch,” says Thigpen, a University of Kentucky professor. “I was just staring at the map and started thinking about it.” The trajectory, if you look at the map, lines up perfectly: Earlier eruptions of the magma chamber occurred in the present-day Snake River plain to the southwest in Idaho, but as the surface of the Earth inched along over the millennia, the massive volcanic feature would have passed right to the north of the Tetons. Think of dragging a piece of paper slowly over a stationary lighter. Thigpen’s suspicion, sprung from staring at a wall map years ago, has since evolved into an intensive examination of the theory that the Teton Fault and the mountain range itself were once much longer than what we see today.

JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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R

The Wyoming State Geological Survey worked with the U.S. Geological Survey and independent scientist Mark Zellman to map the Teton Fault with improved precision. New stretches of the fault, like the stretch east and south of Phillips Ridge pictured here, were detected for the first time.

“Large earthquakes on the Teton Fault are 1,000 times more likely than explosive eruptions in Yellowstone.”

—C H R I S D U R O S S , U . S . G EO LO G I C A L S U R VE Y R E S EA R C H G EO LO G I S T

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B

asic physics supports this idea, Thigpen says. Although the Cathedral group (the Grand Teton, Mt. Owen, and Teewinot Mountain) is the most dramatic-looking section of the Teton Range, the greatest point of vertical displacement at the fault actually occurs around Mount Moran. Here, dating of the exposed rocks suggests the fault moved somewhere between 8 and 10.5 miles since its formation millions of years ago. A geologic rule of thumb is that the length of a fault line is at least ten times its displacement, and that would mean the Teton Fault is 80 to 105 miles long, minimum. Current scientific literature says it’s just half that long—about 45 miles. It doesn’t add up. “Think about when you have a crack in your windshield,” Thigpen says. “The more that crack offsets, the longer that crack gets. It’s just physics.” Nothing is ironclad, but there’s early evidence coming out suggesting

that the Tetons once even reached the modern-day Gallatin Range, which rises in earnest starting 45 miles or so north of where the Tetons fade into foothills. “It makes us wonder if those two ranges used to be linked,” Thigpen says. “We’ve been treated like the hypothesis is absurd, but I think it’s even more absurd to believe that along the Yellowstone hotspot there were never mountain ranges. If you look north of it and you look south of it, there are all these incredible mountain ranges, and all of them stop right at the edge.”

T

higpen’s theory is one piece of a flurry of scientific inquiry into the most consequential geologic feature in Jackson Hole: the Teton Fault.

Appreciate the view and having a national park in your backyard? Thank the fault. Although Thigpen’s theory is

B R A D LY J . B O N E R

4TH ANNUAL

The scarp associated with the Teton Fault, on the lower face of Rockchuck Peak above String Lake in Grand Teton National Park, extends across the middle of the image, marked by the horizontal band on the mountainside.

still on the drawing board and much fieldwork remains to prove it, there’s plenty about the lengthy zone of compression that created the Tetons that’s undisputed. The Teton Fault is what’s called a normal fault or a dip-slip fault, and it’s a product of the stretching of the crust, specifically a fracture in two giant blocks of rock that are pressed up against each other. Although it’s been more than 5,000 years since the last big movement, the fault is active. Its movement occurs all at once, though it calculates out to somewhere between 0.8 to 1.1 millimeters per year averaged over time. “The fault is essentially locked,” says U.S. Geological Survey research geologist Chris DuRoss, who excavated the Teton Fault where it runs past Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in 2017. “It’s like clamped together.” When the friction of the locked fault becomes too great and it gives way, look out.

During these “slips,” the abrupt and

grand peaks that dominate the west side of Jackson Hole shoot skyward while the valley floor simultaneously slumps. These major earthquakes have occurred a few thousands of times over the past thirteen million years, creating the Tetons we see today. Although it slips infrequently in human terms, the Teton Fault moving again is a real possibility; an earthquake is a more probable threat to Jackson Hole residents than the Yellowstone supervolcano that inspires frequent clickbait doomsday headlines. “Large earthquakes on the Teton Fault are 1,000 times more likely than explosive eruptions in Yellowstone,” DuRoss says. “The last caldera-forming eruption in Yellowstone was 600,000 years ago, and the one before that was 1.2 million years ago. The Teton Fault, on the other hand, in the last 10,000 years, has generated three major earthquakes. In the last 15,000 years, likely six earthquakes.”

GREATER YELLOWSTONE

CRANE FESTIVAL

September 13-18 Teton Valley, Idaho Crane Tours Workshops - Art Show Community Celebration September 18 th at the Driggs City Center Plaza 11am to 5pm For more information on the week's activities go to: www.tetonlandtrust.org

Come stay overnight in Teton Valley!

NEWS SIN

1909

photo credit: Paul Allen

JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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G L E N N T H A C K R AY

Researchers dig a trench along a subsidiary fault of the Teton fault near Antelope Flats Road.

The likelihood of the next earthquake isn’t well understood. In the past few years, geologists have made great strides toward determining the Teton Fault’s scope and its historic earthquake activity, especially in the time since glaciers retreated 15,000 years ago. Its location, for starters, has now been mapped with great precision, building off of University of Utah geophysicist Bob Smith’s work. In places the fault is obvious: From the Cathedral Group turnout off Jenny Lake Road, for example, the fault appears as a short, steep hillside running for hundreds of yards at the base of Rockchuck Peak.

Other places it’s tougher to detect.

Many of the more obscure stretches were delineated in 2015, when Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) had a plane fly over using a laser-beam technology called “light detection and ranging,” or LiDAR. The flight and subsequent excavations on the ground picked up some

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newfound sections of the fault, including its southernmost reaches, where it bisects Old Pass Road just a couple hundred yards uphill of the trailhead at the bottom.

In 2019 DuRoss and others excavated the fault here, conducting a paleoseismic investigation not far from Wilson. Similar subterranean assessments that make use of trenches have been executed at Leigh Lake, Steamboat Mountain, Antelope Flats, and at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, all in the past few years. Data gathered from these investigations proved that the most recent major earthquake, 5,300 years ago, was a magnitude 7.1 that displaced the Teton Fault by five and a half feet and broke the surface of the entire forty-five fault miles that have been mapped to date. That means what it sounds like—the earth opened up, as a result of movement at the fault that expresses itself violently.

W

hile digging into the dry earth is a tried-and-true method to decipher a fault’s seismic history, looking for underwater evidence is further sharpening the picture of the Teton Fault’s past. Paleoclimatologist and Occidental College professor Darren Larsen has spent days out in the middle of Jenny Lake extracting sediment with coring devices that bore down fifteen feet beneath the lakebed.

He found many distinct layers of debris that sloughed off the Tetons while they shook violently thousands and thousands of years ago. This deposited material is well out into the lake, far beyond where silt and sand flow in from Cascade and Hanging Canyons and the String Lake channel. “It’s almost a mile from the inflows,” Larsen says. “It’s really just finer silts and clays that get deposited out there [in usual times], so to find coarse sand out in the middle of the lake, immediately we recognized

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“ The last caldera-forming eruption in Yellowstone was 600,000 years ago, and the one before that was 1.2 million years ago. The Teton Fault, on the other hand, in the last 10,000 years, has generated three major earthquakes. In the last 15,000 years, likely six earthquakes.”

—C H R I S D U R O S S , U. S . G EO LO G I C A L S U R V EY R E S EA R C H G EO LO G I ST

something unusual must have happened here. This was an event.” Nine events, to be precise. That’s a revelation, because prior dry-land excavations had only found evidence of three earthquakes. The telltale sand layers signifying an earthquake, which are called “turbidite,” ranged from less than inch thick (estimated 5,326 years ago) to fifteen inches thick (14,062 years ago).

Those dates are relatively precise—accurate to within a century or so—because they’re based on organic material that’s preserved within the sand layers.

“What’s exiting about the lakes is we can go further back in time,” Larsen says. “And one of the interesting features that’s coming out of this work is that the frequency of these earthquakes has not been constant.”

The sediment data assembled suggests the Teton Fault went big with relative regularity shortly after glaciers receded from Jackson Hole’s valley floor, around 15,000 years ago. Quakes struck every 500 to 1,300 years or so, up until 7,700 years ago; there’s only been one since. “The conventional wisdom

is that the next big quake is overdue,” Smith wrote in the book Windows into the Earth: The Geologic Story of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

The jury is still out on why the fault has slowed down significantly, though a leading theory is that the melting of the glacial ice, which removed a tremendous amount of weight, somehow sparked a long period of more-frequent ruptures. One limitation about using lake sediments to read a fault’s seismic history is that it says little about the earthquake’s size. A workaround, however, is to check other lakes—like Phelps, Taggart, Bradley, and Leigh—to try to find sedimentary evidence of the same seismic activity, and Larsen has done just that. “It seems that most of the major earthquakes at Jenny Lake, if not all of them, are actually replicated in each of these other lakes,” Larsen says.

“That suggests that these events are the results of major ruptures along the entire fault, so very large earthquakes.”

The flood of new data being amassed about the Teton Fault is useful partly because it provides insight

into the danger it poses. The short of it: The forty-five-mile-long fault that gave Jackson Hole the Tetons and a national park that draws millions of visitors a year is among the most hazardous faults in the entire Rocky Mountains.

That judgement is based on its potential to produce a magnitude seven or greater quake, which could claim lives.

But it also takes into account the probability of another rupture, after five millennia of seismic peace. “Earthquake prediction is not possible right now,” DuRoss says. “Let’s say if the Teton Fault was perfectly periodic, it might have an earthquake every 2,500 years. But it’s not. And the reason why it’s not is complicated. Trying to predict a future earthquake for a system that you don’t fully understand is a fool’s errand.”

But DuRoss’s employer, the U.S. Geological Survey, does crunch seismic data to come up with earthquake forecasts for known hazardous faults, like the Wasatch Fault just east of Salt Lake City, which threatens a much larger population center. After seven years of planning and meetings and modeling,

WHAT AN EARTHQUAKE FROM THE TETON FAULT Because there are no creeping movements or small temblors to ease the pressure buildup at the Teton Fault, when it goes, it will very likely go big. Geophysicists like University of Utah emeritus professor Bob Smith have dug into the fault before, including in 1992 when he excavated in the Granite Canyon area near GTNP’s southern boundary. At the time, Smith and his research team found evidence of two historic earthquakes, including the most re-

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cent one an estimated 5,300 years ago that produced an estimated 5.5 feet of vertical ground movement. This corresponds roughly to a 7.1 magnitude event. With the current development and population of Jackson Hole, USGS research geologist DuRoss says there would be a lot of damage to buildings, pipelines, and roads. “Grand Teton National Park would probably take the brunt of it,” he says.

Smith, a Jackson Hole resident, painted

a picture of what would likely happen in a book he co-authored, Windows into the Earth.

“Landslides along the front of the Teton Range send huge clouds of dust skyward,” he wrote.

“Slides in the Gros Ventre, Hoback, and Snake River Canyons block roads. Avalanches and rockfalls plunge off high Teton peaks, entombing a few scattered groups of mountaineers asleep in their tent.” The human death toll could reach dozens, he wrote in the hypo-

The Teton Fault Map

the federal agency in 2016 forecasted there was a 43 percent chance of it producing a magnitude 6.75 or greater earthquake in the next fifty years. “To do this for the Teton Fault would be really interesting,” DuRoss says. “In the past, we haven’t had enough data to do it. But now I think we probably do. I’m not going to commit the USGS to anything, but it is certainly something that is of interest to me.”

Thigpen’s examination into the idea of a longer Teton Fault—erased to the north by the Yellowstone caldera— is also on the horizon. The unproven theory hasn’t yet been accepted into peer-reviewed journals and is “conjecture, at this point,” DuRoss says.

The University of Kentucky professor says he knows that doubters are many, though he remains eager to dig up the evidence he needs. “We got a big National Science Foundation grant to continue this work,” Thigpen says.

Leading a big field crew, he’ll be back this summer, coring sediment under Jackson Lake, looking for geologic evidence of Teton-like mountains farther north and, in the lab, building a mechanical thermal model to illustrate what could have happened. If he’s able to prove the theory, it’ll upend conventional beliefs of the Tetons’ deepest history. “Geology likes to make incremental steps forward and does not like big leaps,” Thigpen says. “I agree, maybe this is a totally absurd idea. That’s what makes it kind of fun for us.” JH

MIGHT LOOK LIKE thetical narrative, and the infrastructure toll could be staggering. The Jackson Lake Dam was fortified in the 1980s so that it could withstand a 7.5 magnitude jolt, but if there were a breach, a slow-moving flood would move down the Snake River corridor. This roaring torrent would take seventeen hours to reach Palisades Reservoir, but along the way it would devastate low-lying areas, especially near Moose and Wilson.

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B R A D LY J . B O N E R

Over tour ism noun: An excessive number of tourist visits to a popular destination or attraction resulting in damage to the local environment and historical sites and in a poorer quality of life for residents.

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ōvər-toor-izəm

Jackson Hole is

A GORGEOUS, UNIQUE,AND WILD PLACE loved by visitors from around the world.

Can we keep it from being loved to death? // BY MOLLY ABSOLON

L

oving a place to death has been talked about for decades, but in the past several years, it’s been making front-page news. In 2018, overtourism was one of the Oxford English Dictionary’s Words of the Year. Examples of over-touristed destinations? Venice, Amsterdam, Dubrovnik—and Jackson Hole.

The summer of 2020 brought many of this valley’s overtourism issues into sharp focus. Despite—or perhaps because of—the pandemic, Jackson Hole, the Bridger-Teton National Forest, and Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks were busier than ever. Yellowstone visitation in July and August 2020 was up over the same months in 2019 by, respectively, 2 percent and 7.5 percent. (August 2020 was the second-busiest August ever in Yellowstone). Last summer’s high visitation numbers were despite the absence of large tour groups and with the park operating at less than full capacity—staffing, lodging, and services were all reduced due to Covid-19. Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) witnessed similar increases in August visitation, and also in hiking trail use (up 26 percent over August 2019) and campground occupancy (up 13 percent over August 2019).

The increase in visitors was even more substantial in both parks in the fall: Last October, 110 percent more visitors came to Yellowstone than did in October 2019; in October 2020 in GTNP, there was 88 percent more visitors than the same month the prior year.

Negative impacts of this increased visitation were everywhere and included fires left unattended in campsites, parking lots at popular destinations reaching capacity by 8 a.m. forcing overflow onto roadways, human feces and toilet paper deposited behind trees and under rocks (or sometimes not deposited behind anything and in plain view of trails and campsites), and traffic that transformed the seven-mile, fifteen-minute drive from downtown Jackson to Wilson into an hour-long endeavor. These problems weren’t new last summer, but they were more ubiquitous. Jackson Hole felt overwhelmed by people.

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What is “Responsible Tourism?”

R YA N D O R G A N

According to sustainabletourism. net, a website run by Sustaining Tourism—a consulting firm dedicated to helping communities limit the negative impacts of tourism—responsible tourism is tourism that focuses on minimizing the social, economic, cultural, and environmental impacts of travel by:

With uninterrupted views of the Teton Range, this bench at the Bridger-Teton National Forest’s Toppings Lake dispersed camping area was packed last July.

Of course, Jackson Hole is not alone.

Many popular destinations are struggling with the impact of overtourism. In just twenty years, the number of annual tourists visiting Machu Picchu in Peru has grown from less than 400,000 in the year 2000 to more than 1.5 million in 2018. In 2018, 2.3 million visitors traveled to Iceland—more than six visitors for every citizen and a dramatic increase from 2000, when only 300,000 tourists vacationed on the island nation. The list of such examples goes on and on.

The global pandemic temporarily eased the tourist burden in some parts of the world. However, for places like Jackson Hole—a drive-to destination for Americans where the main attraction is the outdoors—Covid-19 increased the pressure and put the valley in a catch-22 situation: The local economy depends on tourism, yet overtourism threatens the things—the natural world and wild experience—valley residents prize and that draw visitors.

However, there is hope.

The concept of responsible tourism is gaining traction throughout the world, and a growing number of popular destinations are working to implement new policies to help lessen the negative im-

“Jackson Hole will never be truly sustainable. HUMANS

ARE NOT SUSTAINABLE,

but that shouldn’t discourage us from being as sustainable as we can be.”

—TIM O’DONOGHUE, FOUNDER, RIVERWIND FOUNDATION

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n Ensuring tourism is beneficial to host communities. n Following practices that are culturally sensitive and encourage respect between tourists and their hosts. n Making positive contributions to the conservation of a host community’s natural and cultural heritage. n Providing meaningful connections between visitors and locals, including creating a greater understanding of environmental and social issues.

In 2018, the government of Iceland felt the need to temporarily close one of the island’s iconic canyons—Fjadrargljufur—to visitors until infrastructure like trails and viewing platforms could be built and fortified. This canyon was off the usual tourist track until 2015 when pop star Justin Bieber released a music video for “I’ll Show You,” parts of which were filmed there. The video received 440 million views and, over the following three years, visitation to Fjadrargljufur increased 50 to 80 percent, leading to severe damage to vegetation in the area. The canyon reopened in 2019, but the government has said that it could be closed again if visitors behave badly and further damage the area.

“Teton County,

MORE THAN ANY OTHER PLACE IN THE WORLD, has the potential to become a leader as a sustainable destination.”

— GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE TOURISM COUNCIL, upon selecting

Jackson Hole as one of only four destinations worldwide to participate in its Early Adopters Program in 2012. The other destinations were Fjord, Norway; Mt. Huangshan, China; and the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis.

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Bridger-Teton National Forest wilderness and recreation specialist Linda Merigliano checks a small fire ring for residual heat in the Toppings Lake dispersed camping area just east of Grand Teton National Park. In summer 2020 this camping area was busier than it had ever been; traffic counters in the area recorded 300 to 400 vehicles a day.

pacts of visitors on the community, the climate, and the environment. Hallstatt, Austria, a picture-perfect alpine village with a population of 780 that received as many as 10,000 visitors per day during the summer of 2019, is now requiring tour buses to register in advance to limit numbers, giving preference to groups that stay overnight (this limit was imposed prior to the pandemic). Dubrovnik, the Croatian city that was the filming location for King’s Landing in Game of Thrones, began to limit the number of cruise ships allowed to dock at its harbors (this change was also made prior to Covid-19), and, in 2017, Machu Picchu began requiring visitors to enter with a guide in groups of sixteen or less at specific times of day in order to reduce overcrowding. Visitors to Machu Picchu are also no longer allowed to wander freely through the ruins, but instead must stick to defined routes and stay for only a limited amount of time. Jackson businesses, nonprofits, land managers, and political leaders are also working hard to make tourism here more sustainable.

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“How does a tourist-based economy like Jackson’s succeed?

We don’t have a model where the pie doesn’t grow. We don’t have a way to counter this pressure.

It’s the Lorax dilemma.

Who speaks for the trees?”

—JONATHAN SCHECTER, CHARTURE INSTITUTE AND JACKSON TOWN COUNCILOR In 2020, Jackson Hole became the first place in North America to be accredited as a sustainable destination

by EarthCheck, an independent nonprofit founded in 1987 that today is one of only two certification programs in the world accredited by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) to assess destination sustainability. Many Jackson businesses have taken steps— starting with ones that are easiest to implement and measure—toward sustainability: reducing consumption, limiting emissions, cutting waste, and using local products. While the effects of such changes are important and should not be underestimated, the summer of 2020 illustrated that the biggest challenge for the future of tourism in Jackson Hole is the number of tourists. A community can implement the best green practices in the world, but if there are too many people in too small a place, these practices can’t mitigate the damage caused by sheer numbers.

“As I’ve come to see it, in the 250 years since the Industrial Revolution, no community or region has developed

a post-industrial economy without compromising its ecology,” says Jonathan Schecter, who serves on the Jackson Town Council and is the head of the Charture Institute of Jackson Hole, a think tank focused on growth, change, and sustainability. “We have no roadmap to follow to do this right. It’s not as if people are out to kill the environment, but somehow the result of what we are doing is killing it.”

“This community spent five or six years coming up with its mission in the comprehensive plan. It’s a statement that seems to capture the essence of what we want as a community—to preserve and protect the ecosystem,” Schechter says.

The mission Schechter refers to is from the 2012 Joint Comprehensive Plan adopted by the town of Jackson and Teton County. It states that the vision of the community is “to preserve and protect the area’s ecosystem in order to ensure a healthy environment, community, and economy for current and future generations.” However, Schechter says: “But, the question of what we are doing to achieve this mission? The answer is, not much. Sad but true.”

Jackson Hole is the first EarthCheck-certified destination in North America (2020), was a finalist for the Tourism for Tomorrow Award (2018) and for the National Geographic World Legacy Destination (2017), and has been named one of the “Top 100 Sustainable Destinations” by the Netherlands-based nonprofit Green Destinations Foundation (2016, 2017, and 2019).

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PRICE CHAMBERS

THEY SUCCEED BY GROWING.

A Local Making a Difference If you ask anyone who to talk to about responsible tourism in Jackson Hole, they will tell you to start with Tim O’Donoghue, founder and executive director of the Riverwind Foundation.

Interested in sustainability, energy use, and finding ways to live that were less harmful to the planet and its inhabitants since he was a kid, O’Donoghue moved to Jackson in the 1990s and started the Riverwind Foundation in 1999. The non-profit foundation taught workshops on deep ecology, living simply, and sustainability. In 2006, he put Riverwind temporarily in mothballs to assume the role of executive director at the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce. He served in this role until 2012 and never lost sight of his dream of living lightly on the planet. He focused the chamber’s work on the “triple bottom line,” which considers the health of the economy, the community, and the environment. (While O’Donoghue is no longer at the chamber, the triple bottom line continues to direct the group’s work today.)

O’Donoghue revived Riverwind in 2012, and, by 2014, the non-profit was a major reason Jackson Hole received its first global sustainable-destination recognition. “Since 2012, our program keeps getting stronger, but the majority of the work still needs to be done.

Riverwind gives people and businesses an opportunity to be engaged, to do something that helps us get from where we are to where we want to be,” O’Donoghue says. “Riverwind plays matchmaker to bring organizations and resources together instead of having all of us working alone to our own ends.”

Sustainability Efforts in Jackson Hole n All Jackson Hole Airport facilities run on 100 percent green power. n Jackson Hole Airport rents bear spray and has a bear spray recycling program to save on waste and unused product.

Responsible vs. Sustainable Tourism While the terms responsible and sustainable tourism are often used interchangeably, there are subtle differences.

Sustainable tourism— or tourism that does not degrade a destination’s environment or culture and has a minimal impact on the health of the planet— is the ultimate goal; responsible tourism is the path followed to achieve that goal.

n Grand Teton Lodge Company (GTLC) has collaborated with Haderlie Farms, Teton County Integrated Solid Waste and Recycling, the National Park Service, Subaru of America, National Parks Conservation Association, West Bank Sanitation, and Signal Mountain Lodge to bring commercial-scale food-waste composting to Jackson Hole.

GTLC’s composting operation is the largest in the valley, and, since the summer of 2018, the company has composted roughly 360 tons, or 720,000 pounds, of food waste. n Yellowstone National Park Lodges/ Xanterra have committed to reducing their carbon footprint 50 percent by 2025.

Already the concessionaire has added solar arrays, recycling and composting programs, and energy- and water-efficiency projects, and is purchasing carbon offsets from ranches in Montana where science-based grazing practices are being used to protect grasslands. (Research indicates this may actually be more effective than forests at sequestering carbon dioxide.) To further connect the dots, Xanterra purchases much of the beef used in its Yellowstone restaurants from ranches participating in the carbon-offset program. n Eight local businesses—Elk Refuge Inn, GTLC, Flat Creek Ranch, Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce, Jackson Hole Airport, Jackson Hole Wildlife Safaris, Yellowstone National Park Lodges/Xanterra, and Signal Mountain Lodge—have earned the Jackson Hole Best Certification in recognition of their sustainable business practices. Best Certification, which is administered by the Riverwind Foundation, is a six-month audit that tracks and monitors a business' energy usage, fuel consumption, vehicle miles, waste production, and water use to promote efficiency, reduce consumption, and minimize impacts.

An ad campaign by the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board stresses “tagging responsibly” and asks social media users to avoid specific geotags for natural places to protect them from becoming overridden with tourists.

n The Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board (JHTTB) created the “Tag Responsibly, Keep Jackson Hole Wild” campaign to educate visitors on responsible geotagging after noticeable increases in visitation at specific destinations in the area were linked to geotagged Instagram posts. (This campaign has been picked up by other communities around the country.) n Bridger-Teton National Forest and Friends of the Bridger-Teton, with support from the JHTTB, have collaborated on a series of videos that show visitors how to recreate responsibly in the forest. JH

E M I ’ S OVER T K A E R B All winter, we’ve been (mostly) hard at work remodeling the Brewpub.

This summer, we’ll finally be ready to invite you back.

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JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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Yellowstone INTO

THE YEAR BEFORE ITS FOUNDING // BY MIKE KOSHMRL

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The 1871 Hayden Expedition’s meticulous and vivid documentation inspired awe, convincing Congress to designate the first national park the following year.

Thomas Moran's 1871 painting Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM

P

ronghorn, cutthroat trout, and fresh buttermilk fueled Ferdinand Hayden and his fellow expedition members in the days before they set off to map, measure, paint, and photograph what would soon become Yellowstone National Park.

The mosquitoes were bad in mid-July of 1871, and so the large party of young men that accompanied the fortyone-year-old University of Pennsylvania geology professor “smudged” the swarms of insects by burning bison patties that littered the Gallatin River valley, where it was staged at Fort Ellis.

These details, jotted into daily journals, were left by crew members prepping for a six-week-long journey into modern day Yellowstone. Many of the men were experts in their fields—the first cohort of artists and scientific thinkers to document the geology, fauna, meteorology, and vistas of Yellowstone. (Of course, generations of scientists have followed in their footsteps.) Although the Hayden Expedition was the third organized expedition to the region in three years, the vigorous record keeping and amassing of detailed data that came out of the survey were firsts.

“They even took the depth of Yellowstone Lake, which was an enormous project,” says historian and author Marlene Merrill, an eighty-eight-year-old chronicler of the Hayden Expedition. “None of this had been done before: The height of the mountains, the temperatures of the geysers—it was a very wonderful scientific overview of what was there.” The precise information was important (they even rolled odometer wheels to determine distances), but just as influential to history was the presence of crew members who could depict to the American public what would prove iconic views. William Henry Jackson’s photos and Henry Wood Elliot's and Thomas Moran’s landscape paintings brought otherworldly geyser basins and the dramatic chasm of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone to anybody who wanted to see it. Their work was also the beginning of an enduring tradition. “One

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WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON

High in Hayden’ s mind was completing the mapping of all tributaries feeding into the Yellowstone River and Yellowstone Lake - a goal he accomplished and documented in his reports.

WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON

The survey’s military escort camped near the West Thumb Geyser Basin on Yellowstone Lake.

Thomas Moran on Minerva Terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs. Moran and photographer William Henry Jackson often worked in tandem during the Hayden Survey. Moran would later use several of Jackson’s photographs for reference in his paintings; the pair developed a lifelong friendship.

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of the legacies of the Hayden Expedition is this concept that art is important to national parks,” says Yellowstone National Park staff historian Alicia Murphy. “Because those men were along and shared their imagery, that not only created the park, but it also created that tradition of art in what would become the entire Park Service.”

It’s well established that Yellowstone’s creation was a direct result of the Hayden and its two forerunner expeditions: the 1869 Folsom-Cook-Peterson Expedition and 1870 Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition. Before these, there was a lengthy history of humans in the area—about 11,000 years of Native American use, including yearround occupation by the Tukudeka, AKA Mountain Sheepeater band of Shoshone. White fur trappers and mountain men also visited Yellowstone and the surrounding mountains and valleys every year starting in approximately the 1820s. But any documentation the Natives produced hadn’t been uncovered or was poorly understood, and the lore of the trappers was viewed as hearsay.

“People were coming through here, but trappers were not the most reputable members of society,” Murphy says.

“They tended to tell a lot of tall tales, and it was kind of hard to know what the truth was.”

That all changed with the Hayden Expedition and the reports that came

out of the government-sponsored survey, which had a $40,000 budget. Water really shot out of the ground. Subsequently, the push to create Yellowstone happened in a flurry. Hayden and businessman Nathanial Langford, of the Washburn Expedition, lobbied hard and were intent on turning Yellowstone into something that would prevent the area from being developed and exploited. The construct—a national park set aside for the benefit and enjoyment of the people—was unheard of at the time.

“That’s why it’s the first,” Merrill says.

The remote, high-elevation Yellowstone region was not particularly valuable for agriculture or mining, which supported the argument that the government risked little financially. And so, lawmakers went along with it. “The reality is nobody really cared,” says Moose resident and historian Bob Righter, a scholar of neighboring Grand Teton National Park. “Yellowstone mainly came about because there was no opposition. There was no great debate about Yellowstone.”

Congress passed the legislation creating Yellowstone just six months after Hayden and his crew completed the expedition. There was no discussion about the bill in either legislative branch, and President Ulysses S. Grant promptly signed it into law, Murphy says. The protected park that resulted covered 3,344 square miles—96 percent of modern-day Yellowstone’s expanse—

and it was created just in time. In early March of 1872, entrepreneur Matthew McGuirk filed a claim for 160 acres where Mammoth Hot Springs runs into the Gardner River with plans to develop a commercial “medicinal springs.” It never happened though, according to Merrill’s 1999 book Yellowstone and the Great West. “Unknown to McGuirk, the land had been withdrawn from the public domain only eight days before he filed his claim, when President Grant signed the Yellowstone Park Bill into law,” she wrote. “The creation of the world’s first national park had come none too soon.”

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n the ground, the expedition team moved via horses and mules and was forced to abandon its wagons because of rough terrain after Bottlers Ranch on the Yellowstone River, outside the present park. High in Hayden’s mind was completing the mapping of all tributaries feeding into the Yellowstone River and Yellowstone Lake—a goal he accomplished and documented in his reports. Lacking from the formal reports, but well documented in the hand-written journals, are the hardships of the endeavor. To the delight of Hayden, none of his thirty-some expedition members died, though some became lost for days and there were injuries and bouts of illness. At times, there was little more to eat than small game like grouse, duck, and rabbits. For Merrill, a fascinating part of her scholarly inquiry into the Hayden Expedition was reading of Yellowstone’s splendors through the lens of people like geologist Albert Peale, who was seeing these features for the first time. Often, they were in awe. “What I particularly liked was the human reaction to a place that is so beautiful,” Merrill says. “There’s something absolutely powerful about being in that area and realizing its history.”

Peale’s journal entry from July 27, 1871 conveys that sense of wonder in vivid detail. That day—a Thursday—began with a scramble down to the base of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone, a feat that hunters and trappers had told him could not be done. With Henry Wood Elliot at his side, the duo reached the bottom after an hour and fifteen minutes of downclimbing. “The cañon is grand,” wrote Peale, who marveled at a rainbow in the mist and iron-stained rock walls. “Along the banks, from top to bottom, the river rushes through the narrow space at the bottom as if chafing against its imprisonment.” Later that day, they rode into Hayden Valley, breaking at Dragon’s Mouth Spring (“a delightful place for a vapor bath”) and Mud Geyser, which they gazed upon as its agitated, geothermally heated turbid waters were flung ten feet into the air. “We returned to camp wondering what wonder this country will produce next,” Peale wrote that evening.

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WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON

The expedition did not always move as one group, instead breaking off into teams at times to fulfill disparate duties

.

The 1871 U.S. Geological Survey lined up along the shoreline of what is today called Mirror Lake on the Mirror Plateau, about ten miles south of Soda Butte in the Lamar Valley. Lt. Doane, who commanded the expedition’s military escort, leads the group, followed by Hayden and his assistant, James Stevenson.

Charting a Pre-Yellowstone Route

WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON

T

Survey photographer William Henry Jackson had a knack for finding the best views of some of Yellowstone’s landmarks.

For instance, he made this image of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River at what is today a popular overlook called Red Rock Point.

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ime wise, just a third of the 1871 Hayden Expedition was spent within the modern boundaries of Yellowstone National Park, although exploration of that area was always the prize.

The party departed in early June from Ogden, Utah, then traveled north, passing through what would become Idaho Falls and then up the Henry’s Fork drainage until it crossed over the Continental Divide into Montana at Monida Pass between the Centennial and Beaverhead Mountains. By mid-July, the survey party had resupplied at Fort Ellis near Bozeman and was pushing south up the Paradise Valley toward the park. The route was unable to accommodate wagons, and so the party set a base camp near Bottler’s Ranch (across the river from what is today Chico Hot Springs).

In its six weeks in Yellowstone, the Hayden Expedition entered the park around Mammoth Hot Springs, headed east toward Tower Falls, then continued past the falls to survey around Mount Washburn. The expedition did not always move as one group, instead breaking off into teams at times to fulfill disparate duties. By the closing days of July, parts of the survey team were exploring Yellowstone Lake via a makeshift vessel, the Annie, while other parts of the crew pointed west toward the Firehole River drainage to document the park’s largest concentration of geyser basins.

The middle of August was spent mostly on the south and east sides of the park, where the expedition mapped the Yellowstone River’s headwaters and the Lamar River. The group was at the latter when a series of earthquakes shook the ground. The voyage through Yellowstone itself was all wrapped up by the last week of August, when the party departed via Mammoth and Gardiner on its way back to Bottler’s Ranch and then Fort Ellis. Over the month of September, the group continued moving south, both backtracking in places and charting a new route. The terminus was southwestern Wyoming’s Fort Bridger, where Hayden officially called his 1871 Yellowstone expedition a wrap.

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Who Were They?

F

The oldest member of the survey crew, George Allen was brought on as a botanist through a connection to Hayden—Allen had been Hayden’s professor at Oberlin College. “He never made it into Yellowstone,” Merrill says. “He left the survey just as they were north of Yellowstone, just because he was too old. That’s always tickled me, because he was in his fifties—and that doesn’t seem to be that old.” Allen’s journals provide some of the best insight into the expedition before the party entered the park.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES

erdinand Vandeveer Hayden is the expedition’s namesake, and the geologist, physician, and Civil War veteran was the most famous of the thirty-some-odd expedition members (the number varied throughout the trip).

By 1867, Hayden was a veteran surveyor of the West who had been appointed the geologist-in-charge of the U.S. Geological Survey. Although crew members were trained in botany, zoology, meteorology, and other disciplines, most participants were not well-known. Some were hunters, cooks, and working stiffs who tended to the mules. The expedition even had a waiter. Partly, the crew members were anonymous because they were young, most in their twenties. Some were the sons of political figures upon whom Hayden depended for funding, and so got to go because of their families’ connections. There are some exceptions though; here are some snapshots of notable members of the Hayden Expedition, gleaning information from Marlene Merrill’s 1999 book Yellowstone and the Great West.

TRIVIA: George Allen was married to Caroline Rudd, one of the first three women in the U.S. to receive a college degree.

Hayden’s official expedition photographer for all of the 1870s, William Henry Jackson provided the earliest photographic record of the Yellowstone territory. His images helped persuade Congress to set aside as a national park a place they had never seen.

After his expedition days, Jackson settled in Denver and opened a photography studio, though he later moved to Detroit, to Washington, and finally New York. Jackson lived for nearly a century, even returning to Yellowstone as late as 1941, at age ninety-eight. The occasion?

He attended the celebration of the designation of the Jackson Hole National Monument, the predecessor of the enlarged Grand Teton National Park.

TRIVIA: Jackson is the greatgrandfather of American cartoonist Bill Griffith, who created the daily comic Zippy.

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A landscape artist made famous through his role in the 1871 Hayden Expedition, Thomas Moran took a serious liking to the place—so much that he began initialing his work “TYM,” for “T. Yellowstone Moran.” TYM went on to travel and paint throughout the American West, depicting scenes of the Yosemite Valley, southern Utah and Arizona, and central Colorado’s Mount of the Holy Cross. “His work was, and is, seen as the definitive treatment of these scenic wonders,” Merrill writes.

TRIVIA: Moran’s famous painting The Grand Cañon of the Yellowstone wasn’t completed until two months after the Yellowstone bill was signed into law. It was unveiled at a private party in New York City that was funded by Scribner’s.

Albert Peale was just getting to know Ferdinand Hayden during the 1871 Yellowstone Expedition, though they went on to become close friends and colleagues on a number of expeditions that followed. A field geologist, Peale published his writings in Hayden’s annual reports.

Peale’s diaries were cataloged in two different repositories and had never been stitched together until Merrill dug them out of archives. “It took me twelve years to do this,” she says.

“It was a labor of love.” Merrill was thrilled to see that the Peale narrative began just as the party headed into Yellowstone, picking up right when Allen’s journals were no longer documenting the expedition.

TRIVIA: The U.S. Geological Survey named a number of features in the West after Peale, including the most southerly island in Yellowstone Lake, the highest peak in eastern Utah’s La Sal Mountains, and a mountain range in eastern Caribou County, Idaho.

Relive

the Hayden Expedition Today

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hotographer Bradly J. Boner’s 2017 book Yellowstone National Park: Through the Lens of Time recaptures dozens of vistas immortalized by William Henry Jackson in 1871, when Jackson first brought photography to Yellowstone. Conducted more than 140 years apart, the two photographers’ tasks were wildly different. “It definitely gave me an appreciation for what they did,” says Boner, who is Jackson Hole magazine’s photo editor. “Obviously, I was able to zip around the park in a car to a lot of the places that they got to with horses, ponies, and pack mules.” It wasn’t all easy, however, and exploring to find the exact locations where Jackson stood well more than a century before proved to be an adventure. Those photo points took Boner into the backcountry canoeing around Yellowstone Lake and backpacking off trail through the seldom-visited Mirror Plateau. Others images were taken near famous overlooks that still were tricky to find. “I got it wrong a couple of times, and I hiked a lot of miles out of my way that I didn’t have to,” Boner says. “It really gave me an excuse to explore parts of the park where I never would have gone, and that in and of itself was an unforeseen gift and a real pleasure.”

Boner’s book, which was published in 2017, shows that Yellowstone’s landscape is largely unchanged. Most major differences that are detectable were driven by natural processes like erosion, wildfire, and blowdowns. For the most part, Hayden and others who sought for the park’s protection got what they wanted. “The whole idea of the creation of Yellowstone was preserving it for future generations,” Boner says. “Looking at these photos from 1871 and looking at them from today—more or less it’s working.”

Boner’s book is out of print, though it still can be purchased as an e-book. Another option to learn more about the Hayden Expedition this summer is to look to Yellowstone’s Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages. Alicia Murphy, the park’s historian, will post daily about what the survey team was doing the same day 150 years before. JH

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PHOTO ESSAY

Alongside fellow cowboy Chance Sloan, Michael “Michelob Mike” Meeks lives up to his name and enjoys a cigarette on the tail end of the Green River Drift. Along the route, cowboys push their stock a few miles at time starting in the early morning hours—they’re typically mounted by 5:30 a.m. “We do it at first light, just because it doesn’t get hot,” Murdock Cattle Company ranch manager, Coke Lander, says. “The cattle travel better when it’s cool.”

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Thousands of Sublette County cattle spend their summer grazing the Upper Green River high country, and cowboys still drive them nearly sixty miles to get there. // BY MIKE KOSHMRL // PHOTOGRAPHY BY RYAN DORGAN

t’s 8 a.m. on an early-summer morning, and Albert Sommers and three of his riders are sauntering north, pushing a dozen cows—each with a calf—down Highway 352 pointed toward Green River Lakes. A handful of agile herding dogs bounce around accompanying the cattle-driving cowboys, and they’re doing most of the work. Although it’s still early, the humans, canines, and bovids have been up for hours.

They’ve pushed past the Whiskey Grove campground and are now nearing the endpoint for the day: The Kendall Bridge. Up ahead, Coke Landers and his riders lead the strung-out cattle, and, as they clatter across the bridge, he keeps pressing them upriver. Sommers watches from a distance and interjects. “Coke!” he shouts out. “Call them off! This is as far as we’re going.”

A third-generation Upper Green rancher, Sommers has been doing this work since he was ten years old. On this lateJune morning, the now sixty-one-year-old cattleman’s voice is raspy. He jokes, and hopes, that it isn’t Covid-19. The cowboys up ahead can’t quite make out the instructions amid the bustle and moos, and so Landers circles back. “We’re going to have to get you a megaphone,” he tells Sommers.

This is the Green River Drift. The name comes from what happens at the tail end of summer. Come October, thousands of cows—by this time with older, larger calves—will “drift” back down from the snowy high country toward the Green River basin’s vast sagebrush-steppe bottoms. Getting them up there, however, takes an orchestrated old-fashioned cattle drive that spans fifty-eight miles and takes two weeks to complete. Sommers’s grandfather, who came to Wyoming as a teacher, helped start this springtime ritual in 1896. By 1916, the ranching families whose cattle made the trek formed an association at the urging of the Bonneville National Forest (today, it’s the Bridger-Teton National Forest, BTNF).

The drive’s history is well documented, and, in 2013 the Green River Drift was designated as “traditional, cultural property” under the National Register of Historic Places.

That listing recognizes the entirety of the path, ranging from pinch points that are just fifty-feet wide to stretches that are

more than one mile wide. Also included in the designation are “two-track” trails, gravel county roads, stock driveways and trails, highway underpasses, fences, and bridges. The backdrop of the Drift, which largely follows the Green and New Fork rivers, is stunning—the Wind River Mountains dominate the view to the north and east, while the more-distant Wyoming Range cuts across the western sky.

Eleven ranches now represent the Upper Green River Cattlemen’s Association, a collective that pools resources and divvies up costs in order to manage the Bridger-Teton grazing allotments where the cattle fatten up for the summer.

Altogether, they’re permitted to drive and graze 6,700 cowcalf pairs, though Sommers says they usually fall well short of this mark. While the families’ livestock mix together out on the open range and during the fall drift, on the drive north they’re still separated on a ranch-by-ranch basis.

Landers, the ranch manager for the Murdock Cattle Company, is in charge of 491 cows and yearlings—plus a couple hundred calves that don’t factor into the count. Each animal sports a distinct brand, plus a green tag clipped through its left ear. Although many of the drift’s traditions are intact, ranchers have adapted to the times. Landers’s youngest cows and calves, for example, get to enjoy the historic corridor from the comfort of a livestock trailer. “I haul them up with trucks,” he says. “Just because it’s a seventy-mile drive, and for their first year being a mom and having a calf, I’ve found it’s easier to haul them up here instead of making them walk the whole way.” As Landers speaks, cows moo to try to find their calves and four-wheelers buzz around. RVs and tents are parked and staked along the Green River, their inhabitants waiting out the morning’s cattle-filled commotion. Nearby, Landers’s three young daughters play, reveling in the completion of a day of the Green River Drift. “Got the whole family here today,” Landers says. “It’s Father’s Day, but this is fairly standard.”

The best time to see the domestic bovids on the go is in mid-June, when they’re visible along Wyoming Highways 352 and 191. They come back into view again in the early fall, typically late September and into the first half of October.

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To this day, cattle dogs make life easier for cowboys wrangling cattle along the Green River Drift. When cows lose their calves, they get anxious and want to find them, and are prone to bolting away from the herd. While the dogs work for free, the Upper Green River Cattlemen’s Association pays five range riders each $2,400 a month through the summer to tend the cattle. In the fall, these five riders help sort the eleven ranches’ cattle during the season-ending “drift” back home.

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A cowboy working the annual Green River Drift. In 2021, the historic Sublette County cattle drive marks its 125th year.

Horseback-mounted cowboys Chance Sloan, Albert Sommers, Michael “Michelob Mike” Meeks, and Jodi Alley point north, looking up the Green River.

Jodi Alley doctors a roped calf in the Tosi Creek area of the Upper Green River Cattlemen Association’s grazing allotments on the BTNF. Many thousands of cows, calves, and yearlings reach the rangeland in late June following a twoweek journey along the Green River Drift cattle drive. Come October, gates on the grazing allotments will open, and the cattle will naturally “drift” down back toward the corridor, which leads toward ranches near Cora, Pinedale, and even lower in the Green River basin.

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Up to 6,700 cow-and-calf pairs and yearlings are permitted to graze on the Upper Green River Rangeland Allotments of the BTNF. The grazing complex is among the largest in the entire U.S. Forest Service system and is controversial and the subject of ongoing litigation because it’s been a hotbed for lethal conflict with grizzly bears. Every summer many dozens of calf cattle are confirmed killed by grizzlies, and oftentimes bears are trapped and relocated—or killed—in response. Over a recent ten-year period, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service authorized up to seventy-two grizzly deaths as a result of conflicts with the grazing operation.

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Fog hangs tight to the river bottom in a pasture system at the northern terminus of the Green River Drift cattle drive. The drive, which generally follows the New Fork and Green Rivers, extends for fifty-eight miles, though there are an additional forty-one miles of spurs.

Lovebirds Wyatt Griebel and Bailee Boles grip hands after a morning’s cattle drive along the Green River Drift. The drive is central to Sublette County’s identity as an agricultural community. For 125 years, the same families have continued the traditions of branding, herding, and driving cattle dozens of miles on the way to summer rangeland on the BTNF. The laborintensive operation has, for decades, provided a source of employment for cowboys and cowgirls like Griebel and Boles. JH

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READY FOR THE

Of course we don’t want to get ill or injured in the backcountry, but sometimes accidents (and blisters) happen. // BY LILA EDYTHE

T

he pain in my left knee came out of nowhere. I hadn’t twisted my knee or taken a weird step. Jogging down Cascade Canyon in Grand Teton National Park, I tried to ignore it at first. That was only possible for about ten minutes. Then the pain graduated to sharp and stabby, and, if I didn’t step just right, it occasionally took my breath away. There was no way to wrap the Ace bandage from our small first aid kit (FAK) around my knee that alleviated the stabbiness.

Usually the trail from Jenny Lake to Lake Solitude is well trafficked, but, because we had wanted to avoid crowds, we had started on our run in the late afternoon. By the time it felt like an ice pick was being repeatedly jabbed into my knee, it was dusk and we were the only ones on the trail. But we had headlamps and plenty of clothing, food, and water.

Limping down the canyon using my friend’s shoulder for support wasn’t fun, but a couple of hours later, we made it to the car without being cold, dehydrated, or hungry.

Some of the things that make a hike or mountain bike ride in the backcountry appealing—the quiet, getting away from other people, the absence of technology—also make it more difficult to obtain help if you get injured. When going out on a day adventure

in the mountains, you need to carry everything you think you’ll need with you. “On a basic level, everyone heading into the backcountry should have food, water, layers, and an understanding and awareness of the environmental and weather conditions,” says Jake Urban, the founder the Jackson Hole Outdoor Leadership Institute (JHOLI). “These are the most important things you need to take care of yourself, and if you can provide self-care, you’re less likely to get injured, or, if you do, these can keep the situation from escalating.” Having these things didn’t prevent the meniscus in my knee from partially tearing (I got an MRI the next day), but they did allow my knee to remain our only issue.

“The best offense is a good defense,” says National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) wilderness medical instructor and field instructor Kate Sirianni about backcountry first aid. “There’s a lot you can do ahead of time to prepare and lower the chances that something will go wrong if you’re out hiking or biking, but you’ve also got to be prepared to go on offense.” Read on for tips from local pros on how to prepare for an epic day hike or mountain bike ride, and how to deal with some of the most common things that might go wrong.

Fremont County Search and Rescue volunteer Gates Richards helps an injured climber down the south shoulder of Pingora Peak in the Wind River mountains. The climber suffered a broken arm when she was struck by a boulder that dislodged from a chimney she was climbing on the peak in the Cirque of the Towers.

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These are the most common things that go wrong and how to handle them. engaging in physical activity. If that’s not possible, she recommends taking it easy your first couple of days at altitude.

BLISTERS Blisters are the most common problem Sirianni has seen on NOLS courses she’s led. “So many blisters,” she says. “Mostly on the feet, but I’ve seen people aggressively using hiking poles get them on the palms of their hands.” The best way to treat a blister is to stop it from forming in the first place.

“As soon as you feel a hot spot, stop. It is so much easier to treat at that stage. More often than not, if you let a blister form, it will tear open on its own, and then you have an open wound in a dirty boot,” Sirianni says. A Band-Aid or piece of duct tape should be enough to reduce the friction on a hot spot. If you don’t catch it in hot spot stage, Sirianni says you don’t need fancy blister products, but they do work. NOLS often uses KT tape—a flexible, elastic tape that, unlike duct tape, is made for human skin and is hypoallergenic.

ALTITUDE SICKNESS Altitude illness comprises three distinct entities: acute mountain sickness (AMS), high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE), and high altitude cerebral edema (HACE). “I’ve never seen HACE here in Jackson, but we seem to get a case of HAPE every couple of years,” says AJ Wheeler, M.D., who works in the Emergency Room at St. John’s Health and is the medical advisor for Teton County Search and Rescue (TCSAR). “HAPE most often happens at higher altitudes, above 9,000 or 10,000 feet. But AMS happens here.” AMS presents with a headache, and sometimes also nausea and insomnia. The best way to treat it is with ibuprofen and rest. “Acclimatizing is what’s most important,” Wheeler says. “People who ignore the initial symptoms of AMS are more at risk of developing HAPE or HACE.” Sirianni says it’s a good idea for those who live at sea level traveling to altitude to build a couple of extra days into their trip to acclimatize on the front end before

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“If the person can bear weight and ambulate without limping significantly, move down the trail slowly,” Dr. Wheeler says. “If the person can’t bear weight, you’ll have to splint the extremity. You can fabricate a splint out of a stick or a hiking pole, but a SAM splint is one of the few very specific pieces of gear people in the backcountry should carry.”

DEHYDRATION “This is one of the things that you can prevent from happening in the first place,” Sirianni says.

“If I know I’m going on a big day hike tomorrow, I’m going to start drinking today so I go into my hike well hydrated.” How do you know if you’re adequately hydrated? Look at the color of your urine.

“You don’t need it to look like water, but it should look fairly diluted,” says Dr. Wheeler.

SCRAPES AND CUTS “Scrapes and cuts are really where first aid kits can come in handy,” Sirianni says. At a minimum, you want to cover up any cut or scrape. “If you carry a first aid kit with an irrigation syringe in it, definitely use that to clean the wound,” she says.

THE APP: BackcountrySOS

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The free app BackcountrySOS, which was developed for Teton County Search and Rescue, quickly sends your location to emergency responders. The app works wherever text-to-911 service is available, uses very little of your smartphone’s power, and requires minimal signal strength (if you’re somewhere you can send a text, you can request help via BackcountrySOS). Available for Apple and Android phones; backcountrysos.com

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“T

he most useful first aid kit (FAK) is the one you have with you. If you’ve got a huge kit but never carry it or one kit that you juggle between packs and might forget to grab as you head out the door, it does you no good,” says TCSAR’s Wheeler, who has several different FAKs: a biking/hiking one with ibuprofen and BandAids; a larger one with more bandaging materials and pain meds for full-day mountain adventures; and a kit that allows him to take care of several people, which he brings when backpacking. Wheeler makes his own FAKs. “It definitely takes some effort to put together your own. I’m not against commercial first aid kits, but you shouldn’t just buy one and assume that everything you want is in there or of the quality that you want,” he says. “Make sure to go through it. Take out what you don’t need and put the things you think you’ll use the most in prominent spots.” Once you’ve got your FAK the way it will best work for you, go into it once a year and go through everything.

“Bandages can get gross after they’ve been in your pack for a year,” he says.

So what should be in your FAK? “The FAK you take with you should include the things you know how to use,” says NOLS’s Sirianni.

“Any tool is only as useful as your knowledge of

FIRST AID KITS

how to use it. The act of carrying a first aid kit isn’t what keeps you safe.” She says its good for day hikers and bikers to know how to deal with and have the supplies for treating blisters and small wounds like a knee or elbow scrape. “So, small bandages, Band-Aids, maybe some tweezers, an irrigation syringe to clean a wound. An Ace wrap or athletic tape can support a rolled ankle or twisted knee. And you always want to have a pair or two of gloves and a pen and paper to take notes,” she says. Even if you feel like you’ve got your wilderness first aid skills dialed, it’s a good idea to carry NOLS’s Wilderness Medicine Pocket Guide, too. It’s lightweight, waterproof, and fits in most small FAK sacks.

S

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ixteen-hour Wilderness First Aid (WFA) courses are available across the country. NOLS has partnered with REI to offer them in its stores. (You can also take a WFA course directly through NOLS and also through local independent wilderness-medicine groups.) “This is a great course for folks venturing out for day hikes,” Sirianni says. “It is a short introduction to wilderness medicine, but the main thing it does is help you assess a problem that arises and make appropriate decisions: Is this something you can treat and continue? Do you need to head out and treat this in the frontcountry, or is this something so far out of your scope you need to call for help?”

A significantly more in-depth course is Wilderness First Responder (WFR). Most professional guides, trip leaders, and search-and-rescue team members are trained to this level. At the end of this eighty-hour course, you’ll know how to conduct a physical exam, assess vital signs, and provide emergency care in the backcountry, among other things.

And then there’s what you learn from recreating in the backcountry. “The best way to get good at the medical stuff is to go and do the activity,” says JHOLI’s Urban. “The more experience you have with an activity, the better prepared you are for an incident when it occurs. You better understand all of the different dynamics at play, from the environment to the weather and your physical limitations.”

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THE RESCUE I As told by Hannah Bruch

’ve always been active outdoors and growing up on the East Coast had the idea of moving out West to the mountains. The summer of 2019, I finally made my way out to Denver. I had a full-time job and was mostly a weekend warrior, but when I could, I hiked and ran in the mountains. Last spring I started mountain biking—at first borrowing my friend’s bike to ride around in Colorado and Utah. Over Memorial Day weekend, I went all in and bought my own. I enjoy learning new sports and pushing myself physically.

Last spring I also started dating Stu (Stuart Schiff), who lived in Jackson, so I started making the trek up regularly. I love the trails here.

I stopped visiting Jackson Hole and moved here myself this past March, but last Labor Day I was still living in Denver.

Since I had that Monday off, I came up to spend the long weekend with Stu. I got in Thursday night.

Friday we rode Ferrins and did some hiking. Saturday we went horseback riding in Grand Teton National Park. After getting home, we decided to take the dogs and do a sunset ride on the Phillips Canyon trail.

I’d ridden it twice before but hadn’t yet ridden all three of its log bridges. I’d ridden the first and second bridges, and this time my goal was to ride all three.

Approaching the log bridge, which is between twelve and eighteen inches wide and about twenty feet long, I made up my mind to go for it, but I didn’t have my balance coming off the turn and fell right away. It wasn’t that far of a fall—maybe five or six feet—but I landed on my hip on a stump in the creek. At first I didn’t realize the severity of the injury and wanted to sit for a few minutes and “ice” my hip in the cold creek. However, Stu, rightfully, didn’t think that was a good idea. To make sure that we had one set of dry clothes between us, Stu took off his shoes and socks before walking into the creek to help me up. I had tried to stand and wasn’t able to, but, with Stu’s help, I was able to get onto the bridge and then solid ground.

At this point, we weren’t thinking about Teton

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County Search and Rescue (TCSAR). Even though we were four miles from the trailhead—about as far as you ever are from a road on that trail—we were thinking we could get out with me sitting on the bike and Stu pushing it. Doing this, we covered about one mile in an hour. But by then the sun had gone down, I was shivering, and we didn’t have any more clothing to put on. Because Stu had just been on a dirt bike trip, his headlamp was in a different pack, as was the PLB (personal locator beacon) he usually carries. Even if we had been thinking about TCSAR then, we were on a section of the trail that didn’t have cell service.

When we reached a spot where we did have cell phone service, we reassessed. I was getting colder, and we still had a couple miles and another bridge crossing to go.

Stu called search and rescue. In less than an hour, Anthony Stevens, the team’s training director and a wilderness EMT, was with us. He had brought some of his own clothing for me to wear and also heat packs and hand and foot warmers.

Being still—we settled in to wait for more team members and the wheeled litter—took the pain away, and I started to warm up.

About an hour after Anthony arrived, I was packaged into the litter and the team started rolling and carrying it down the trail. I remember looking up at the starry sky and going through what my injury could be. I was really worried.

Now that I’m fully recovered—I had fractured my iliac wing, breaking completely through the right side of my pelvis—I don’t feel like I could have predicted this severe of an injury from falling off a log bridge at a fairly low height. But freak accidents happen. I do know that I am now more aware of the environments and situations in which I push myself. Is there cell phone service? Can transportation reach us? In February I was surfing in Nicaragua, and I definitely thought about where the nearest hospital was and how I’d get there if things went wrong. It is awesome to do these cool things in amazing, remote places, but it’s good to have an awareness of how things can unexpectedly go wrong and how the environment can make things easier or more difficult to get to help.

THE GEAR

“The tarp is a beautiful thing,” says JHOLI’s Urban. “It gives you the capacity to create shelter, it can trap heat, and you can use it to package a patient.

And it’s lightweight. It’s one of the most helpful things in case you have an accident.” Local resident and former JHOLI student Gavin Hess founded Apocalypse Equipment, which makes two sizes of Guide Tarps. From $55; available at apocalypse-equipment.com Always having a headlamp with you is no problem if it’s the new Black Diamond Flare. Super compact, simple, and submersible, this gumball-size headlamp throws out 40 lumens of light and, with two CR2032 batteries, weighs only one ounce, about as much as a pencil. $24.95; available at Teton Mountaineering (170 N. Cache St.) Because you want to have more layers than you expect to wear, consider Ortovox’s new Piz Duan SWISSWOOL Jacket.

Its natural fibers are lightweight and don’t take up much space in your pack, but if you need it, it’s warm, breathable, stretchy, and wind- and water-repellent. $290, available at Hoback Sports (520 W. Broadway Ave.) “Food is one of the most basic things for you to have with you,” Urban says.

Readywise makes freeze-dried fruits and vegetables you can keep in your pack until you need them. The ginger beets, buttered broccoli, and peaches are favs. Six packs from $26.99; available at readywise.com

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Whether you have an emergency or not, you want to be able to purify water while in the backcountry. Using two CR123 batteries, the Katadyn Steripen Adventurer Opti can purify 8,000 liters of water with its UV lamp. $99.95; available at backcountry.com Deuter’s new AC Lite pack is compatible with hydration bladders and features exterior loops to carry trekking poles, a breathable mesh back with a spring steel frame, a water- and dirt-repellent finish, and, printed on the underside of the top pocket, basic instructions for dealing with a first aid emergency. From $95, available at deuter.com/us-en JH

See recommendations for non-emergency hiking gear on page 32.

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A P PA R E L F O R T H E MOUNTAIN LIFE INSPIRED BY NATURE’S PERFECT DESIGN

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EXPLORE

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WILD AND MILD ADVENTURES

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EXPLORE CANOEING

Canoe Camp in Yellowstone A wooden canoe carries all the creature comforts for a scenic trip on one of YNP’s largest and most remote lakes. // PHOTOGRAPHY AND STORY BY BRADLY J. BONER

O

n a sunny July morning in Yellowstone National Park, my brother and I wade into chilly waters at the boat launch on the southern end of Lewis Lake. We had loaded three days’ worth of gear and are ready to hop into our intrepid vessel—an old handmade wooden canoe I had patched up and repainted a few years before. We push off and aim the bow at the opposite shoreline.

After hugging the western shore for about an hour, we come to the northern end of the lake and enter the Lewis River Channel, the only section of river in Yellowstone that allows boats. The channel is three miles long. (Kayaks, canoes—all watercraft—are banned on all other streams and rivers in the park, including the mighty Madison and Yellowstone Rivers and the Lewis River as it flows south from its namesake lake). Like all of the larger lakes in the park, Lewis Lake can be whipped into a frenzy of white-capped waves by summer afternoon winds, but the channel is protected on either side by the dense lodgepole pine forests that cover much of Yellowstone. Depending on the time of day, the transition from the lake into the calmer channel can be stark.

Once through the Lewis Channel, paddlers can take in the expanse of Shoshone Lake. At more than six miles wide and four miles long at its widest points, it is considered the largest backcountry lake in the lower forty-eight states that cannot be reached by a road.

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Canoers paddle the calm waters of Shoshone Lake on a sunny summer morning. The lake is best navigated early in the day, before afternoon winds kick up waves and whitecaps.

The clear waters of the Lewis River Channel are gentle and easy to navigate.

However, paddling from Lewis Lake to Shoshone Lake we’re going against the channel’s current, and after about two miles, the channel constricts and the current becomes just swift enough to render our paddle strokes ineffective.

We step out and use rope to guide the

With a surface area of more than 12.5 square miles, Shoshone Lake is the largest lake in the lower forty-eight states that is not accessible by road.

The Lewis Channel can be paddled for about two thirds of its length but becomes shallow and too swift for paddling about a mile before Shoshone Lake. Boaters must pull or line their watercraft through this section, but Shoshone Lake is a worthwhile reward.

canoe for about a mile—sometimes we walk along the shoreline, other times we wade in the rocky-bottomed channel itself. Eventually the vast expanse of Shoshone Lake—the headwaters of the Lewis River—lies before us. With a surface area of more than 12.5 square miles, it is the largest lake in the lower forty-eight states that is not accessible by road. (In Yellowstone, it is the secondlargest lake, period.) Here, unlike Lewis Lake, there are no motorized boats allowed, so canoeing Shoshone Lake is a more primitive adventure.

The sand bars where Shoshone Lake funnels into the Lewis River Channel

are a good place for day-trippers to relax and picnic before pointing their boats south and downstream for the return trip. Since we’re staying for a couple days, we continue a short distance around the lake’s southern end to our first campsite (8Q6), one of twenty backcountry sites that dot Shoshone’s shoreline. Thirteen of these are reserved for boaters and inaccessible from any of the trails in the area.

I

equate canoeing to car camping on the water because of the amount of gear that can be comfortably stowed into the boat. While keeping a certain level of efficacy, a canoe can handle much more gear weight and mass than a kayak can. In our canoe, alongside our standard camping gear, we have three days’ worth of beer, a small cooler, a pair of fold-up chairs, and, in addition to two tents for sleeping, a tall, ten-foot-by-tenfoot screen tent that will, when we’re inside it, protect us from the relentless onslaught of mosquitoes that swarm Yellowstone in July and early August.

Our cooler carries real food; there will be no dehydrated lunches or dinners on this trip. In my younger days, I might have turned up my nose at such creature comforts in the backcountry, but now—older and wiser—I find camping JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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A map of Shoshone and Lewis Lakes from the 1878 Hayden Survey to Yellowstone National Park, published in 1883.

in style, if it’s possible, makes the end of a long day on the water more comfortable.

Up at dawn the second day, we eat, pack up, and shove off early. The paddling is uneventful, and at the lake’s western end, we find a large sand bar. It provides an excellent landing spot and jumping-off point for the ten-minute hike to the Shoshone Geyser Basin. This geyser basin is smaller than others in the park but no less active with bubbling hot pots and spouting geysers. When exploring this primitive area, take extra caution because there are no boardwalks like at Old Faithful and Norris. The extra care is worth it though; missing along with the boardwalks are the crowds the more popular and accessible thermal basins draw.

T

here may be no safe place to be in a boat on Shoshone Lake when even the slightest whitecaps are present, and they are definitely visible now as we look east across the water. We take our time exploring the geyser basin, eat lunch, and walk along the beach to kill time before agreeing the waves look manageable and putting our boat back onto the water. With the wind at our back, we arrive at our second campsite (8S7), on the north shore, within an hour.

I have never found a bad place to watch a Yellowstone sunset, and this campsite is no exception; the water settles to a glassy calm, creating a near-mirror image of the forest across the lake to the east while the disappearing sun paints the trees a hue of orange so deep it almost looks as if they are ablaze. After dinner we hang our cooler, food bag, and toiletries high on the site’s bear pole using a stout rope-andpulley system (two more items easily stowed in a canoe but impractical to carry on a backpacking trip). As we turn in for

DETAILS A boat permit is necessary for outings on any of Yellowstone’s lakes. Get these at the ranger stations at Bridge Bay, Grant Village, or Lewis Lake. Rangers will also inspect your watercraft to make sure it is free of aquatic pests like quagga mussels, an invasive species that could wreak havoc on Yellowstone’s native ecosystem. Everyone in your party must have a personal floatation device (i.e. a life jacket).

Campsite reservations are required for multi-day excursions in the park. Sites fill up quickly, and it’s recommended that you map out your itinerary and submit an application by the March 31 deadline. Applications filed by this date are processed in a random lottery. Reservation requests made after April 1 are processed in the order they are received starting after all of the lottery applications have been handled. nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/backcountryhiking.htm

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the night, the repetitive sound of ripples splashing against the shore lulls us to sleep.

As relaxing as the prior morning was, this morning is urgent—it is essential that we cross the lake as early in the day as possible, preferably just after sunrise. This early crossing is important because The Narrows, where we will cross, and, at one-third of a mile, the shortest distance between the north and south shores, often gets whitecaps earlier than the rest of the lake. Over the years, a handful of canoes and kayaks have capsized in The Narrows, some proving fatal for the paddlers in them. We agree to eat breakfast once we’ve made it across safely and eat only a snack before leaving the campsite.

Once across Shoshone Lake, the going is easy. The current pulls us down the Lewis River Channel and back to Lewis Lake and its motorboats and other watercraft. Within an hour of the channel depositing us in Lewis Lake, we’re back at the boat launch, and I’m already thinking about a return trip.

A LITTLE HISTORY European trappers likely first visited Shoshone Lake in the early to mid-1800s. During that time, it cycled through a number of unofficial names, including Snake Lake, DeSmet’s, DeLacy’s, and Madison Lake. (For a time, it was mistakenly thought to be the headwaters of the Madison River.)

“Shoshone Lake” first appeared on official maps from the second Hayden Survey to Yellowstone in 1872. The park’s second superintendant, Philetus Norris, called the name “a fitting record of the name of the Indians who frequented it.”

The Shoshone tribes lived primarily southwest of today’s Yellowstone National Park, however there is abundant evidence Native Americans routinely migrated through this region.

Since weight isn’t an issue when canoe camping, consider these splurges that you’d likely not bring if you had to carry them in a backpack.

There’s a reason Chaco’s Z/1 sandal has been a classic since its introduction in 1989. Adjustable straps ensure a secure, custom fit and a podiatrist-certified LUVSEAT footbed provides all-day comfort, whether you’re sitting in a boat paddling, walking in the water, or hiking around camp. From $95

The Minuteman Geyser in the Shoshone Geyser Basin on the west side of Shoshone Lake erupts every one to three minutes, tossing boiling water up to ten feet into the air.

“IT ’S A DIFFERENT RELATIONSHIP”

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Ust’s new self-inflating Fillmatic Camp Comfort Air Mat inflates in just seconds, and its four-inch foam core makes it hard to tell you’re not in your bed at home.

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EXPLORE

With the Grand Teton in the distance, a climber rappels into the south fork of Garnet Canyon from the northwest shoulder of Nez Perce after summiting the 11,901-foot peak. The allure of the Tetons has drawn climbers from all over the world for almost one hundred years.

ROCK ON

In rock climbing, the challenge and joy are in the journey rather than the destination.

No experience required. // BY MOLLY ABSOLON

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B R A D LY J . B O N E R

ROCK CLIMBING

The great thing about climbing with [a guide] is "that technical rock routes are possible for people like me who don’t have any experience.”

—MICHELLE ESCUDERO

R

ock climbing, at its most basic, is ascending cliffs, boulders, or artificial walls using one’s hands and feet.

For some people, it doesn’t get much deeper than that, but for others, climbing is an art form, requiring physical strength, gymnastic ability, focus, vision, mental control, problem-solving ability, endurance, and skill. Elite climbers say when everything comes together, climbing is about achieving a state of flow as focused as that of any yogi.

“I used to be a marathon runner,” says climber Chris Ballard. “When you run marathons, you spend hours working through your issues. Climbing is different. When I am climbing, I’m not thinking of anything else; all I can do is focus on the moment. It’s like a natural form of Adderall. I love that about the sport.”

Nonclimbers often assume rock climbing is scary and dangerous, and there are certainly hazards inherent in ascending cliff faces, but the numbers don’t actually support the idea that climbers are daredevils. The Outdoor Industry Association’s most recent participation report shows that roughly nine million people climb each year and there are, on average, about thirty climbing-related fatalities annually.

Between 2007 and 2018, Grand Teton National Park reported a total of fiftyfour deaths out of thirty-four million visitors. Of these fatalities, twenty were climbers, which comes out to an average of less than two people per year.

(For comparison, in June 2017 The Daily Californian’s Daily Clog reported

that vending machines fall on top of and kill an average of thirteen people a year; twenty-four people per year die from being hit by champagne corks; messy handwriting, especially of doctors, leads to 7,000 accidental deaths through mixed-up prescriptions; and 2,500 lefties die trying to use equipment designed for right-handed people.)

The Tetons and the Wind Rivers are two climbing areas to which people travel from all over the world, not only for hard routes that challenge the elite, but also for scores of easy to moderate rock climbs that allow people of all abilities to have the incredible experience of climbing in the alpine. Of course, roped alpine routes require a basic level of competency, but this doesn’t mean you can’t go if you lack experience. It just means you’ll need to hire a guide.

Two guide companies operate in Grand Teton National Park and the Wind Rivers: Exum Mountain Guides, founded in 1926 by Glenn Exum and Paul Petzoldt; and Jackson Hole Mountain Guides (JHMG), founded in 1968 by Jackson Hole ski instructor and guide Barry Corbet. “The great thing about climbing with [a guide] is that technical rock routes are possible for people like me who don’t have any experience,” says Michelle Escudero, who climbed the Grand Teton with JHMG and three childhood friends, all of whom had little to no climbing skills. “After we finished the climb, I remember thinking it was incredible that we actually did it.

But we felt totally safe the whole way.”

A Climber’s Guide to the Teton Range: Leigh Ortenburger, a climber, historian, and photographer, first began gathering information for a climbing guide to the Tetons soon after he arrived in the area in 1948.

His nearly-400-page “magnum opus,” published in 1956, contains descriptions, hand-drawn topo maps, photographs for more than ninety routes, and a wealth of meticulously researched historical information about the men and women who developed climbing in the Tetons. The book’s third edition, published posthumously under the guidance of former Grand Teton National Park climbing ranger Reynold Jackson, came out in 1996 and continues to be the most comprehensive guide to climbing in the Tetons.

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TETON CLIMBING HISTORY

R

ock climbing as a sport grew out of mountaineering. The earliest alpinists sought out “walkups,” mountains that required nothing more than feet to reach the summit. As these easier peaks were conquered, more adventuresome climbers began to look for harder challenges, until, by the 1950s, something shifted. A new breed of climber began moving away from peak climbs toward finding lines up steep cliffs.

Many of these new routes didn’t get to the top of anything. The goal was the journey, not the destination, and rock climbing became its own sport.

That new sport evolved quickly in places like California’s Yosemite National Park, the Shawangunk mountains in New York, and Colorado’s Front Range. Here, men (and the early pioneers were almost exclusively male although today men and women climb equally difficult grades) at the cutting edge of climbing were developing techniques and equipment that allowed them to ascend previously unclimbable cliffs. It didn’t take long for these innovations—which include things like sticky rubber shoes, steel pitons, removable “clean” protection, and dynamic climbing ropes—to spread to other climbing areas in the country, including Wyoming’s Tetons and Wind River Mountains. By the summer of 1960, about 2,300 people came to the Tetons exclusively to climb, according the National Park Service.

The clean granite walls found in the Tetons and the Wind Rivers gained fame among climbers, and many of the early rock routes were put up by names well known in climbing lore: Fred Beckey, Yvon Chouinard, Barry Corbet, Peter Lev, Mike Munger, Leigh and Irene Ortenburger, Richard

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Pownall, Al Read, Royal Robbins, and Willy Unsoeld. These innovators didn’t care about the high peaks. They wanted hard climbs that tested their physical skill and mental fortitude, and sought that challenge on cliff faces that led to nowhere: the south ridges of Mount Moran and the buttresses in Death Canyon and the south side of Disappointment Peak. Some of the most important climbs put up between the late 1950s and the 1970s continue to be classics; they include the Snaz, Raven Crack, Irene’s Arete, and the South Face of Symmetry Spire.

Climbing in the Tetons continues to evolve as advances in equipment and training transform cliff faces that were previously considered impossible into doable. Consider, for example, the North Face of the Grand Teton. In 1931, Fritiof Fryxell and Robert Underhill climbed what was then considered to be the most difficult rock route in the Tetons. Their ascent required some clever use of shoulders and pitons to overcome obstacles, but eventually the pair succeeded in reaching the summit, rating the climb 5.8. Today, 5.8 is considered moderately difficult, but then it was the peak of achievement and the only apparent way to ascend the Grand’s steep north face. But, in 2002, a new route went up next to this original line. Ascending a series of cracks that Fryxell and Underhill would have deemed impossible, Greg Collins and Hans Johnstone established the first 5.12 on the Grand Teton, a seven-pitch climb they named the Golden Pillar. And so, each year, new blank spots on the map are filled in with visionary lines that exceed the previous generation’s idea of the possible as climbing skill, equipment, and training continue to push the edge further and further into the impossible.

COURTESY PHOTO

ROCK CLIMBING

BARRY CORBET

T

he name of the founder of JHMG, Barry Corbet, might be familiar to skiers. One of the most iconic, and difficult, ski runs at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is Corbet’s Couloir.

Corbet spotted the narrow, north-facing funnel of snow high on Rendezvous Mountain and said, “Someday someone will ski that.”

He, however, never skied the line. Neither did he get to achieve his goal with Jackson Hole Mountain Guides—to focus on education rather than simply moving people to the top of a peak.

Three months after JHMG was founded in 1968, Corbet was paralyzed in a helicopter accident, and he subsequently sold the business.

ANGUS M. THUERMER JR.

Glenn Exum climbs the Exum Ridge of the Grand Teton in the summer of 1981 at age seventy on the fiftieth anniversary of his pioneering first ascent of the route.

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"

When I am climbing, I’m not thinking of anything else; all I can do is focus on the moment. It’s like a natural form of Adderall.

I love that about the sport.”

—CHRIS BALLARD

Try climbing for free and with low stakes at Teton Boulder Park. In Phil Baux Park at the base of Snow King Mountain in downtown Jackson, there are two large artificial boulders covered with climbing holds.

For a challenge, try to follow routes marked with colored tape, or just grab any hold and start to climb.

CLIMBING TRIP REPORT As told by Chris Ballard

COURTESY PHOTO / CHRIS BALLARD

T

he first time I climbed I was in my early twenties (I’m fifty now), and my father splurged and brought my brothers and my cousin to the Tetons from Virginia to climb the Grand with Exum Mountain Guides.

My cousin had done nothing to get ready but drink Coke and eat Doritos on the couch, so we didn’t even get to the Lower Saddle on that trip. My father and brothers and I came back the next year and summited. I guess that’s where it all started. I just loved being in the mountains, working hard, and getting to the top of things.

For years after that first experience, I kept coming out to do guided climbs, but sixteen years ago, I hooked up with Jackson Hole Mountain Guides’ guide Mike Poborsky, and I’ve mostly climbed with him since. He pushes me. I’ve climbed things I never thought I could with him, and so I keep coming back. It’s the thing I look forward to the most every year. Last summer we went into the Wind River Mountains to do the Cirque of the Towers Traverse, which was a big deal for me. You climb eleven different peaks, and the climbing is up to 5.8 in difficulty—5.8 is not super hard, but it’s still a lot of climbing, a lot of scrambling, and you do a bunch of it in the dark with a headlamp. We broke it up into two days, climbing the first two peaks—Pingora and Wolf’s Head—then camping and completing the rest of the route the following day. Wolf’s Head is probably coolest climb I’ve ever done. You follow a 1,000foot ridge that in places is as little as two-feet wide. The rock falls away below you for what looks like thousands of feet. I can’t believe the first climbers completed the route in leather boots. I was glad to have sticky rubber on my feet. At the end, I felt incredibly satisfied to have achieved our goal. I’d had two shoulder surgeries the year before, and couldn’t climb outside for eighteen months, so it was wonderful to be back out working on what was for me a big, exciting objective.

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Irene’s Arête, a classic 5.8 climb on Disappointment Peak in Garnet Canyon in GTNP, is named for Irene Ortenberger (Irene Beardsley after a second marriage), who made a first ascent of the line in 1957 with John Dietschy.

Ortenberger continued to put up hard climbs in the Tetons, including, in 1965 with Sue Swedlund, the first all-female ascent of the North Face of the Grand Teton. (Also, in 1965, she became the fourth woman to graduate from Stanford University with a PhD in physics.) In 1978, she was one of the first two women, and the first Americans, to climb Annapurna I, an 8,000-meter peak in Nepal.

The American Women’s Himalayan Expedition spent a year raising funds for the climb, including selling t-shirts with the slogan, “A Woman’s Place is on Top.”

Yosemite Decimal System The original Yosemite class system was created by the Sierra Club in the 1930s to indicate the difficulty of various hikes in the Sierra Nevada and has since been adopted elsewhere, including the Tetons.

CLASS 1: Hiking CLASS 2: Off-trail hiking CLASS 3: Scrambling that requires the use of hands

and feet

CLASS 4: Scrambling with exposure; some people may want a rope CLASS 5: Technical climbing

As technical climbs became more difficult, Class 5 was broken into rankings from 5.0 to 5.9. That scale broke down in the 1960s when climbers began putting up routes that were more difficult than the hardest existing 5.9. The grade now goes to 5.15.

TOM FROST

5.0–5.4: Easy climbing 5.5–5.6: Easy moderate 5.7–5.9: Moderate 5.10–5.12: Advanced 5.13–5.14: Elite 5.15: Virtuoso. Very few climbers have climbed 5.15

design

as of 2021. JH

Yvon Chouinard in the early 1970s.

Yvon Chouinard, one of the most influential figures in modern American climbing and American culture as the founder of Patagonia, traces his personal climbing history to his high school falconry club, with which he rappelled down cliff faces in search of raptor aeries.

Later, he decided climbing up cliffs looked fun as well.

Chouinard first came to Wyoming in the early 1950s to climb in the Wind River Range and the Tetons. He was only sixteen. Today he has a home in Moose, just outside GTNP.

Classic Teton Rock Routes 5.6 Southwest Ridge, Symmetry Spire: A beautiful, direct, and impressively steep route for its grade.

5.8 Irene’s Arête, Disappointment Peak: A knifeedged ridge known for its excellent rock quality, ease of access, and outstanding climbing.

5.9 Open Book, Disappointment Peak: The opposite of Irene’s Arête in nature, this climb follows a crack/ dihedral system on good rock with airy belays and spectacular exposure.

5.10 Snaz, Death Canyon: Classic crack climbing with lots of variety and a technical crux through a roof on the fourth pitch.

5.11 South Buttress Right, Mount Moran: Pitch after pitch of amazing granite, with an exciting fingertip traverse crux.

l o c a t within ed within

design within

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JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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Car Camping FIVE CAMPGROUNDS TO CHECK OUT // BY WHITNEY ROYSTER

C

101

ar camping is a wonderfully accessible

B R A D LY J . B O N E R

and easy way to be in the outdoors and sleep under some of the starriest skies in the lower forty-eight. It is an inexpensive way to feel rugged without having to carry a heavy backpack. However, finding campsites is getting more difficult: Last summer, there was a huge upswing in the number of car campers in Jackson Hole as people escaped Covidprone cities and took to spending more time in the outdoors. The expectation is for a continued rise this summer.

LET'S GO CAMPING! SHADOW MOUNTAIN

Shadow Mountains offers amazing Teton views, easy access, and lots of space—and it is removed enough to feel “away from it all.”

Heavily used by rookies and local summer workers living out of their cars—two groups who can be loud and leave messy camps.

Free. First-come/first-serve. The road on the upper two-thirds of the mountain requires a high-clearance vehicle. As of this summer, there are vault toilets.

WHERE: North of Kelly, Antelope Flats Rd. becomes Shadow Mountain Rd. and leads directly to this dispersed camping area in the BTNF.

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GROS VENTRE CAMPGROUND

Jackson is only a twenty-minute drive away, there are good cottonwood trees and shade cover, and the Snake River is a short walk; thirty-nine sites here have electic hookups.

With 279 sites, this is GTNP's biggest campground, so there's no feeling of escaping the crowds.

$38/night and reservations are required; these can be made six months in advance at recreation.gov. There are flush toilets and running water, but no showers.

WHERE: One of the six developed campgrounds in GTNP, it is four miles east of the Gros Ventre Junction, en route to the community of Kelly.

HEISE HOT SPRINGS CAMPGROUND With a 350-foot waterslide, hot spring pools, a zipline, pizzeria, and ninehole executive golf course, this is a playground with camping.

Same as what some campers think is great: it's got a waterslide, hot spring pools, a zipline, pizzeria, and ninehole executive golf course. $25-$39/night; make reservations at heisehotsprings.net; RV site options include full hookups, electiric only, and dry.

WHERE: About seventy miles from downtown Jackson, Heise Hot Springs is outside of Ririe, Idaho, near Idaho Falls.

Even before Covid, Grand Teton National Park’s (GTNP) six campgrounds were usually full every night, leaving car campers who arrived too late to get a spot in the park driving around the neighboring Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF) looking for a place to park and sleep. With GTNP moving from a first-come-first-served system for its campgrounds to advance reservations this past January, the only day-of camping available in the national park will be reserved spots that are no-shows. This will undoubtedly increase the pressure on adjacent national forest lands.

BTNF officials were already on duty last summer trying to educate people on camping etiquette. Forest staff found bear boxes overflowing with garbage (they’re meant for campers to safely store food, not to be trash receptacles) and campsites left full of trash. Camper behavior was so bad that the forest closed one of its most popular car camping areas, the Wedding Tree up the Gros Ventre Road. Throughout the valley, there was also car camping happening in areas where it is illegal—in roadside pullouts or even just on the side of the road. Let’s not do this again this year. Here are six very different campgrounds in the area where you can practice good camping etiquette.

MIKE HARRIS CAMPGROUND

BASIC RULES

OF CAR CAMPING must be fully extinguished 1 Campfires when camp is unoccupied.

2 Food and garbage must be stored in a hard-sided vehicle (or bear-proof container).

waste must be buried and 3 Human toilet paper removed.

vehicles must stay on the road 4 Motor and in marked campsites. must be taken with you when 5 Trash you leave.

CALAMITY CAMPGROUND

SPREAD CREEK/ TOPPINGS LAKE

This campground is small (in a good way), and there is hiking, mountain biking, and fishing nearby.

The campground is on Palisades Reservoir; there are lots of bathrooms, and there's a boat ramp.

Some sites have incredible Teton views, and you can get closeish to Spread Creek.

You can hear the traffic on Idaho Highway 33, and the ten sites here fill up fast.

The access road is bumpy, and tent sites can be rocky.

Because campsites here are large, it's likely another party will pull in and expect to share with you.

$17/night; reservations can be made starting in late May at recreation.gov. Vault toilets and drinking water.

WHERE: This campground sits in the CaribouTarghee National Forest just at the base of the western side of Teton Pass. The town of Victor is a five-minute drive away.

$17/night; reservations can be made starting in late May at recreation.gov. Vault toilets and drinking water.

WHERE: At the north end of Palisades Reservoir, this campground in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest is about an hour from Jackson.

Free. First-come/first-serve. A five-day stay limit is in effect from May 1 through Labor Day. No facilities.

WHERE: This area is in the BTNF off Forest Service Rd. 30310 and Spread Creek Rd. Both of these roads are several miles south of the Moran entrance to GTNP. JH

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] l e v a r Road G

Hit the

]

Leave the pavement (and traffic) behind in favor of riding on dirt and gravel roads. // TEXT AND PHOTOS BY DINA MISHEV

W

ith more than a quarter of all roads—about one million miles—in the U.S. being unpaved, and a growing feeling that riding alongside cars on highways isn’t worth the risk, you could ask why it took so long for gravel biking to take off. The first commercially available bike designed specifically for riding on fire roads, power-line trails, rail trails, and farm tracks—where stoplights are unknown and cars are few and far be-

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tween—made its debut less than a decade ago. (That bike was the Salsa Warbird, which came out in 2012.) Since then, though, gravel riding has exploded. “Gravel riding is a really great combination of the speed and excitement of road riding and the sense of adventure and going other places that mountain biking gives us,” says George Flynn, co-owner of Fitzgerald’s Bicycles and general manager of the store’s Jackson location. “The other

thing is that, as drivers have become more distracted, the traditional road rides we all used do are really scary.

Riding on gravel, you can get speed and excitement on roads that have far, far fewer cars, if any.”

Local bike shops rent gravel bikes.

(Fitzgerald’s has a demo fleet of madein-the-U.S. Allied Able carbon fiber gravel bikes.) Here are three of our favorite rides, listed in order from easiest to most challenging.

riding is a really great combination " Gravel of the speed and excitement of road riding and the sense of adventure and going other places that mountain biking gives us.”

—GEORGE FLYNN, CO-OWNER OF FITZGERALD’S BICYCLES AND JACKSON GENERAL MANAGER

1

I

n its entirety, Teton Valley’s AshtonTetonia Rail Trail is sixty miles roundtrip. If you’ve got the fitness and the time, by all means ride the whole thing. But the rail trail, the former Oregon Short Line Railroad, has access points along its length, allowing you to do sections as short as five miles.

Starting at either end, you can ride to a historic trestle bridge. From Ashton, it’s seven miles to the Conant Creek Trestle Bridge, a 780-foot-long bridge hanging 130 feet above Conant Creek. If you start in Tetonia, it’s ten miles to the Bitch Creek Trestle. Start at Judkins (near the intersection of Reece Rd. and W. 14250N), and it’s only two miles to the trestle bridge. parksandrecreation.idaho.gov/ parks/ashton-to-tetonia-trail

TOP: The JackpinePinochle Loop north of Felt, Idaho, is a little-traveled forest service road.

LEFT: There are numerous access points along the Ashton-Tetonia Rail Trail in Teton Valley, Idaho. Opened in 2011, the former railroad bed passes through farmland and, riding from north to south, has gorgeous views of the western side of the Tetons.

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ESSENTIAL GEAR

We assume you have a bike to use.

Here’s other gear you’ll want to make your gravel ride a success.

Octal X Spin helmet is highly ven+ POC’s tilated and has an extended shell that gives gravel riders extra protection. $250

new, lightweight (for its + CamelBak’s generous size) M.U.L.E. (Medium to

Ultra-Long Endeavors) Pro 14 pack has room for everything you might need on a long ride and a proprietary mesh back panel that keeps you from becoming a sweat monster. $149

Butt’r Coconut improves on its + Chamois original anti-chafe cream with the addition of organic coconut oil, a natural moisturizer, to its blend of shea butter, vitamins A & E, aloe vera, and tea tree oil. 8 oz. from $17

Izumi’s X-Alp Gravel shoe combines + Pearl the best of road riding and mountain biking

2

your hands happy with Castelli + Keep Arenberg Gel 2 gloves. These come in

half- and full-finger versions; both have gel padding under the knuckles, a palm with Castelli’s Dampening System (CDS), and micro suede on the thumb (for wiping your nose). From $29.99

oversize shield lens and minimal frame + The of POC’s Aim sunglasses give exceptional eye coverage and a larger field of view. If you fall, the frame’s snap hinges pop out, minimizing damage. $220

Izumi makes its chamois PRO short + Pearl (from $175) in a men’s and women’s fit

(you can get the men’s version as shorts or bibs), and both feature only seven panels, making them contour perfectly to your body.

Women should also consider Machines for Freedom’s Essential Short (from $148), which is designed to be compressive, comes in sizes from X-Small to XXX-Large, and has bacteriostatic chamois. Not comfortable in chamois shorts? Try POC’s Essential MTB shorts ($100). These come in men’s and women’s; both are made from a lightweight, stretchy fabric with a water-repellent treatment and have a raised back for extra protection and three zippered pockets. (They’re compatible with chamois shorts if you want the comfort of padding but not the look.)

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here are locals who do the 160-mile Around the Rock Loop in a single day. A more sane way to do it is over two days. The “rock” this ride goes around is the entire Teton Range, and Headwaters Lodge at Flagg Ranch is about halfway if you start the loop in Victor and ride clockwise. The first forty-ish miles from Victor are gorgeous gravel through rolling farmland and national forest. At Grassy Lake Rd. on the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway between Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, take a right and it’s a final twenty-five miles of gravel through the forest and past Grassy Lake Reservoir. The pavement starts again just before you get to Headwaters Lodge. Stay the night here and then you’ve got about eighty miles of smooth riding on US Highways 191/89/287, the Inner Park Loop Road, and, starting at Jenny Lake, pathways to downtown Jackson and Wilson. Ride Old Pass Road up the east side of Teton Pass. Descend back to Victor on Wyoming Highway 22. (You can also skip all of the pavement/highway riding and arrange for someone to meet you at Flagg Ranch with a car. It’s the Victor to Flagg Ranch part of this ride that is most epic.) Fitzgerald’s does an annual Around the Rock group ride on the summer solstice; fitzgeraldsbicycles.com

shoes: It’s got good walkability, but is still stiff when pushing on the pedals. The toes have extra protection against rocks. $150

3

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t’s likely you’ll see more piles of bear scat than cars, trucks, or UTVs on the twenty-five-mile Jackpine-Pinochle Loop that climbs about 1,800 vertical feet in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest north of Felt, Idaho. This ride in the northern Tetons starts off with several miles on the Ashton-Teton Rail Trail and then swerves east and takes you into what feels like the middle of nowhere. We recommend riding this loop counter-clockwise so you will hit the bumpiest sections while you’re pedaling uphill rather than flying downhill. Whether you follow this recommendation or not, the first half of the ride after you break from the rail trail is all up and the second half all down. In the middle, the road winds through aspens and pine trees and tops out at 7,200 feet. The Judkins parking area is on the Ashton-Tetonia Rail Trail at the intersection of Reece Rd. and W. 14250N, a couple of miles north of Felt. JH

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Largest Zipline in Wyoming 3 Miles from Yellowstone's East Gate | Open June 15 - Sept. 15 307.587.3125 | www.zipsg.com JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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EXPLORE GO! JACKSON

JUST A FEW THINGS TO DO IN

JACKSON HOLE

Go to jacksonholemagazine.com for more details.

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JACKSON y Ride the original section of the valley’s pathways system (p. 28).

yC heck to see if DJ VerT-OnE is playing anywhere in town (p. 30). y Grab dinner at Teton Tiger (p. 30).

TETON VILLAGE y Eat pizza on the deck at Calico (p. 64).

y Get a sweet treat at Mursell’s (p. 62).

y Check out the Teton County Fair (p. 150).

y R ide the pathway from R Park to Teton Village (p. 28).

y Sit on a bench in the Town Square reading a book by a local author (p. 27).

y Get food to-go from Figs or Local (p. 60).

y Hike the Wildflower trail at JHMR (p. 40).

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK y P icnic while watching for wildlife near the Lupine Meadows trailhead (p. 56). yW atch a Native American artist at work at Colter Bay Visitor Center (p. 66).

WILSON

FURTHER AFIELD

y Binge on the four-minute episodes of @yourgirlcatherine on Instagram (p. 70).

y Soak at the newly re-opened Astoria Hot Springs.

y Eat a fresh-baked bagel on the banks of Fish Creek.

y Canoe on Lewis Lake in Yellowstone, and, if you’re experienced, Shoshone Lake (p. 132).

y Catch a glimpse of Sublette County ranchers moving thousands of cattle to their summer grazing grounds in the national forest (p. 116). y Check out the Ashton-Tetonia Rail Trail in Teton Valley (p. 144).

y R ide your bike on the pathway from Moose to Jenny Lake (p. 28).

JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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CALENDAR SAVE THE DATE SUMMER 2021

MAY

28–31 OLD WEST DAYS The 40th annual Old West Days celebrate Jackson's rich history with live music, theatrical entertainment, arts and crafts, food, rodeo, and more. jacksonholechamber.com

TETON VALLEY REGIONAL LAND TRUST

JUNE

IN A LANDSCAPE

12 JACKSON HOLE HALF MARATHON Take this unique opportunity to run or walk from Stilson to Teton Village and back. jhhalf.com

CLASSICAL MUSIC IN THE WILD Classical pianist Hunter Noack creates an outdoor concert hall in Teton Valley, Idaho, to benefit the Jackson Hole Land Trust. Go to tetonlandtrust.org for information and tickets.

11

SEPTEMBER

Events below are based on information and Covid-19 conditions/restrictions as of mid May 2021. Please check with organizers to make sure the global pandemic has not further affected their event.

ONGOING JACKSON HOLE RODEO A long-standing Jackson tradition, the rodeo shows off Jackson's cowboy culture. jhrodeo.com YOGA ON THE TRAIL Do downward dog surrounded by sculptures of wildlife art and overlooking the National Elk Refuge at these free hour-long yoga classes at the National Museum of Wildlife Art. Led by teachers from several valley yoga studios, the classes are B.Y.O.M. (bring your own mat). wildlifeart.org JACKSON HOLE PARAGLIDING Tour Teton Village from above. No experience necessary to fly tandem with a professional pilot. jhparagliding.com JACKSON HOLE PEOPLE'S MARKET Browse fresh, local produce while enjoying prepared foods, music, and beer Wednesdays from June into September. tetonslowfood.org NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WILDLIFE ART This museum takes an expansive view of the wildlife art genre with its 5,000-plus-piece permanent collection. wildlifeart.org

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19 PLEIN AIR FEST Plein air painters create works while the public can watch on the National Museum of Wildlife Art's Sculpture Trail. Collectors bid on the artwork later in the afternoon. wildlifeart.org 24–26 JACKSON HOLE FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL Celebrate food, wine, sprits, and brews at this three-day event. jhfoodandwine.com

JULY

04 FOURTH OF JULY 10K This annual road race is a sure way to get your Independence Day off to a great start. skinnyskis.com 04 GRAND TETON MUSIC FESTIVAL

PATRIOTIC POPS Guest vocalist Capathia Jenkins joins the GTMF Orchestra to present a program of Independence Day favorites at the Center for the Arts Park in downtown Jackson. gtmf.org

23–25 56TH ANNUAL ART FAIR

JACKSON HOLE This outdoor, juried art fair draws artists and artisans from across the country while raising money for the Art Association of Jackson Hole. artassociation.org

23–August 23– August 1 TETON COUNTY FAIR This is the ultimate slice of local life, with games, rides, 4-H competitions, and concerts. tetoncountyfair.com

AUGUST

07 RENDEZVOUS MOUNTAIN HILL CLIMB This is one of the toughest mountain races out there, climbing 4,200 vertical feet over 6.1 miles. rendezvousmountainhillclimb.com

presents DRIGGS SUMMER ARTS @ 60 S. Main St., Driggs

CELEBRATING ART IN THE TETONS

DOWNTOWN SOUNDS Free outdoor concerts

July 4, 6:30 - 9:30pm July 25, 4:30 - 7:30pm August 14, 6:30 - 9:30pm SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARKS “Midsummer Night’s Dream” July 20, 6:30pm 10th DRIGGS PLEIN AIR FEST Main Events • July 25 - August 1 Competition Judging, Awards • July 30 Exhibition & Sale • July 25 - September 12

free

downtowndriggs.org

ART, MUSIC & THEATER

37T

H ANNUAL Stay in Driggs to enjoy the arts and explore our historic downtown with great shopping and dining.

SEPTEMBER 8 – 19, 2021 307.733.3316 + jacksonholechamber.com

JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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AS THE HOLE DEEPENS

Grand Prix de Yello Yellowstone // BY TIM SANDLIN // ILLUSTRATIONS BY BIRGITTA SIF

T

he summer of 2020 brought a veritable swarm of tourists to Yellowstone, which would have made for a slow Grand Prix de Yellowstone except for the missing hazard— tour buses. Those lumbering crosses between Triceratops and mud turtles were outlawed. Roads were wide open.

Or so thought Roger Ramsey, Clyde Walsowski-Smith, and the other race drivers. What they didn’t realize was how many of the coastal refugees fleeing the plague were amateur tourists. In an average year, most of the tourists have been here before and know not to slap their kids on a buffalo’s rump for a selfie uploaded straight to Instagram, and the rescue helicopter.

They also didn’t know hotels, campgrounds, and toilets would be shut, the restaurants takeout only, and the bears aggressive. Last fall, after the summer rush, Wyoming changed its state flower to the used Pamper.

Which brings us to the Grand Prix de Yellowstone. Basically, it’s one of those secrets that everyone knows, like Fox is to news what professional wrestling is to sports, and the Golden Globes are rigged.

The rules: Vehicles tear out of Flagg Ranch at noon on July 2. They rip around the 142-mile double Yellowstone loop, stopping at Lake for tacky souvenirs, Mammoth for Rocky Road ice cream, and Old Faithful where you must witness an eruption and say something inane. (Most drivers fall back on, “It used to be bigger.”)

Fifteen minutes are added if you receive a ticket, ten for running over an animal, and five for hitting a tourist. Five minutes are taken off for every sideswiped RV rearview mirror. Each driver has an observer on board to make certain the rules are followed—and to open snacks.

That’s where I came in. I was Braford Curtis’s observer.

Braford held the record for the only five-hour Yellowstone vacation in history, although there are rumors he skipped the upper loop to soak in the Firehole River.

Be that as it may, three cars, an SUV, and a pickup truck spun gravel at the stroke of noon—Clyde, Roger, Braford, Trixie Mudd with her sister Trippy, and my daughter Cora

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Ann with four gorpers I didn’t know. Lynette Mosebee raced a Diamondback bicycle on the theory the rest of us would spend eight hours in a bear jam like what happened in 2019.

Braford took the lead by shooting through the employees only lane at the entrance station. Braford is a Park employee.

Did I forget to mention that? Last summer he was head of mask enforcement.

At the north end of the Lewis River Canyon, Braford stopped his Ford Bronco dead middle of the road, jumped out, and ran to the canyon rim, pointing and hollering, “Griz!”

Cars slammed brakes, both behind and coming toward us; doors flew open; binoculars, tripods, and iPhones sprouted like umbrellas at the beach. In five minutes we had traffic trapped for miles both ways.

That’s when Braford strolled back to the Bronco and we drove off. He lit a cigarello and grunted, “It’ll take those jokers two hours to wade through that,” and it did. All except Lynette, who blew by us in the turn lane at Grant Village.

“We’ll lose her on Craig Pass,” Braford said.

At the Lake Hotel gift shop, we passed over bamboo bison socks, ten dollar painted rocks, shellacked slabs of Douglas fir with pithy sayings about the weakness of males, elk poop earrings, and a set of whiskey glasses each with its own mountain range embedded in the bottom until we found the king of national park tacky: the Tales of Yellowstone vinyl album written and recorded by Kevin Costner. There really is such a thing. When I gave it to my wife, she was floored.

At Mammoth, Braford switched out his Rocky Road for a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. When I threatened to report him, he bought me a shot of Grand Marnier to dribble over my ice cream.

Somewhere around the Madison River, we came up on an EIEIO (Eastern Idaho Early Irons Organization) rally—antique car nuts who had to really stretch to come up with a flippant acronym. The antique cars topped out at twenty-five miles an hour. Many had those multi-tone European sirens with volume control instead of horns, and, when we blew by them on the shoulder, they let loose with an Aw-OOOO-Gah that caused marmots to hibernate and moose to miscarry.

Braford waved and smiled.

As we swept onto the almost-but-not-quite cloverleaf leading into Old Faithful, Braford tossed me his phone.

“Check out the app to see when she’s blowing?”

“You have a geyser app?”

He nodded. “Got Old Faithful down to a thirty-second gap.”

I was dubious. “I don’t think Old Faithful is that faithful.”

Braford let out a snort. Picture an Irish wolfhound dry heaving grass. “Old Faithful’s been plugged since the 2009 earthquake, but YP and the Park Service had so much invested in hotels and museums they’ve plumbed it. Old Faithful is no more natural than a hedge funder’s empathy.”

That’s when we ran over a Uinta ground squirrel, generally known as a chiseler.

“You just lost ten minutes,” I said.

He downshifted with a jerk. “Squirrels are fake too. All the animals are artificial, and the trees and rocks. Nothing in Yellowstone Park is real anymore.”

“Where’d you hear that?”

“On the QAnon website, next to the “Cannibals of Beverly Hills” story. Amazon bought Yellowstone three years ago.

They’ve stashed it in a fulfillment center outside Conroe, Texas. It’s like Westworld. You ever see the TV show Westworld?”

“I don’t watch TV,” I said somewhat smugly.

“Everything is human designed, even most of the people here are brain-scooped clones.”

“How do you tell the real people from the clones?”

“The clones wear red hats.”

At the geyser boardwalk, Old Faithful gave some of those

false starts amateur tourists waste film on while Braford explained to two guys from Australia about Amazon controlling nature.

“You should look in the hole and see the pipe,” Braford said.

One Australian winked at the other. “We lie to tourists also. Every local the world over does.”

“Go ahead and walk on out there and check out Old Faithful’s gasket if you don’t believe me.”

So they did.

In the ensuing chaos, Braford and I slipped off back to the Bronco.

Braford chortled. “We’re going to beat five hours, easy.”

And we would have set the new record if, at the top of Craig Pass, we hadn’t been blocked by Cora Ann and her four gorpers who had joined an animal rights group to block the highway while a porcupine gave birth on the nopassing yellow stripe.

I got out and walked over to see how Cora Ann was doing.

She sat cross-legged on the pavement, drinking this thing called a strawberry lemonade vodka sloshie.

She said, “I wonder what it feels like to give birth to a porcupine? Wouldn’t there be prickles?”

I said, “They’re not real, you know. They’re Amazon Prime.”

“We know, but the animal rights people don’t. They’re naïve.”

Braford came stomping up. “I’m gonna kill that porcupine.”

Which leads to why we didn’t break the five-hour Yellowstone vacation and why Braford had to google “quill removal.” JH JACKSON HOLE | SUMMER 2021

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Traditional Alpine Accommodation

Pool, Hot tub, Sauna Complimentary Euro Breakfast Direct Mountain Access

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