Jackson Hole magazine Summer 2015

SUMMER 2015

GRIZZLIES

After nearly forty years, removal from the endangered species list is on the horizon. What happens next?

DINING

OUTDOORS

BUSINESS

HIKING

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LODGES AT SHOOTING STAR II With the North Cabins and Lodges at Shooting Star sold out, Shooting Star has released the Lodges at Fish Creek II, the Lodges at Shooting Star II, and the North Cabins II. A limited number of home sites and memberships are also being offered.

Shooting Star’s Tom Fazio Golf Course was recently ranked 3rd on Golfweek’s List of 100 Best Residential Courses.

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Jackson Hole

Summer 2015

68

Features 58

Life on the Lake

Jackson Lake is a jewel for recreationalists, whether they’re looking to catch fish or a wild ride.

BY MOLLY ABSOLON

68

Handing Off the Griz

Wyoming and its neighbors prepare to take over management of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s grizzly population. Will this include trophy hunts?

BY TODD WILKINSON

P H O T O G A L L E RY

78

Hot Stuff Yellowstone’s thermal features are out of this world.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF VANUGA

84

Moving Mountains

A recent landslide in the Gros Ventres is like a science book come to life. Get views of it via a ten-mile hike.

BY DINA MISHEV

ON THE COVER: Dubois-based photographer Jeff Vanuga caught this grizzly on the east side of Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone National Park. “That morning I was looking for bears and other wildlife,” he says. “I had seen the bear previously in the same general area and decided to look again.” Vanuga was approximately one hundred yards away, which is the required distance that photographers must keep when photographing predators in the national park. While Vanuga was a distance from this bear, “I have been nose to nose with a grizzly,” he says.

“It was during a camping trip years ago when I was awoken by a grizzly sniffing my face from inches away. I immediately shouted at the bear, and I think I startled it as much as myself. With a flashlight and under the light of a full moon I just watched it walk away and graze as if nothing happened.”

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

SCOTT MCKINLEY

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Jackson Hole

Summer 2015 Page

Best of JH GETTING OUT

107 Sky Rim

Hiking in Yellowstone is more than meadows and geysers.

TETONSCAPES

18 26

Chapel of the Transfiguration, R Park, The Cutt-Slam, Polo in the Tetons

BY MAGGIE THEODORA

114 Rope and Glory

PIQUED

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort’s Adventure Park

Some of our favorite summer stuff

BY JOOHEE MUROMCEW

Q&A

30 Meet the Locals

120 High in the Sky Scenic flights are controversial, and gorgeous.

Sara Flitner, Brian Schilling, Beau Walker

BY DINA MISHEV

ON THE JOB

36 Soaring for Her Salary

BODY & SOUL

128 Peak Eating

Becca Bredehoft’s working hours are spent as a tandem paragliding pilot.

When it comes to fueling Jackson’s elite athletes, real food trumps all.

BY LILA EDYTHE

BY RACHEL WALKER

BUSINESS

40 A New Brand of Beef Page

NIGHTLIFE

132 Jackson Uncorked

Oenophile? Here’s where to go.

Ranching changes—and doesn’t— with the times.

94

BY JOOHEE MUROMCEW

BY SUE MUNCASTER

DESIGN

44 Gear Up

DINING

136 Magnificent Morels

These foraged mushrooms are worth the wait.

Specialized rooms make for easy, organized gear storage.

BY MOLLY ABSOLON

LOOKING BACK

BY REBECCA HUNTINGTON

146

94 Women on the Tetons COURTESY CRAIGHEAD FAMILY

Women have been climbing in this range for nearly a century.

BY MOLLY LOOMIS

Teton County takes over regulating a portion of the Snake River.

BY MARK HUFFMAN

10

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Art With Purpose Art can be usable as well as beautiful.

BY MORGAN DINSDALE

156

OUTDOORS

100 Down By the River

ART SCENE

AS THE HOLE DEEPENS

The Run ’n’ Gun Offense

BY TIM SANDLIN

164

JACKSON HOLE MAPPED

166

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

PRICE CHAMBERS

JH Living

40

UNMATCHED EXPERIENCE EXCEPTIONAL RESULTS

#1 SELLING REAL ESTATE AGENT 2014 JACKSON HOLE SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY 307.739.8149 TomEvansRE@JHSIR.com Associate Broker TomEvansRealEstate.com Valerie Conger - Melinda Day - Tom Evans

Greetings from the Editor TELL ME I don’t have one of the best jobs in one of the most beautiful places in the world. My job description includes encouraging visitors to make the most of this valley and also finding unknown bits of awesomeness to share with longtime locals. Best of all is when these two tasks overlap, like in my piece, “Moving Mountains,” p. 84.

This story comes from my fascination with a recent landslide that has completely transformed an area in the Gros Ventre Wilderness. After seeing it for the first time last summer, I couldn’t stop telling friends—all right, and some strangers—about it. I’m sure people questioned my excitement over a mass of dirt, but I talked it up enough that several went to check it out on their own. I hope it inspires you to take the short(ish) hike to see geology in action and Jackson Hole’s newest lake, Crystal Lake.

Journalist Molly Absolon writes about a very different lake in “Life on the Lake,” p. 58. A self-professed “mountain person,” Absolon hadn’t spent any time on Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park before she got this assignment last summer, but by the end of her first day hanging out with the boaters who

12

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

love that body of water she was up on water skis, jumping the wake behind a powerboat.

As always, the talented Todd Wilkinson did an in-depth environmental feature for us. In “Handing Off the Griz,” p. 68, Wilkinson writes, “The restoration of wolves pales in comparison to an accomplishment never thought possible: the decadeslong rescue of the grizzly bear.” Listed as an endangered species in 1975, by the late 1980s these fierce predators were nearly impossible to find in Grand Teton National Park. Today there are upwards of sixty that live throughout Jackson Hole. Since it appears their delisting is imminent, Wilkinson looks at what the species’ future might be like.

Of course, we hope to inspire you to try new things, be it Jackson Hole Mountain Resort’s Adventure Park (“Rope and Glory,” p. 114), a scenic flight (“High in the Sky,” p. 120), hiking Yellowstone National Park’s Sky Rim (“Yellowstone’s Most Beautiful Hike?” p. 107), or a wine dinner at Dornan’s (“Jackson Uncorked,” p. 132). Looking for more than a one-off adventure? Maybe you’ll read about a day in the life of a tandem paragliding pilot in “Soaring for Her Salary,” p. 36, and start contemplating a new career.

As exciting as Becca Bredehoft’s job is—running off the summit of Rendezvous Mountain with a client attached to her harness—I still think mine is better. I hope you enjoy this issue of Jackson Hole magazine as much as I’ve enjoyed putting it together. – DINA MISHEV @DINAMISHEV

magazine

Jackson Hole

Summer 2015 // jacksonholemagazine.com

What’s the one activity you make sure to do with all your summer visitors?

PUBLISHER

Kevin Olson EDITOR

Hike up Crystal Butte or Sleeping Indian for the wildflowers and Teton views.

Dina Mishev ART DIRECTOR

I head to String Lake in Grand Teton National Park. Swimming beneath such stunning mountain views never loses its appeal or awe factor.

Colleen Valenstein PHOTO EDITOR

Bradly J. Boner

Take the Dreamcatcher Chairlift to the top of Grand Targhee Resort.

COPY EDITOR

Mountain biking on Teton Pass followed by a cold beer on the patio of the Stagecoach.

Pamela Periconi

Hike down from the top of Grand Targhee and eat and drink at the

base when you’re done.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Molly Absolon Morgan Dinsdale Lila Edythe Ben Graham Take a day trip into the Gros

Rebecca Huntington Mark Huffman Ventres; not so many people as

Molly Loomis Sue Muncaster Nest of pillows and sleeping in the national parks.

Joohee Muromcew Frederick Reimers bags in the back of the car Tim Sandlin Maggie Theodora at Driggs’ Spud Drive In, with Jeff Vanuga Rachel Walker Canoe or stand-up paddleboard Todd Wilkinson Gladys Burgers all around!

through String Lake to Leigh Lake.

Drinks and appetizers on the deck at Haydens Post

at Snow King Resort.

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Price Chambers Rebecca Huntington Thomas D. Mangelsen Derek Stal Jeff Vanuga

Jeff Diener Spend the night on the west side Sofia Jaramillo Scott McKinley of Leigh Lake; you can hike there, David J Swift but it’s more fun to paddle.

Ashley Wilkerson

ADVERTISING SALES

Deidre Norman

Jump off the rock on the Phelps Lake hike.

ADVERTISING ACCOUNT COORDINATOR

Oliver O’Connor AD DESIGN & PRODUCTION

Lydia Redzich Andy Edwards Sarah Grengg

DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Amy Golightly DISTRIBUTION

Drive up to the Curtis Canyon Overlook; it’s such a rush to look out over the valley.

Hank Smith Jeff Young

Pat Brodnik Kyra Griffin

OFFICE MANAGER

Kathleen Godines

© 2015 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.

SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

13

Contributors

A multimedia journalist, Rebecca Huntington (“Magnificent Morels,” p. 136) is a regular contributor to Wyoming Public Radio. She cowrote the one-hour documentary The Stagecoach Bar: An American Crossroads, which played on PBS stations nationwide, and is at work on another documentary featuring Jackson Hole conservation icon Bert Raynes. Rebecca has worked as a reporter for newspapers across the Northwest and completed a Ted Scripps Fellowship in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado.

Sue Muncaster (“A New Brand of Beef,” p. 40) is the founding editor of Teton Family magazine and the founder of Slow Food in the Tetons, a food and farming advocacy nonprofit. Her passion for cooking, writing, and photography stems from her love of good food eaten with friends and family, traveling the globe and seeing the impact of Westernization on traditional cultures, and her vision for a healthier, happier world for her children, Mariela and Nico.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Photographer Jeff Vanuga (“Hot Stuff,” p. 78) taught himself the trade of photography as a way of capturing and sharing his creative vision with others. His images have been published in National Geographic magazine, National Geographic Traveler, People Magazine, The Guardian, Outside, BBC Wildlife, National Wildlife, Audubon, Sierra magazine, The New York Times, and Smithsonian. Jeff also hosts TV shows on nature photography for the Outdoor Life Channel and Nature’s Best Photography magazine.

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Teton scapes

icon

Chapel of the Transfiguration

original. Columns did have to be added for structural support. In 2006 an expanded bride’s cabin was added, and every ten to fifteen years the buck and rail fence needs replacing.

Religion is not required to enjoy this historic chapel.

COURTESY JACKSON HOLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

BY MOLLY LOOMIS

Completed in 1925, the Chapel of the Transfiguration was built to offer services to the valley’s more northern residents and guests. It continues to conduct regular summer services and is one of the country’s most popular small wedding chapels.

“No wonder the hills and groves were God’s first temples ... ” – John Muir WORSHIP TAKES MANY forms in the Tetons, whether it’s climbing one of the Cathedral peaks (The Grand Teton, Teewinot, and Mount Owen), sitting quietly by the Snake River, or, more traditionally, with a service at the Chapel of the Transfiguration in Moose.

Nearly a century old, the chapel was born out of Leigh Lake summer residents’ frustration at making the bumpy commute every Sunday to the Episcopal Church in Jackson. One Sunday in 1923 served as the final straw: a broken Menor’s Ferry meant the faithful had to detour on the treacherous and longer Moose-Wilson Road.

MAUD NOBLE, AN early homesteader who lived in the area, enthusiastically donated land for the project, and other residents 18

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

took to fundraising and finding an architect.

Inspired by Our Father’s House in Ethete, Wyoming, which was built several years earlier (1919) and had windows framing a view of the Wind River Mountains, the Chapel of the Transfiguration was built in western Craftsman style by unknown carpenters, most likely dudes on area ranches. It was completed in 1925 and got its name from a verse in the Bible’s New Testament, Mark 9:2-13. The verse recounts when Jesus led three of his disciples into the mountains and transformed before their eyes. “You look at those mountains in the background and you see more than meets the eye,” says the Rev. Frank Johnson, a former rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Jackson who today oversees the chapel.

Designated on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, the chapel’s interior and exterior, bell tower, and lychgate are all

THE DAYS OF cowboys on horseback and wagons filled with visiting dudes racing to get to chapel on time are over, but still the Chapel of the Transfiguration’s two Sunday services— only held in summer, per tradition—draw upwards of seventy-five people. The rest of the year it hosts Christmas, Easter, and Valentine’s services for the warmly dressed.

(Valentine’s Day is especially for couples wanting to renew their vows.) In addition, about forty couples get married at the chapel every summer, and The New York Times noted the chapel is one of the country’s best small churches to get married in.

Recently retired rector the Rev. Ken Asel estimates nearly 50 percent of the congregation is local. Although the chapel is Episcopalian, Father Asel emphasizes that “everyone is encouraged to participate as they feel comfortable. Of all the aspects of religion, belief is the least important. Far more important than the intellectual beliefs is furthering good.”

FOR THE LAST fifteen years, the chapel has hosted visiting clergy from Episcopal churches across the United States and in the United Kingdom. Father Johnson, who is working on a book about the history of the Episcopal Church in the valley, says that no matter where you’re from it’s hard to stand in a place like the Chapel of the Transfiguration without crafting a sermon that references what’s outside the windows. After all, there’s not much between the glass and the great outdoors. Over the years, moose, bear, elk, badger, and lots of bats have participated in services in one way or another. There was even a chiseler that once ran over an unsuspecting bride’s dress. Johnson says that, true to place, there’s a Wyoming liturgy for Communion that ties the Lord’s Supper to the natural surroundings. JH Services are 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Sundays from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Call St. John’s Episcopal Church at 307/7332603 for additional information and details about holiday services.

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Teton scapes

the dirt at all,” says the mother of one of the boys. That, says Rohrbach, is exactly the point of this place.

The site was a working gravel pit for twenty years, so extensive rehabilitation is underway, but in the end, R Park’s directors want it to function just as well for wildlife as it does for kids. More unique is the park’s identity—a privately owned parcel with free access to the public. The forty-acre plot on the west bank of the Snake River—near the junction of Highway 22 and Highway 390— was purchased in 2011 by local conservation groups from a developer who had plans to turn it into three large homes. Instead, the park provides year-round recreation for thousands of people in a placid, natural setting.

What it doesn’t include are artificial play structures, says Rohrbach to a small audience of kids and parents. “Studies are showing that children not only need more time outdoors and in nature, but also need that time to be less structured and less scheduled,” she says. R Park’s five knolls are central to that idea—relatively natural spots kids can climb up and roll down or, come winter, sled. Also important are the park’s three ponds, which function as swimming holes in a valley particularly short of them (the Snake River is too cold and swift for swimming

community

R Park A new public park on the Snake River is on private land.

BY FREDERICK REIMERS ON A TOUR of the then-unfinished Rendezvous Park (R Park) last August, yellow front-end loaders whiz around an open space between tall cottonwood trees, spreading topsoil on what will be a central meadow.

A trio of young boys clambers eagerly up a twenty-five-foot-high earth mound, sending small cascades of dirt down.

“By next summer, these berms will all be grassy,” says Elisabeth Rohrbach, the park’s managing director. “I don’t think they mind

most of the year). When the park’s directors sought community input, of the more than five hundred comments, requests for safe outdoor swimming spots were numerous.

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COURTESY RENDEZVOUS R PARK

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WILDLIFE CONCERNS WERE high on that list as well. “Birders were very vocal about keeping habitat as intact as possible,” Rohrbach says. The park works with wildlife agencies and nonprofits to ensure there is optimal habitat for wildlife, including swans, geese, osprey, porcupine, and moose.

The cottonwood groves are preserved and extended, the central meadow will be planted with native grasses, and willows and cattails line the edges of the ponds, which are connected to the river and should provide optimal breeding for trout.

Also central to R Park’s identity is its location. Not only does the park feature one thousand feet of Snake River frontage, but it also abuts the busy Wilson Bridge boat ramp.

In addition, it is transversed by the newest segment of the valleywide paved pathway system and is the landing point for the brand-new $3.2 million pedestrian bridge over the Snake. “R Park really is at the hub of so much of Jackson Hole’s recreation,” says Laurie Andrews, director of the Jackson Hole Land Trust, whose organization, along with the LOR Foundation, purchased the land. The nonprofit partners created a separate entity, the Rendezvous Lands Conservancy, to administrate the park. It’s an unusual arrangement for a public park, but an essential innovation in a community where land is so expensive. (Andrews won’t disclose the amount paid for the parcel, but says it was “millions of dollars,” and the organization is fundraising $5 million for the park’s rehabilitation and maintenance alone.)

Without the nonprofits’ efforts, R Park could never have been created, says former Teton County Commissioner Ben Ellis, who proposed acquiring the gravel-mining site for a park with county funds during his time as a commissioner. “We just didn’t have the resources,” he says. “The Jackson Hole Land Trust has to be commended for their efforts.

This is an amazing gift to our community.” JH Note: Fundraising efforts for the Rendezvous Lands Conservancy are ongoing. To donate, visit rendezvouslandsconservancy.org.

Key

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1 Restored Waterways and Riparian Habitat

5 Teton County Pathways

9 Pathway Bridge

2 Nature Trail

6 Pathway Underpass

10 Plaza

3 Gravel Trail

7 Boat Ramp

4 Knoll

8 Historic Bridge

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

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Teton scapes

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COLORADO RIVER CUTTHROAT TROUT

SNAKE RIVER CUTTHROAT TROUT

— Scientific name: Oncorhynchus clarki pleuriticus Best places to catch: Upper Green River and tributary streams around Pinedale

— Scientific name: Oncorhynchus clarki behnkei Best places to catch: The Snake River and its primary tributaries—Fish and Flat creeks, and the Hoback, Gros Ventre, Salt, and Greys rivers

YELLOWSTONE CUTTHROAT TROUT

BONNEVILLE CUTTHROAT TROUT

— Scientific name: Oncorhynchus clarki bouvieri Best places to catch: Yellowstone Lake

— Scientific name: Oncorhynchus clarki utah Best places to catch: Smith Fork, Salt Creek, and Coal Creek

The Cutt-Slam

IT WAS 1996 when the late Ron Remmuch more than size. “Catching namick, the Pinedale-area fisheries coortive cutthroat is special, because each dinator for Wyoming Game and Fish, subspecies of cutthroat originated from came up with idea of the Cutt-Slam different drainages and has adapted to challenge. He wanted to educate ansurvive in each,” he says. Even though glers on the habitat requirements of they all have their own drainages, the cutthroat trout. True, cutthroat are not four subspecies are all “on the west.” known as the most difficult of prey.

This means they’re all located on the Some local fishing guides refer to them west side of Wyoming’s Continental as the “dumb blondes” of the trout Divide. Gipson estimates that a couple world, but they’re such aggressive feedhundred anglers complete the Cutters only because of the harsh environSlam annually.

BY CAROLINE MARKOWITZ ment and short summers—our harsh The cutthroat trout is the only trout ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOE TOMELLERI environment and short summers— native to Wyoming. In terms of poputhey’ve had to adapt to. lation, trout numbers aren’t low, but So what is the Cutt-Slam challenge? catching each subspecies in its native To complete it, anglers must catch all four federally recognized cuthabitat is tricky. There’s one spot in the state where you can catch throat subspecies in their native drainages: Colorado River Cutthroat, three of the four subspecies, the Tri-Basin Divide, in the Wyoming Bonneville Cutthroat, Snake River Cutthroat, and Yellowstone CutRange south of Jackson Hole. (You’ll still have to go to the Yellowthroat. Rob Gipson, G&F’s regional fisheries supervisor for the Snake stone River drainage for the Yellowstone cutthroat).

River drainage, and the seventh fisherman to successfully complete Even today, almost two decades after Gipson finished his Cuttthe Cutt-Slam, back in 1997, says the aim isn’t the end result. “There’s Slam, reminiscing about the experience brings a smile to his face. He not a time frame for completion,” Gipson says. “The whole concept keeps his Cutt-Slam certificate, the same certificate every angler who is for anglers to understand that there are four different [cutthroat] completes the challenge receives after submitting photographic proof subspecies in Wyoming. Catching all four is difficult because they’re of their catches to Game and Fish, hanging on his office wall. Gipson so geographically separated.” says, “I’ve talked to a lot of people who’ve completed the Cutt-Slam and everyone talks about how they had a really good time doing it.” JH IN COMPLETING THE challenge, a component of fishing that’s typiFind an interactive Cutt-Slam map at cuttslam.com/interactivecally lauded most—size—doesn’t matter. Spencer Morton, the foundfishing-map. er of the Jackson Hole Fly Fishing School, says the Cutt-Slam is about

Catch all four species of cutthroat trout native to Wyoming and you’ve got serious bragging rights.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Snake River Sporting Club Cabin

ED LIEBZEIT Associate Broker Ed.Liebzeit@jhsir.com (307) 413-1618

EdInJackson.com

As the most desirable cabin available in the Snake River Sporting Club, this property sits atop a private knoll with green space surrounding all sides. 3,288 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, 2 car garage. $2,395,000. #14-2896.

185 W. Broadway

$3,875,000 #14-2924

Jackson Hole, WY

$2,400,000 #14-2595

$975,000 #14-1555

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: 1) Old world and modern European styling with 4 bedrooms / 5 baths, sited on 5.2 acres with elevated views. 2) Rolling contours, views of the Tetons, Aerial Tram, and Aspen groves create a peaceful 8.25 acre setting. 3) Utmost privacy and elevated views of ranch land and the Sleeping Indian can be enjoyed from this 6.4 acre lot. 4) Circular views from this 3 acre parcel include the Grand Teton and it’s surrounding peaks, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, and the Sleeping Indian.

www.AudreyWilliamsRealEstate.com

Audrey L. Williams Associate Broker (307) 690-3044

$1,250,000 #15-282

Teton scapes

outdoors

Polo Under the Tetons THWACK! THE SOUND of a mallet striking a hard, plastic ball rings out over a field. Thirtytwo hooves pound the earth, sending up dust and a thunderous roar that echoes through the surrounding hills. Atop each horse sits a well-dressed but sweaty rider, mallet in hand, chasing the ball that was just hit downfield.

Jackson Hole might be best known for mountain pursuits, but this scene—polo— plays out in the valley every summer. Dozens of players from around the country, including Texas, Tennessee, and Mississippi, make an annual sojourn here, bringing friends, family, and even their horses along. They are the Jackson Hole Polo Club, founded in 1966 by Paul Von Gontard.

Von Gontard, now eighty-two, learned to play polo as a young man in his native St. Louis, Missouri, and brought it to Jackson Hole when his family began spending summers here after World War II. Von Gontard found the valley to be fertile ground for the sport; horses and horsemen abounded. In the earliest days of Jackson Hole polo—before the club was officially formed—Von Gontard and friends organized games on freshly cut hayfields, using a rubber ball and, for mallets, brooms with the bristles cut off.

Today, the club has dozens of members but most live elsewhere. Almost all local-born players have either retired or passed away.

Last summer, twenty-eight players came to the valley, staying from late June through August and, on many days, playing multiple games. “The majority of our members have played twenty-plus years, and they’ve competed in high-stakes games,” says Polo Club manager Craig Ramsby. The club sometimes invites professional players, which ups the level of competition even more. Melody Ranch, where the polo grounds are located, 24

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

BRADLY J. BONER

BY BEN GRAHAM

The Jackson Hole Polo Club plays a summer season at Melody Ranch.

was boarding two hundred horses at last season’s peak. “It’s great to get up there in the mountains and the clear air,” says club member Bayard Erb, fifty-five. Erb travels to Jackson from his home in Memphis, Tennessee. “Everybody just wants to be out here.

There’s not a more beautiful place to be during that time.”

If the full truth be told, club members aren’t just here for the polo. It’s also an extremely active social organization. Members host cookouts, organize trail rides, and enjoy river trips. “They come to play polo, but they also come to Jackson for the good life,” Ramsby says. “We probably outdo everybody on river trips.” One of the club’s sayings is, “We may not win every tournament, but we never lose a party.”

FOR THE UNINITIATED, the basic rules of polo are both simple and complicated. The simple version: two teams of four players on a ten-acre field try to score in the opposing team’s goal. Complicated: there are rules about which rider has the right-of-way in different situations, what qualifies as a foul, and how riders can approach the ball. Regardless

of your level of understanding, the speed and power of the game is thrilling to watch.

Excelling at the sport requires teamwork and practice but also “a whole lot of horsemanship,” Erb says. Competent western riders can catch onto the horse part quickly, he explains. But strategy takes longer to learn.

Players describe the sport as a “war game” and a “chess match.” Want to become a member and play? Seasonal dues are currently $5,500.

Matches are mostly free and open to the public. Games begin the first week of July and take place through the end of August. If you only catch one match, though, it’s (sadly) one that’s not free: annually the club hosts Stomping the Divots, a benefit for the Jackson Hole Therapeutic Riding Association. Set for August 1 and priced at $300 per person this year, Stomping the Divots includes more than just polo—there’s a seated dinner and live music by the Richard Brown Orchestra.

Ramsby says it isn’t necessarily black tie, but people do dress up, have a good time, and watch some great polo. JH jacksonholepoloclub.com

INTRODUCING

Woodside Estate 6,800 SQUARE FEET • 6 BEDROOMS • 7 BATHROOMS • PRICE UPON REQUEST For more information contact Chris Grant WOODSIDEESTATEJH.COM • 307/413-3814 • CHRIS.GRANT@JHSIR.COM

PROPERTIESJACKSONHOLE.COM JACKSON HOLE’S BEST PROPERTY SEARCH WEBSITE

Top Producers 2013 & 2014

JH Living

1/ WARM AND WOOLY Voormi’s Access Pullover uses perhaps the most advanced wool out there—the patent-pending, weather-resistant Surface Hardened Thermal Wool Technology with four-way stretch merino blended with nylon—but we love it most for its lightly fleeced, highly huggable wool/synthetic interior. And its great looks. The fact that it’s the most bada** bit of wool out there is just a big bonus. $199, Wyoming Outfitters, Wilson Backcountry Sports, voormi.com

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2/ FLOATING DOG Because yoga in a studio is so 2005, Boardworks’ new Joy Ride Flow SUP Board is made to bring your practice to the water. A stable platform with graceful glide characteristics, the 9’11” board has a single fin, a bamboo deck, killer seafoam graphics, and a “yoga mat”-style pad made of comfy, nonchafing, soft croc skin EVA. And if you decide your yoga practice is best kept to the studio, the Flow makes for a fine nonyoga SUP experience, too ... just be prepared to be on the best-looking board on the river. $1,349, boardworkssurf.com

3/ THE PERFECT SHOE “I had been looking for a simple, classic-yet-modern espadrille with a little bit of a heel,” says Dartmouth and Harvard Business School grad Mira Lee. “I wasn’t able to find what I was looking for so I did the most nonsensible, next-best thing: I decided to design and make them.” Meet Mira Espadrilles. Lee, who lived in New York, Boston, and Hong Kong before moving to Jackson and still holds down a full-time job in finance, took inspiration from the old Jacques Cohen espadrilles and added her own design take.

The result is an espadrille in fun colors—heathered black, heathered oatmeal, and heathered Nantucket red—with a two-inch heel, a solid toe, and none of that silly ribbon that wraps up your calf. $40, Altitude, miraespadrilles.com

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4/ MULTIPURPOSE PANTS

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If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes. That’s fine and all, but how do you handle that when you’re up on the Teton Crest Trail in shorts? Meet Black Diamond’s Dawn Patrol LT Pants. Available in men’s and women’s, these lightweight, stretchy, softshell pants are built to handle any weather, breathing well when it’s warm and repelling wind and rain if you get caught in stormy weather. $199, Teton Mountaineering, blackdiamondequipment.com

5/ SAVE YOUR HANDS

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Winter here might be the worst for dry hands, but summer’s still no picnic. Especially since we’re outside without gloves so much. Enter jane iredale’s HandDrink Hand Cream. Every drop hydrates without being greasy and also protects your skin with SPF 15.

Apple, green tea, and blackberry extracts brighten skin tone and help prevent dark spots. $29, janeiredale.com

#1 Rated Golf Course in Wyoming - Golf Digest 2015

New Construction - Ready for You: Summer 2015

Introducing Tall Timber Cottages Snake River Sporting Club presents Tall Timber Cottages, slated for completion Summer 2015. With nearly 3,000 sq. ft. of luxury living, each 4 bedroom, 4.5 bathroom home will be located along the fairways of our Tom Weiskopf signature golf course with beautiful views of the Snake River Canyon and surrounding mountains.

Highlights include: extensive porches, vaulted ceilings, an open floor plan, exposed timber beams and log accents, high quality finishes and top of the line appliances. Pre-completion pricing starting at $2,395,000.

Life, Well Played SnakeRiverSportingClub.com JacksonHoleObsidian.com

for membership information: LB Haney at 307.201.2567

CALL THE SNAKE RIVER SPORTING CLUB SALES TEAM TODAY 307.439.1574 Chip Marvin | Fred Harness | Katie Robertson | Ryan Block | Ryan Wright.

JH Living

6/ LIGHT THE NIGHT Big Agnes invented sleeping systems (sleeping bags and pads that go together) a while ago and changed the way campers slept. Their newest innovation—tents with LED lights integrated into the tent body—is even more of a game-changer. The company’s mtnGLO collection includes tents in a variety of sizes; our fav for car-camping families is the four-person Chimney Creek. Lights included. $450, Teton Mountaineering, bigagnes.com

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7/ KEEPING DRINKS COOL (AND HOT) Avex, makers of some of our favorite leak-proof, good-looking travel coffee mugs, debuted its insulated, stainless-steel Spirits line this spring. The Brew tumbler keeps 20 ounces of beer chilled, while the Claret keeps 13 ounces of your favorite red wine at the perfect temp. Do your tastes run more toward cocktails? The 13-ounce Sundowner has you covered.

All three have a padded base. Of course the Brew has an integrated bottle opener. From $19.99, Grand Teton Lodge Company, avexsport.com

8/ SUNSCREEN FOR YOUR GEAR

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It’s not just you that needs sunscreen. Your gear does, too.

Nikwax’s Concentrated Tent & Gear SolarProof can double the life of fabrics by protecting them from powerful solar rays. Bonus? The concentrate also adds water repellency.

Unlike other waterproofing products, this one is water-based, nonflammable, and contains no VOCs. Also, it can be applied to wet or dry fabrics. Your tent (and backpack and jackets) will thank you. $18.25, Skinny Skis, nikwax.com

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9/ ONE PACK TO CARRY IT ALL

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For a day at least. Black Diamond’s 26-liter Nitro pack comes in a burnt orange color (officially deep torch) that pops in photos. But this daypack isn’t just pretty. Its reACTIV suspension and high-flow OpenAir back panel keep you comfortable and dry. Front, side, and hip-belt stretch pockets and zippered panel access allow you to perfectly organize everything you need for a full day in the mountains. What about the electronics pouch, you ask? Of course it’s fleecelined. $140, blackdiamondequipment.com

10/ SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE Founded by a member of the American Mountain Guides Association, Brooks-Range makes a small selection of products for mountain life and makes them well. We love the Short-Sleeve Wool Shirt—available in men’s and women’s and incorporating Polartec Power Dry Technology—for its simplicity and price. Expect to pay twice as much for similar wool shirts by bigger name brands. $35, brooks-range.com

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11/ FUNCTION MEETS FASHION

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Ibex’s Twist Tee Shirt is pricey, but we think it’s worth every penny. We wore it to dinner at the Snake River Grill a couple of nights before we wore it on a hike to Lake Solitude. It looks that good. On the functional side, it’s made from Ibex’s weightless wool: a nylon core is wrapped with wool to create a hardy fiber, without bulk or weight, that is softer, more durable, and lighter than synthetic workout fabrics. $90, ibex.com JH

ABOVE ALL ELSE PURE JACKSON HOLE Slopeside Land, Build Your Dream Home

PRESENTING TWO PREMIERE HOME SITES OF THE LAST FEW REMAINING UNDEVELOPED TRUE SKI-IN/ SKI-OUT BUILDING SITES LEFT IN TETON VILLAGE

One of only Four Undeveloped Front-Line, Ski-In/Ski Out Sites

Larry Berlin Architectural Plans and permits are available. Call for details

• .64 Acres • Frontline ski-in/ski-out building sites with unmatched views of the Sleeping Indian, Jackson Peak... Adjacent to National Forrest and miles of hiking and biking trails.

• Larry Berlin Architectural Plans and permits available separately • $4,000,000

• .67 Acres • Best priced building site in Granite Ridge, easy ski in, close proximity to Four Seasons Resort, Teewinot ski run and heart of Teton Village.

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Associate Broker

Associate Broker

307.413.2822 Jake.Kilgrow@jhsir.com

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PRICE CHAMBERS

JH Living

Sara Flitner LIKE MANY WHO have come to call Jackson Hole home, Sara Flitner didn’t intend on staying long-term when she first landed here as a college student in a seasonal job. Twenty-five years later, though, Flitner is not only still here but, last January, was sworn in as Jackson’s mayor. The forty-eight-year-old says it was the people she met that kept her in this valley. Over her decades in Jackson Hole, Flitner has started a family—her husband, Bill Wotkyns, is a businessman, and their kids, Pete and Silas, are thirteen and fifteen—and had multiple careers. Her current one is doing executive coaching and leadership development; formerly she worked with legislators in Cheyenne. When Flitner, who grew up raising 4-H animals and had daily chores on a cattle ranch outside of Shell in the north-central part of the state, entered politics as a candidate herself for the first time last year, it wasn’t easy: she won by just forty votes.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Q: How’d you get to Jackson from Shell?

A: I came for a summer and worked at Jedediah’s. My best friend from college was here, and the waitressing money was good.

Q: You grew up in Wyoming; had you ever been to Jackson before?

A: I had. My family didn’t come every year, but we’d come to ski and visit like lots of people. I was probably in the fourth grade or so when we started coming.

Q: What did you think about the valley?

A: My first impression was how incredibly high the snowbanks were in the

street. We would stay at the Anvil [Motel] and walk around downtown, and I remember these huge twelve-foot embankments. And I also remember the haystacks.

Q: When did you realize this was going to be your home?

A: Even when I was waitressing and not yet employed with a real job, it was clear there were interesting, passionate people here who wanted to protect this place.

That’s a sign of vitality. There’s energy in being surrounded by people who feel there is important work to be done and are willing to do it. I saw that as soon as I moved here.

A life lived wild is a life well lived.

your life!

Q: What did you give up to stay here?

A: Law school. In my first year here I recognized I didn’t want to be a lawyer.

Q: When you were waitressing, did you ever think you’d run for Jackson’s mayor?

A: No. It’s kind of mind-blowing to think about.

Q: What was it like being a twentysomething here in the early ’90s?

A: Exciting. We experienced the same pressures everyone talks about today.

Housing was always a worry. We worried that if we stayed here, could we find jobs that allowed us to afford to have a home and a family.

Q: How’d you transition away from waitressing?

A: I did what everyone does—got my real estate license. But I was the worst Realtor on the planet. That lasted just six months. I saw a Chamber of Commerce advertisement for a marketing assistant. I got that job and ultimately became the visitors council director. By then I had been here for four years. That sounded like a long time.

Q: Did you ever think about leaving?

A: No. There were times my husband got job offers in other places, but I had my heels dug in. We were not leaving.

Q: What’s the biggest difference between you and Mark Barron, the former mayor [of twelve years] and a friend of yours?

A: I’m shorter!

INTERVIEW BY BEN GRAHAM

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BRADLY J. BONER

JH Living

Brian Schilling BRIAN SCHILLING HAS a vision. The almost-film school student, former biotech researcher, and current Jackson Hole Community Pathways coordinator imagines a day when people can pedal, walk, run, and toddle throughout the county without having to share the road with trucks and cars. Since assuming the helm at Pathways in 2006, his dream has progressed: Jackson Hole now has nearly sixty miles of paths for nonmotorized travel, including what might be the country’s most beautiful pathway, linking downtown Jackson to Grand Teton National Park. But there’s still plenty to do, such as connecting Jackson to the West Bank and Teton Pass, and working with GTNP on alternative transportation modes for the Moose-Wilson Road.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Q: How’d you get from biotech to biking?

A: Cycling had long been a passion of mine, and I’d been involved in Pathways as an advocate and as a member of the volunteer advisory board for the county when the previous coordinator left. I was ready for a professional change. Pathways were something I was passionate about.

Q: What are the challenges of working with pathways?

A: They’re not financial—if you have a good project and plan, you can get funding. They’re not technical, because building these isn’t rocket science. The main hurdles are political: working within the

process of the county and town government, and making sure I’m not too far ahead of where the county and commissioners want to be and not too far behind what the community wants.

Q: Who uses pathways?

A: All ages. Not everyone is an athletic thirty-year-old; we have to create an environment where it’s safe for a kid to ride to school and for a family to walk to the grocery store. Some people don’t understand why we would spend any money for people walking or biking, and that comes from a perception that pathways are built for the use of Lycra-clad bike racers. But those folks are out there regardless of whether or not there’s a pathway. Pathways are a way to get everyone else out—the people who don’t want to ride on the shoulder of a major highway with cars going seventy miles per hour.

Jackson Wyoming Real Estate

live where you love

Q: You’re one of those Lycra-clad racers, aren’t you?

A: I used to be. I started racing bikes my senior year of high school, ran and raced bikes through college, and raced road bikes the first few years I moved here. Today I mountain bike, and I ride my bike to work almost year-round.

Q: Year-round?

A: Yes. When it’s just me I have to worry about, I actually have no excuse other than my own mental limits or motivation—I’ll admit that when it’s 10 below it can be hard to convince yourself to get on your bike. But with the right gear it is actually pretty easy to protect yourself from the cold.

Q: So if it’s not weather that stops you, what does?

A: When I have to shuttle a kid or pick someone up at the airport or carry something too big for the bike. The kid excuse is winter-only, though—they’re back on the bike when the roads are clear. My reluctance to ride with them isn’t weather-related, it’s a safety concern. I just haven’t quite convinced myself or my wife that it’s a good idea to tow kids when there’s ice on the roads.

If I could ride a separated pathway the entire way, then it wouldn’t be an issue, and the kids would have to endure their dad’s goofiness about riding bikes even during the winter.

INTERVIEW BY RACHEL WALKER

JacksonListings.com WilsonListings.com TetonVillageListings.com Broker/Owner

Representing Buyers and Sellers in Jackson Hole since 1989 Teri@TeriMcCarthy.com 307.690.6906

www.JacksonWyomingRealEstate.com SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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PRICE CHAMBERS

JH Living

Beau Walker BEAU WALKER IS a renaissance tween. A speedy reader since kindergarten, Beau, now eleven, has an appetite for books voracious enough to break a mother’s back.

Luckily his mom, Jen, doesn’t mind hauling home thirty-plus books a week from Teton County Library. Beau doesn’t just like books; he likes hefty, hardcover tomes, such as Smithsonian’s Knowledge Encyclopedia: The World As You’ve Never Seen It Before, The Big Book of Things to Make, and Rube Goldberg Inventions. (These are just a few of the titles he’s checking out during our interview at the library.) Books don’t consume all of his time, though. He plays sports—swimming, Nordic skiing, downhill skiing, lacrosse, and fishing. Since learning to fish, he has built a custom rod and started tying his own flies. He also likes to dabble in experiments and creations, with the ideas often sparking from books.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Q: Your earliest memory of going to the library?

A: Checking out a pile of Dr. Seuss books for my dad to read to me.

Q: How do you decide what to read?

A: I like browsing through all the books to see what I can find. That’s how I found my favorite series, Adventurers Wanted [M.L. Forman]. It’s about a boy who walks into a shop with a magical sign that says “Adventurers Wanted.

Apply Within.”

Q: What’s your favorite book?

A: My favorite book—I wish it was a series—is The Swiss Family Robinson.

Q: How did you get into fishing?

A: My Uncle Steve [Dennis] gave me a fly rod, which started it all, and my dad gave me an Ugly Stik, a brand of spincasting rods.

Q: But you still made your own fly rod?

A: That’s a sad story. It started out as a two-piece rod, and now it’s a threepiece rod.

HOMES INSPIRED BY

living.

Q: Did books teach you how to make it?

A: No. Teton County 4-H Sport Fishing Club and Will (Dornan of Snake River Anglers) helped.

Q: Did you get to use your rod before it broke?

A: Once. On the Gros Ventre River. It was torture. By the end of the day, I thought the river was trying to get me to leave. There were so many sticks sticking out at so many angles, waiting to catch your line on the back cast. I didn’t get one good cast in.

Q: What fly would you like to master tying?

A: A stonefly or a mayfly—mayflies because they are really delicate, or a stonefly because you have to do all of the layering perfectly or it doesn’t look like a stonefly.

Q: What have you been up to this summer?

A: Visiting my teacher, I found a book in her classroom. She let me take it home for the summer. She spoils us.

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Q: What’s the book?

A: Unbored: The Essential Field Guide to Serious Fun. Q: Did it give you any ideas for an experiment?

A: If I had the correct materials, detecting ethanol. You take yeast and put it in a bottle with water and biomass, which is sawdust or dried leaves, and then you put a balloon on the top of the bottle.

You can’t see ethanol, but ethanol puts off carbon dioxide, and you can see the balloon fill up.

BABBS, BRANdON, dAve, StePHANIe, LIz

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www.SPACKMANSINJH.COM (307) 739-8156 | SPACKMANS@JHSIR.COM

INTERVIEW BY REBECCA HUNTINGTON

SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

35

JH Living

on the job

Soaring for Her Salary Running off the top of a mountain with a passenger strapped to her chest is part of Becca Bredehoft’s job as a tandem paragliding pilot.

BY LILA EDYTHE PHOTOGRAPHY BY SOFIA JARAMILLO

“IT TOOK A little while for my mom to think this was a good idea, but now she’s totally on board,” says tandem paragliding pilot Becca Bredehoft about her current career choice.

Bredehoft, thirty-one, went for her first tandem flight—as a passenger—in New Zealand when she was twelve. Her father and brother also did tandem flights then, but mom opted out.

Becca Bredehoft has been a tandem pilot for five years and flying for twelve years. She took her first paragliding lesson at age twelve.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Back stateside, several months later Bredehoft, her dad, and brother were taking paragliding lessons, making the nine-hour drive most weekends from their home in Billings, Montana, to Salt Lake City, which offered the nearest paragliding school at the time. Bredehoft began flying solo when she was fourteen and completed the requirements necessary for her novice pilot’s rating at sixteen.

“I have this journal entry I wrote after my first-ever flight— the one in New Zealand. I remember being totally blown away by it, but the whole entry is about how much my brother hates me,” says Bredehoft. “It’s pretty hilarious looking back on it now. That was the very beginning of how I started this whole path to a paragliding career and all the entries are about Patrick. Nothing really about flying.”

While she was in college at the University of Colorado Boulder studying Spanish, Portuguese, and environmental studies, Bredehoft met a crew of Jackson Hole-based paragliders. “They were all awesome and talked about how awesome the flying was in Jackson,” she says. “I came up to check it out and never really left. By my senior year I was scheduling all of my classes for Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’d use Wednesdays for homework, and I’d drive to Jackson every weekend.”

Bredehoft enjoyed flying solo for years, but eventually came to want to share it with family and friends. Of course, a licensed paragliding pilot can’t just buy a tandem harness and wing—that’s what paragliding “parachutes” are called, wings— and take someone out. To even get to the point where you can begin training to be a tandem pilot, you must have a minimum of five hundred solo flights. “Then you have to do a minimum of twenty-five flights with other pilots in your tandem seat,”

Bredehoft’s dog, Rok, tries to keep up during a solo outing at Curtis Canyon on the eastern side of the valley.

Bredehoft says. “But your first tandem one has to be with an official tandem administrator. You have to keep doing these flights with other pilots and checking in with the tandem administrator until he’s happy. You might have to do fifty flights before that happens. It’s not a definite number.”

BREDEHOFT FIRST FLEW with a tandem administrator in 2007. By 2010 she had earned her tandem license and was a pilot with Jackson Hole Paragliding. But being a commercial tandem pilot wasn’t a no-brainer. “My original motivation for learning to fly tandem was to share it with family and friends,” Bredehoft says.

“But once you drop $5,000 or $6,000 on

a setup that is only good for tandem flying, you wonder how you can pay for it.

I really had to think about taking something I did for fun and turning it into work. It’s a double-edged sword. You can share your passion with other people, but there’s also a business side and less fun stuff associated with it.”

What’s the job interview like for a tandem paragliding pilot? “JH Paragliding doesn’t really hire people from the outside,” Bredehoft says. “Most people who fly for us started flying in Jackson Hole and grew up into it. I was here flying for a good many years before I started flying for them.”

When conditions permit, Bredehoft usually has three scheduled flights with clients each morning—7:45, 8:45, and 9:45—daily from June through August.

Flights are scheduled in the morning because that is when the winds are optimal

at the top of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort tram in Teton Village, from where the majority of JH Paragliding flights leave. If the winds are still good after Bredehoft’s 9:45 flight she and the dozen or so other JH Paragliding tandem pilots “go fishing” for clients. “It’s pretty easy to find people that want to go flying,” she says. One day last summer another pilot got eight commercial flights in a single day. “That’s the most anyone has ever done at the Village,” Bredehoft says.

The scheduled JH Paragliding flights are often booked up weeks in advance.

BREDEHOFT IS THE only female pilot at JH Paragliding. Wherever she’s worked in the world—New Zealand, Nepal, Ghana—that has been the case.

At 120 pounds, she does have to employ slightly different tactics than her male counterparts. “If someone tries to do SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

37

something weird on a launch, I can’t catch them and push them off the hill like a bigger guy can,” she says. “I think I have to do more of the preflight psychology stuff than the guys do.”

Tandem pilots do not meet their clients until just as they’re about to board the tram. Between that time and the time they’ll be running together off the 10,450-foot summit of Rendezvous Mountain, Bredehoft “makes chitchat that helps me figure out if a client is scared, nervous, excited, or overconfident,” she says. “I’ve got twenty to thirty minutes to read someone,” she says. “Because we have so little time to figure people out, we do stereotype, but we also know that people can surprise you.”

Bredehoft says a New Zealand tandem paragliding pilot calls tandem clients “little assassins.” “He’s only kind of joking,” Bredehoft says. “Anyone can mess it up for you; we all keep that in the back of our heads.”

The most difficult part of a tandem flight is the launch, which is dependent on wind. If there is no wind, the pilot and client, strapped into the same harness with the client in front, run down Rendezvous Bowl at the top of the tram. The incline of the slope helps, “but we’re still talking about really running,” Bredehoft says. “We’ll start at a walk and I’ll be feathering the wing out behind and then we’ll just start picking up speed until the wind catches us and we’re up in the air.” If there’s a stiff wind—but not too stiff; when there’s too much wind, for safety reasons flights are canceled—launching is easier. You don’t have to run at all, in fact. “The wind will catch the wing and we’ll actually get yanked backwards and up into the air,” Bredehoft says.

THE DAY BREDEHOFT takes me for a flight, conditions are somewhere in between, and we briefly walk, then jog, before there’s no longer any ground beneath our feet. Both of us then settle back into the harness—if you’re seated correctly, it’s as comfortable as a sit hammock; if you’re not, the webbing cuts the blood flow to your legs off and it’s amazingly uncomfortable.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Bredehoft flies with a client above Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

Flying solo, Bredehoft enjoys acrobatics. “It’s paragliding’s equivalent of a terrain park,” she says. “You’re doing all sorts of fun maneuvers.” With clients, she will do some safe maneuvers like wingovers, loops, and asymmetric spirals, but only if a client says it’s all right. Even with permission, “people do get sick in the air,” Bredehoft says. “I have not gotten vomit in my face, but I have friends it has happened to.”

“Tandem flying really isn’t all that different from flying solo, with the exceptions that you’ve got someone to talk to and you’re responsible for keeping someone besides yourself safe,” Bredehoft says. “But that is a big responsibility.”

BREDEHOFT ADMITS SHE has had some clients assigned to her “that get that deer-in-the-headlights look” when they first see her. She says women either want to fly with her or with some “really big, strong guy.” “Honestly, I have no problem if someone doesn’t want to fly with me. If they’re second-guessing, I don’t want them attached to me. That’s not safe. Also, I want people to feel comfortable.”

Bredehoft’s favorite clients are the ones “who are really excited about flying,” she says. “I do get some people who it seems like they’re just doing it to cross it off a list and that’s not so fun. But those people are rare.”

Bredehoft once made a client cry. “We launched and she was pretty quiet,” Bredehoft says. “I didn’t know if she was quiet because she was scared or what. It turns out she was crying. She was able to tell me they were good tears. And then I said, ‘I’m going to start crying now, too.’ It turns out she had never been west of Pennsylvania before, and it was her first day in Jackson and she was so overwhelmed by the beauty and what she was doing. That was a great day of work for me.”

307/690-8726, jhparagliding.com JH

JH Living

business

A New Brand of Beef Ranching changes—and doesn’t—with the times.

PRICE CHAMBERS

BY SUE MUNCASTER

“If this ground is as valuable as they say it is, there’s no way that I can see that our kids are going to stay here and keep ranching. I hope they are not that dumb. Us old fellows ... we’ll probably ride it out, but the kids aren’t going to do it. I mean, they’re going to put her in the bank and go on down the road.”

– Earl Hardeman, Jackson Hole Guide July 10, 1986

THE PICTURE OF farming in America, according to the 2012 USDA Census of Agriculture, isn’t pretty. Between 2007 40

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

and 2012, America lost 95,000 farms— about 4.3% of the 2.2 million farms operating in 2007. Most of those farms were small—42% were smaller than 50 acres and 51% were between 50 and 499 acres.

Thankfully, the 1986 prediction Hardeman made in conjunction with his quote above—“in twenty to twentyfive years, there won’t be another mother cow raised in Jackson Hole”—is wrong.

In spite of skyrocketing land prices, loss of grazing allotments, long, cold winters, price fluctuations, brucellosis, and an

Cody Lockhart and Thomas Watsabaugh separate calves for an inspection at the Lockhart Cattle Company.

increasing number of predators, this valley still has fields dotted with cattle, and the horses, weathered barns, and giant loaves of golden hay that accompany the herds. Hardeman underestimated the passion for the land and the ranching lifestyle, the perseverance, and the creativity that a handful of longtime ranching families have shown they have.

Despite how valuable property is in

COURTESY GILL FAMILY

Jackson Hole, families here are still in the business of beef.

“I went on my first cattle drive when I was nine years old,” says Nikki Gill. “I rode my horse, Buck, next to my dad for two days in the shadow of the Tetons, just like my great-grandfather and my grandfather before me. While we no longer drive our cattle to summer range in Grand Teton National Park, much of our operation is the same as it was when my greatgrandfather started the Jackson Hole Hereford Ranch over eighty years ago.” Despite a severe allergy to hay and a good job with a startup in San Francisco, Gill returned to Jackson in 2012 to work her family’s ranch.

The Jackson Hole Hereford Ranch’s history dates back to at least 1898, when pioneer rancher, conservationist, and photographer Stephen Leek homesteaded his first eighty acres, where Jackson Hole High School sits today. In 1938, Gill’s great-

A nine-year-old Nikki Gill, left, rides behind her father, Robert, during a 1997 cattle drive to summer grazing allotments in Grand Teton National Park. Nikki left Jackson Hole for college and lived for a short time in San Francisco, but returned in 2012 to work the family ranch.

grandfather, Bruce Porter—a pharmacist, the owner of the original Jackson Drug, and a rancher (he began raising a Hereford herd in 1926)—bought Leek’s land to add to other property he owned at Dog Creek near Astoria Hot Springs.

Porter’s estate grew and was eventually passed down to his grandchildren, Robert (Nikki’s father) and his sister, Elizabeth, who divided it into two ranches: Robert’s parcel to the west kept the Jackson Hole Hereford Ranch OVO brand, and Elizabeth’s parcel to the east became Lockhart Cattle Company with a new brand (a heart with an L inside). In 2004, years of breeding a select bloodline—the same one that Porter got going in 1926—came to a tragic end. Brucellosis was discovered in the herd and every last cow was slaughtered, as required by federal regulation. The family started over.

THE GILLS RUN the Jackson Hole Hereford Ranch as a “cowcalf operation.” They keep a permanent herd whose calves are sold on the open market each fall as twelve- to eighteen-monthold steers. Historically the steers would go to large cattle buyers and were shipped off by train or semitruck to feed lots. Since the arrival of the Internet the Gills sell their livestock over DirecTV through Superior Livestock Auctions, where hearty cattle from this zone of the country demand top prices.

Nikki recently convinced her family that even better prices

would come from keeping some of the meat here in Jackson Hole. “I wanted to get involved in doing local beef and decided to start with a beef CSA [Community Supported Agriculture].

This way, people have an option of buying local meat in more manageable quantities [rather than a whole or half a cow at a time, the amounts historically available directly from ranches],” she explains. These cattle are finished on spent brewers’ grain from local breweries. This produces a fattier product some consumers prefer over the leaner meat that comes from 100 percent grass-fed beef.

THE LOCKHART CATTLE Company is headquartered in the barns and white clapboard house Leek built in 1904 just south of the high school and is run by Elizabeth, her husband Kelly Lockhart, and their sons. After the brucellosis tragedy, raising hormone- and antibioticfree grass-fed beef for local sale became the main mission of Porter’s greatgrandsons (and Nikki’s cousins), Cody and Chase.

Lockhart Cattle Company also continues a tradition of raising and selling registered Hereford seed stock bulls.

When asked when they started their grass-fed beef operation, Cody makes the point that grass-fed beef has always existed in Jackson Hole. It’s just that consumers have recently begun to be aware of what grass-fed beef is and how it differs from beef raised on a diet of grain. “We are doing things virtually the same as we were one hundred years ago—feeding Jackson grass to Jackson cattle,” he says. Grass-fed cattle take longer— anywhere from eighteen to thirty months—to grow than those fed grain. But the Lockharts think it’s worth it. The family started local sales small, selling whole animals directly to area consumers. And then Will Bradof, co-founder and chef at Jackson restaurants Trio and Local, put Lockhart beef on the menu. Business took off.

“In a traditional Wyoming cattle-ranch model the rancher raises the calves, they leave at twelve to eighteen months to go to feedlot, are then bought by one of the four giant slaughterhouses in the U.S., then go on to a distributor like Sysco, and finally make it to a grocery store or fast-food chain. A steak trades hands six or seven times before getting to the consumer,” Cody explains.

The ultimate goal for the Lockhart brothers is to be in charge of their cattle from field to fork. To this end they have learned about pricing, distribution, inventory, and branding— as it relates to marketing, not just keeping track of animals.

Lockhart steaks, slaughtered and butchered a few miles down the road at Hog Island Meats, a custom processing shop they helped establish, never leave Jackson Hole.

THE LOCKHARTS ARE not the first valley ranchers to sell local. Ten years ago, Kate Mead, who owns Mead Ranch Natural Beef with husband Brad, suggested their traditional cow-calf SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

41

operation along Spring Gulch on land homesteaded by Brad’s great-grandfather, P.C. Hansen, in the early 1900s could be more humane and more profitable. When Kate presented her idea to sell grass-fed certified Angus cattle locally, Brad recalls, “I thought it was ridiculous.” Still, he sold Kate twelve calves from the herd. Kate’s plan was to sell them at the Jackson Hole Farmers Market, which itself was just starting at the time, and to local restaurants and grocers. Today the Meads raise about 350 calves a year; they sell 250 as natural beef through video auction in the fall, and keep about 100 to sell locally and breed.

“There’s an emotional component to doing it this way,” Brad says. “The cattle all end up as beef, but they never go to a feedlot, and Kate never feeds them corn, something that ends up giving them abscesses on their livers [requiring antibiotics].” The Meads, like Nikki Gill, fatten the cattle on spent grain from Snake River Brewing.

Kate can also be credited with the wildly successful ideas of selling dog bones at the farmers market and hosting farm-to-field events. (The Meads annually host an Outstanding in the Field dinner at the ranch.)

Where to Buy Local – LOCKHART CATTLE COMPANY – lockhartcattle.com • Aspens Market • Liquor Down South Market • Local • Local Butcher • Lift • The People’s Market, 5-7 p.m. Wednesdays at the base of Snow King Mountain • Signal Mountain Lodge • Trio • Whole and half animals can be ordered online – JACKSON HOLE HEREFORD RANCH – facebook.com/jhherefordranch • CSA subscription available online • Jackson Hole Farmers Market, 8 a.m.-noon Saturdays on the Town Square – MEAD RANCH NATURAL BEEF – meadranchbeef.com • Calico • Jackson Hole Farmers Market, 8 a.m.-noon Saturdays on the Town Square • Mangy Moose • Pearl St. Market • Snake River Brewery • Snake River Grill

“AGRICULTURE TODAY, WHETHER you are in Chile, Montana, or Wyoming, you have to use your resources, be creative,” says Snake River Ranch manager Lance Johnsen. “We’ve evolved like any business, by learning by mistakes and successes. We don’t do it ‘just like grandpa did.’ ” One of the valley’s largest ranches, the Snake River Ranch was founded by Stanley Resor. Beginning in 1929, after making his fortune as president of one of the world’s most prominent advertising agencies, the J. Walter Thompson Company, Resor bought land north and south of Wilson. The ranch passed down to his grandchildren, and Johnsen, a Montana native who isn’t related, has been instrumental in helping the family develop what he describes as a successful “forward-thinking agricultural enterprise that operates a traditional business in a twenty-first-century setting.”

The Snake River Ranch avoids the high cost of feeding hay to cattle during the long winters by running a natural “yearling cattle operation” with their “year” beginning in the fall when they buy five-hundred- to six-hundred-pound “natural” calves from ranches in Oregon, California, and Nevada that receive no hormones or antibiotics. These cattle are kept on leased pastures in California until spring, when they arrive in Jackson and spend the summer foraging on irrigated pasture.

Beginning in September the animals are weighed and sorted, and three hundred to five hundred per day are shipped to “natural beef ” programs around the country like Meyer Natural Angus, Tyson, or to restaurants and grocery stores like 42

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Whole Foods and Wegmans. The ranching operation is further supported by guided fishing and hunting on its lands and renting pastures out for special events like weddings.

And then there are Bob and Kate Lucas, who ranch the U Lazy U. All the ranches mentioned above evolved with the local food and natural grassfed beef movements and rely on offranch income from other professions.

The Lucases, whom all of the ranchers interviewed have an almost-hero worship for—run their operation as they always have. According to Bob’s high school buddy, Brad Mead, this couple “are the real deal of ranching in Jackson Hole” because they continue to ranch the U Lazy U, a traditional cow-calf operation that fronts the Snake River south of South Park, entirely on their own. (It’s no wonder Bob was too busy to interview!)

Various other remaining family ranches, like the iconic “bread loaf ” Walton Ranch just east of the Snake River Bridge in Wilson, continue to run either cow-calf or yearling operations for sale on the wholesale market entirely through hired hands while the family members enjoy other professions and the ability to come and go from Jackson Hole.

ANY REMAINING RANCHER in Jackson Hole could have traded freezing March mornings snipping umbilical cords on newborn calves for a lifetime of powder days or surfing in Hawaii, had they developed their prime real estate. In order to maintain the ranching lifestyle and be able to pass down land to heirs, many have turned to conservation easements—innovative deals contracted between landowners and organizations like the Jackson Hole Land Trust or government agencies— whereby a landowner sells or donates a piece of land with voluntarily restrictions for future use. In return, they get federal tax incentives and, for tax purposes, the land put under easement is valued as not developable, rather than taxed at its unrestricted value.

In the Greater Yellowstone region, which includes Jackson Hole, 140 properties totaling nearly 25,000 acres have been protected by conservation easements. Over 8,000 of these acres conserve a portion—or all—of a property still in ranching or agricultural use. This doesn’t just help ranchers’ bottom lines: for wildlife, it creates a mosaic of prime habitat; for people, it preserves scenic views.

The Meads attribute their ability to continue ranching in Jackson Hole to the efforts of the Jackson Hole Land Trust. “If it weren’t for the efforts of the Land Trust, Earl Hardeman would have been right. Their efforts to protect land in perpetuity make it likely that family ranches will continue to operate,” Brad says. JH

CHOOSE THE STRENGTH OF SUCCESS

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JH Living

44

design

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Gear Up Specialized rooms make for easy, organized gear storage, and might also double as a home gym or yoga space.

PRICE CHAMBERS

BY MOLLY ABSOLON

THE GREATEST SPORTS/gear room I ever saw was in a townhouse my brother rented. Who knows what the original intention for the space was, but it made the perfect gym and storage area, with four walk-in closets lining one wall. He could stash his equipment and also had a huge, open space for workCarson Stanwood’s modern Wilson ing out. home features a gear room much like a large walk-in closet with a You don’t often luck into sliding door. “Now I come home a gear room like that. In from a ride or ski, change and most homes it seems as if dump the gear, slide the panel such a space is an aftershut, and I don’t have to look at all that stuff,” Stanwood says. thought, with architects, owners, and designers spending more time on living rooms, kitchens, and master bedrooms and baths. But for many people—especially Jackson athletes—a sports-specific room is one of the most important, most loved, and most used rooms in their home.

SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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“Of all the things that drove me crazy about my old house, the worst was the clutter,” says Carson Stanwood, who had Eric Logan of Jackson’s Carney Logan Burke Architects design a house that included what has become known as a gear vault. “I had a mud room [in my old house] that was hopelessly overstocked with everyday jackets, but also all my gear for cycling, skiing, snowboarding, motorcycling, etc.,” Stanwood says. “Eric designed a closet space and big gear room, both of which have sliding panel doors. Now I come home from a ride or ski, change and dump the gear, slide the panel shut, and I don’t have to look at all that stuff. It’s simple, but it makes for a less-cluttered existence.”

Architects, owners, and designers often spend more time on living rooms, kitchens, and master bedrooms and baths. But for many people— especially Jackson athletes—a sports-specific room is one of the most important, most loved, and most used rooms in their home.

To help come up with the design for the gear vault, Logan peppered Stanwood with questions. What time did he get home? What did he carry through the front door? What worked in his current home? What didn’t? Stanwood’s answers resulted in the vault, with its hooks, shelves, drying racks, space, and, most importantly, the sliding doors that hide it all. For Stanwood, those doors have been enough to make his home feel organized and spacious, and that’s just what he wanted.

NOT ALL SPORTS-specific rooms stop at storage. Carney Logan Burke designed a gear barn for a home near the airport. The barn has a workout space with a treadmill, stationary bike, Stairmaster, and weights, plus space to store the family’s skis, bikes, and other equipment. It also has an entertainment room with cushy, overstuffed chairs and surround sound.

“I wanted it to look like a big television screen,” the barn’s owner says about the windows lining one wall of the work-

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Photographer : Audrey Hall, David Swift

scottsdale,az

jackson,wy

clbarchitects.com

Inspired by Place

DAVID J SWIFT

out space. “The windows face an open area. I wanted to be able to watch animals. One day I was running on the treadmill, and a moose with a baby walked by. It was a dream come true. I was like, ‘Yes, it actually happened!’ ” The gear barn is designed to be comfortable and inviting, and the owner says someone in the family, which includes four boys, is there every day either work-

ing out or lounging in the entertainment room playing video games or watching movies. Having such a space for relaxation and exercise helps keep everyone happy, but it’s more than utilitarian. The owner, with the help of her designer, paid careful attention to details. She found Thomas Molesworth chairs at Fighting Bear Antiques to place around a table where the family puts together

From the outside this looks like a historic barn. Inside, it has a Stairmaster, treadmill, weights, stationary bike, and entertainment area with surround sound.

jigsaw puzzles and used antique decorations from a horse’s bridle to make handles for the doors. Big, comfortable rocking chairs line the front porch. The property brand is integrated into the floor tiles. The roof is made from cor-

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BUILDING HOMES IN Jackson Hole naturally invites interaction with place.

In such a spectacular setting, designers and homeowners want to bring the outside inside. Margot Snowdon’s home in the John Dodge subdivision off Teton Village Road is focused around large banks of windows that open out over a pond surrounded by native grasses with the Snake River in the near distance.

A longtime yoga instructor who, years ago, opened the state’s first yoga studio, Snowdon wanted her home to include a private place to practice yoga that captured a sense of peace, quiet, and serenity. In response to that desire, Logan designed a simple, spare room with a north-facing wall of windows.

The room is painted white, and the floor is made from a blonde wood. A small al-

DAVID J SWIFT

rugated tin, and weathered-gray hardwood siding makes the exterior of the building look like a real barn. “It has a genuine barn door that you can open,” the owner says. “The kids can shoot BB guns out it, but really what I wanted was the full glass windows where you could see animals.”

cove in the west wall serves as a spirit shelf. When I visited, Snowdon had a photo of B.K.S. Iyengar, with whom she’d studied and who had recently died, propped up next to candles. A blue yoga mat lay out on the floor, ready for use.

Snowdon’s daughter, Ariana, showed me around the house. She, too, is studying to be a yoga teacher and says that when she is visiting her parents, she en-

From inside the gear barn, its owner has spotted moose walking by.

joys using the room. “It’s all set up, so it’s easy,” she says. Logan says he sought to capitalize on the unique light of the space. “It’s a very small room,” he says.

“But it feels bigger because of the window, which lets in this beautiful, calming view with a diffuse, gentle north light.”

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Logan says when he is designing custom rooms for a special purpose, he goes deeper with clients to best respond to their needs. “There’s a lot of back and forth in the process,” he says. “It’s interesting, especially when it is something we haven’t done before. How many master bedrooms have we done? How many master baths? Hundreds. These special rooms have different challenges, though.”

In addition to the yoga studio, the Snowdon house has an indoor endless pool. Windows cover three of the four sides of the room, and a redwood deck surrounds the pool. The trees outside create dappled patterns of light on the water. “When I’m home I use the pool all the time, especially in the winter,” Ariana says. “I love the light in here. It’s such a quiet, Zen space.”

But the space is not always quiet.

Snowdon’s husband, Yves Desgouttes, plays the bagpipes; the endless pool room doubles as his bagpipe studio.

“Apparently it’s hard for bagpipes to be in such a dry climate,” Ariana says. “So he stores his bagpipes and practices with them in here.”

MULTIPURPOSE ROOMS LIKE this are integral to George Barlow and Liz Brimmer’s downtown home, designed

by Nona Yehia of E/Ye Design. The first floor of their house has two rooms and two closets, but “closet” doesn’t begin to capture the nature of what the couple has created in these smallish spaces.

Barlow’s closet is also his ammunitionloading room, fly-tying space, and office.

The rooms around it serve as guest bedrooms, a sewing room, and Brimmer’s home office. “We wanted our house to be used,” Barlow says. “So we looked for ways to make the rooms multipurpose.

We didn’t want a guest room that sits empty most of the time.”

To create his workspace, Barlow thought about his vision during the design process. Barlow’s room requires extra electrical outlets to ensure adequate power and light for his detailed work. He needed more room than if he were just storing clothes, so the space is a bit bigger than an average closet. He reinforced the walls so he could hang shelves and other items wherever he wanted. The key, Barlow says, is to have his tools ready for use at any time. “If you have to set something up every time,” he says, “it’s less likely to get used.”

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When Margot Snowdon and her husband built their home near the Snake River, she asked architect Eric Logan to create a small, private place with a serene view to practice yoga.

RICHARD AND KATHY Jolley acted on that same premise in the design of their house, which was done by Stephen Dynia and includes a gym. The couple knew if their weights and exercise equipment were stored in the garage, they were unlikely to get used, regardless of their best intentions. Modeled after a CrossFit gym, the Jolleys’ gym has a treadmill, a rowing machine, and a Stairmaster. There’s also a fingerboard, pull-up bars, kettlebells, and free weights. Rubber straps hang from hooks, and a large wooden box is ready for stepups and box jumps. The floor is covered with a rubberized mat, and one wall is reinforced for wall throws and handstand pushups. “We like the convenience aspect of having our own gym,” Richard Jolley says, “for when you go for a quick

mountain bike ride or ski and you still want to hit the weights.”

He laughs and adds, “Only in Jackson, of course.”

“Both my wife and I work from A Design Studio featuring PlaneWood™ home,” he says. “So even when we just by design case pieces have forty-five minutes we can get a really good workout in. It gets used every day, especially by my wife. She’s an exercise fanatic.”

But keeping in shape is important to Richard as well. “It’s nice to be fit enough to be able to get out and enjoy things without feeling like you are carrying a piano on your back,” he says. “And now football season is coming up. I figure it’s better for me to watch football in here 307.739.3008 while I’m working out than to sit on the jjstiremandesign.com 307-739-3008 jjstireman@wyoming.com jjstiremandesign.com couch shoveling Doritos into my mouth, aging rapidly.” JH SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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Special Interest Feature

79 ACRES WITH HOME ON THE HENRY’S FORK

Peak Properties THE FACTOR THAT makes the Jackson Hole real estate market so unusual is the relative scarcity of private land. Ninety-seven 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.

THREE BALL RANCH IN BOULDER, WYOMING

1,848 acres

—

bedrooms

—

baths

4,500,000 dollars

15-312 MLS#

52

The Three Ball Ranch is comprised of 1,848 deeded acres that includes the 1,240-acre River Parcel, or main ranch, and the 608-acre Homestead Parcel. Approximately 4 miles of the East Fork River flows along the west side of the River Parcel and provides an excellent trout fishery.

The Homestead Parcel enjoys access to national forest and is situated along a migration route for both elk and mule deer. Views of the Wind River Mountain Range, abundant wildlife, excellent fishing, hay production, and livestock operation. Offering price is $4,500,000.

3,944

square feet

3

bedrooms

4

baths

Surround yourself with privacy, Teton views, an elevated view of Henry’s Fork, and +/- .7 miles of Henry’s Fork frontage. This property boasts 79 acres with four deeded acreages, two of which are riverfront. The hilltop custom 3,944 square foot home offers 3 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3 natural rock fireplaces, library/office, and nicely appointed kitchen with Viking range and stainless steel appliances. Private road to the river and acres of luscious, irrigated farms.

1,350,000 dollars

14-1794 MLS#

Teton Valley Realty Mark & Tayson Rockefeller - (208) 351-1411 tayson@tetonvalleyrealty.com - tvrranches.com

HEART OF VILLAGE PENTHOUSE

1,137

square feet

2

bedrooms

3

baths

Two bedroom, 3 bath Penthouse level triple lock-off condominium located in Hotel Terra. Fully furnished, top floor luxury residence features fireplace, expansive windows, high definition flat screen tvs, Bose surround sound, and a large balcony to take in prime village core and direct ski area views. Owners will enjoy unmatched AAA Four Diamond services and amenities. Turn key, worry free ownership. Ideal for buyers interested in nightly rental income revenues coupled with flexible personal use.

995,000

Live Water Properties, LLC Terry Fieseler & John Turner - (866) 734-6100 info@livewaterproperties.com - livewaterproperties.com

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

dollars

14-1332 MLS#

Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty Rob DesLauriers - (307) 413-3955 rob.deslauriers@jhsir.com - robdeslauriers.com

CUSTOM LOG HOME ON TETON VALLEY’S BEST VIEW LOT

7,866

square feet

5

bedrooms

5

baths

This custom log home is situated on one of the best view lots in Teton Valley overlooking the 250 foot deep North Badger Creek Canyon. Miles of pine and aspen forest— without a visible residence—comprise the foreground of the entire Teton Range view. Extensive landscape includes aspen groves, enormous masonry and paver patios, fire pit, and waterfall. Large gourmet kitchen, custom cabinets, granite, hardwood, vaulted ceilings, and expansive windows all with strategic mountain and canyon views.

2,600,000

Teton Valley Realty Mark Rockefeller - (208) 351-1411 mark@tetonvalleyrealty.com - tvrranches.com

13-1141 MLS#

OWL CREEK

square feet

6

bedrooms

9

baths

13-33 MLS#

square feet

This beautiful, recently updated Teton Pines Cluster home is conveniently located adjacent to the Westbank shops, restaurants, and the Teton Pines Resort amenities.

Stunning new, custom gourmet kitchen.

3

bedrooms

3.5 baths

dollars

15-127 MLS#

Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty Jane Carhart - (307) 413-8961 jane.carhart@jhsir.com - jacksonholeluxuryproperties.com

FRONTLINE HOMESITE AT AMANGANI

Set on 13.43 beautifully landscaped acres with commanding Teton views, this custom built 6 bedroom, 9 bath log home offers privacy in a breathtaking, natural setting, easily accessible from the Town of Jackson. Two of the three lots abut Grand Teton National Park and Snake River access is provided via an easement. A large aerated pond and many trees welcome local waterfowl and passing wildlife. Horses are welcome subject to HOA approval.

10,900,000 dollars

3,396

1,775,000

dollars

17,538

WESTBANK LIFESTYLE AND CONVENIENCE

1.14 acres

—

bedrooms

The only opportunity of its kind, this is the final undeveloped frontline lot available in the Homes at Amangani. This elevated building site offers powerful views across preserved ranchland and up the entire Teton Range. Wildflowers and a native stand of aspens complete this incredible offering.

—

baths

3,400,000

Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty Tom Evans - (307) 739-8149 TomEvansRE@jhsir.com - TomEvansRealEstate.com

dollars

14-1862 MLS#

Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty Mercedes Huff - (307) 690-9000 mercedes.huff@jhsir.com - mercedeshuff.com SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

53

LOOMIS PARK RANCH

240 acres

3

bedrooms

2

baths

2,460,000 dollars

14-2350 MLS#

Loomis Park Ranch is a 240 acre legacy recreational property located approximately one hour from Jackson Hole and southwest of Bondurant, Wyoming. The property is nearly surrounded by National Forest lands and has unlimited recreational opportunities. It is located in an alpine setting with aspen groves, pine trees and views of the Wind River Mountain Range. This property features year round water amenities including ponds and irrigation. The log home is 2,400 square feet.

Jackson Hole Real Estate Associates, LLC Exclusive Affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate Budge Realty Group - (307) 413-1364 chadbudge@jhrea.com - budgerealestate.com

SOLITUDE AT THE FOOT OF THE TETONS

6,314

square feet

4

bedrooms

5

baths

A Yellowstone lodge in Jackson Hole. The craftsmanship, the western design and the log construction make this 6,300 square foot lodge feel historic. Four bedrooms, 5 baths, a great room, gourmet kitchen, game room, river rock fireplaces and wrap around porches all well-located on 7+ acres rich in native vegetation, streams and ponds, and abundant wildlife. The massive barn with horse stalls, workshop and 3 car garage provide room for your recreational toys.

14-1646 MLS#

54

2,400

square feet

3

bedrooms

Brokers of Jackson Hole LLC Timothy C. Mayo - (307) 690-4339 tcmayo@aol.com

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Rare opportunity to own a new, modern single-family home at the base of Snow King. This property offers 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, hydronic in-floor heating, gas fireplace, top-floor deck overlooking town, oversized garage, a separate office and a private backyard. Under construction, to be completed Summer 2015.

3

baths

1,195,000 dollars

N/A MLS#

Prugh Real Estate Greg Prugh - (307) 413-2468 g@prugh.com - prugh.com

SNAKE RIVER SPORTING CLUB CABIN

3,288

square feet

4

bedrooms

4.5 baths

2,395,000

5,495,000 dollars

290 PINE DRIVE

dollars

14-2896 MLS#

This property sits atop a private knoll with green space surrounding all sides. Elevated views provide a view of the 10th fairway towards the rolling topography of the Snake River Canyon and the riverbanks below.

At 3,288 square feet, this home contains 4 private bedrooms each with their own full en-suite baths, detailed with custom marble countertops and tile. The master bedroom and separate guest suite with a private entrance sit on the first floor–each of which have a fireplace and ample space.

Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty Ed Liebzeit - (307) 413-1618 ed.liebzeit@jhsir.com - edinjackson.com

RIVERMEADOWS CABIN IN WILSON, WY

3,163

square feet

3

bedrooms

Secluded log home situated on a private wooded corner in Rivermeadows. This home features first-floor master and kitchen, high ceilings, abundant windows, exterior decking, hot tub, rock fireplace and functional open floor plan for simple living. Located just 7 minutes south of downtown Wilson.

3

MLS#

acres

—

bedrooms

—

baths

Lot 85 overlooks Last Chance Creek and permanent open space with outstanding views of the Sleeping Indian to the east and spectacular views of the Tram and Rendezvous Mountain to the west. Owner/members will enjoy all the amenities of Shooting Star, including its world-class spa and fitness facilities, tension edge lap pool, Jacuzzis, fine dining, tennis courts, Tom Fazio golf course, and on-call shuttle service to and from the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

— MLS#

dollars

Brokers of Jackson Hole LLC Timothy C. Mayo - (307) 690-4339 tcmayo@aol.com

15-415 MLS#

WOODSIDE ESTATE

6,800

square feet

6

bedrooms

7

baths

Woodside Estate was completed in 2014, and offers up expansive Teton views from every room in the house.

With over 6,800 square feet of living space, this home was built with beautiful reclaimed materials and the finest quality finishes available. The craftsmanship and attention to detail are evident in every room. Situated on 5 private acres in Woodside Subdivision, just 10 minutes north of the town of Jackson. This area of the valley offers up a park like setting with abundant wildlife and some of the most beautiful scenery in the Rocky Mountain Region.

7,750,000

2,700,000 dollars

4

bedrooms

1,795,000

Prugh Real Estate Greg Prugh - (307) 413-2468 g@prugh.com - prugh.com

LOT 85 AT SHOOTING STAR

.7

square feet

Wonderfully remodeled South Park home with Grand Teton and Teton Range views, large ground floor master suite with south facing private outside deck, 3 additional bedrooms, 3.5 baths, light and bright office-study, gourmet kitchen with Viking range, antique beams, huge barn with two horse stalls, kennel, two RV or boat stalls, and oversized three car garage on fenced 3.16 acres.

baths

1,395,000

15-131

3,120

3.5

baths

dollars

SOUTH PARK

TCCG (The Clear Creek Group) John Resor - (307) 739-1908 jresor@shootingstarjh.com - shootingstarjh.com

dollars

— MLS#

Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty Chris Grant - (307) 413-3814 chris.grant@jhsir.com - woodsideestatejh.com SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

55

NEW CONSTRUCTION - SNAKE RIVER SPORTING CLUB

2,939

square feet

4

bedrooms

4.5 baths

Under construction and slated for completion summer 2015, the Tall Timber Cottages are located along the second and third fairways of the Snake River Sporting Club’s Tom Weiskopf signature golf course. Each home will have beautiful views of the Snake River Canyon and surrounding mountains. Highlights include: extensive porches, vaulted ceilings, an open floor plan, exposed timber beams and log accents, high quality finishes and top-of-the-line appliances.

2,395,000 dollars

14-1468 MLS#

acres

3

bedrooms

2

The Lazy Circle H Ranch on Fall Creek is a legacy ownership opportunity in one of the most dramatically beautiful locations in the country just 30 minutes from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Nestled in a spectacular mountain setting surrounded entirely by the Bridger-Teton National Forest, the ranch boasts 160 deeded acres and end of road privacy with seemingly limitless access to public lands and all they have to offer.

baths

— MLS#

56

square feet

5

bedrooms

Gorgeous 4,600 acre, end-of-the-road cattle ranch adjoining national forest in the foothills of the Wind River Range outside Pinedale, Wyoming. 6,200 square foot custom home, beautiful log hunting cabin, managers home and outbuildings. Great hunting, fishing and privacy all just 10 minutes from Pinedale airport.

5.5 baths

dollars

— MLS#

Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty John Pierce - (307) 690-1756 john.pierce@jhsir.com - resortandranch.com

GRAND TETON VIEWS

9.74 acres

—

bedrooms

—

Arguably the finest lot available in Indian Springs. This beautiful building site boasts views of the Grand Teton, multiple ponds, and trees. With enviable privacy, it backs up to the slope of the butte, and the building site is flat and easy to access. Only fifteen minutes to JH Mountain Resort and five minutes to the Town of Jackson, this oneof-a-kind lot is the perfect location for any dream home.

baths

4,950,000

7,950,000 dollars

6,200

19,250,000

RE/MAX Obsidian Real Estate Chip Marvin & Fred Harness - (307) 690-0417 chipmarvin@gmail.com - jhobsidian.com

CIRCLE LAZY H RANCH ON FALL CREEK

160

TETON DIABLO RANCH, BOULDER, WYOMING

Fay Ranches James Esperti & Mike Jorgenson - (307) 200-4558 mjorgenson@fayranches.com - fayranches.com

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

dollars

12-2003 MLS#

Brokers of Jackson Hole LLC Doug Herrick - (307) 413-8899 dherrick@jhrealestate.com - brokersofjacksonhole.com

TETON PINES

4,851

square feet

5

bedrooms

5.5 baths

BAR - B - BAR

This sophisticated one-story, 5 bedroom, 5.5 bath single family home located on the Teton Pines 18th fairway, has been entirely remodeled throughout. Granite chef’s kitchen, hardwood floors, granite baths, cathedral ceilings, exposed wood beams, open living areas, multiple fireplaces and floor-to-ceiling windows are only the beginning. This home is situated to maximize the privacy and tranquility of the outdoor fireplace and patios next to the meandering seasonal stream.

4,500,000 dollars

14-1792 MLS#

square feet

4

bedrooms

3.5

Enjoy south and west facing sunshine and views from this charming 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath farmhouse with two living areas each with a wood burning stove. Beautiful oak hardwood floors in living, dining and kitchen. Large family room with built-in bookshelves and desk. Oversized 2-car attached garage plus large covered carport or work area.

3 acres with no CC&Rs and no HOA fees. Listing agent is related to seller.

baths

UPON REQUEST dollars

— MLS#

square feet

3

bedrooms

2

baths

1,750,000

RARE Properties Rick Armstrong - (307) 413-4359 rick@rarejh.com - rarejh.com

ALTA, WYOMING - 3 ACRES, NO CCRS

2,240

3,562

dollars

N/A SIR#

A handsome home on over 3 acres with unmatched views of the Tetons and convenient access to the airport and the town of Jackson. Situated in the coveted Bar-B-Bar subdivision, the property includes main floor living, large gourmet kitchen and walk-in pantry, guest room with additional loft, master bedroom with gas fireplace and large wood-burning fireplace in the great room. An oversized garage provides storage for everything you will need to enjoy all that Jackson Hole has to offer.

Jackson Hole Real Estate Associates Lewis | Duerr | Grassell - (307) 699-3927 livejacksonhole@jhrea.com livejacksonhole.com/listings/barbar/

THE WALTON RANCH

1,848 acres

—

bedrooms

—

baths

Set along the legendary Snake River in the shadow of the magnificent Grand Teton, this legacy property is minutes from downtown Jackson, world-class skiing and air service. The 1,848-acre ranch is an operating cattle ranch with its own resident elk herd and fishing access along the Snake River. Surrounded by natural beauty and close to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, the Walton Ranch offers a rare opportunity to own a sizable ranch in one of the most sought after locations in the world.

48,700,000

Jackson Wyoming Real Estate Teri McCarthy - (307) 690-6906 wyoteri@gmail.com - jacksonwyomingrealestate.com

dollars

— MLS#

Ranch Marketing Associates Billy Long & Ron Morris - (855) 535-0881 info@rmabrokers.com - rmabrokers.com SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

57

LIFE ON T All kinds of boats, including kayaks, are welcome on Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park.

58

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Lake THE

Jackson Lake is a jewel for recreationalists, whether they’re looking to catch fish or a wild ride.

BY MOLLY ABSOLON

JEFF DIENER

SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

59

PRICE CHAMBERS

JACKSON LAKE SHINES like glass as we motor away from Swimming in Jackson Lake is always a chilly proposition, but on the Signal Mountain boat ramp. Four of us lounge on white- 90-degree August days, its 50-some-degree water feels fabulous. cushioned benches, leaning back in the sun, straw hats protecting our faces. As we leave the no-wake zone, AJ Cargill ramps but lacks the stunning scenery. Lake Tahoe, on the California/ up the engine. The boat kicks back, its bow lifting and speeding Nevada border, is surrounded by mountains but ringed by us away from shore. We clamp down on our hats and smile. roads, so there’s never any sense of wildness. (Also, it’s not in a national park.) Perhaps closest to Jackson Lake in terms of The boat feels powerful and fast.

I haven’t waterskied—or even been in a motorboat—for uniqueness is Utah’s Lake Powell. Yes, it has houseboats full of decades. Most of my experience with Jackson Lake involves partiers, but the heart of the Glen Canyon National Recreation driving or biking by. I’ve been to a wedding at Jackson Lake Area also has secluded beaches and remote side canyons that Lodge, but aside from that, this lake and its world of boaters feel spectacularly wild. With red rock cliffs instead of hulking granite peaks, though, Lake Powell’s beauty is completely difare a mystery to me. I’m more of a mountain girl.

But Jackson is a mountain town with water. All summer, ferent than Jackson Lake’s. And we’re partial to Jackson Lake’s Jackson Lake is busy with boats. On the bright August day I’m brand of beauty. out, motorboats haul skiers, surfers, and wakeboarders; fishing boats trawl the deep water; windsurfers and sailboats catch the THERE’S A WAITING list to get a mooring, whether for a moerratic breezes that pour down the canyons; and kayakers pad- torboat or sailboat, at any of the three marinas on Jackson Lake. dle to lakeside camps for wilderness adLaurie Thal waited eight years for her ventures, all in the hulking shadow of buoy at Leeks Marina. “When my name Mount Moran. came up, I found my boat, a twenty-twoOne of the largest alpine lakes in the foot O’Day I named Pegasus,” she says. country, Jackson Lake is unique not only Thal also has a Laser 2. “I’ve had it for Jackson Lake is one of the largest and for its 1) spectacular setting at the foot of twenty-five years. It’s a fast and fun boat, deepest high-altitude lakes in the United the Tetons, but also because 2) it is a lake also wet and wild on Jackson Lake. It’s States. It sits at 6,772 feet above sea inside a national park that 3) allows a vasmall enough I don’t need a buoy for it; level, is up to fifteen miles long and seven riety of boats. Yellowstone Lake, about an it’s easy to trailer. The O’Day is better for miles wide, and in places is more than hour north of Jackson Lake, is in a nakids, family, and wine and cheese. I 400 feet deep. It is dotted with over fifteen tional park—Yellowstone—and allows couldn’t have Pegasus without a buoy.” islands, including the largest island in the same variety of boats as Jackson Lake, Leeks Marina has 125 buoys for rent; the state of Wyoming, Elk Island.

THAT’S A Fact

60

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Bar Cross Ranch

The historic Bar Cross Ranch is located in Northwest Wyoming just an hour south of Jackson Hole and runs from the famous New Fork River up into the Wind River Mountain range. Comprised of 12,045 deeded acres and over 20,000 acres of leased ground it is a sprawling empire capable of running 600 mother cows or approximately 3,000 yearlings.

Excellent hunting and fishing can be enjoyed on the ranch and on the extensive public lands that adjoin the ranch.

With over 10 miles of fishing river and streams, a 40 acre private lake and exclusive frontage on a 1600 acre lake the variety and quality of fishing is superb. Elk, deer, antelope and moose are all found on the ranch. World class skiing, dinning, galleries and nightlife are just an hours drive away in Jackson Hole. A ranch of this size and quality within striking distance of Jackson or any ski resort for that matter is very rare.

Teton Diablo Ranch Teton Diablo is a rare Wyoming ranch offering. Situated at the end of the road surrounded by public lands this year round working cattle ranch is beautiful, private, well improved and very accessible. Just 10 minutes from the Pinedale airport (with jet hangar available) The beautiful 6000 plus sq ft custom stone and timber home overlooks the lush hay meadows and ponds. The ranch is vast yet private and has a new wonderful log hunting cabin in the upper reaches of the property. Great big game hunting and fishing on Silver Creek. 300 head cattle operation. One and a half hours drive from Jackson Hole.

307.690.1756 • john.pierce@jhsir.com 185 W. Broadway, Jackson Hole, WY

ResortAndRanch.com

John C. Pierce Associate Broker

PRICE CHAMBERS

hull. Hammond remembers camping on the boat as a kid. Now he takes his own boys out on it.

“The boat is such a magnet,” Hammond says. “Friends love to come out with us. Water sports are part of it, but part of it is just being out on the water. Jackson Lake is an unbelievable resource.”

In addition to usual watercraft and their gear, you might also see an Air Chair, a.k.a. a sky ski, like this one above.

Colter Bay has eighty-six slips and 38 buoys, and Signal Mountain has 45 buoys. In total, Jackson Lake has 294 moorings. People without a mooring trailer their boats in for the day.

PAUL BRUUN HAS been fishing Jackson Lake for more than forty years. He travels the country, and the world, in pursuit of fish, and Jackson Lake is near and dear to his heart. He likes to be one of the first boats on the water when the ice goes out—May or June, depending on the year.

“The ice comes off rather quickly and is an amazing event to be part of,” he says. “I’ve been trapped when ice floes were piled up by the wind into the Signal Mountain boat ramp and I had to get out and wade, pulling my boat into the ramp. Other times we’ve crunched through the ice and fished and then looked around and suddenly the lake, or most of it, was clear. It’s magical.”

Bruun has seen bears and moose swimming in the lake, plus countless 62

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

CARGILL, A FORMER World Extreme Skiing champion who grew up puttering around Lake Michigan with her family, steers us toward a sheltered band of water on the lee side of one of the fifteen islands dotting the lake and pulls out the water skis. After coaching us on the intricacies of driving a skier around the lake, she prepares to demonstrate the skiing part, lowering herself into the water and grabbing hold of the rope. The boat inches forward until the rope grows taut.

Cargill nods, the driver accelerates, and the boat roars to life. Zero to sixty in seconds. At least that’s what it feels like.

Cargill rises out of the water fluidly, her hair still dry, though water drips off her skin and glitters in the sunlight. She carves her way across the wake, extending her outside arm gracefully to balance.

Curving back around, she flies back and forth behind us. We race along the shoreline with her in tow until she decides she has had enough. Letting go of the rope, she slowly sinks into the lake, a grin plastered across her face. We arc around and pick her up. Now it’s my turn.

I anxiously move to a platform at the rear of the boat to put on the skis. Cargill

geese, eagles, loons, pelicans, and ducks.

Most impressive, though, are the fiftypound lake trout. “A fish that size is more than twenty-five years old because of the short growing season here,” he says.

Despite giant fish and myriad user groups, it’s easy to find your JACKSON LAKE at WORK own piece of paradise on the lake.

GLACIERS POURING OUT of the Tetons dammed the area’s “You often feel as if streams and rivers with their moraines and formed the you have the place to lakes—Jackson, Jenny, Phelps, Bradley, Taggart, and Leigh— yourself,” says Ben along the eastern edge of the Teton Range. In 1907, a log-crib Hammond, who moors dam was built across the outlet of Jackson Lake to raise the lake and provide water for irrigation downstream. This dam his boat, Caroline, at washed out in 1910 and was replaced by a concrete barrier Leeks. Hammond startbuilt between 1911 and 1916. The dam was upgraded beed boating on Jackson tween 1986 and 1989 after studies indicated it could fail in Lake after his father an earthquake of 5.5 magnitude or greater. gave him a wooden moBefore the first dam was constructed in 1907, Jackson torboat he’d built by Lake had a surface area of 17,800 acres. The current Jackson hand as a young man. A Lake Dam raised the level of the lake by thirty-nine feet and nineteen-foot cabin increased the surface area of the lake to 25,540 acres. The cruiser, Caroline draws dam impounds 847,000 acre-feet of water at full pool to irrilots of stares and comgate farmlands in Idaho, although this role became less imments because of its age portant after the construction of the Palisades Dam near Alpine in 1957. and polished mahogany

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Circle Lazy H Ranch Jackson Hole, WY 160 Acres | $7.95M The ranch enjoys exquisite Teton views with excellent wildlife habitat and over a mile of Fall Creek.

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Surrounded by national forest, this guest ranch has capacity for 35 and fly fishing on over 1 mile of Horse Creek.

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itself is about 30 miles, and then there are the canyons above it—Snowshoe, Waterfalls, Colter, and Webb. “We use the boat to access the northern Tetons,” Hammond says. “No one goes there. It’s hard to get to that part of the range without a boat, so it has a really wild feeling.”

Upwards of a dozen campsites, accessible only by boat—or by very determined bushwhackers—dot the lake’s western shore. There are also campsites on Elk Island, the largest island in the lake (and also the largest island in the

When we woke up in the morning, it was still there, eating away. I slept great that night, but I don’t think the ladies did.”

LAURIE THAL SPENDS nights on Pegasus as well. Thal, a glassblower, has moored her sailboat at Leeks Marina for fourteen years. She came to Jackson to enjoy the mountains but, having grown up sailing, hauled her Sunfish on the roof of her Plymouth Valiant all the way from Ohio when she moved here in 1975. She quickly settled into a summer routine that included long days at the lake as well as in the high peaks.

Two years ago Thal and partner Dan Altwies spent seven weeks sailing islandto-island in the South Pacific, from Townsville, Australia, to the Louisiade Archipelago, Papua New Guinea. She has also sailed in Greece, the Caribbean, and Croatia. “Sailing on Jackson Lake isn’t easy,” Thal says. “It’s not like some places that have consistent winds. On Jackson Lake you can have calm one minute and a squall the next.

Strong winds come down the canyons. It’s pretty exciting out there.”

While the winds, along with Cargill and Whitney’s skiing antics—in middle school Whitney joined a ski team and eventually his job was to be the top of a threelevel pyramid on skis; he’s managed to pull off a two-level pyramid on Jackson Lake—are anything but calm, it’s appreciation of the lake’s peace and quiet that its various user groups have in common. Thal often takes friends out for after-work hors d’oeuvres and drinks. “I love being on the boat, whether it’s super-windy and exciting and the lake is fierce, or when it’s mild and I can just relax with friends and enjoy the scenery and a good glass of wine,” she says.

“What’s the allure?” Whitney asks.

“It’s the calm mornings up on the lake.

The sun’s out, the sky’s clear. You’re just out floating, looking at the Grand, taking turns skiing with friends, trying new tricks, challenging yourself, and getting better. But camping is really what I enjoy PRICE CHAMBERS

slalomed gracefully on one ski, but, as a rookie, I opt for two. The bindings are tight. To help get my feet in, Cargill hands me dishwashing soap. It works. Skis secured, I slip into the water and grab the handle of the tow rope. Cargill starts to move the boat forward, tightening the rope between us. The rope taut, she yells, “Keep your eyes up and just stand up. Are you ready?” I respond, “Ready.”

The boat roars and the rope goes taut, pulling me up from my sitting and floating position and onto my feet.

The sun rises over Jackson Lake and the Tetons.

Surprisingly, I’m up on my first try. I smile and attempt to relax as I tear through the wake’s white pathway. My friends in the boat cheer and throw their arms up in encouragement. As I grow more comfortable, I venture out of the wake, quickly gaining confidence in my ability to remain on my feet. I even begin to look around. The water glistens. The Tetons are everywhere, but I’m miles and miles away from the Jackson Hole I know.

“You get out on the boat and you leave everything behind,” Cargill says.

“It’s another world out on the water.”

BUT JACKSON LAKE isn’t just about water. There are no hiking trails on the western shore of the lake. The shoreline 64

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

state of Wyoming). “We take everything out to the campsite and set up, then spend the day skiing and hanging out on the boat,” says Steve Whitney, who grew up near Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire and learned how to drive a boat before a car. “When the sun starts to go down, we go back to camp for the night. It’s incredibly relaxing and peaceful.” In a wild way.

Whitney, Cargill, and a friend once shared a camp with a grizzly bear. “The bear was a few hundred yards away, munching on huckleberries,” Whitney says. “We made tons of noise before we landed, and it just ignored us and kept eating. We decided to go ahead and camp since it seemed to have no interest in us.

Wildfeathers Photography

#1 Golf Course in Wyoming ~Golf Digest, 2015-16

N o w We l c o m i n g A D V E N T U R E R S , NAT U R E L OV E R S AND OUTDOOR ENTHUSIASTS OF ALL KINDS Featuring a Clubhouse overlooking the Snake River and an unprecedented array of outdoor amenities, our 1,000 acre sanctuary crosses a bridge into the authentic western sporting life. Golf, fly fishing, hiking, horseback riding, heli-skiing, cross country trails, ice skating – a sampling of the Jackson Hole activities that can be found on property. With four new Tall Timber Cottages available this summer and a variety of additional real estate opportunities, Snake River Sporting Club is the perfect place to call home.

Life, Well Played

For details on Club memberships, please contact: LB Haney • 307–201-2567 • lbhaney@srsportingclub.com To schedule a tour of our exceptional real estate options, please contact: Chip Marvin or Fred Harness at Obsidian Real Estate • 307-739-1234 • chipmarvin@gmail.com SNAKE RIVER SPORTING CLUB

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the most. It’s calm, peaceful, and quiet.”

N e w We s t KnifeWorks On the corner of Center and Deloney on the Jackson Town Square Newwestknifeworks.com

I’M NOT CAMPING, but we stay for sunset, the sun disappearing behind the peaks, illuminating them from behind and shooting rays of light down the canyons. Cliffs high on the face of Mount Moran catch pockets of sunshine and glow pink as the light fades. The water, which had grown choppy over the course of the day, is again smooth. Even though the day is ending, a number of motorboats are just launching—or possibly re-

Campsites on the western shore of Jackson Lake are only accessible by determined bushwhackers and boaters.

launching. (While sailors prefer afternoons, when winds usually kick up, motor boaters and kayakers prefer mornings and evenings, which are usually calm.)

“Jackson Lake is the crown jewel of the boating world in terms of scenery.

Where else can you waterski with Mount Moran towering over you?”

Whitney asks. JH

GET Out

BOAT RENTALS — KAYAKS, CANOES, AND MOTORBOATS can be rented at the Colter Bay Village Marina. Signal Mountain Marina and Leeks Marina rent all of those craft, plus pontoon boats and deck cruisers. All rentals are first-come/first-served.

Motorized boats can be rented by the hour or the day. Prices vary according to the size and type of boat, but start as low as $42 per hour for a basic fishing boat (with a two-hour minimum) and go up to $129 per hour for a deck cruiser that can carry ten people. Day rates range from $185 for a fishing boat to $675 for a deck cruiser. Depending on the year, the boating season runs from midMay through mid-September, but it’s a good idea to call ahead to check conditions. In some years the ice isn’t off the lake until well into June.

BUOYS/GAS — If you have your own boat, Signal Mountain and Leeks marinas rent buoys for overnight stays and sell gas. Gas can also be purchased at Colter Bay Marina.

GUIDED TRIPS — Prefer someone else do the driving? Signal Mountain Lodge offers half- and full-day fishing trips on the lake. Colter Bay also has fishing excursions as well as lake tours, including a ninety-minute narrated boat ride and breakfast or dinner cruises that stop at Elk Island.

Signal Mountain/Leeks Marina: 307/543-2831; signalmountainlodge.com/boat-rentals Colter Bay Marina: 307/543-2811; gtlc.com 66

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

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Handing Off The Griz Wyoming and its neighbors prepare to take over management of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s grizzly population. Will this include trophy hunts?

BY TODD WILKINSON

A female grizzly bear wades in a shallow bend in the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park at dawn. Once virtually nonexistent outside of neighboring Yellowstone, the population of the great bruins has rebounded under the protection of the Endangered Species Act.

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THOMAS D. MANGELSEN

THEODORE ROOSEVELT MADE the same pilgrimage to wildness that we do. Other U.S. presidents, including Gerald R. Ford—who once was a young Yellowstone National Park ranger—and John Muir, sought it out, too.

So did Ansel Adams, modern conservation giants like the late David Brower, Aldo Leopold, E.O. Wilson, the Murie clan, who dwelled at a historic ranch in Moose, and, for direct relevance to this story, the twin brothers John and Frank Craighead.

The Craigheads pioneered scientific methods of tracking grizzly bears in Yellowstone during the 1960s, their operation for a time based at their family cabin at Moose inside Grand Teton National Park. Notably, they had to conduct their research up the road in Yellowstone because grizzlies, by then, were pretty much wiped out in Jackson Hole. It was believed the bruins were probably gone for good.

For nearly 145 years—since the U.S. Congress and President Ulysses S. Grant signed a law creating Yellowstone National Park—the Greater Yellowstone region has been making American conservation history. As the birthplace of the national park movement and catalyst for the national forest system, this corner of the Northern Rockies has played a role in the way society thinks about the importance of protecting big, natural landscapes—wild ecosystems—and the wonders such as geysers that lie inside them.

Beyond geysers and other geologic splendors, the Greater Yellowstone region is an enduring global beacon for wildlife preservation. The mosaic of public lands here has been central to rescuing American bison from the brink of total annihilation, also trumpeter swans, pure strains of wild trout, elk, and, perhaps best-known, wolves. It was just last winter that Yellowstone

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National Park celebrated the twentieth anniversary of wolf reintroduction.

Bringing back lobos, eradicated in this area by humans in the 1930s, represents an uncommon kind of biological redemption for mistakes committed by humans against nature in the past.

While momentous, the restoration of wolves pales in comparison to an accomplishment never thought possible: the decades-long rescue of Ursus arctos horribilis, a.k.a. the grizzly bear. A predator revered and feared, no animal is more embedded in Yellowstone’s identity, or in our concept of how true wildness feels, than the grizzly bear. This is in part because a single bear might have a home range of hundreds of square miles and needs turf away from people to persist. An entire population of them needs thousands upon thousands of square miles. Also, grizzlies can, and do, kill people—about a half-dozen in the Yellowstone region over the last couple of decades.

THIS YEAR, JACKSON Hole has a front-row seat, a better view than any other community in the Greater Yellowstone region, to contemplate the implications of a breathtaking declaration being made by the federal government: forty years after Greater Yellowstone grizzly bears were given emergency federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, when their numbers may have dipped to fewer than 70

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

As the sun sets over Grand Teton National Park, the famous grizzly sow 610 and her two cubs split the elk herd in Willow Flats. The growth of the grizzly population in the Tetons means another predator—in addition to wolves—helps keep elk numbers in check.

two hundred, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is expected to formally issue the population a clean bill of health.

Today, wildlife officials say that given their best methods of counting bears— tracking them with radio telemetry, GPS, and aerial surveys—there are at least 750 but probably more than 1,000 grizzlies inhabiting much of the twentymillion-acre Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). Once they are no longer on the endangered species list, it is up to the states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho to manage (via plans approved by the USFWS) the grizzlies within their borders.

Taking them off the roster of federal protection, or “delisting,” as it’s called, is a milestone worthy of celebration; it demonstrates that America as a nation refused to let the animal icon of Yellowstone vanish without a fight.

But paradoxically, in the eyes of some conservationists, delisting is controversial—a premature action they say warrants profound concern. The present move to delist is actually the second attempt federal and state agencies have made.

In 2007, grizzlies were delisted, but that status lasted briefly until 2009, when lawsuits brought by environmental groups challenging protocols for

safeguarding grizzlies got the decision reversed. But this time around, armed with undeniable evidence showing growth in bear numbers, an abundance of female bears producing cubs, and grizzlies ranging widely and turning up in far-flung places they haven’t been spotted in more than a century, delisting is, most believe, a fait accompli. Each of these barometers above, established as numeric targets for justifying delisting, have been met for several years running.

DR. CHRISTOPHER SERVHEEN, the longtime national grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the USFWS based in Missoula, Montana, says the field data is compelling, aligning with public perception of there being a lot more bears than there used to be. But he’ll never forget when, in 1981, colleagues estimated the total Yellowstone grizzly population may have tumbled to two hundred bears or less. “I thought we would be lucky to have any grizzly bears [left] in the Yellowstone ecosystem,” Servheen says.

Alarm was accelerated by the fact that bears were dying from deadly encounters with humans at a rate outpacing the number of new cubs being born.

“The comeback of grizzlies in Greater Yellowstone has been a truly extraordinary thing to witness. It’s some-

Natural resource extraction activities that destroyed habitat in national forests, such as logging, mining, and energy development, were rigorously scrutinized. Bear poachers were subjected to huge fines and potential prison time. Some livestock allotments on public lands where cattle and sheep grazed were ended. A major thrust was made to “bear-proof” the way garbage was handled to prevent human foods from habituating hungry bruins.

Mark Haroldson, a Bozeman-based, seasoned field man with the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team—a wing of the

Siberian snow leopards, and Bengal tigers—three species that are critically imperiled in most of their home ranges and some believe could be extinct in the wild within decades.

The study team is a clearinghouse for a fascinating encyclopedia of insights into grizzly behavior, ranging from the hundreds of natural foods they eat, to where and when they go, how long they live, and the things that are most likely to get them killed. High-profile work by the Craigheads served as a catalyst for the study team coming into being.

INTERAGENCY GRIZZLY BEAR STUDY TEAM

thing that could not have happened in 99 percent of the rest of the developed world,” says Steve Cain, who recently retired from his senior wildlife management job in Grand Teton National Park.

Twenty-five years ago, Cain only studied black bears; grizzlies were absent from the park. Today, no fewer than sixty populate Jackson Hole and its surrounding mountains, including the Tetons.

Grizzlies have been seen on the eastern edge of the town of Jackson and in the Aspens subdivision on the west side of the Snake River. Generally, they’ve shown

Biologists from the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team take measurements and samples from a sedated grizzly bear last year in Yellowstone National Park.

up there without incident, though bear managers say bears should not be inhabiting human suburbs.

Grizzlies “symbolize the wild, rugged beauty and spirit of this cherished region,” says Scott Christensen, conservation director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. “As a keystone species with a need for vast, open landscapes, they tell us that if they’re here, this place is healthy and still functions as an intact ecosystem, one of the last on Earth.”

SERVHEEN CREDITS THE Endangered Species Act and says it’s a law that works.

Because of it, grizzly survival was made a priority, enabling aggressive actions to be taken that otherwise wouldn’t. Sport hunts of grizzlies, over the opposition of rural westerners, were ended in 1974.

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U.S. Geological Survey—has his own footnote in history. Since the late 1970s, when he was a twenty-something, Haroldson has either personally trapped or overseen the radio collaring of more grizzlies than any other researcher. Of the eight hundred bears whose movements have been tracked to better understand their behavior, Haroldson’s tenure overlaps with most of them.

On a recent morning, I met with Haroldson and his boss, Frank van Manen, director of the study team, which is the longest-running research unit devoted to the conservation of a large carnivore in the world. The knowledge gleaned from monitoring grizzlies developed in Greater Yellowstone has been exported to the rest of the world in research involving African lions,

BEARS ARE NOTORIOUSLY slow in reproducing. A female generally gives birth to her first cubs when she reaches the decade mark. The keys to growing a bear population and ensuring it stays healthy are: 1) Keeping as many females of reproductive age alive as possible; 2) Giving bears plenty of unfragmented habitat filled with lots of nutritious, natural foods; 3) Managing people so that they’re smart when navigating bear country; and 4) Educating hunters so their first instinct isn’t to pull the trigger when encountering a bear.

Violations of the above are what caused problems in the past, says Christensen of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. More adult bears in recent years have died in confrontations with elk hunters than any other cause. Some experts predict there’ll be more conflicts with cattle, too.

Thompson and members of the bear study team say one reason for more conflict is that bear numbers in the 9,200-square-mile core bear recovery area have reached their biological carrying capacity. That zone encompasses Yellowstone National Park, the northern reaches of Grand Teton National Park, and national forest wilderness areas abutting both parks. As a result, younger bears and mothers with cubs must strike out and establish new territories to inhabit on the fringes of the bear recovery area, resulting in clashes with humans.

Since 2003, Wyoming has spent $1.6 million in reimbursing ranchers, mostly cattle operations, for animals killed by bears. Dan Thompson, the large carnivore management specialist for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, says incidents involving bear predations on livestock have been increasing. But no rancher has been, or is expected to

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be, run out of business by grizzlies. Still, predation lessens social tolerance.

“I think there is probably more of an acceptance for bears versus wolves on the landscape and a lot of things play into it,” Thompson says. “Wolves were completely eliminated, and they were brought back against the will of some.

Grizzlies always remained and people got used to trying to coexist. I don’t think it’s about hatred toward either species. Even ranchers who experience loss to wolves and grizzlies say to me, ‘I think they’re neat animals. And I wouldn’t mind having them around if they didn’t eat my cows.’ ”

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whitebark pine trees that nourish bears in the autumn prior to hibernation; army cutworm moths that gather in the high-mountain talus slopes, especially in areas northeast of Jackson; and meat that bears get from preying on elk, bison, and moose, and scavenging carcasses produced by wolves or caused by hard winters.

But two of those foods—cutthroat

SCOTT MCKINLEY

STEVE PRIMM, A biologist and wildlife conflict resolution specialist with carnivores, praises the work of government agencies in protecting habitat and says states have agreed to abide by protocols after bears are delisted, including maintaining an absolute minimum number of bears. The number often kicked around is five hundred, which means a huge percentage of the current bear population—perhaps as much as half, going by the upper estimates— could go away without triggering a relisting of the species.

“We face a paradox with the ‘message’ of delisting,” Primm says. “There may be a lot of people who are expecting that delisting is going to give them the opportunity to push grizzlies back geographically and numerically. Yet the Conservation Strategy [that] states [Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana] have to embrace before they can assume management, and other governing documents, commit us to a very different course than simply regarding bears as being expendable again.”

Under Endangered Species Act protection, federal guidelines require that measures be taken to try and keep bears alive by trapping and relocating them.

Bears that get into trouble are often given three strikes before they can be “destroyed,” or killed. When Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana take over management, they will have more flexibility.

They could manage some “nuisance bears” by subjecting them to trophy hunts. There are people who will pay tens of thousands of dollars for a bear license.

That’s worrisome to some environmentalists. As a reference point, today wolves in Wyoming are classified across

85 percent of the state as a “predator.”

This allows them to be killed any day of the year and for any reason. It’s this tenor of hostility that’s cause for concern.

“Delisting at this time is not a good idea,” says Bonnie Rice, Northern Rockies director for the Sierra Club.

“There are too many troubling signs right now that make it very risky to remove federal protections from grizzly

Grand Teton National Park has become known for its “roadside bears” that are frequently visible to park visitors.

bears in the Yellowstone region. The growth rate of the population has flattened since the early 2000s, and may even be in decline.”

VAN MANEN AND Haroldson say the growth rate of the population has slowed, but it is still increasing.

Independent grizzly expert David Mattson, who formerly was a member of the study team with Haroldson and has recently retired from the U.S. Geological Survey, parent of the study team, says that bear numbers did grow dramatically from the 1990s until recently.

However, grizzly population growth, he says, has been based upon an abundance of natural foods, namely four key staples: spawning cutthroat trout in the streams around Yellowstone Lake every spring; the highly nutritious seeds of

trout and whitebark pine—have been devastated by invading organisms, Mattson notes. Greater Yellowstone’s whitebark pine forests have suffered a devastating 80 percent loss from a fungal pathogen called blister rust and simultaneous outbreaks of mountain pine beetle, the latter possibly linked to warming temperatures and climate change.

Cutthroat trout as a reliable food source have been virtually eliminated by predatory lake trout illegally put into Yellowstone Lake.

Warming temperatures could also affect the life cycle of moths, Mattson says, and it remains uncertain if elk and bison numbers, each of these species facing their own kinds of threats, will remain stable. Mattson believes it’s premature to delist grizzlies. Van Manen at the study team says there is no evidence,

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Jackson Hole Magazine

yet, to suggest the bear population is on the verge of imminent decline.

Haroldson joins van Manen and Servheen in saying that delisting is warranted and also says the looming debate—the elephant in the room—will be waged over trophy hunting.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

THE VAST MAJORITY of grizzly habitat in the GYE is in Wyoming; that state will be in a position to set the highest take of bears. State officials have grumbled about the costs of managing bear conflicts and the need to turn grizzlies, through dollars generated by the sale of hunting licenses, into net-revenue generators.

But both the costs of bear management and the money likely generated through hunting are dwarfed, conservationists say, by the millions upon millions flowing into the GYE’s economy through nature-based tourism, which is anchored by the allure of watching both wolves and grizzlies. A recent study found Yellowstone tourists willing to pay significantly higher entrance fees to see bears; this alone would generate $10 million annually. Jackson Hole already knows the economic value of bears. Over the last decade, a family of grizzlies led by a nineteen-year-old matriarch known as research bear No. 399 has become globally famous for being visually accessible along the roadsides of GTNP just east of Jackson Lake.

Travelers from all around make special trips to see her and her various broods of cubs. But 399 wanders through a minefield of dangers: gut piles left behind by hunters who, through a special law, are able to kill elk in Grand Teton Park. Big game hunting also occurs on the adjacent BridgerTeton National Forest, where the bears den and where outfitters and guides would love to offer a sport hunt of grizzlies to their clients.

Jackson Hole-based wildlife photographer Thomas Mangelsen says that treating grizzlies as a “consumptive commodity” is short-sighted. “I don’t like to anthropomorphize in talking about wildlife, but 399 and the other bears in her bloodline are celebrities. They are priceless in terms of what they mean in bringing positive PR to Wyoming,” he says. Later this summer, a long-awaited book by Mangelsen titled The Grizzlies of Pilgrim Creek and featuring an overview on delisting—and more than 150 images

of 399 and her extended family—will be published. (Full disclosure: I wrote the book’s text.)

The saga of 399, while inspiring to millions, isn’t always sanguine. Penny Maldonado, a Jackson Hole conservationist, notes that of thirteen cubs 399 has mothered, a significant percentage of them have died because of run-ins with livestock, hunters, other bears, vehicles, or management actions. “The lifeand-death struggles of this bear family is a symbol of the challenges that lie ahead for all grizzlies in Greater Yellowstone, not only after they are delisted but when states push to have bears classified as trophy game animals subjected to hunting,” Mangelsen says.

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WHEN, EXACTLY, DAN Ashe, national director of the USFWS, will formally make the announcement that grizzlies will be delisted was, as of press time, not known. Ashe is aware that the decision needs to withstand legal challenges.

Servheen says, “If the decision is made to propose delisting, it will be a process lasting at least a year or more—not a rapid thing. Any court challenges could only occur after it was delisted. I have no idea about the plan or timing or plan for any state hunting.”

Dan Thompson of Wyoming Game and Fish says his agency understands the value of grizzlies. “In the future, we definitely envision hunting as a management tool, but it will not be the end-all,” he says. “It’s not any kind of silver bullet for bear management. We’re not going to do anything to threaten the population because we’ve done so much to get to this point. We’re not going to jeopardize that by being greedy in the number of bears that might be harvested in a hunt.”

Thompson knows environmentalists, especially conservationists in Jackson Hole, will scrutinize his every move.

Servheen, who has spent most of his professional life as a biologist working on reviving Greater Yellowstone’s grizzly population, holds out confident optimism that the bears will do just fine. It’s people who need to learn to get along with each other because that, in the long run, is how a better world is created for grizzlies, he says. Endless division, whether it emanates from a courtroom, a partisan meeting hall, or a rural saloon, is what spoils an accomplishment worth celebrating and sharing by all. JH

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JH Living

photo gallery

Hot Stuff Yellowstone’s thermal features are out of this world.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF VANUGA YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK is home to ten thousand thermal features, five hundred of which are geysers. With only approximately one thousand geysers in the entire world, Yellowstone easily has the highest concentration around. The park’s geysers have fascinated visitors, especially artists and photographers, since the first explorers came to this area. The earliest images— etchings—of Yellowstone include many geysers.

Today, most people use cameras, but their goal is the same: to capture these crazy geological wonders for posterity.

Dubois-based photographer Jeff Vanuga has been photographing At almost 300 feet wide and geysers since he moved to the region about 160 feet in 1983. “I’m not a geology guy, but deep, the Grand geysers make for beautiful sub- Prismatic Spring in the Midway jects,” he says.

Geyser Basin is Vanuga also finds that shooting Yellowstone’s largest geysers allows him to experience hot spring and Yellowstone without its usual the third-largest crowds. “The best times of day to in the world. The spring discharges photograph geysers are predawn, 160-degree water at evening, or at night,” he says. “If you a rate of about 550 want a quiet experience and to get gallons per minute. the best photographs of geysers, go as early as possible or at night.” Vanuga has spent an entire night at Lone Star Geyser. “I wasn’t sleeping but shooting the whole time,” he says.

To best capture Yellowstone’s geysers, Vanuga has some tips. “You don’t want to be downwind of a geyser when it’s going off and photographing it,” he says. “Then it will just be a blob of white steam.” Vanuga also suggests being perpendicular from the wind and not having light directly behind you. “Anytime you get side light you get more depth and impact,” he says.

A favorite geyser of Vanuga’s to shoot is Castle Geyser, located in the Upper Geyser Basin near Old Faithful. “Even if it’s not erupting, there are steam phases where it looks like it is erupting,” he says. “Some geysers, when they’re not going off, there’s nothing to see, but Castle is always a show.” Castle Geyser is a short stroll on a boardwalk from Old Faithful. To see more of Vanuga’s work, go to jeffvanuga.com.

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Top: An expired spider lies encased in thermophilic bacteria at Norris Geyser Basin.

Bottom: Thermal features create steam on a cool morning in Norris Geyser Basin. The milky color of the mineral deposited in this area inspired its name, Porcelain Basin.

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A nighttime eruption of Lone Star Geyser in the Lone Star Geyser Basin, about 2.5 miles south of Old Faithful. The geyser awakens about every three hours and can spout water up to forty feet high.

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Top: Travertine mineral deposits from water flows on Orange Mound Spring overtake trees in the Upper Terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs.

Bottom: Great Fountain Geyser erupts at sunset in the Firehole Lake area of the Lower Geyser Basin. Great Fountain’s eruptions occur every nine to fifteen hours and can last up to two hours. About an hour and a half before an eruption, water overflows from the geyser’s vent and floods the surrounding basin.

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MOVING MO

Geologically speaking, the Gros Ventre Range seems built to slide. Less than a decade ago, a small landslide on Crystal Peak began to increase in size. In the years since, it has swallowed up meadows and partially dammed Crystal Creek, creating a new lake, Crystal Lake. The area pictured above was a grassy meadow as recently as 2008.

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OUNTAINS

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A recent landslide in the Gros Ventres is like a science book come to life. Views of it are an easy(ish) hike away.

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY DINA MISHEV

TIM FARRIS, TRAIL supervisor for the grew and grew from its original site until half Jackson Ranger District of Bridger-Teton the mountainside peeled away, sending truckNational Forest (BTNF), used to play Frisbee size boulders, silt, dirt, mud, pine and aspen in a meadow below Crystal Peak, deep in the trees—and anything in their way—down to 317,874-acre Gros Ventre Wilderness east of the formerly bucolic valley floor.

“I’ve heard it’s one of the largest land Jackson Hole. The meadow, which the Crystal movements in the state in the Creek Trail passed through, was last decade,” Farris says. “It is a favorite camping spot for This view of the landslide almost the size of the Gros Farris and his crew. “Crystal is a five-mile hike from the Crystal Creek Trailhead.

Ventre Slide—at least that’s Creek flowed through the what it looks like from the air.” meadow, which was lovely and (The Gros Ventre Slide ocgrassy. It was just a beautiful spot,” he says. Today, Farris describes that same curred at the north end of Sheep Mountain in meadow as “a moonscape buried beneath 1925 and is still visible from miles away; maybe twenty or thirty feet of debris and silt. about 50,000,000 cubic tons of debris— enough to cover the entirety of Washington, Where we used to camp, there’s now a lake.”

In 2007, an old, inconsequential landslide D.C., six inches deep—slid down from an alnear the top of 10,972-foot Crystal Peak sud- titude of about 9,000 feet. It dammed the denly became very consequential. Over the Gros Ventre River at its base and continued next several years, like a metastatic tumor, it about 400 feet up the opposite slope, creating

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a natural dam about 2,000 feet wide, a for people to see a landscape being mile long, and 225 to 250 feet high. formed right in front of them,” Farris Today, it is recognized as a National says. “Plus, it’s a gorgeous hike.”

Geologic Site and is best viewed from the Gros Ventre Road.)

I’M NO GEOLOGY buff. A climber, I The Gros Ventre Range, 65 to 70 mil- know the difference between limestone lion years old and pronounced “gro- and granite, but start talking about VONT,” might be visually scarps or impermeable outclassed by its much Crystal Lake, formed in 2011, shale layers and I’m younger neighbor across isn’t yet on topo maps. quickly lost and my eyes the valley—the Tetons— glaze over. Last sumbut these mountains, covering an area mer, though, when I first hiked past the one and a half times the size of the Tetons, collapsed Crystal Peak, I was awed. including the Gros Ventre Wilderness Staggered by the raw power of nature, I Area, and crisscrossed by about two hun- directed a spate of unsophisticated, inane dred miles of trails, are worth exploring. exclamations at my hiking partners.

Especially this new landslide. “Among the “Whoa!” reasons the Gros Ventre was designated a “Holy crap!”

Wilderness Area was for its unique ex“It’s huge!” pressions of geology and its geologic di“How have I not heard about this?” versity,” says Linda Merigliano, BTNF’s I took dozens of photos before relucrecreation wilderness program manager, tantly turning away from the slide to connorth zone districts. “And a huge part of tinue on the Jagg Creek Trail to the Six what wilderness is about is to let natural Lakes, our chosen destination for the day. processes operate freely.”

(FYI, we only found five lakes.) I vowed To watch such natural processes in to soon return for the express purpose of the wilderness, significant hiking and visiting this awesome landslide. patience are usually required. To see the When had I ever been so excited about new landscape forming around Crystal a pile of dirt?

Peak, though, requires a mere five-mile Less than three weeks later I headed hike. “This is an incredible opportunity back, dragging along a girlfriend who 88

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

was more than slightly dubious about my enthusiasm over a landslide. But as soon as it popped into view—and it was still a mile or so away at this point— Kelly’s doubt faded, and she was as awed as I was initially. “Whoa,” she said.

“THIS LANDSLIDE, AND how it’s transforming the landscape around it, is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen,” says Farris, who has worked for the Forest Service since 2000. “What used to be a meadow is now moonscape and a lake. When do you get to see a lake form?

Eventually I imagine it’ll be on maps and stuff, but right now, you’re standing there looking at your map and it shows a meadow, but water is lapping at your feet. It’s pretty crazy and awesome.”

It wasn’t Farris who discovered the new landslide. That was Gap Pucci, a longtime outfitter operating in the area.

In 2007, Pucci called BTNF’s Jackson District offices. “Hey there, I tried to get my horses up to the camp, and I can’t get there. You might want to check Crystal Creek out,” he reported. The following week, Jessica Shaw, lead wilderness ranger for BTNF’s Jackson Ranger District, went in to investigate. She and a friend camped near the slide. “We weren’t sure

— Personal —

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how far exactly we were from it, but we felt we were far enough to be safe. Still, we heard boulders coming down all night,” Shaw recalls. “They would echo through the valley. It was kind of eerie but also exciting.” And it was the end of the line. Pucci wasn’t exaggerating. The trail was impassable. It was the trail crew’s turn to go in.

“IT’S KIND OF a funny story,” Farris says. He and his crew camped in the meadow that’s now a moonscape and heard the same symphony of rock fall that Shaw had. They found the nose of the landslide that had buried the Crystal Creek Trail, just as Pucci described. “We did a little re-route that was maybe onequarter of a mile and thought we were done,” Farris says. “Then I thought I should probably just check up the trail a bit. I came around the corner and there was a wall about thirty feet tall of housesize boulders and old-growth trees.”

Farris walked back to his crew. “Um, we’re going to have to find some more funding. This is going to be a bigger reroute than we thought.” Where this debris had hit the valley floor, the ground rippled, buckled, and split apart. “It’s amazing to think of the amount of force that must have been behind it to create an impact like that,” Shaw says.

That was 2007. In spring of 2008, Farris got reports of Crystal Creek running red at the Red Rock Ranch, five miles downstream of the slide. Since the creek is usually a glacial green, this indicated more slide activity. “I went on a heli flight up there, and we discovered that basically a drainage had formed from up top and pushed a crazy amount of silt all the way down and created this alluvial fan kind of thing,” Farris says.

The alluvial fan is what turned Farris’ meadow into moonscape. Also, “When that silt came down, it pushed Crystal Creek all the way to the other side of the drainage. It got taken completely out of its bed and started flowing through the forest,” he says.

At that point, the silt was uncrossable. “It was like quicksand,” Farris says.

“It would literally suction your feet. I saw some mountain lion tracks where he walked out, realized he was sinking, and then turned around. I guess we were all trying to figure out how to live in this new landscape.”

In 2009, there was another massive

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mudflow that buried the former meadow trees, many still bearing boughs and even deeper. There wasn’t funding to do needles, placidly endure in the middle of the necessary re-routing of the trail until its turquoise waters. I wondered for how 2010, though. “In the past, the crew had many more years they could cling to life. tried to keep the trail on the valley floor, Looking for the southwestern end where it had historically been,” Shaw says. of the lake, where it again becomes a “But with the activity of the slide, they creek, we followed the new trail and the had to come up with something else.” The landslide disappeared behind us. It crew carved an entirely took about ten minutes new trail into the steep, Car-size boulders create before the trail began to a border between the timbered hillside oppo- moonscape and the debris descend back to the valsite the slide a couple of field. It is not recommended ley floor. We bushhundred feet above the to walk on the debris field. whacked the twenty feet valley floor. Farris says, from the trail to the “Nature’s amazing. We lake’s inlet. We used a just have to deal with it. You can never re- fallen tree to leap onto the pebbled ally solve things, you just try to work your bank of the creek, which at this point is way around them. At this point, if the shallow and flows lethargically. We slide continues to come down, the trail crossed to its western side and began will be OK. Most likely.” Farris’ decision backtracking in the direction of the to put the trail high was prescient: the moonscape. next summer, additional debris pinched The bushwhacking wasn’t easy. We the creek across from the alluvial fan. A struggled through knee-deep, boggy arlake began to form. eas growing algae a shade of Technicolor green I had never before seen.

WHEN WE HEADED there, Kelly and I Eventually, though, we emerged onto found that Farris’ new trail was still per- the siltscape. Although it was “quickfectly fine, albeit tough hiking. It was, by sandish” when Farris first saw it in 2008, far, the biggest vertical climb of the day it’s now nearly petrified. Crossing it, we but still only a couple hundred feet. The left no tracks. It’s drier than a keg at the first five-ish miles of the trail—flat or end of a frat party. Nevada’s Bonneville gently undulating along the banks of Salt Flats are less desolate. “I imagine Crystal Creek—spoiled us. But we didn’t there will be vegetation that re-grows notice the new climb too much. At that here someday,” Farris says. “Something point, the former meadow, denuded of has to pop through eventually. In just a all signs of life, was just off to our left. few years, I’ve seen this entire area Crystal Creek raged directly below us, change into an entirely different place. tearing through its new channel, which It’ll just keep changing.” is really a crumbly trough choked with Across the valley, the Tetons are deadfall. And then there was what has growing an infinitesimal amount each come to be named Crystal Lake. Mature year. I guess that’s kind of exciting, too. JH

HIKING DETAILS — TO GET TO the trailhead, just north of Kelly turn onto Gros Ventre Rd. from Antelope Flats Rd. This road is paved for a short time and then becomes dirt. Head east on Gros Ventre Rd., past the Gros Ventre Landslide National Geologic Area, Lower Slide Lake, and the Red Hills and Crystal Creek campgrounds. About ten miles down Gros Ventre Rd., start looking to your right for signs for the Red Rock Ranch and Forest Service Rd. 30377. Turn right onto this road. Passenger cars can handle it until the turnoff for the Red Rock Ranch. After that, it gets rocky enough that if your car doesn’t have high clearance, you might want to walk.

At the Red Rock Ranch, there is an intimidating sign that says “End of road. Red Rock Ranch not open to public.” It looks like this sign references all land past the sign, but it does not. FS30377 does indeed continue on to the left. The trailhead is about fifty minutes from downtown Jackson.

The most difficult part of the hike is at the beginning: crossing Crystal Creek. This should not be attempted until at least midJuly. There is no bridge across the creek, and it flows fast and strong here. BTNF ranger Jessica Shaw urges walking downstream a couple of hundred feet to cross. “There’s a spot that’s significantly shallower there and has some rock bars. Crossing at the actual trailhead on foot is treacherous,” she says.

“Wherever you cross, I recommend having good creek shoes and hiking poles.” Expect a second, much mellower creek crossing that brings you back to the northeast side of Crystal Creek about 1.5 miles up the trail.

There is a nonmaintained trail that side-hills across a steep, loose hillside several hundred feet above Crystal Creek that keeps you on the northeast side of the creek and allows you to avoid both creek crossings. Do not attempt this option if you have any issues with exposure or heights. If you slip on this trail, it could be catastrophic. If you’re comfortable in your hiking abilities and with heights, look for this trail at the east end of the parking lot. By going this route, you will bypass the first two-ish miles of the official trail.

Once you’re into the open meadow beyond the two creek crossings (or the loose, nonmaintained trail option), the hiking is easy and beautiful. The landslide will come into view about two miles on, before the intersection of the Crystal Creek Trail with the Jagg Creek Trail.

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JH Living

looking back

Women on the Tetons Women have been climbing in this range for nearly a century.

IRENE AYRES, ELIZABETH Cowles, Margaret Smith, Eleanor Davis—these names don’t ring a bell for most Teton climbers. But they should. These four women were among a handful of alpinists during the early days of Teton exploration, achieving both first ascents and first female ascents around the range.

While some of the first female ascents came years, if not decades, after those by men, the achievements of these women are still remarkable. At the time, it was expected men would explore mountains; these women not only had to have the physical strength and skills to make it to a summit, but also the emotional and mental mettle to buck society’s idea of what they should and/or could do.

In 1924, Paul Petzoldt guided local landowner Geraldine Lucas, a fiftyeight-year-old former schoolteacher, to the top of the Grand Teton. While hers is often regarded as the first female ascent of the Grand—immortalized by a dramatic photo of Lucas standing with an American flag at the summit—it wasn’t.

COURTESY JACKSON HOLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

BY MOLLY LOOMIS

Guided by Paul Petzoldt, Geraldine Lucas, a retired schoolteacher and local homesteader, reached the summit of the Grand Teton in 1924. She was the second woman to accomplish the climb; Eleanor Davis did it one year earlier.

GRAND TETON

MIDDLE TETON SOUTH TETON

94

TEEWINOT

SYMMETRY SPIRE

DISAPPOINTMENT

STORM POINT

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

MOUNT MORAN

Johanna Wittenberger makes the first female ascent of Teewinot.

1932

Davis becomes the first woman to climb Mount Moran.

1931

Davis and Albert Ellingwood pioneer the Middle Teton’s Ellingwood Couloir and do the first documented ascent of the South Teton.

1926

Eleanor Davis makes the first female ascent of the Grand Teton.

1923

Emma Matilda Owen and Jennie Dawson are the first women to attempt the Grand Teton.

1923

1891

The Earliest Years of Women Climbing in the Tetons Irene Ayres is the first woman to climb Disappointment Peak, Storm Point, and Symmetry Spire (solo ascent).

GRAND TETON MOUNT WISTER NEZ PERCE

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MOUNT OWEN

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Elizabeth Cowles makes the first ascent of the Grand Teton’s East Face with Paul Petzoldt and Glenn Exum.

ROCKCHUCK PEAK

ROCK OF AGES

Irene Ayres and Margaret Smith Craighead team up for the first female ascent of a new route on Mount Wister.

Margaret Spencer makes the first female ascent of the Grand Teton’s Exum Ridge.

1939

Irene Ayres climbs Mount Owen, Rock of Ages, Rockchuck Peak, Bivouac Peak, and Traverse Peak; all first female ascents or first ascents.

1935

Barbara Gray makes the first female ascent of Nez Perce.

1934

1932

IN THE 1930s, other women’s names began surfacing in summit registers tucked atop Teton peaks. Ayres made numerous documented first ascents with her brother, Fred Ayres (including Traverse Peak, Rock of Ages, Bivouac Peak’s West Ridge, and the West Horn) and also first female ascents of Disappointment Peak, Mount Owen, and Mount Moran’s Skillet Glacier. In 1939, Miriam Underhill, who ten years ear-

1936

COURTESY CRAIGHEAD FAMILY

Eleanor Davis, a physical education teacher at The Colorado College and graduate of the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, stood on the peak’s 13,775-foot summit a year earlier with longtime climbing partner Albert Ellingwood.

Scant description exists of Davis and Ellingwood’s ascent, but climber Bob Ormes described Davis as “a little wren of a type, very tough and strong and not disturbed by altitude,” and a “damn good climber and nervy.”

In recognition of her ascent of the Grand Teton, Davis became the first woman from Colorado to be invited to join the predominantly male and East Coast-oriented American Alpine Club.

WITH UNDERHILL’S ascent of the Petit Grepon, the term and idea of a “manless” climb became more popular, and more women got the experience and confidence necessary to attempt climbs without a male partner. In the summer of 1939, Craighead, Margaret Bedell, Ann Sharples, and Mary Whittemore set out to make history with the first manless ascent of the Grand Teton. Craighead, the youngest of the group, had climbed most of the major Teton peaks by the age of sixteen. Bedell was an enthusiastic climber who aspired to eventually ascend every peak in the range. Sharples was a nationalcaliber skier and the group’s leader. Even though this climb was Whittemore’s first in the Tetons, she had spent four years training with professional mountain guides.

At the time, Craighead wrote: “This may have been of importance to the record of events, but to us it was just another climb.” It was just another climb to the ladies, but it made the regional news. The following day The Salt Lake Tribune wrote: “Another successful invasion of the field of sport by the weaker sex. The laconic record filed in the Jenny Lake museum of Grand Teton National Park reads: Left base camp, Lower Saddle elevation 11,000 feet at 3:50 a m., ascended by the Owen, regular route, and reached summit 8:20 a m., left peak 10 a m., arrived 1936

Margaret Smith Craighead, one of the party of four women to do the first manless ascent of the Grand Teton (in 1939), is shown here rappelling.

lier made history with the world’s first documented “manless” technical climb on France’s Petit Grepon, did the first female ascent of Cloudveil Dome. Elizabeth Cowles, who did many first ascents in the Tetons, made the first climb of Buck Mountain (known as Mount Alpenglow at the time) during this era.

But as ninety-four-year-old Teton climber Margaret Smith Craighead recalls today, rarely did the area’s women alpinists climb together. Craighead began climbing in the Tetons as a young woman, when her father worked in the park as a naturalist. A crew that included men like Jack Durrance, Glenn Exum, and Paul Petzoldt—all of whom are considered some of America’s finest climbers—took Craighead, who was up for adventure, under their wings. (One eventually proposed to her on the slopes of Teewinot. She declined, explaining that she thought of him more as a brother. In a huff he left her to descend on her own.)

As soon as the sun was up, Craighead’s crew would begin hiking to the base of a climb. At night they’d retire to the campfire to tell stories of the day’s adventures while working on their hobnail boots or sometimes play music and “hobo dance.”

Craighead describes herself as “kind of like a mascot to the guys,” but she held her own in the group. She did several first ascents in the range, and one summer, Durrance invited her to climb the North Face of the Grand Teton. (Tired from a long climb the prior day—it had stretched well into the evening— Craighead turned around early in the attempt.)

Margaret Bedell, Anne Sharples, Margaret Smith Craighead, and Mary Whittemore make the first manless ascent of the Grand Teton.

BIVOUAC PEAK TRAVERSE PEAK

Jenny lake 5:10 p m.”

The article failed to mention that the women arose extra early to beat everyone else to the summit; they knew that otherwise critics wouldn’t believe they had made it up on their own. Craighead was so taken with the experience of climbing with other women that afterward she began climbing regularly with Irene Ayres.

Craighead, who now lives in Missoula, Montana, but regularly visits her family in Kelly, Wyoming, stopped climbing long ago. Like most women of the era, her focus shifted to her growing family. “Back then it was a childhood activity,” explains her son, Derek Craighead. “She got married and had kids.”

Despite over half a century passing since Craighead put on a climbing harness, she offers advice to climbers, male and female alike, that’s timeless: “Be safe and always be careful. There’s so much fun to be had in the mountains. Enjoy every single minute of it. It’s just grand to be there.”

— In Their Own Words: A few of the range’s pioneering women climbers share some of their standout memories.

In 1980, Barb Eastman, with Anne Macquarie, did the first all-female ascent of Mount Moran’s Direct South Buttress.

The two women were also among Grand Teton National Park’s first female Jenny Lake Climbing Rangers, gaining positions with that illustrious group in 1980.

“We did have some trouble route finding, and we got benighted. While it’s illegal to have fires we figured that we were better off with one, so we built a fire and huddled around it. We had to find a way to make contact because one of us was scheduled in the station [the next day].

As the summer went along Anne and I realized we were qualified to be at Jenny Lake. We weren’t the lowest on the totem pole or the weakest link on the team. It took us a number of weeks to realize that.

After all, Anne’s honeymoon was two ascents of McKinley.”

Liza Anderson Wilson did the second female ascent—by ten days—of the Black Ice Couloir on the Grand Teton in 1974.

“It was pretty wild doing the Valhalla Traverse back in those days. It was really bad, and I got knocked around. Right before we had climbed the Enclosure Couloir.

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COURTESY COLORADO MOUNTAIN CLUB

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Miriam Underhill is the first woman to climb Cloudveil Dome.

1940

1939

Irene Beardsley and Sue Swedlund did the first all-female ascent of the Grand Teton’s North Face in 1965. Theirs was considered the hardest all-female ascent at the time.

“Leigh [Ortenburger] suggested and started promoting the idea that Sue and I climb the North Face. I was pretty excited by the idea. I didn’t know [Sue] so we climbed the Underhill [route] to see if we were compatible. She was such a fantastic climber and so level-headed. I had a lot of confidence in her. She fell a few times on the Pendulum Pitch. But it didn’t bother

her, it just made her mad.

All the exposure wasn’t quite as appalling as I thought it would be because of all the ledges—it was the Pendulum Pitch that got me. I felt terrible, I dropped Sue’s father’s camera. Being pregnant, I think, made me clumsy. Sue didn’t hold it against me. She was a very nice person. You can say we had fun.”

Catherine Cullinane became the first female Exum guide, and the first female guide in the Tetons, in 1981.

“I came out to the Tetons in 1980 with a friend; we knew a bunch of the Exum guides—Kim Schmitz [a man], TM Herbert, Chuck Pratt, and Herb Swedlund. I did some portering, then got recruited to guide since I knew how to climb. In those days you had some onthe-job training; you’d go work with Rod [Newcomb] and Al [Read, the owners of the company]. All the guides were totally welcoming; I loved the camaraderie. The clients were more of a problem: ‘What?!

You’re our guide? You’re so small! How are you going to hold us?’ ” JH

Elizabeth Cowles completes the first female ascents of Buck Mountain and Veiled Peak, and the first ascents of the north ridges of Mount Moran and the Grand Teton.

1941

Not many women had climbed that then.

I was in these old Grivel crampons that weren’t even rigid, Lowa boots, and Chouinard wool knickers. I remember dropping Keith’s prized Warthog down the couloir. It was a bummer—that was a precious screw.

It didn’t seem like that big of a deal, but I guess there weren’t a lot of women in the Tetons. It’s just what we were doing— climbing everything we could back in those days.”

Cowles and Mary Merrick are part of the first team to try the Petzoldt Ridge on the Grand Teton.

GRAND TETON

BUCK MOUNTAIN CLOUDVEIL DOME VEILED PEAK

MOUNT MORAN

JH Living

outdoors

Down By the River This summer, a previously unregulated, popular stretch of the Snake River is coming under Teton County’s purview, and most everyone agrees it’s needed.

BY MARK HUFFMAN

This stretch of the Snake River south of Grand Teton National Park was part of the last twenty miles of the river unregulated for commercial use. This summer, Teton County Parks and Recreation will begin managing it.

ON A SUNNY summer morning, Jay Pistono was standing on the bank of the Snake River.

Directing traffic.

At the boat ramp on what’s called parcel 13, at the Highway 22 bridge over the Snake River, things were going smoothly, with no need for Pistono’s gentle herding. That’s been the norm during his six years as the Snake River Fund’s river ambassador, moving things along, answering questions, checking registration and inspection stickers, and counting boats and people.

But as Pistono talked to a Lewis & Clark Expeditions guide who was unloading a couple of rafts, he saw something he tries to prevent. People had parked a big trailer and blocked the riv100

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

erbank. They slowly inflated five rafts with hand pumps. They made a big pile of life vests.

The Lewis & Clark guide had his boats in the river, his customers loaded and floating south within ten minutes. The people with the rented rafts—about fifty on a family reunion adventure—crowded the access for an hour. Luckily, timing and good manners came together. The reunion mob didn’t block anyone from the water, and no one got testy. It doesn’t always work out that way. “I’ve seen people shoving each other around,” Pistono says. “You can get a competitive atmosphere, get little altercations because people get excited.”

Rebecca Reimers, former executive director of the Snake River Fund (she stepped down last winter after nearly three years

at the helm), agreed about the busy river between parcel 13 and, twelve miles downriver, the South Park Bridge, two ends of a heavily used stretch. Boating there is sometimes “like commuting,” she says. “This stretch of the river was fairly unknown, undiscovered for years. But there’s just more people there now—and there are crazy days.”

There are crazy days because it’s a beautiful run, popular with locals who float and fish it for their own pleasure and with those in the business of taking tourists on the water. A study completed by Confluence Research and Consulting in February 2014 estimated private boats from Wilson to South Park at 50 a day in 2013, sometimes 70. Commercial use is about 30 guided fishing trips daily and 70 scenic floats. Every day, 150 boats. Use has increased over the years, enough that some think it’s already too high, and most agree the increase can’t go on without some management.

board member of American Rivers, a competitive kayaker, and the owner of Rendezvous River Sports in Jackson.

The Snake River Fund stepped up, though the seventeenyear-old group, formed to lobby for river protection, didn’t want to take on management itself and sees its current oversight duties at parcel 13 as temporary.

Many meetings and lots of study ended with the thought that the Teton County/Jackson Parks & Recreation Department would do the job, and that transition is now underway. Teton County takes on management of the river between Grand Teton National Park and Astoria this year, initially under a right-of-way agreement, but eventually with the idea that ownership will pass to the county. There have been similar transfers of federal land to local jurisdictions, but the idea of a county taking on management of a river is a bit more unusual.

STEVE ASHWORTH, THE Parks and Rec director, thinks his people are the natural choice, with help from the Snake River Fund. Though it’s unlikely private users will face limits, Ashworth agrees that the days of unregulated commercial use on this section of the Snake are gone, at least if the community wants to prevent growth without limit. He doesn’t think the changes will be drastic or onerous.

“Are we at Teton County going to take over management responsibilities to regulate commercial river access, are we go-

PRICE CHAMBERS

BRADLY J. BONER

THE TWENTY RIVER miles between where the Snake River leaves Grand Teton National Park at its southern end and Astoria in the Snake River Canyon is the last piece of the river that isn’t regulated in the valley. In GTNP, regulation is by the National Park Service; past Astoria, it’s by the U.S. Forest Service. In the unregulated twenty-mile stretch there are eighteen scattered parcels managed by the Bureau of Land Management totaling about one thousand acres.

Much of this is hidden and cut off from the public by private land and twenty-four miles of flood-control levee. It’s sand and rock, flooded each spring as snow in the high country melts. “A lot of the parcels are open space, they’re habitat, that’s their highest value,” Reimers says. Studies find elk, deer and moose, bald eagles, osprey, hawks, pelicans and herons, mink, and beaver live in these areas.

But some of the ragged bits are valuable to more than wild animals.

River ambassador Jay Pistono updates the river flow report at the parcel 13 Parcel 13’s eleven acres, where ramp as a commercially guided group of rafters prepares for their float. Pistono Pistono often works, has the busiest boat put-in in greets and educates boaters while helping ease congestion during times of heavy use.

Teton County north of the canyon. Across the river is a favorite place for locals to walk the levee. Thirteen miles downstream, at the South Park Bridge, the twenty-three ing to charge, are we going to permit?” he asks. “The simple acres of parcel 26 is the other end of the boat-go-round that answer is yes, but the devil is in the details,” he says. “How will we allocate permits? Is it a lottery? A bid? Is it historical? And starts at parcel 13.

The parcels, administered by the Bureau of Land how many boats can we permit—one hundred? Two hunManagement, face a big change that affects river users. With dred? Fifty?” the BLM office eighty miles away in Pinedale, in the 1990s the The 2014 Confluence study lays out choices. One is to agency began thinking about how it could unburden itself of keep river use at the 150 boats a day now seen. Another opthese far-flung properties. One idea was a public auction. tion is allowing up to 250 boats a day. Reimers, speaking for Locals immediately feared losing access to the river, and the the Snake River Fund, thinks a bit less use than what’s on the idea was “met with pretty strong public opposition,” says Aaron river now would be best, at least to start. “If there’s room for Pruzan, a founding board member of the Snake River Fund, more after trying the ‘stabilize, low’ option, river use can be SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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JEFF DIENER

grown,” she says.

Fortunately, Ashworth says, boat counts in summer 2014 found numbers not growing as fast as people had estimated; current use “is not as heavy as some people think,” he says. He sees management by the county as not changing much from the current situation over the next three years, with no new limit on boats, and with the voluntary fees now paid by commercial users to the Snake River Fund paid to the county instead. The idea of no big changes right off also will Rafters float the Wilson to South Park section of the Snake River on a summer evening. allow time for more study and thought, which he thinks is wise: “We want to dip our toe in the water and not just jump in with a lot of changes,” Ashworth says. “We don’t want to — cause any harm.”

THE SNAKE RIVER flowed for a few million years without the help of a nonprofit But the new system could mean, eventually, that foundation. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t use some support. That started seven“it’s impossible for everybody to get everything they teen years ago with the creation of the Snake River Fund, which is dedicated to the want,” on the river, Pruzan says. “Somebody is going river, its environment, and its use. The group now handles many programs, but it began with a single focus: access. to be left out, there’s no question. People are going to “Bridger-Teton National Forest was looking at the possibility of a fee demonhave to accept the fact that resource management stration program like in Colorado, where they charge you to park, and they charge takes precedence over commercial use.”

Snake River Support

HEATHER EWING AGREED that “everybody’s going to have to concede something.” Ewing’s father, Frank Ewing, was one of the first commercial rafters on the Snake and a founder of the Snake River Fund, and she has run Barker-Ewing River Trips for twenty years. Tighter control of commercial users—perhaps even boat limits at some point—will affect her business but not change her mind. “I think it’s needed,” she says. “It’s a smart move to find a plan ... If use keeps going in the direction it’s going right now, there’s potential for overuse. The ultimate goal for everyone is protecting the resource. If it’s not healthy, all of us lose.” With her family making a living from the river for five decades, Ewing noted it’s not just commercial owners and their employees who benefit, but Jackson tourism in general. “People don’t come here to run the river,” she says, “but when they come it’s the number one tourist activity.”

Pistono agrees about compromising and notes that a big increase in use has been handled so far by good sense and devotion to maintaining the river environment. In more than thirty years on the river, he says, “I don’t think I’ve made a trip along this stretch without seeing an eagle.”

“You see moose, you see eagles, people catch fish,” he says. “How you use the resource is just as important as how many people use it.” JH 102

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you to get in the river,” says Rebecca Reimers, former executive director of the fund.

“Citizens around here thought that was a terrible idea. They wanted to keep public access on the river free, so they started this grassroots group.”

It wasn’t only the idea of fees, but that the money would have disappeared into a faraway bureaucracy. “The fees would have been sent to Washington, gone into the black hole, and not necessarily have come back here,” Reimers says. “People saw creating a group as a way to keep the money local.”

An anonymous donor gave $50,000 to begin the Snake River Fund and challenged the community to come up with more. It’s still funded by private donations, with a budget of about $300,000 a year. The group, originally with no employees, now has a staff of three and a half, as well as a thirteen-member board.

When the Bureau of Land Management began talking in the 1990s about selling important access parcels it manages along the river, the Snake River Fund spurred negotiations to transfer the land to Teton County, a process that is still underway.

The fund also got into river issues beyond access and the BLM parcels.

It began the river ambassador program, led public efforts in planning for parks at the Wilson and Snake River bridges, and raised money for renovating boat ramps in the Snake River Canyon. It runs education programs, such as Summit On The Snake, and works to protect local rivers from invasive plants and animals. The fund also is involved in restoration projects on Flat Creek—which runs through Jackson before finding its way to the Snake—and Spread Creek, important wildlife habitat at the north end of Jackson Hole.

It serves as an intermediary among private groups and government agencies in dealing with waterways, and has given outfitters, who have no separate professional organization, a way to speak on river issues. Reimers is pleased with the organization’s accomplishments and optimistic about what’s to come. “We have nice synergy right now; it’s been a positive couple of years for us,” she says. “I think we’ll continue on this trajectory—there’s no shortage of work to be done.” For more on the Snake River Fund, go to snakeriverfund.org.

– M.H.

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Pat Flynn

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The summit of Big Horn Peak is a one-thirdof-a-mile detour from the Sky Rim Trail. It’s worth the time and effort.

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Sky Rim Hiking in Yellowstone is more than meadows and geysers.

BY MAGGIE THEODORA PHOTOGRAPHY BY DEREK STAL SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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Experience the Best

THE WORLD’S FIRST national park is full of geologic splendors. Yellowstone has bubbling mud pots. Technicolor springs. Geysers galore. Some of these splendors don’t even smell like rotten eggs. Yellowstone also has lots of wildlife—bison, wolves, elk, bears, and bald eagles. Upwards of nine hundred miles of trails wander through and past these sights. As wondrous as all of these things are, they don’t make for expansive views or exciting or dramatic hiking. (Not counting any drama arising from being chased by a bison or bear.)

Yellowstone hikes are pretty. Peaceful.

Relaxing. Interesting. Used to getting smacked in the face by the outsized beauty of the Tetons, I’ve never stopped in the middle of a Yellowstone hike to pick my jaw up off the ground, though.

(Not counting when I’ve been shocked and awed by humans behaving badly around wildlife.) Nor have I ever stopped in Yellowstone to take a 360-degree panoramic photo. Until last summer.

Seven miles of trail tucked into the northwestern part of the park follow a ridge that undulates between 8,500 and 9,500 feet. The 360-degree views you get from it stretch across the park and into three states. Not even counting the tenminute detour to the 9,888-foot summit of Big Horn Peak via a trail carved out of the side of that mountain, your jaw will hit the ground several times over the course of hiking the Sky Rim Trail, which is unlike any other trail in Yellowstone. This could be because it is

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Wolves, black and grizzly bears, and elk all call this part of the park home.

While it eventually reaches a scenic ridgeline, Yellowstone’s twenty-some-mile Sky Rim Trail starts and ends like most trails in the park—in a grassy meadow with a creek running through it.

barely in Yellowstone.

BETWEEN DALY PASS and Big Horn Peak, the ridge portion of the trail—the

entire trail is a twenty-mile lollipop with a “stick” of about two miles—is part of the northwestern boundary of Yellowstone. According to Bill Schneider’s

book, Hiking Montana, this area was the last bit of land added to the park, way back in 1927, bringing its total size to today’s 2,221,766 acres. Walking the ridge, at regular intervals you pass metal survey stakes delineating the park’s boundary. The trail is 99 percent on the

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The Sky Rim Trail is a “lollipop” loop hike in the northwestern corner of Yellowstone National Park.

RAMSHORN PEAK 10,289 FT.

DALY PASS

Da

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SHELF LAKE BIG HORN PEAK 9,930 FT.

SKY RIM

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK/GALLATIN NATIONAL FOREST BOUNDARY

Bl ac k

BLACK BUTTE 8,459 FT.

c Spe

ime

North Fork

LAVA BUTTE 7,910 FT.

Cr .

CROW BUTTE 8,059 FT.

Bu tte

TO BELGRADE, MONTANA

SHEEP MTN. 10,095 FT.

MELDRUM MTN. 9,552 FT.

reek nC

N YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK BOUNDARY

Yellowstone side. Once or twice you might dip out of the park and into the Gallatin National Forest.

Twenty miles that include about five thousand vertical feet of climbing is a

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TO WEST YELLOWSTONE

long hike. Fit hikers can do the Sky Rim in a day. Not-so-fit hikers should seriously consider getting fitter before doing it even over a couple of days. Doing it as a two-day trip overnight, the best place

to camp is Shelf Lake, three miles off the trail and thirteen miles from the start.

So even the “easy” option requires a really long Day 1. Outfitters sometimes do it over four or five days.

Short on time and long on fitness, just after dawn one morning late last August, our group of three left the Daly Creek trailhead, nearly thirty miles north of West Yellowstone, Montana, off US 191, armed only with daypacks. These were stuffed with extra liters of water because we read there was no water during the middle twelve miles of the trek.

WITHIN A MILE of leaving the parking lot, my lower half was dripping wet. This was not because my CamelBak had leaked, but because, at its beginning and end, the trail travels through usual Yellowstone terrain: grassy meadows.

On this particular morning, the waisthigh grasses dripped with dew. My shorts were quickly soaked through. My shoes squelched with every step. I won’t lie—it was fairly miserable, especially

since temperatures were fairly chilly.

Late August mornings can dip into the 30s. An hour passed during which I could not feel my hands. Even though picturesque meadows are a dime a dozen in Yellowstone, had my fingers not been frozen, I would have taken many photos of this meadow. Bisected by Daly Creek and with Crown Butte looming above to the west, it is particularly picturesque.

Accustomed to hiking in the Tetons, as we made our way up Daly Pass through pine trees, I wondered why Hiking Montana’s Schneider had graded the climb up this pass as a Category 1—most difficult. He wrote about it and the ridge that follows: “It seems you should be about as high up as you can get, but you aren’t even close to the top.” He had obviously never hiked to the summit of the South Teton, or anywhere in the Tetons.

TRAVERSING THE RIDGE, I became less snarky. I counted the peaklets we walked up and down. I also lost count of the peaklets we went up and down. Six? Seven? Twelve? I do know it was exactly three more peaklets than my legs wanted. I enjoyed the 360-degree views. We saw the Gallatin Range. Also the Absarokas. Looking behind us to the north, we saw The Sphinx in the Madison Range and thought we recognized Big Sky Resort’s Lone Peak. I pondered whether I had ever had such expansive views anywhere in Yellowstone.

We could not see the Tetons. When we remembered to look at what was right in front of us, we saw weird volcanic formations, hunks of jet-black obsidian, and petrified tree trunks.

THE FINAL PEAKLET in the ridge was the toughest and its base had the coolest trees of the trip: long dead and denuded of their needles, their limbs wore a thick robe of lime green moss. Both to rest my legs before the final ascent and because I thought the trees quite fetching as subjects, I paused for a photo shoot.

And then I tackled the final climb.

Not only was it the greatest vertical gain—five hundred feet—since the climb up Daly Pass, but, for extra fun, it was also steep and terribly loose. There was no sign of a trail anywhere, yet there was no doubting where we needed to go: up. Each of us went our own way. Derek smartly did mini-switchbacks. Larry channeled his inner tank, putting his SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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it was all downhill. Literally and figuratively. Before disappearing into the dense forest, I turned around and gave the Sky Rim a wave goodbye. And then I reminded my muscles that even though my eyes could now rest, they still had ten miles of work to get to the car. JH

NUTS & BOLTS

Seven miles of the Sky Rim Trail follow a high-alpine, undulating ridge in Yellowstone National Park.

head down and pointing straight up. I was somewhere in the middle, using the little vegetation specking the hillside to hop hummock-to-hummock. Going back again to Hiking Montana, Schneider writes that this section is “the most precipitous section of designated trail in the park, but it’s not dangerous.” I didn’t disagree so much with this assessment.

We could have stopped in the air-

plane-carrier-size grassy field at the top of this hillside—that’s what the official Sky Rim Trail does—but had been told the side trip (only one-third of a mile) to the summit of Big Horn Peak was very much worth the effort. Ten minutes later, on that comfortable summit, we marveled not only at the views back onto the entirety of the ridge we had just traveled, but also at the summit trail itself. Carved into the peak’s crumbly, cliffy side, it was a feat of engineering and execution.

From the summit of Big Horn Peak,

THERE IS NO camping at the Daly Creek trailhead, which is off US 191 almost thirty miles north of West Yellowstone.

The trailhead is on the north side of the road and is signed. The nearest lodging is in West Yellowstone.

The drive from Jackson to West Yellowstone is about 125 miles. Camping at Shelf Lake requires a Yellowstone backcountry permit. The Shelf Lake campsites are WE5 and WE7. nps.gov/yell This summer, Big Wild Adventures offers two guided backpacking trips in this area: July 13-17 and 19-24. The earlier trip is an easier itinerary and costs $1,750. The second trip is $1,900. Prices include usage of their gear. Bring your own and save $250. 406/848-7000; bigwildadventures.com Experienced, fit hikers who want to do the Sky Rim in a day can arrange a custom trip with Yellowstone Hiking Guides. 406/848-1144; yellowstonehikingguides.com

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Rope and Glory Jackson Hole Mountain Resort’s Grand Adventure Park

BY JOOHEE MUROMCEW PHOTOGRAPHY BY PRICE CHAMBERS A seven-year-old makes the double black diamond portion of The Ropes at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort’s Adventure Park look easy.

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LET ME BE clear up front. I am not an “adventurous” person by most Jackson Hole interpretations of that word. I do not jump into Corbet’s to show my kids how it’s done. Any walls I climb are strictly metaphorical. Skin up Teton Pass and ski down through the trees? I get vertigo just driving the pass in my Yukon.

When my editor, Dina—a joyfully fearless woman—asked me to write about the new adventure park at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and elsewhere, I had to reveal my inner lameness. She was nonplussed (“I love the perspective!”) and sent over the contract.

The Grand Adventure Park at JHMR encompasses some older favorite activities, like the bungee-powered trampoline and a disc golf course. A mountain bike park was added in 2011, and the newest addition is a massive multilevel, multicourse ropes course called “The Ropes.” The highest elements are thirtytwo feet above the ground, with zip lines, balance beams, and tightropes designed to challenge physically and mentally. My four kids—Alex, just entering high school, and triplets Mary, Nikita, and Natasha, entering middle school—were alarmingly and naively excited for the course. They just did not seem to grasp how scary it was going to be, regarding it instead as an advanced play structure. I saw it as a jungle gym for Navy SEALs. My husband, Alex, was training for a Grand Teton climb, so he approached it with the same anxiety that he might an afternoon nap. I had to remind myself that I am fearless in other ways. I have eaten mystery meat on a stick at the Beijing Night Market. I’ve flown crosscountry alone with four children under the age of five. Speaking of those kids, I

Before starting The Ropes, adventurers are strapped into full-body harnesses.

gave birth to triplets—carried to term— and have spirited them away on countless adventures all over the world.

THE PROFUSE SWEATING began as soon as I was strapped into my harness and helmet. All participants must go through what is called “Ground School,” a brief tutorial about the course and how to use the harness. We had a seasoned JHMR ski instructor, Emma Franzeim, giving us the mini-lesson, and I have to admit, it was all pretty straightforward once you got the hang of the fail-safe clip system. If you lose your balance or grip, the farthest you will fall is the length of your harness. However, once you are clipped in at the base of the course, you are committed until the end of your lap, where you jump off a platform (more on that later). I immediately began to imagine humiliating midcourse rescue scenarios.

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allergic reaction to a bee sting, the best person to help yourself out of a challenging line is yourself. In fact, there have been very few “rescues” of any sort since The Ropes opened, just an occasional case of dehydration. The kids scampered off without hesitation on the blue courses, laughing and whooping with that can-do attitude they inherited from Alex. I took longer, shopping around the options.

The suspended log looked safest, until I stepped on it and it swayed underneath me. I heard encouragement all around as I gripped the ropes and inched my way forward. I reached the first platform and hugged the post like it was my mother. There was another mom behind me with her own sprightly crew of children-coaches. She was also waxing between exhilaration and terror. I reached my second platform on the other side of a row of loosely swaying ropes and turned my head as my husband shouted out, “Hey, Joohee! Watch this!” He was jumping off the lower of the two platforms, still harnessed in, but with complete abandon and happiness. I watched the children follow him 116

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down to the safe, safe ground and then line up for their next go.

The only way off the course is to belay down one of two platforms. Franzeim was now stationed at the lower platform, patiently coaching the timid, counting to three when needed, and she suggested I just look at my hands. Most importantly, don’t look down. Franzeim also coaches the popular Women’s Ski Camp and Steep and Deep Camp during the ski season with similar measures of skilled instruction and emotionalbaggage wrangling. The few times I’ve wall-climbed led me to believe they meant belay as in another (strong!) person would gradually give on his or her end of the rope so I could gently glide down like a swan.

Not exactly the case.

This is more of a zip-line action. As I stood on the edge of the platform, I thought of the many times I’ve overcome my fear of heights. Every ski run down Rendezvous Bowl from the top of the tram begins with a mini-anxiety attack, trips to the bathroom, sips and sips from the CamelBak, and then lots of

The Ropes includes zip lines, balance beams, and tightropes on courses that have varying levels of difficulty.

shopping around for the most forgiving fall line. I was horrified to learn recently that all of the bowl’s fall lines are mostly the same pitch. I began to wonder why I live here in this community that prizes extreme thrill-seeking so much. Why must we all put ourselves at such ...

“You should just go,” Franzeim says kindly, taking the needle of my inner neurotic record. “You can do it.” And so I did, stepping off the platform, softly landing on my feet just a moment later.

My family, splayed all over the course— Natasha on the third-level spider web, Nikita hanging on with one hand while

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crossing a high tightrope, Mary pulling herself on a suspended trolley, and Alex now back on the high platform—applauded and cheered for me.

I felt so very proud of myself for finishing even the green course, and mostly for stepping off that platform. The kids were already asking when they could come back and if there was a black course to try next time. The courses run in difficulty from allegedly easy green courses to blues and double blues, then blacks. My son joked that there was a “Death Circle” level I should try. Would I come back with them, please, so they could coach me through the green course again? Yes, I said, surprising them and myself. Compared to shaking off vertigo, shivering on a frozen, foggy tenthousand-foot-tall peak, traversing ropes and swings while strapped into a safety harness is not so scary after all, at least until the next time. JH

from

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NUTS & BOLTS THE GRAND ADVENTURE PARK AT JACKSON HOLE MOUNTAIN RESORT Open during the summer season, each activity has its own operating hours and fees. The aerial adventure course, The Ropes, is open for ages five and older. Expect to spend about an hour to complete the three laps included in the cost. No experience is necessary. $35, jacksonhole.com

DOUG WALKER CHALLENGE COURSE AT TETON SCIENCE SCHOOLS Tucked into the 1,000-acre Jackson campus of Teton Science Schools, the Doug Walker Challenge Course offers an equally challenging but quieter ropes course experience than JHMR. The course is open to the public on Saturdays, but is also available for groups with advance notice. It makes for a powerful team-building outing for corporate groups, or with its high and low elements, a memorable event for family reunions and wedding parties. tetonscience.org

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GRAND TARGHEE No ropes course here, but Grand Targhee’s summer activities include a bike park with over 2,200 vertical feet of lift-serviced bike trails for all levels.

Disc golf, a climbing wall, and a Eurobungy are also offered. grandtarghee.com SNOW KING MOUNTAIN RESORT As of press time, Snow King was still awaiting final approval from the U.S. Forest Service for its adventure park plans.

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High in the Sky

Hiking to some of our wildest areas out of the question?

Fly Jackson Hole still wants you to see them.

BY DINA MISHEV PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRADLY J. BONER 120

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Spectacular

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The scenic tours by Fly Jackson Hole take clients along the western flank of the Tetons for spectacular views of the range’s core peaks.

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FLOATING SEVERAL THOUSAND feet above the Sleeping Indian, Blue Miner Lake, to the peak’s east, looks as blue as I’ve ever seen it. The high, rolling open meadows so characteristic of the Gros Ventre Range spread out below. Yet I am disappointed.

As someone who has always prized the achievement of getting to wild places by my own power and who also appreciates silence once I’ve reached these wild places, I was leery of the scenic flights that began operating out of the Jackson Hole Airport last July. But, of course, when the opportunity comes to experience one, I jump at it, mostly hoping to find it sucks so I don’t need to contemplate the hypocrisy of revering wild places while enjoying a scenic flight over them.

That’s not the case. I love it. The hour I spend flying first above the Gros Ventres and then coming over the town of Jackson, before squeaking through Teton Pass and then heading north up

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the Teton Range on the Teton Valley side, is enthralling. I might be getting a little gushy here, but the scenery is the very definition of awesome. I mean, we’re talking about the Tetons. And the Gros Ventres. And, way in the distance—beyond the twenty-five-mile radius these flights have from the Jackson Hole Airport—the Wind River Mountains.

Having spent nearly two decades exploring the Tetons and the Gros Ventres on foot and on and off trail, this flight doesn’t show me too many places I haven’t already seen, yet it does. In Grand Teton National Park, I’ve hiked to Mica Lake and hope to make it to Alpha and Omega lakes in the near future, and I’ve looked at the three on Google Earth.

But flying west of them, I visualize a wonderfully difficult backcountry scramble between the trio that I lacked the imagination to see on Google Earth.

The week prior to the flight, my boyfriend and I bushwhacked up to Coyote Lake, one of the highest-altitude lakes in

Grand Teton National Park and way at the back of Open Canyon. We had also hoped to hit nearby(ish) Indian Lake, but time was running short, and our topo maps indicated Indian Lake was surrounded by steep cliffs.

FLY JACKSON HOLE doesn’t take us right over Indian Lake—the only time on my tour founder and pilot Pete Lindell flies within GTNP is for takeoff and landing (the Jackson Hole Airport has the distinction of being the only commercial airport in the country that is inside a national park) and when he has to cross back from the west to the east side to land; the rest of the time he’s flying above the national forests and wilderness areas around the park. But we get close enough for me to take some scouting shots of routes that Derek and I might take to clamber up to the lake next summer. And Coyote Lake looks even

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Located atop a picturesque mesa hidden away from public view, this 3 acre property is set amidst a recreationalist’s paradise. Bordered on 2 sides by Wyoming Game & Fish land and dedicated gated access to millions of acres of Bridger Teton National Forest. This location is truly quiet, peaceful and feels remote, but town is only a 15 minute drive. Features a 3,700 sq.ft. main home with an attached 2 car garage and additional 2nd floor storage, a 1,000 sq.ft. log guest house with 2 bedrooms, a 1,600 sq.ft. heated shop with a 756 sq.ft. bunk house above. $2,200,000 / 15-133

Flying over the Snake River and Jackson Hole

IN TOWN CONVENIENCE Custom built home in the attractive Karns Hillside neighborhood. Recently remodeled and convenient to all areas of Jackson. With 5 bedrooms and over 3,000 sq.ft., this is the perfect place to call home. $1,219,000 / 14-2283

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CHAD BUDGE, Owner, Associate Broker 307.413.1364 DIANNE BUDGE, Owner, Associate Broker 307.413.1362 REBEKKAH KELLEY, Associate Broker 307.413.5294 chadbudge@jhrea.com 80 West Broadway, Jackson, WY 83001

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Barker-Ewing Float Trips 53 Years floating the Snake River inside Grand Teton National Park

more beautiful from three-thousandsome feet above than it does from its scree shoreline.

Pete Lindell, owner of Fly Jackson Hole, steers over the western slope of the Teton Range during a scenic flight.

ONCE LINDELL GETS a narrative up and running—“I don’t want people just to see these places, but understand the geology and history and wildness that makes them so special, and I want them to know what they’re seeing below,” he says—for clients to listen to through their headphones, the flights will be greatly improved. I know it’s Mount Meek and Marion Lake below because I had the good sense to move here directly after college, began to explore GTNP, and never moved away. But most people won’t know about the mountain

named for Virginian Joseph Shelton Meek, who, in 1829 at the age of nineteen, joined a fur-trading expedition of William Sublette’s and, for the next decade, traveled throughout the West, hunting, trapping, and living off the land.

While Mt. Meek might remain unrecognized by most passengers, the Grand Teton will not. But the Middle or South Tetons, or any of the canyons that reach out from between the peaks like gnarled fingers, could be tricky. Not that we need names to be ascribed to things

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to appreciate their awesomeness, but they do help with a frame of reference and sense of place. Lindell, who’s been flying for eighteen years, gets points for wanting to add that to these flights.

WHETHER THIS IS because flying over wilderness areas adjacent to Grand Teton National Park is controversial or not, Lindell says, “I’m not doing this just to entertain people. This isn’t something for people to tick off life lists. You will see amazing scenery you can’t imagine even from the top of the tram, but my hope is that people take an appreciation of what’s out there home with them. If people can’t get exposed to wild areas, how can they be expected to care about them?”

Fly over the Crystal Peak Landslide in the Gros Ventres with Lindell and when you read about it in this issue (page 84), you’ll have more of a relationship with it than you’d get from our photos and descriptions, as great as we think our photos and descriptions are.

Over the Tetons, it’s not the peaks or canyons that wow me most, but how many lakes are in the range. Some probably are technically only tarns—maybe even not that, ambitious puddles? Still, in addition to the well-known Marion Lake, Lake Solitude, Jenny Lake, and Snowdrift Lake, there are upwards of a dozen pockets of water, totally hidden from below, that even in mid-August are fighting to melt out. My face is glued to the window—everyone gets a window seat—soaking in every nanosecond because this is a complete treat; my muscles and legs can get me many places, but high into the sky is not among them. JH

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body & soul

* ERIC ORTON // TRAIL RUNNING *

Peak Eating When it comes to fueling Jackson’s elite athletes, real food trumps all.

BY RACHEL WALKER PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRADLY J. BONER

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IF YOU WANT to bike, ski, climb, and run as strong as local elite athletes, know this: it’s not just about training your body. Reaching optimal athleticism requires an optimal diet balanced with carbohydrates, proteins, fat, and liquids.

That’s the easy part. Discovering the right balance for your sport, body type, and intensity is tougher—unless you follow the lead of these five successful local athletes. While their choices vary, each subscribes to a relatively simple philosophy made popular in recent years by food journalist Michael Pollan and endorsed by myriad sports medicine professionals and nutritionists: eat real food, not too much, mostly plants.

“A performance-driven diet is the same as a health-driven diet: whole food, real food, plant-based,” says Dr. Allen Lim, founder of the Boulder-based Skratch Labs, which makes exercise supplements. Sure, sports nutrition is an industry in and of itself, and professional athletes often have fine-tuned diets prepared by full-time cooks. But for the rest of us, including these local phenoms, the right nutrition for an athletic lifestyle boils down to five words your parents likely repeated throughout childhood: you are what you eat. Or, as Dr. Lim says: “Ask yourself if what you eat makes you feel like crap. If it does, don’t eat it. The proof is in the pudding. If the pudding makes you feel good, keep on eating it.”

DAVE MILLER Age: 57 Sport: Road cycling Choice grub: Miller, who also works as a contractor, strikes a balance between fueling his body and keeping his weight down during cycling season. A typical breakfast is an egg burrito and banana; lunch is usually liquid (the healthy kind—think a vitamin-fortified juice or muscle milk); and dinner is a complete meal with a protein, starch, and vegetable. “Real food,” Miller says, “not a lot of crap.” During training rides, he drinks water throughout and supplements with a “handful of energy chews or a gel,” he says. “I keep it light on all the stuff when I’m riding. I’m a camel.”

Words to eat by: “With road cycling, weight is everything, so I try to eat well but also eat to keep my weight down,” Miller says. “If you’re overweight by ten pounds, well, that $10,000 road bike doesn’t make any difference at all.”

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* KIM HAVELL // SKI MOUNTAINEER AND GUIDE *

ERIC ORTON Age: 48 Sport: Trail running Choice grub: In his book, The Cool Impossible, Orton, an ultrarunner and coach who trained Born to Run author Christopher McDougall, devotes an entire chapter to nutrition. An ideal diet stays “clean,” Orton says, with plenty of fruits and vegetables and proteins and fats in a natural state.

Breakfast before an endurance run is eggs and bacon. Speed days, it’s a smoothie with raspberries and banana, spinach, almond butter, and chia seeds (more carbs in the smoothie for those fast-twitch muscles, he says). Snacks come in the form of raw nuts or nut-based bars. To recover from his lengthier runs, Orton doesn’t hold back: He’ll have a “huge salad with veggies and spinach and olive oil and protein. I pack in as many nutrients as possible.”

Words to eat by: “Sugar is the biggest drug problem we have in the world,” Orton says. “We have to get away from sugar. And that means minimizing carbs—no carbo-loading for me—and consuming more fats and proteins.” When Orton moved to Jackson Hole in 2002, he cut out sugar—we’re not talking ice cream and chocolate here; those were already gone. Instead, he started reading every label and if it had sugar in it, he didn’t eat it. “It took ten days to get past the cravings, and within three weeks, I dropped five pounds, and I had more energy and speed,” he says.

KIM HAVELL Age: 39 Sport: Ski mountaineering Choice grub: “I have to have protein in the morning, always 130

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have, and I need carbs, too, otherwise I bonk,” says Havell, a professional ski mountaineer who has logged multiple first descents around the world. “Basically anything with peanut butter—oatmeal and peanut butter, a banana and peanut butter—sends me off on a good day.” Havell says she relies on “real food” to sustain her. When she does grab prepackaged fuel, it’s from PROBAR, which makes vegan, organic, non-GMO exercise bars and is one of Havell’s sponsors. As important as what she eats is when she eats, which is often. “I get low blood sugar and that impacts my performance,” Havell says.

“So I always make sure to eat throughout the day.”

Words to eat by: “I once ran the Imogene Pass Run, a 17.1-mile, point-to-point run from Ouray, Colorado, to Telluride, Colorado, over the 13,114-foot Imogene Pass relying on Pop-Tarts for fuel, which were, momentarily, the power food of choice,” Havell says.

“That was the worst mistake of my life.” These days she avoids high-fat, sugary, processed snacks, she says, and her stomach is all the happier for it.

CRYSTAL WRIGHT Age: 32 Sport: Barrel racing and breakaway roping (rodeo) Choice grub: “What I eat depends on the longevity of the sport,” says Wright, who is also an extreme skier, an ambassador for Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, and a personal trainer. Long days in the mountains call for GU energy gels, which give great, quick energy, and energy bars, which are slower-burning. At the rodeo, where there is a lot of mental anticipation and

CARY SMITH Age: 46 Sport: Mountain biking Choice grub: Simplicity reigns supreme for Smith, who for four years running has won the men’s single speed division at USA Cycling Marathon Mountain Bike Nationals. A true fan of a high-carb diet, Smith eats cereal (“with actual milk!”) for breakfast; fruit, yogurt, and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch; and a salad with some grain and protein—typically white meat—for din-

ner. He doesn’t drink alcohol and indulges in sweets in moderation. “I’ve been eating the same food since I was a kid, and it works for me,” says Smith, who rides for Jackson’s The Hub Bicycles and competes in endurance races often ranging from fifty to one hundred miles.

When racing, he has varying strategies.

For shorter races (four hours or less), Smith relies on liquid calories or GU (one of his sponsors). For longer races, he’ll supplement with solid foods, usually throwing a peanut butter sandwich into his pack.

Words to eat by: “Most beginner mountain bikers eat too much during a race and then feel bad because they have all this food sitting in their stomachs,” says Smith, who gets many of his calories on race day through high-energy sports drinks. It took a while to figure out the right combination for his body, Smith says, and he urges people to experiment with riding hard and eating less: “Do it when you’re training and you’ll realize what you need without going overboard.” That’s not to say “don’t eat,” he cautions. “If you’re starting to daydream and have negative thoughts, if you lose your focus, that’s a sign you need to eat,” Smith says. JH

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a very short burst of energy, Wright says it’s easy to forget to eat. “There’s nothing worse than going out of a start gate with no energy,” she says, adding that she often brings a salad with chicken to ensure a healthy meal in an environment where fried foods abound. “It makes such a difference, for example, to rope when you have energy and your mind is fed and ready,” Wright says.

Words to eat by: Nutrition is very important to Wright, but she’s not a fan of diets. “I believe in everything in moderation and having a well-balanced diet of proteins, vegetables, and fruits,” she says.

“It is really important to feed your body so your muscles and brain can fire.”

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nightlife

Jackson Uncorked

BY JOOHEE MUROMCEW PHOTOGRAPHY BY ASHLEY WILKERSON

LUNCH IS AN oversized BLT, potato chips, and six or seven different bottles of Italian and South African red wines. The company is even better. Dennis Johnson, manager of Dornan’s Wine Shoppe, has invited me to join a tasting lunch with him, Mr. Dornan (“that’s Bob to you!”), two reps from a wine importer, and, for good measure, renowned geologist Dr. Bob Smith. They’ve already tasted the whites and rosés offered by Kate McGuire from Dreyfus, Ashby & Co., an importer of strictly family wineries from around the world. I arrive at the Chuckwagon in time for 132

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Bob Dornan has made Dornan’s Wine Shoppe one of the best in the Rocky Mountains: It carries more than 1,500 choices of wine and has won twenty-eight Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence.

a South African shiraz from the Stellenbosch wine region. “Nice fruit, but too damn young,” Bob Dornan states. That sums up the culture at Dornan’s—sophisticated, knowledgeable, and at all times unpretentious.

Dornan’s in Moose, a family owned enterprise since 1916 when the first generation homesteaded, is an unlikely spot to find a world-class wine store. With a heaven-sent view of the Tetons, guests traverse the compound—cabin rentals, adventure sports guides, Pizza Pasta Company, the Chuckwagon restaurant, and the Spur Bar—in the usual Jackson Hole footwear of cowboy boots and river shoes. The Wine Shoppe, however, is so unexpected, first-time visitors are shocked to find such a large and deep inventory, presided over by such a knowledgeable wine staff. With its 1,500-plus bottle list, it has earned a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence for Dornan’s restaurants every year for twenty-eight years.

After lunch Dornan gives me a tour of the cellar, including the very special rooms where rare vintages are stored.

Empty bottles from memorable dinners are also kept here, and, for him, each one sparks a fond memory of who was there and what they were celebrating. Upstairs in the store, a young man asks for Johnson. He’s heading to a dinner party and wants to bring the hosts, longtime customers of the shop, a bottle of wine.

“They said you’ll know exactly what they like,” the man says. Johnson pulls a bottle out: “Oh, they will like this. In fact, you might want to bring two.”

THESE INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS between Johnson, the shop, wineries, and their customers go back decades for some. Evelyn Dornan first started visiting Napa wineries in the 1930s and ’40s, long before Wyoming showed up on any distributor or importer’s call sheet.

“Back in the sixties, people from the East Coast would come here for the dude ranches, and they were all big French wine drinkers. People wanted good wine here, and we brought it to them,” explains Dornan, who eschews the pretense and exclusivity usually associated with wine culture.

While the true significance of a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence is always up for debate, it does show an effort by restaurants to highlight their SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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wine lists. Dornan’s Best of Award of Excellence is one distinction above the “Award of Excellence” title earned last year by valley restaurants Local, Nikai, Snake River Grill, The Silver Dollar Grill, Trio, and Wild Sage. In Grand Teton National Park, both the Jenny Lake Lodge Dining Room and Jackson Lake Lodge’s Mural Room also earned the Excellence award. Unlike the Michelin guide or Zagat’s, Wine Spectator Awards are completely voluntary, and many restaurants choose not to apply.

FOR DAVE HEMPHILL, wine and beverage director at Snake River Grill, the goal is always for “a well-balanced list. I try not to let my personal tastes interfere. We’re trying to represent as much as we can to our diners,” Hemphill says.

The restaurant’s eight-page wine list varies from a fifteen-dollar glass of 2012 Les Boursicottes Sancerre to a magnum of 2008 Alban Vineyards Reva Estate Syrah for over six hundred dollars. If you are lucky enough to dine at SRG when chef Jeff Drew offers his grilled lamb ribs, Hemphill suggests, if it is a special occasion, that you enjoy it with the 2008 Clos Marie Pic SaintLoup Les Glorieuses.

In downtown Jackson, the newest wine destination is Bin22, part of Gavin Fine’s Fine Dining Restaurant Group. In conversation it becomes clear that this nexus of good food and wine is close to 134

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Fine’s heart. An early supporter of the Jackson Hole Wine Auction, an annual benefit for the Grand Teton Music Festival, Fine has seen the wine culture bloom and expand across all markets. He credits Gerard Yvernault, a Jackson resident and former executive vice president of powerhouse wine importer Kobrand Corporation, for bringing the potential of the valley wine market personally to the attention of important wineries. At Bin22, Fine hopes to “make wine approachable and fun. People who live or vacation here are very cosmopolitan, and it used to be hard to get wine. Now it’s easier, and I saw the missing piece that Bin22 fulfills.”

Neil Loomis, wine and beverage director for the entire Fine Dining Group, approaches each restaurant’s wine list with a different client in mind. The list at Il Villaggio Osteria, located in Hotel Terra in Teton Village, is, as one would expect, mostly Italian and slightly more high-end. Rendezvous Bistro’s list skews French with lots of Rhône wines. At Bin22, however, with its wine store/restaurant format, Loomis can offer a changing list of by-the-glass wines and also waives the corkage fee for bottles purchased in the store. “These are really great products, many off the beaten path. We special-order most of the inventory. It’s really an extension of what we do. We really try to exceed the expectations of the price point,” he says.

For a night out with friends, Bin22 offers diners good food, good wine, and, with its family style seating, often good conversation.

Loomis focuses on small producers and is seeing the market expand its range in white wines with Portuguese Vinho Verde coming into favor and Greek whites gaining some momentum.

Anthony Puccia, the wine and beverage director for Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole, has perhaps the greatest burden of expectation with his wine program, given the reputation of the globally recognized luxury brand. Many of his clients at the Westbank Grill are not only Four Seasons loyalists, but repeat diners over their stays.

“We have the luxury of guests getting to know the list. They interact with staff, and we want to make people feel at home,” says Puccia, who prides himself on his diligent continuing education in winemaking. He spends three months every fall in Napa and tries to make a personal connection with every winemaker and winery on his list. “I really try to focus on the winemaker and make it a dynamic, exciting list,” he says.

Unique to the Westbank Grill is their wine-by-the-glass program, which makes nearly every bottle available by the glass using the Coravin wine preservation system. “It allows us to focus on varietals and winemakers rather than the price point,” Puccia says. He also encourages guests to

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try varietals with seasonally appropriate promotions and wine dinners. “I want guests to step outside their usual picks. I spent some time in the Alsace region in fall of 2013 and came back wanting guests to explore rieslings.” Look for more bythe-glass promotions, tastings, and wine dinners as Puccia brings back inspiration from his off-season travels.

WINE DINNERS ARE becoming increasingly popular in the valley, pairing skillfully crafted food with wines.

Thematic variations abound. The Aspens Market in Wilson has hosted Market Table Dinners around Chilean whites or even sake. Expect more tasting events at Bin22, as their Wine Club increases in membership. The prim and proper Teton Pines Country Club also offers themed wine tastings and dinners open to the public. Recent events included a cozy fireside Austrian wines dinner and a wine-tasting event featuring Niner Wine Estates from Paso Robles, California.

The holy grail of wine gatherings in the valley still remains “Communion.”

Every Sunday evening at Dornan’s, Bob Dornan brings out some glasses to the picnic tables, and a motley crew of family, friends, and random characters are invited to bring a bottle to share. If you go, bring something good, because as Dornan reminds me while we drink a final bottle of pinot noir under the cathedral of the Tetons, “We worship Bacchus around here.” JH

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dining

Magnificent Morels

These mushrooms are worth the wait.

RYAN COZZENS HUNTS many things— antlers, crystals, arrowheads. So when he moved to Moose, Wyoming, in the spring of 2014 for a job driving shuttles for BarkerEwing Scenic Float Trips, he already had morels in mind.

Morels, “the best spring mushroom in my opinion,” writes mycologist Paul Stamets, author of Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms. Morels, the “aristocrats of the forest.” Morels, which have a great flavor complexity, described as everything from rich to buttery or smoky. Morels, one of the great things to hunt in our forests. And on our menus.

Morels have a flavor that complements many vegetables and meats. The savory depth of these wild gems—people have tried to cultivate them with no success—can be compared to nothing else. Fresh morels are great to cook with, but dried morels can last 136

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all year long in the pantry and will rehydrate.

While raking the gravel pad for his tepee, one in an idyllic cluster of temporary employee housing that springs up each summer beneath the cottonwoods along Ditch Creek in the Gros Ventre Mountains, Cozzens found his first morel, right there in his tepee ring. This is the kind of beginner’s luck that maddens morel-hunting wannabes like me.

“They had just sprouted,” Cozzens says.

Not even moved in yet, and he had his first harvest: seven pinky-size mushrooms. To be fair, it wasn’t blind luck. “My eyes are always scanning for stuff,” he says.

Cozzens put the seven morels in a cup in his tepee. He sheepishly confesses ants got them before he did. “Those went back to the earth,” he says. Even without tasting them, he was hooked. Every work break, Cozzens ran off into the woods to look for morels, and by the end of June, he had harvested so

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Ryan Cozzens shows off a haul of morel mushrooms plucked from one of his favorite gathering spots.

many, “I stopped counting,” he says.

Pressed, Cozzens says he found well over two hundred.

That’s an impressive haul for a season that had even longtime hunters unable to find their typical cache. Snake River Grill executive chef Jeff Drew says that in the spring of 2014 some of his local foragers, who usually bring in fifteen to twenty pounds of morels at a time, showed up with less frequency. Drew’s own family, who hunt morels for fun, found less than a pound. “We may only find a pound, but when you only have that one pound, you really slow down and savor every morsel,” Drew says. “It’s such a special occasion.”

KEVIN HUMPHREYS, EXECUTIVE chef of Spur Restaurant & Bar at Teton Mountain Lodge, also enjoys hunting morels. The reason they are so fleeting, he says, is because they are finicky about their environment. For morels to flourish, the snow needs to be gone, the nights need to be warm, and the days need to be moist, he says. In spring 2014, Jackson Hole got the heat, but then came a thirty-day dry streak. “I only found two, which I didn’t pick,” Humphreys says.

That’s a feat of willpower, Drew says admiringly of Humphreys’ restraint.

Both Humphreys and Drew put morels on their respective menus each spring. For chefs, morels are a sign of spring and abundance following the leanness of winter. “The prices are just exorbitant when we first open in May, because everyone wants them, and they are seasonal,” Drew says. Last year, he

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Morels on the Menu MOREL HUNTERS ARE as mum about their hunting grounds as anglers are about favorite fishing holes and skiers about secret powder stashes. While they might be hard to find in the woods, in a good season you might spot morels on menus at local restaurants.

“My favorite way to prepare morels is to make a minted English pea and morel risotto,” says Eric Greenwood, executive chef at Il Villaggio Osteria in Teton Village. “It’s a special treat in my house during morel season. If I’m able to get my hands on enough this season, I will definitely be incorporating this as a special at Osteria.”

Here are a few other places that might have morels on the menu: SNAKE RIVER GRILL - CHEF JEFF DREW What you might find: Morels sauteed whole in sherry and butter, paired with goat cheese on garlicrubbed pizza crust; daily from 5:30 p.m.; 84 E. Broadway; 733-0557 SPUR RESTAURANT & BAR, TETON MOUNTAIN LODGE - CHEF KEVIN HUMPHREYS What you might find: Veal-stuffed morels with pea puree and marsala sauce, paired with additional seasonal ingredients from asparagus to halibut; 7 a.m.-10 p.m.; 3385 Cody Ln.; Teton Village; 732-6932

307-733-0557 SNAKERIVERGRILL.COM

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IL VILLAGGIO OSTERIA - CHEF ERIC GREENWOOD What you might find: Minted English pea and morel risotto; 5:30 p.m.; 3335 W. Village Dr.; Teton Village; 739-4100 RENDEZVOUS BISTRO - CHEF JOEL TATE What you might find: Fresh spring pea and morel mushroom pappardelle with caramelized onions and fried sage; 5:30 p.m.; 380 S. Broadway; 739-1100

initially paid about thirty-five dollars a pound. Drew gets his first morel shipments from Oregon and Washington, followed by the Midwest, and then ultimately from local foragers. Humphreys gets his morels from certified foragers in Oregon and Washington.

Drew first started cooking with morels at a restaurant in Michigan, where the mushrooms grow in spades. Michigan morels tend to be small and dark, which Drew prefers over the more golden-colored morels Wyoming foragers most often find. Cozzens estimates that of the two hundred-plus morels he found, just a handful were small and dark. Another prized type of morel? Those that grow in the charred aftermath of forest fires.

Drew says these morels have a smokeinfused “campfire” taste.

When it comes to morels, Drew stresses minimalism. “You do want to make the morels the star of the show,” he says. At Snake River Grill, the chef takes the small, dark morels and sautes them whole in sherry and butter—a simple preparation designed to show off the mushroom’s nutty, earthy flavor. When he gets larger morels, he slices them, sautes them in sherry and butter, and then pairs them with roasted spring onions and California goat cheese on a pizza.

“Everything is light and airy and earthy,” he says, adding, “That’s really not the Opposite: Morels and tagliatelle splashed with a cabernet reduction at Snake River Grill Below: Jeff Drew is executive chef at Snake River Grill and also, with his family, a morel hunter.

Jackson Hole’s Finest

selection of Homes, Cabins

ASHLEY WILKERSON

and Condominiums in Teton Village and the Aspens.

888.739.2565 | 307.739.9050 www.rmrentals.com

SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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Ryan Cozzens with one of his finds

think it’s more about your attitude.”

INDEED, I NEVER really thought I would find a morel. But this summer, I vow to go into the forest believing I will find some. And even if I don’t, beginning in mid-May, I will prowl Jackson Hole’s finest restaurants for morel-infused offerings, and when I find them, I will savor the moment.

For his part, Chef Drew revels in the restraint that nature imposes on humans in this sped-up Digital Age. “In this day of FedEx and everything available yearround and at your fingertips, it’s nice to crave something,” he says. And with morels, once they’re gone, Drew says, “We just crave them the rest of the year.” JH

RYAN COZZENS

AT SNAKE RIVER Grill, morels stay on the menu for six weeks tops, Drew says.

Their fleeting appearance is their romantic appeal, he says. For diners who miss that window, both Drew and Humphreys insist there is no substitute. “Isn’t that a wonderful thing that there is no substitute?” Drew asks, unapologetically.

Drew urges diners to savor the moment by enjoying fresh foods in-season.

If you miss the morels, he suggests savoring a Wyomato pizza, which celebrates the summer abundance of redripe tomatoes. Or if a mushroom is a must, Drew recommends a dish starring porcini mushrooms, which come in season a couple of weeks after morels.

Back at Cozzens’ tepee, I confess that I made a few half-hearted attempts to find morels. He takes pity and offers a few tips. Look near water, in a deciduous forest with downed trees. Morels thrive on decay. And slow down! Don’t just walk slow, Cozzens stresses, “shuffle” through the forest. And once you find one, slow down even more. But most importantly, he urges diplomatically, “I

REBECCA HUNTINGTON

place for a lot of cheese.”

Cozzens plans to cook his morels for friends and family. He’s been experimenting with drying and freezing as a way to preserve his precious harvest. Using a needle, he threaded fishing line through the morels and strung them like laundry, next to a hammock, to dry. Drew is not a fan of dried morels. For him, drying brings out a slight taste of ammonia. He favors freezing, which he says may alter the texture a bit but maintains the flavor.

A haul of Cozzens’ morels hanging to dry 140

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7

Rendezvous Bistro

Il Villaggio Osteria

380 South Broadway (307) 739-1100 www.rendezvousbistro.net

155 North Glenwood (307) 734-1633 www.thekitchenjacksonhole.com

The Kitchen

Q Roadhouse & Brewing Co. 2550 Moose-Wilson Road (307) 739-0700 www.qjacksonhole.com

3335 West Village Drive (307) 739-4100 www.jhosteria.com

1

2

3

4

Bin22

Bistro Catering

Bodega

Wine Bar & Bottle Shop 200 West Broadway (307) 739-9463 www.bin22jacksonhole.com

(307) 739-4682 www.bistrocatering.net

Specialty Grocer & Bottle Shop 3200 West McCollister Drive (307) 200-4666 www.bodegajacksonhole.com

5

6

7

Best of

JH

dining out

RESTAURANT

LOCATION

PHONE

BREAKFAST

LUNCH

DINNER

Blue Collar Group Bubba’s

Jackson

307-733-2288 $ $ $

Liberty Burger

Jackson

307-200-6071

$

$

Merry Piglets

Jackson

307-733-2966

$$

$$

Noodle Kitchen

Jackson

307-734-1997 $$

Artisan Pizza and Italian Kitchen Jackson

307-734-1970 $

Sidewinders Tavern

Jackson

307-734-5766 $$ $$

Bin22

Jackson

307-739-9463

$/$$

$/$$

Bodega

Teton Village

307-200-4666

$

$/$$

The Kitchen

Jackson

307-734-1633 $$$

Il Villaggio Osteria

Teton Village

307-739-4100

Q Roadhouse and Brewing Co.

Teton Village Road

307-739-0700

Rendezvous Bistro

Jackson

307-739-1100

$/$$$

Ascent Lounge

Teton Village

307-732-5673

$$

The Handle Bar

Teton Village

307-732-5156

$$

Westbank Grill

Fine Dining Restaurant Group $

$/$$$

$/$$

Four Seasons Resort $$

Teton Village

307-732-5156

Gather: Food & Drink Experience

Jackson

307-264-1820

$

$/$$ $$/$$$

$$$

Grand Teton Lodge Company

Grand Teton National Park

Blue Heron Bar

Jackson Lake Lodge

307-543-2811

$

$

Jenny Lake Dining Room

Jenny Lake Lodge

307-733-4647

$

$

$$$

John Colter Cafe Court

Colter Bay

307-543-2811

$

$

$

Mural Room Dining

Jackson Lake Lodge

307-543-2811

$

$/$$

$$$

Pioneer Grill

Jackson Lake Lodge

307-543-2811

$

$

$/$$

Ranch House

Colter Bay

307-543-2811 $ $ $$/$$$

Haydens Post

Jackson

307-734-7907 $ $$ $$$

Couloir

Teton Village

307-739-2675

Leek’s Pizzeria

Grand Teton National Park

307-543-2494 $ $$

Nani’s Ristorante & Bar

Jackson

307-733-3888 $$$

Nikai

Jackson

307-734-6490 $$$

The Rose

Jackson

307-733-1500 $$

Peaks Dining Room

Grand Teton National Park

307-543-2831 x220

$$/$$$

Trapper Grill

$$$

$$$

Signal Mountain Lodge

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Grand Teton National Park

307-543-2831 x220 $

$/$$ $/$$

The Silver Dollar Bar and Grill

Jackson

307-732-3939

$

$/$$$

Snake River Brewing Company

Jackson

307-739-2337

$

$/$$

Snake River Grill

Jackson

307-733-0557 $$$

Teton Pines Restaurant

Teton Village Road

307-733-1005

The Restaurant at The Cakebread Ranch

Thayne, Wyoming

307-883-2247

The White Buffalo Club

Jackson

888-256-8182 $$$

Turpin Meadow Ranch

Moran, Wyoming

307-543-2000

Warbirds Cafe

Driggs, Idaho

208-354-2550

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

$

$$$

$/$$ $$/$$$

$$$

$ $$ $$/$$$ $

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LIQUOR

KIDS’ MENU

TAKEOUT

s s s s s s

J J J J J J

R R R R R R

Barbecue, a locals’ favorite for years

s s s s s s

J J J J

R R R R R R

Wine, tapas bar, specialty grocer, and bottle shop

s s s s

Creative menu of East meets West offerings J

J High end pub fair by Michael Mina American steakhouse inspired by indigenous flavors J

2014 Iron Chef winners create comfort food J R

DESCRIPTION

Serving 11 different types of burgers Fresh, house-made Tex-Mex food for 45 years Asian inspired noodle house Neapolitan pizza and classic pasta dishes American grill

Grocer, bottle shop, grab and go food, provisions Modern American cuisine in the heart of Jackson Wood-oven-fired pizzas, house-made pasta Eclectic roadhouse fare, craft beer, and brewery Locals’ favorite, French American bistro fare, raw bar

s Panoramic Teton views Casual dining s

Mexican restaurant R Panoramic Teton views s J

1950s-style service J

R

s J Western atmosphere for the family Inspired campfire cuisine with great views s J R s Contemporary fine dining at 9,095 feet Pizza made from scratch in the heart of GTNP s J

Handmade fine Italian cuisine, full bar, happy hour s J R Jackson’s favorite sushi bar s J R Classically inspired cocktail lounge and restaurant s

s J s J s J s J s J s J s

s s J s J

R R R R R R R

A sustainable Western bistro-style menu

R

Creative American, fresh local, traditional twist

A casual family-style restaurant, outdoor seating Regional cuisine, outdoor dining, famous bar Award-winning brews and incredible food Locals’ choice for rustic elegance Superb fair, exquisite wine, talented staff A pristine fine dining restaurant Modern American steakhouse cuisine Delicious food with spectacular views of the Tetons Average entree; $= under $15, $$= $16-20, $$$= $21+ SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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Creative cuisine from 2014 Jackson Hole Iron Chef

72 S. Glenwood | 307.264.1820 www.gatherjh.com

Handcrafted, award-winning fine wine made locally in Jackson, Wyoming.

307-201-1057 • www.jacksonholewinery.com facebook.com/jacksonholewinery

nikai asian grill & sushi bar

225 north cache • 2 blocks north of town square 307.734.6490 • www.nikaisushi.com reservations suggested jackson’s favorite sushi bar

Your Pub, Our Passion 2x Small Brewery of the Year Winner

8$ Lunch Menu Daily Specials Happy Hour 4pm 265 S. Millward | (307) 739-BEER (2337)

www.snakeriverbrewing.com

NEWLY EXPANDED BAR! LARGER STAGE & DANCE FLOOR LIVE MUSIC TUES, THURS, FRI & SAT ALFRESCO & OPEN-AIR DINING

BREAKFAST, LUNCH & DINNER DAILY HAPPY HOUR 4-7PM STEPS FROM THE TOWN SQUARE

INSIDE THE HISTORIC WORT HOTEL BROADWAY@GLENWOOD • 307-732-3939 • WORTHOTEL.COM

Best of

JH

art scene

Art With Purpose Art can be usable as well as beautiful.

BY MORGAN DINSDALE

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IT’S A HOT June day, and the sun is beating down on Laurie Thal’s studio off Teton Village Road. A glassblower whose work has been shown at the Smithsonian and gifted by the U.S. government to foreign dignitaries, Thal often has more than one hundred pounds of liquid glass heated to extreme temperatures in her colorful studio. She has invited me to watch her work before she closes up for summer. It’s incredible to watch her create, but the heat is getting the better of me. I’m beginning to understand why she chooses not to blow glass in the summertime.

Noticing the beads of sweat starting to appear on my forehead, Thal invites me into the shade of her

COURTESY LAURIE THAL

Lotus was blown by Laurie Thal with etching

by Dan Altwies.

home. Reaching toward one of the many shelves lined with stemware—all made by her, of course—she passes me a recently finished water glass that is clear with a blue swirl winding through it.

The pattern reminds me of a cool breeze.

Thal’s art is present in every corner of her home—from stained-glass panels bouncing colorful rays around her front entry, to vases with freshly picked flow-

“March of Aeons”

Turnerfineart.com

triofineart.com | 545 N. Cache Avenue Jackson Hole, WY 83001 | 307-734.4444

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PRICE CHAMBERS

ers, and a fruit bowl holding apples and pears in the center of the kitchen table. All of her work, like this water glass, is beautiful, but elevating it further is the purpose and practicality behind every piece.

A collector would never wear these Northern Arapaho beaded moccasins available at Fighting Bear Antiques, but when they were made, circa 1890, they were meant to be worn.

HENDERSON CANYON

210 CITATION

$750,000

$1,590,000

Located adjacent to National Forest, this wooded acreage with Teton view fronts on year-round County Road, situated in the wet fork of Henderson Cr. This gorgeous, private setting currently offers a large, two story, stately 4,320 sf barn w/ two garage bays, 4 never used box stalls, a half bath serving lower level, and fully finished 2,160 sf upper floor. The second level sleeps 8, has a full bath, kitchen, and large living room with vaulted ceilings and two decks.

Located on a premium lot in the Afton Airpark, this custom home, guest house & hangar has dedicated taxiway to runway 16/34 of the Afton Airport. The home features 4 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, gourmet kitchen, wine cellar, home theater, security vault, attached garage and living room with runway & mountain views. Impress your visitors with their own private 750 sq. ft. guest house attached to a 60X60 hangar.

The hangar offers in-floor heat, electric bi-fold door, and plenty of space for multiple aircraft, vehicles, and recreational equipment.

208.354.2439

“Local Brokerage, National Results.”

148

FUNCTIONAL ART CAN be found throughout Jackson Hole. The remarkably inclusive genre encompasses everything from furniture to lighting, jewelry, and clothing— anything that fuses the beautiful with the practical. Does the art inspire the function or the function the art? It is a question I find myself continually asking on my quest to uncover some of the valley’s best functional artisans and art.

For Thal it’s a mixture of passion and practicality for any given piece. “I start in my own home,” she says of finding inspiration for new pieces. “I envision ways to incorporate something new into what al-

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

MAIN STREET, DRIGGS ID 83422

WWW.TETONVALLEYREALTY.COM

ready is and then I let the creative process flow organically. I envision it like a dance as I move. I have these programmed steps, but I don’t count them out, I just flow with the glass.”

Having mastered the art of glass blowing over the past twenty-six years, Thal’s delicate bowls, vases, glasses, and larger architectural pieces are exquisite.

Her work has been exhibited and collected locally and internationally. In 2009, President Obama presented her Peacock vase, a collaboration with glass etcher Lia Kass, to then-prime minister of India Manmohan Singh. Captivating and unique, Thal’s work could happily be displayed as part of a collection on a shelf, but instead finds itself used in everyday life. “I like to make things that are gorgeous and one of a kind, but not everybody can afford to buy things that are merely pretty, so it’s nice to make things that people can use, too,” she says while spinning out another piece. “I like it when people drink out of my glasses every day.”

SPECIALIZING IN RUSTIC furniture, Terry and Claudia Winchell’s Fighting Bear Antiques has an impressive collection of historical functional art, including American Indian and Navajo beadwork, rugs, and textiles, and furnishings by Thomas Molesworth, the man credited with popularizing the genre of “cowboy furniture” in the early 1900s. The pieces on display are both stunning and practical, conjuring up images of the West’s American Indian and cowboy roots. In the gallery’s hand-beaded moccasins, leather cattle ropes, and horsewhips, you can see the use they’ve endured.

A work of nature set in a James Vilona original Exclusively for

By Nature Gallery

BY NATURE GALLERY PRICE CHAMBERS

Bring your curiosi t y

Teton Art Gallery has pendants made from Old No. 8 Spiderweb Turquoise and also silver necklaces with an outline of the Tetons.

Jacksonhole@bynaturegallery.com | www.bynaturegallery.com 86 East Broadway | Jackson Wyoming 83001 | 307.200.6060 Also visit our gallery in Beaver Creek, CO.

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JEWELRY ORIGINALS 39 YEARS OF INSPIRATION AT 6000 FT.

125 N Cache | Gaslight Alley Downtown Jackson Hole www.danshelley.com info@danshelley.com 307.733.2259 ALL DESIGNS COPYRIGHTED Dan Shelley is an authorized dealer of William Henry Knives

The Flying Saddle Resort ALPINE, WYOMING

A MILE FROM ALPINE AIRPARK & THE REFUGE

Our peaceful setting on the banks of the Snake River surrounded by breath-taking mountain peaks is the perfect base camp for all your outdoor summer adventures.

STEAK & SEAFOOD RESTAURANT OPEN 7 NIGHTS A WEEK SPORTS BAR HOTEL & CABINS INDOOR POOL & HOT TUB JUST 32 MILES SOUTH OF JACKSON

877-772-4422 FLYINGSADDLERESORT.COM ALPINE, WYOMING 150

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Placing a well-used, and beautiful, leather saddle back down on its display, the turquoise ring on my finger inspires the next step in my search for functional art. Here in Jackson Hole, there are a number of jewelry shops to choose from.

At Teton Art Gallery in Gaslight Alley, owners and artists Karla and Gerard Kindt have made and sold one-of-a-kind rings, necklaces, and bracelets for the past twenty years. They take complete control over the creative process, from cutting the stones to designing each piece and the actual metalsmithing. “I’ve never heard him say ‘no,’ ” Karla says about Gerard while wrapping a set of Wyoming opal earrings. “Being in total control of the creative process means he can make almost anything you can dream up,” she says.

From elk ivory rings to fordite earrings and turquoise leather cuffs, Teton Art Gallery seemingly includes every stone and material known to man. They are especially known for their wide range of Teton-inspired bracelets and pendants that you’ll see locals wearing all over town. I count three mountain bangles as I cross the Town Square on my way to Hide Out Leathers, a block and a half away.

Walking into Hide Out, the scent of leather is overwhelming. Row upon row of custom leather jackets, vests, boots, belts, and bags pack the intimate boutique. Some designs are classic cowboy.

Others are over the top with Western flair. Owner Jamie Lavenstein assists a man with jackets. “If you love that one, we can have it made in a 56 tall, no problem,” she says. “But if you like this style, we have that size in the back.”

Lavenstein is one of many reasons Hide Out Leathers is among the oldest stores on the Town Square. Another reason?

Each piece it carries is of the highest quality, handcrafted, and unique: supple hand-stitched venison purses, fire truck red leather shawls, and hand-painted moccasins.

KYLE ANDERSON, OWNER of Game Trail Gatherings, uses natural elements, primarily antlers, to create home furnishings and accents. Originally from Georgia, Anderson has lived and worked in Jackson Hole for more than half his life. His passions for hunting and being outside are present in all of his work. “I quit trying to defeat things and let them

Fighting Bear Antiques co-owner Claudia Winchell throws a Native American blanket over a circa-1930 John Wortz elk antler settee.

WHILE THE ABOVE boutiques, galleries, and studios are open year-round, and often highlight local artists, a fourday conference in September draws functional artists from around the world to the valley. The Western Design Conference, Sept. 10-13 this year, includes Western home furnishings, accents, fashion, and jewelry. An exhibit and sale, all participating artists must make it through a rigorous jury selection process. Typically, about one hundred artists make the cut. While the conference’s name is the Western Design Conference, owner Allison Merritt takes an expansive view of Western, de-

PRICE CHAMBERS

work for me,” he says of working with antlers. “They provide the perfect medium to convey my appreciation for the natural world around me.” Alongside antlers, Anderson uses driftwood, stones, and bones in his work, which includes lamps, tables, chairs, and winebottle holders.

ciding to define it as everything from over-the-top knobbled pine furniture to simpler, natural organic forms and materials. One area where Merritt does

not budge? “Everything has to be as usable as it is beautiful,” she says. “Our artists never seem to have a problem melding the two.” JH

THE WYOMING TRADITION

AMERICAN PUB Outdoor dining at its best with high end pub fare by Michael Mina, inventive cocktail selection, weekend grilling menu, and all day happy hour. Opened daily 11am - 11pm

OF VAST RANCHES AND FARMS INSPIRES OUR CULINARY TEAM TO SHARE AN UNPRETENTIOUS JOURNEY OF ADVENTURES FILLED WITH INDIGENOUS FLAVORS AND NEW DISCOVERIES.

SLOPE-SIDE SUSHI MOUNTAIN STEAKHOUSE ( 307) 732 5175 @FSJacksonhole Complimentary Valet

Featuring local meats, house made charcuterie, Artisanal cheeses, seasonal sides and extensive wine list.

Open daily for breakfast and dinner.

Ascent Lounge captures our Mountain spirit with a creative menu of East meets West offerings, cozy outdoor fire tables and slope side location. Open daily 3pm- 11pm

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Best of

JH

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, where you can pick up a copy of our summer/fall arts magazine, Images West. In it you will learn more about the valley’s artists, galleries, and arts-related classes and events.

ALTAMIRA FINE ART

Altamira Fine Art specializes in the exhibition and sale of Western Contemporary artwork. We offer an active exhibition schedule year round between our two galleries—Jackson, Wyoming and Scottsdale, Arizona. The gallery works with estate collections and offers expertise with auctions, conservation and other curatorial concerns.

Altamira is a great resource for design firms and corporate collections. We also buy and consign quality artwork; currently seeking work from Fritz Scholder, Maynard Dixon, Taos Society artists, Santa Fe Art Colony, John Nieto, Dan Namingha, Ed Mell and others. Contact us for details.

172 Center Street (307) 739-4700 altamiraart.com 152

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BY NATURE GALLERY

DANSHELLEY JEWELERS

By Nature Gallery offers the world’s most unique fossils, minerals, home décor and jewelry, right here in Jackson Hole. Bring your curiosity, and find natural treasures for every interest and age group!

The Bi-Centennial was a wonderful start for DanShelley Jewelers. Two Utah State University Graduates launched their new designer jewelry gallery in Gaslight Alley, Jackson, Wyoming.

Through hard work and dedication, luck was on their side. Today, shoppers experience designer jewelry which reflects Wyoming, the Tetons, Western Expressions, and of course exciting Contemporary Pieces. Shelley retired 5 years ago, but Dan continues to design with the inspiration that was originally their trademark. Incorporating 39 years of design knowledge and various techniques Dan is continually producing new and vibrant jewelry.

86 East Broadway (307) 200-6060 bynaturegallery.com

125 North Cache (307) 733-2259 danshelley.com

HINES GOLDSMITHS

Exclusive designers of the Teton Jewelry Collection ranging from exquisite diamond pave pendants, rings and earrings to affordable sterling silver pieces. Wyoming’s largest selection of handmade gold and silver charms, hand etched crystal and glassware of the Tetons, the Bucking Bronco and local wildlife. Also showing handmade antler furniture, local photography, hand blown glass, sculpture and metal artwork.

80 Center Street (307) 733-5599 hinesgold.com

RARE GALLERY OF JACKSON HOLE

RARE Gallery ... a Collectors Destination! This 6,000 square foot Rick Armstrong signature gallery continues to debut “Art for the New West” in Jackson Hole! Our collections include blue chip works, masters’ collections, museum quality designer jewelry and art from the most acclaimed emerging artists of today. Featuring paintings, sculptures, photographs, glass, 3 dimensional art, and designer jewelry. Specializing in art consultation and collection management.

60 East Broadway (307) 733-8726 raregalleryjacksonhole.com

MANGELSEN - IMAGES OF NATURE GALLERY

Legendary nature photographer Thomas D. Mangelsen has traveled throughout the natural world for over 40 years observing and photographing the Earth’s last great wild places.

Mangelsen has captured wild moments and vast panoramas from all seven continents. We invite you to visit the Mangelsen–Images of Nature Gallery located one block north of the historic town square. The gallery features over 200 limited edition and artist proof prints in a variety of display options.

170 N Cache Street (307) 733-9752 mangelsen.com

RINGHOLZ STUDIOS

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WILDLIFE ART

The National Museum of Wildlife Art is a worldclass art museum holding more than 5,000 catalogued items representing wild animals from around the world. Featuring work by prominent artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Andy Warhol, Robert Kuhn, John James Audubon, and Carl Rungius, the museum’s unsurpassed permanent collection chronicles much of the history of wildlife in art, from 2500 B.C. to the present.

Built into a hillside overlooking the National Elk Refuge, the museum received the designation “National Museum of Wildlife Art of the United States” by order of Congress in 2008. Boasting a museum shop, interactive children’s gallery, café, and outdoor sculpture trail, the museum is only two-and-a-half miles north of Jackson.

2820 Rungius Road (307) 733-5771 wildlifeart.org

THE LEGACY GALLERY

Amy arrived in Jackson Hole thirteen years ago and has worked her way up through galleries around the west until she was awarded the Featured Fall Arts Artist of 2012. Then in 2014, she was granted a solo show at the National Museum of Wildlife Art and months later opened her own gallery. She started The Ringholz Foundation to give back art grants to rising artists and completed the circle.

Please come see the artwork that has taken her on this wild journey!

The Legacy Gallery features a large selection of representational art with an emphasis on western, landscape, figurative and wildlife paintings and bronze sculptures. This 7,000 square foot gallery is located on the northwest corner of the square and caters to the beginning collector and to the art connoisseur. Legacy Gallery is proud to be celebrating its 27th anniversary and has two other locations in Scottsdale, Arizona and Bozeman, Montana.

140 East Broadway, Suite 6 (307) 734-3964 ringholzstudios.com

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WEST LIVES ON TRADITIONAL & CONTEMPORARY GALLERIES

TRIO FINE ART

WILD HANDS - ART FOR LIVING

Owned and operated by nationally acclaimed Jackson Hole artists, Kathryn Mapes Turner, Jennifer L. Hoffman, and W.A. Sawczuk, Trio Fine Art is a quiet and friendly respite from the bustle of Town. Our focus: Presenting excellent, nature inspired works in a bright inviting space where visitors can interact with the artists and their work. Visit to experience first-hand why Trio Fine Art is one of the valley’s most loved galleries. Find us across from the Visitor Center picnic grounds, four blocks from the Town Square.

Both galleries have an impressive collection of fine art reflecting the rich heritage of the American West. Featuring Western, wildlife and landscape art in original oils, acrylics, watercolors and bronze. We represent over 100 regional and local artists. Our knowledgeable staff will work with you to locate that special piece for your home or office.

Predominantly an American handcrafted gallery, we feature Folk Art from the wild and crazy to the simple and modest in such mediums as hand painted furniture, art glass, fine art, pottery, clocks, lamps, and mirrors. You’ll find work from local and regional artists. Known as the “Cool Stuff” gallery; a place to find all your gift and home furnishing needs. Custom orders and personalized service.

545 North Cache (307) 734-4444 triofineart.com

55 & 75 North Glenwood (307) 734-2888 westliveson.com

265 West Pearl Avenue (307) 733-4619 wildhands.com

Experience the wonder of nature through the lens of Thomas D. Mangelsen.

170 North Cache | Jackson, WY | 307-733-9752 ½ block north of the town square | 888-238-0177 | www.mangelsen.com FIN E A R T PHOTOGR A PH Y | A R TIS T PROOF PR IN T S | BOOK S | C A LEN DA R S

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Best of

JH

as the hole deepens

The Run ’n’ Gun Offense

BY TIM SANDLIN ILLUSTRATIONS BY BIRGITTA SIF

I TOOK MY Letter to the Editor over to St. John’s Hospital to show Clyde Walsowski-Smith, who was recovering from a hemorrhoid operation because he spent too much time on a horse.

Westerners refuse to post—it’s wimpy, like an Englishman riding to the hounds—so, at a trot, our bottoms whack the saddle like clapping hands at a concert. Hard on hemorrhoids.

I found Clyde sitting up in bed in a painkiller fog doing what everyone does in bed these days—reading stuff off his phone.

He looked up at me and said, “Did you know a castrated moose won’t drop his antlers come winter?”

“I’d rather know how they figured that out.”

“I think it was from natural castration causes, like jumping a barbed wire fence.”

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

“Even so, I’ve watched moose through binoculars a lot in my life, and I never could tell if they were castrated or not.”

Clyde peered down at his phone. He said, “Old-timers called them Devil’s Horns.”

“Maybe old-timers had nothing better to do than castrate moose just to see what would happen. Here, read this. It’s my Letter to the Editor.”

Clyde went into a narcotic nod. I could tell he was faking; he hadn’t been nodding before I asked him to read my letter.

“Is it about politics? I don’t believe in politics.”

“It’s about guns.”

He looked unhappy. “Even saying the word ‘gun’ in Wyoming can get you bashed. I don’t want anything to do with it.”

“Read the letter.”

— HERE IS MY LETTER: Dearest Editor, I have a prediction: When House Bill 114, the “Wyoming Repeal Gun-Free Zones Act” passes, and it will eventually, the Wyoming Cowboys football team will never lose another home game.

Imagine you are the Colorado State quarterback and you drop back to zip a pass to your wide receiver in the end zone and you realize that at a minimum, you are surrounded by 20,000 rabid, screaming fans, in many cases, drunk fans, in some cases, with the impulse control of ten-year-olds—heck, this is Wyoming, some of them will be ten-yearolds—and all these insane people are armed to the teeth. Are you going to complete that pass?

My feeling is most of the actual shooting will take place within the stands. You have to remember the Colorado State fans—stoned to the gills on legal marijuana—will also be armed. That shoot-out at the Border War that journalists love to write about will no longer be a metaphor. It will be legal.

The bill also grants those with a permit to carry guns in government buildings, public schools (no more F’s in social studies!), and public events, such as Fourth of July fireworks displays (another get-together of 10,000 drunks).

But think Star Valley. Those folks aren’t about to pass a local law that infringes on their Second Amendment rights. Will our basketball team be relaxed knowing everyone in the gymnasium hates their guts for being filthy-rich environmentalists and, what’s worse, Democrats, from the despised Teton County?

And all these angry yet fine people have guns. Heck, they won’t have to shoot us. Just wait till our guard stands at the free-throw line and the entire student section behind the basket starts waving semi-automatic weapons—all legal. See if our free-throw shooting percentage doesn’t go down.

Sadly, this is not satire or paranoid ramblings. I recall a few years ago when a concerned Star Valley mother charged onto the mat at a wrestling match and physically attacked a referee.

Now, think what would have happened had she been packing iron. Or the referee had been armed. Or the coaches. The wrestlers on the bench. The opposing team’s parents.

For those of us who enjoy life when it is interesting as opposed to safe, this bill is wonderful news. For the rest of you liberals, I suggest you purchase a sports package from ESPN and stay home.

This bill will make Wyoming famous. It is the best thing we have done since we passed the bill last year making it illegal to teach science in science class.

— Clyde looked up from my letter. “Can I have your TV when they shoot you?” Clyde covets my flat screen.

“I’m not about to get shot.”

“You will if you print this letter. You’ll meet the same angel I did when I was coming out of the anesthesia.”

This was interesting. Clyde doesn’t believe in extrasensory beings. “You met a real angel?”

He nodded. “A true messenger from God. I never met an angel before. She was pretty.”

“Tell me about it.”

“They had me by myself in a holding room where they take you after the operation till you wake up. I opened my eyes before I was supposed to and there she stood, next to my bed.”

“How could you tell it was an angel?”

“She shimmered with translucent blue skin, a white satin bikini, and wings. She carried a walnut case in both hands, like a cigar box. She had on glass slippers.”

I said, “Glass slippers is Cinderella, Clyde.

Not the Bible.”

“It was a vision. I didn’t make it up. She glided to my side and whispered, ‘That doctor just ripped out your backside.’

“I said, ‘Yep.’ “ ‘Would you care for a replacement?’ She opened the box to show me six anuses in velvet slots. Six different sizes and shapes, from the vertical crack with a pencil piercing to an asterisk like Kurt Vonnegut drew in whichever book he drew anuses in.

There was also a cross, like cartoonists draw eyes on people who have been knocked silly. And a curl, like a seashell or galaxy.

There was another one, but it didn’t look like anything but a bull’s-eye.

“The angel crooned, ‘Take your pick.’

“I studied them closely, knowing I’d be living the rest of my life with my answer. None were perfect. They just didn’t seem like me. “ ‘Is this all the choices?’ I asked.

“The angel smiled like, well, like an angel. ‘Oh, no,’ she said. ‘Don’t you know, there are an unlimited number of ass***** in America.’ ” I hit the nurse’s button and had them bring Clyde more morphine. JH SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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Best of

JH

mercantile

Lodging

VACATION RENTALS

HOTELS

Rendezvous Mountain Rentals & Management 3610 Moose Wilson Road, Wilson, Wyoming (307) 739-9050 lodging@rmrentals.com rmrentals.com

White Buffalo Club 160 West Gill Avenue (307) 734-4900 info@whitebuffaloclub.com whitebuffaloclub.com Wind River Hotel & Casino 10269 Highway 789, Riverton, Wyoming windriverhotelcasino.com

RESORTS Four Seasons Resort And Residences (307) 732-5000 fourseasons.com/jacksonhole @FSJacksonHole Grand Teton Lodge Company Located in the heart of Grand Teton National Park (307) 543-2811 gtlc.com/jm Signal Mountain Lodge Located in Grand Teton National Park (307) 543-2831 info@signalmtnlodge.com signalmountainlodge.com The Cakebread Ranch 640 Clearwater Lane, Thayne, Wyoming (307) 883-3474 info@thecakebreadranch.com thecakebreadranch.com The Flying Saddle Resort 118878 Highway 89 & 26, Alpine, Wyoming (877) 772-7722 reservations@flyingsaddleresort.com flyingsaddleresort.com Turpin Meadow Ranch 24505 Buffalo Valley Road (307) 543-2000 info@turpinmeadowranch.com turpinmeadowranch.com 158

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

The Clear Creek Group 120 West Pearl Avenue (307) 732-3400 info@tccgjh.com tccgjh.com

Western Design Conference (307) 690-9719 westerndesignconference.com info@westerndesignconference.com

SKI RESORTS Big Sky Resort (800) 548-4486 bigskyresort.com/summer Grand Targhee Resort

Activities 2015 Fall Arts Festival (307) 733-3316 info@jacksonholechamber.com jacksonholechamber.com Grand Teton Lodge Company Located in the heart of Grand Teton National Park (307) 543-2811 gtlc.com/jm Grand Teton Music Festival Walk Festival Hall, 3330 Cody Lane, Teton Village, Wyoming (307) 733-1128 gtmf@gtmf.org gtmf.org Jackson Hole Shooting Experience & High Caliber Women (TM) (307) 690-7921 info@shootinjh.com shootinjh.com and highcaliberwomen.com Logan, Utah’s Cache Valley Visitors Bureau 199 N. Main St., Logan, Utah (435) 755-1890 or (800) 882-4433 info@explorelogan.com explorelogan.com MC Presents Shows at Teton Village and The Virginian Conference Center (303) 570-9763 brooks.cynthia@comcast.net mcpresents.com

(800) TAR-GHEE info@grandtarghee.com grandtarghee.com Jackson Hole Mountain Resort 3395 Cody Lane, Teton Village, Wyoming (307) 733-2292 info@jacksonhole.com jacksonhole.com Snow King Mountain Resort 100 East Snow King Avenue (855) SKMOUNTAIN info@snowkingmountain.com snowkingmountain.com

WILDLIFE VIEWING EcoTour Adventures (307) 690-9533 Info@jhecotouradventures.com jhecotouradventures.com Jackson Hole Wildlife Safaris 650 West Broadway (307) 690-6402 jacksonholesafaris@gmail.com jacksonholewildlifesafaris.com Scenic Safaris (307) 734-8898 reservations@scenic-safaris.com scenic-safaris.com

Wildlife Expeditions of Teton Science Schools 700 Coyote Canyon Road (307) 733-2623 info@wildlifeexpeditions.org wildlifeexpeditions.org

GOLF AND TENNIS

National Museum of Wildlife Art 2820 Rungius Road (307) 733-5771 wildlifeart.org

YOGA STUDIOS

3 Creek Ranch Golf Club 2800 Ranch House Circle (307) 732-8920 jmoberg@3creekranchgolfclub.org 3creekranchgolfclub.org

Inversion Yoga 290 North Millward Street (307) 733-3038 info@inversionyoga.com inversionyoga.com

Snake River Sporting Club (307) 201-2560 srsportingclub.com jheilbrun@srsportingclub.com

Teton Yoga Shala (Angela Tong, co-owner/founder) 3510 North Lake Creek Drive, Wilson tetonyoga.com angela@tetonyoga.com

Teton Pines Country Club & Resort 3450 North Clubhouse Drive, Wilson, Wyoming (307) 733-1005 tetonpines.com

FLOAT TRIPS Barker-Ewing Grand Teton National Park Float Trips (307) 733-1800 or (800) 365-1800 floattrips@barkerewing.com barkerewing.com

FLY FISHING Grand Teton Fly Fishing 225 West Broadway (307) 690-0910 or (307) 201-1880 info@grandtetonflyfishing.com grandtetonflyfishing.com

MUSEUMS Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum 225 North Cache Street - “Homesteading the Hole: Survival and Perseverance” Art of the Hunt” 105 Glenwood - “Indians of the Greater Yellowstone” 105 Mercill - Mercill Archaeology Center (307) 733-2414 info@jacksonholehistory.org jacksonholehistory.org

ART AUCTIONS The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction (208) 772-9009 cdaartauction.com

Shopping GALLERIES Altamira Fine Art 172 Center St (307) 739-4700 connect@altamiraart.com altamiraart.com

By Nature Gallery 86 East Broadway (307) 200-6060 jacksonhole@bynaturegallery.com bynaturegallery.com DanShelley Jewelers - Jewelry Originals 125 North Cache (307) 733–2259 info@danshelley.com danshelley.com

Jewelry Originals 125 North Cache (307) 733–2259 info@danshelley.com danshelley.com Legacy Gallery 75 North Cache Street (307) 733-2353 info@legacygallery.com legacygallery.com MANGELSEN- Images of Nature Gallery 170 North Cache (888) 238-0177 mangelsen.com RARE Gallery of Fine Art Next to the Snake River Grill 60 East Broadway, 2nd Floor (307) 733-8726 hollee@rarejh.com raregalleryjacksonhole.com Ringholz Studios 140 East Broadway, Suite 6 (307) 734.3964 kara@ringholzstudios.com ringholzstudios.com Trio Fine Art 545 N. Cache Avenue 307-734-4444 trio@triofineart.com triofineart.com Wild Hands 265 West Pearl Avenue (307) 733-4619 wildhands@wyom.net wildhands.com West Lives On Gallery 55 & 75 North Glenwood (307) 734–2888 fineart@westliveson.com westliveson.com

RETAIL Hines Goldsmiths 80 Center Street (307) 733-5599 carolyn@hines-gold.com hinesgold.com

Boot Barn 840 West Broadway (307) 733-0247 bootbarn.com SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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Estate Collectables 116 South Main Street, Victor, Idaho 307-690-6777 or 208-787-0607 estate-collectables.com Fjallraven 155 Center Street, Suite B (307) 200-0367 kristen.shepulski@fjallraven.us fjallraven.us Jackson Hole Sports Bridger Center, 3395 Cody Lane, Teton Village, Wyoming (307) 739-2687 jacksonhole.com JD High Country Outfitters 50 East Broadway (307) 733-3270 jdhcoutfitters.com Mountain Man Toy Shop 98 North Center Street (307) 733-4193 info@newwestknifeworks.com mtnmengifts.com New West Knifeworks

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The General Store 3395 Cody Lane, Teton Village, Wyoming (307) 732-4090 jacksonhole.com

Liberty Burger 160 North Cache (307) 200-6071 givemelibertyburger.com

Wool & Whiskey 3395 Cody Lane, Teton Village, Wyoming (307) 732-4080 jacksonhole.com

Merry Piglets 160 North Cache (307) 733-2966 merrypiglets.com

RESTAURANTS

Nikai Sushi 225 North Cache (307) 734-6490 nikaisushi.com

Ascent Lounge (307) 732-5613 fourseasons.com/jacksonhole/dining/lounges/ ascent_lounge

Noodle Kitchen 945 West Broadway (307) 734-1997 noodlekitchenjh.com

Bodega 3200 West McCollister Drive, Teton Village, Wyoming 307-200-4666 bodegajacksonhole.com

Pizza Antica 690 S. Highway 89 (307) 734-1970 pizzaanticajh.com

Dining

The Bunnery Bakery & Restaurant 130 North Cache Street (307) 733-5474 bunnery.com

98 North Center Street (307) 733-4193 info@newwestknifeworks.com newwestknifeworks.com

Couloir Restaurant Top of Bridger Gondola, Teton Village, Wyoming (307) 739-2675 info@jacksonhole.com couloirrestaurant.com

Scandia Down Shop 165 North Center Street (307) 733-1038 or (800) 733-1038 scandiajh@wyoming.com scandiadownjh.com

Gather - The Food & Drink Experience 72 South Glenwood (307) 264-1820 info@gatherjh.com gatherjh.com

Stio Mountain Studio 10 East Broadway (Cache St. entrance) (307) 201-1890 stio.com

Nani’s Ristorante & Bar 242 North Glenwood (307) 733.3888 nanis.com pasta@nanis.com

Terra, Terra Tots, The Chemist Shop at Terra 105 East Broadway (307) 734-0067 terrajh.com

Bubba’s 100 Flat Creek Drive (307) 733-2288 bubbasjh.com

Teton Village Sports 3395 Cody Lane, Teton Village, Wyoming (307) 733-2181 tetonvillagesports.com

Il Villaggio Osteria Inside Hotel Terra, Teton Village, Wyoming (307) 739-4100 jhosteria.com

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Q Roadhouse & Brewing Co. 2550 Moose Wilson Road (307) 739-0700 qjacksonhole.com Rendezvous Bistro 380 South Highway 89 (307) 739-1100 rendezvousbistro.net Sidewinders 945 West Broadway (307) 734-5766 sidewinderstavern.com Silver Dollar Bar & Grill Inside the Historic Wort Hotel, corner of Broadway and Glenwood (307) 732-3939 worthotel.com Snake River Brewing 265 South Millward Street (307) 739-BEER (2337) beer@snakeriverbrewing.com snakeriverbrewing.com Snake River Grill On the Town Square (307) 733-0557 snakerivergrill.com

The Handle Bar (307) 732 5156 fourseasons.com/jacksonhole/dining/restaurants/ the_handle_bar The Kitchen 155 North Glenwood (307) 734-1633 thekitchenjacksonhole.com The Rose 50 West Broadway (307) 733-1500 therosejh.com Warbirds Cafe Teton Aviation Center, Driggs, Idaho (208) 354-2550 tetonaviation.com/warbirds-café

Jackson Hole Winery 28001/2 Boyles Hill Road (307) 201-1057 jacksonholewinery@gmail.com jacksonholewinery.com Westside Wine & Spirits The Aspens, 4015 West Lake Creek Drive, Wilson, Wyoming (307) 733-5038 westside@wyoming.com Wyoming Whiskey 100 South Nelson, Kirby, Wyoming (307) 864-2116 wyomingwhiskey.com

SUPERMARKETS

Westbank Grill (307) 732-5620 fourseasons.com/jacksonhole/dining/restaurants/ westbank_grill

Lucky’s Market 974 West Broadway (303) 530-0782 luckysmarket.com

CATERING AND PRIVATE CHEFS

Transportation

Bistro Catering (307) 739-4682 bistrocatering.net erin@jhfinedining.com

Fly Jackson Hole 1250 East Airport Road (844) 359-5499 contactus@flyjacksonhole.com flyjacksonhole.com

Unprocessed Kitchen PO Box 336, Wilson, WY (307) 264-2888 info@unprocessedkitchen.com unprocessedkitchen.com

WINE AND SPIRITS Grand Teton Brewing 430 Old Jackson Highway (888) 899-1656 beermail@grandtetonbrewing.com grandtetonbrewing.com Grand Teton Vodka Tasting Room 70 South Glenwood Street Info@tetonvodka.com tetondistillery.com Grand Teton Distillery 1755 North Highway 33, Driggs, Idaho Info@tetonvodka.com tetondistillery.com

Precision Aviation, Inc. Twin Falls, Idaho (208) 308-1852 charter@paviation.com paviation.com Teton Aviation Center 253 Warbird Lane, Driggs, Idaho (800) 472-6382 or (208) 354-3100 info@tetonaviation.com tetonaviation.com WestAir Charter (888) 511-5004 charter@westair.com

Real Estate Brokers of Jackson Hole, LLC 140 North Cache (307) 733-4339 brokersofjacksonhole.com

Courtney Campbell, Responsible Broker/Owner (307) 690-5127, ccampbell@jhrealestate.com Nicole Gaitan, Sales Associate (307) 732-6791, ngaitan@jhrealestate.com Penny Gaitan, Associate Broker/Owner (307) 690-9133, pengaitan@aol.com Kurt Harland, Associate Broker/Owner (307) 413-6887, kharland@jhrealestate.com Doug Herrick, Associate Broker/Owner (307) 413-8899, dherrick@jhrealestate.com Timothy C. Mayo, Associate Broker/Owner (307) 690-4339, tcmayo@jhrealestate.com Samuel Reece, Sales Associate (307) 203-9152, sreece@jhrealestate.com Jennifer Reichert, Associate Broker/Owner (307) 699-0016, jreichert@wyom.net Karin Sieber, Associate Broker (307) 413-4674, ksieber@jhrealestate.com DeeAnn Sloan, Sales Associate (307) 413-1213, dsloan@jhrealestate.com John Sloan, Associate Broker (307) 413-1574, jsloan@jhrealestate.com Zach Smith, Associate Broker/Owner (307) 690-3674, zsmith@jhrealestate.com Jack Stout, Associate Broker/Owner (307) 413-7118, jstout@jhrealestate.com Budge Realty Group Chad Budge, Associate Broker (307) 413-1364, chadbudge@jhrea.com Dianne Budge, Associate Broker (307) 413-1362, diannebudge@jhrea.com Rebekkah Kelley, Associate Broker (307) 413-5294, rebekkahkelley@jhrea.com Fay Ranches, Inc. 140 South Cache (307) 200-4558 mjorgenson@fayranches.com fayranches.com SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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Jackson Hole Real Estate Associates Exclusive Affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate (888) 733-6060 jhrea.com Nancy Martino, Associate Broker (307) 690.1022, nancymartino@jhrea.com Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty 185 West Broadway (307) 733-9009 or (888) 733-9009 jhsir.com

Jane Carhart, Associate Broker (307) 413-8961, jane.carhart@jhsir.com jacksonholeluxuryproperties.com Tom Evans, Associate Broker (307) 739-8149, tomevansre@jhsir.com tomevansrealestate.com Mercedes Huff, Associate Broker (307) 690-9000, mercedes.huff@jhsir.com mercedeshuff.com Chris Grant, Associate Broker (307) 413-3814, chris.grant@jhsir.com propertiesjacksonhole.com Ed Liebzeit, Associate Broker (307) 413-1618, ed.liebzeit@jhsir.com edinjackson.com

Live Water Properties 802 West Broadway, 2nd Floor (307) 734-6100 or (866) 734-6100 info@livewaterproperties.com livewaterproperties.com Lewis | Duerr | Grassell Jackson Hole Real Estate Associates Christie’s International Real Estate (307) 699-3927 livejacksonhole.com Prugh Real Estate 1110 Maple Way, Suite C (307) 733-9888 info@prughrealestate.com prugh.com

Greg Prugh, Broker (307) 413-2468, g@prugh.com Dan Visosky, Associate Broker (307) 690-6979, d@prugh.com Ranch Marketing Associates RMABrokers.com Ron Morris (970) 535-0881, ron@rmabrokers.com

John Pierce, Associate Broker (307) 733-9009, john.pierce@jhsir.com

Billy Long (970) 948-1333, billy@rmabrokers.com

Brandon Spackman, Associate Broker (307) 739-8156, brandon.spackman@jhsir.com spackmansinjh.com

RARE Properties of Jackson Hole 60 East Broadway, 2nd Floor (307) 733-8726 rarejh.com

Dave Spackman, Associate Broker (307) 739-8132, dave.spackman@jhsir.com spackmansinjh.com

Rick Armstrong, Owner/Broker/Curator (307) 413-4359, rick@rarejh.com

Ethan Valenstein, Associate Broker (307) 413-1132, ethan.valenstein@jhsir.com propertiesjacksonhole.com

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Jackson Wyoming Real Estate Teri McCarthy, Broker/Owner 690 South Highway 89, Suite 200 (307) 690-6906

Hollee Armstrong, Owner/Associate Broker/ Director (307) 413-4772, hollee@rarejh.com

Brooke Walles, Associate Broker (307) 690-4257, brooke.walles@jhsir.com propertiesjacksonhole.com

Realty Group of Jackson Hole (307) 739-8070 realtygroupjh.com rgjh@jhsir.com

Audrey Williams, Associate Broker (307) 690-3044, audrey.williams@jhsir.com audreywilliamsrealestate.com

Rob DesLauriers (307) 413-3955, rob.deslauriers@jhsir.com robdeslauriers.com

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

Jake Kilgrow (307) 413-2822, jake.kilgrow@jhsir.com RE/MAX Obsidian Real Estate 110 East Broadway (307) 739-1234 jhobsidian.com

Clitus H. “Chip” Marvin, Associate Broker (307) 690-2657, chipmarvin@gmail.com Fred Harness, Sales Associate (307) 690-0417, fred.harness@gmail.com TCCG Real Estate The Clear Creek Group 120 West Pearl Avenue (307) 732-3400 info@tccgrealestate.com tccgrealestate.com Janet Helm, Responsible Broker (307) 699-7708, janeth@tccgjh.com Reynolds Pomeroy, Sales Associate (307) 413-2429, reynoldsp@tccgjh.com Phil Stevenson, Partner/Associate Broker (307) 690-3503, phils@tccgjh.com Tara Dolan, Sales Associate (307) 739-1908, tarad@tccgjh.com John Resor, Associate Broker (307) 739-1908, johnr@tccgjh.com shootingstarjh.com Mike Kramer, Sales Associate (307) 739-1908, mikek@tccgjh.com Teton Valley Realty 253 South Main Street, Driggs, Idaho (208) 354-2439 info@tetonvalleyrealty.com tetonvalleyrealty.com Mark Rockefeller (208) 351-1411 Julie Rockefeller (208) 351-1412 William Fay (208) 351-4446 Tayson Rockefeller (208) 709-1333

Sam Lea (208) 351-7211 Mandy Rockefeller (208) 313-3621 Don Thompson (208) 313-4232

Home ARCHITECTS Carney Logan Burke Architects 215 South King Street (307) 733-4000 design@clbarchitects.com clbarchitects.com

BUILDERS Snake River Builders, Inc. Victor, Idaho (208) 787-9836 john@snakeriverbuilders.com snakeriverbuilders.com

LIGHTING, FURNITURE, MATERIALS Jackson Moore Lighting & Furniture 90 East Pearl Avenue (307) 734-8986 sales@jacksonmoore.com jacksonmoore.com Stoneworks of Jackson Hole 1230 Ida Drive #3, Wilson, Wyoming (307) 734-8744 stoneworksofjacksonhole.com

TECHNOLOGY SERVICES Xssentials 160 West Deloney Avenue, Suite B (307) 201-7040 info@xssentials.com xssentials.com

BROADBAND COMMUNICATIONS AND WIRELESS Silver Star Communications (307) 734-9040 silverstar.com/fiber

INTERIOR DESIGN Jacque Jenkins Stireman 1715 High School Road, Suite 210 (307) 739-3008 jacque@jjstiremandesign.com jjstiremandesign.com Shannon White Design (307) 690-1594 info@shannonwhitedesign.com shannonwhitedesign.com Stockton and Shirk Interior Designs 745 West Broadway (307) 733-0274 design@stocktonandshirk.com stocktonandshirk.com

FLOWER COMPANIES Jackson Hole Flower Company Fish Creek Center, 1230 Ida Lane, Wilson, Wyoming and inside Jackson Whole Grocer (307) 734-5300 jhflowerco@me.com jhflowerco.com

ACUPUNCTURE, CHINESE MEDICINE

Angela Tong 3510 North Lake Creek Drive, Wilson, Wyoming tetonyoga.com angela@tetonyoga.com

PERSONAL & FAMILY PROTECTION Svalinn (formerly Snake River K9) (307) 200-1223 info@svalinn.com svalinn.com

Non Profits Jackson Hole Land Trust 185 East Hansen (307) 733-4707 info@jhlandtrust.org jhlandtrust.org OHSU Foundation 1121 SW Salmon Street, Portland, Oregon (503) 228-1730 or (800) 462-6608 Onedown.org/cancer Wyoming Untrapped info@wyominguntrapped.org wyominguntrapped.org

Car Dealerships Teton Motors 1020 West Broadway (307) 733-6600 sales@tetonmotors.com tetonmotors.com

Health & Emergency MEDICAL CENTERS St. John’s Joint Replacement Center at St. John’s Medical Center 625 East Broadway (307) 739-6199 or (888) 739-7499 tetonhospital.org/joints Teton Orthopaedics 555 East Broadway (307) 733-3900 info@tetonortho.com tetonortho.com SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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JUST A FEW THINGS TO DO IN

JACKSON HOLE If you love this map as much as we do, you can buy prints online at jhmarketplace.com (it’s under the “arts” tab).

164

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

JACKSON n Get some locally grown beef at the Farmers Market (p. 40).

the quality of wine programs around town (p. 132).

n Go for a tandem ride with JH Paragliding (p. 36).

n Check out the functional art sold in our galleries (p. 146).

n Find a free concert (p. 166).

n Watch a polo match (p. 24). n Take a free walking tour of historic downtown. n Be pleasantly surprised by

TETON VILLAGE

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK

n Play at JHMR’s newish The Ropes (p. 114).

n Go to a service at the Chapel of the Transfiguration (p. 18).

n Camp on the western shore of Jackson Lake (p. 58).

n Scale a mountain in honor of the area’s earliest female climbers (p. 94).

n Do a breakfast or dinner cruise on

Jackson Lake (p. 58). n Go on a wildlife safari, hoping to see a grizzly bear (p. 68). n Rent a sailboat or powerboat and explore Jackson Lake (p. 58).

WILSON n Check out the new R Park on the west bank of the Snake River (p. 20). n Ride your bike or walk across the

new Pathways bridge over the Snake River (p. 20).

FURTHER AFIELD

n Enjoy the diversity of Yellowstone’s

thermal features (p. 78).

n Go hunting for morels (p. 136).

n Hit Yellowstone’s Sky Rim Trail

n Take a scenic flight over the valley (p. 120).

n See one of the largest active

Go to jacksonholemagazine.com for more details.

(p. 107).

landslides in the state (p. 84).

SUMMER 2015 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

165

Best of

calendar of events

SOFIA JARAMILLO

JH

Summer 2015 ONGOING JACKSON HOLE RODEO: A long-standing Jackson tradition, the rodeo shows off Jackson’s cowboy culture. 8 p.m.

Wednesdays, Saturdays, and some Fridays through September 5, tickets start at $15, 307/733-7927, jhrodeo.com 166

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

AERIAL TRAM RIDES: Just because you can’t ski it doesn’t mean the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort aerial tram stops running.

From the top of Rendezvous Mountain, 4,139 vertical feet from the base of Teton Village, enjoy beautiful views of Jackson Hole, Grand Teton National Park, and the Gros Ventre Range, access to hiking trails,

Pig wrestling is just one of several spectatorfriendly events during the Teton County Fair from July 17-26.

and endless photo-ops. From May 23 to October 4, 307/733-2292, jacksonhole.com GRAND TETON MUSIC FESTIVAL INSIDE THE MUSIC: Enjoy classical music in an informal atmosphere. These one-hour, free concerts are hosted by visiting artists. 8 p.m.

Tuesdays from July 7 to 28th, Walk Festival

Hall, free, 307/733-1128, gtmf.org GRAND TETON MUSIC FESTIVAL CHAMBER MUSIC: GTMF musicians curate and perform chamber music spanning a wide variety of genres. 8 p.m. Thursdays from July 9 to August 13, Walk Festival Hall, tickets start at $15, 307/733-1128, gtmf.org GRAND TETON MUSIC FESTIVAL OPEN REHEARSAL: Watch the Festival Orchestra as it prepares for its weekend performances.

10 a.m. Fridays from July 10 to August 14, Walk Festival Hall, tickets start at $10, 307/733-1128, gtmf.org JACKSON HOLE PARAGLIDING: Tour Teton Village from above. No experience necessary to fly tandem with a professional pilot. Daily at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort base, from $245, 307/739-2626, jhparagliding.com JACKSON HOLE PEOPLE’S MARKET: Browse fresh, local produce while enjoying prepared foods, music, and beer. 4 to 7 p.m.

Wednesdays from June 17 to September 16, bike-in-movies beginning at dusk every Wednesday in August, base of Snow King, free, jhpeoplesmarket.org

JACKSON HOLE SHOOTOUT: The longest continuously running gunfight in the U.S., the Jackson Hole Shootout has been a Wyoming tradition since 1957. 6 p.m.

Monday to Saturday through Labor Day, Town Square, free, 307/733-3316 STAGECOACH RIDES: Take a ten-minute ride in a stagecoach around downtown Jackson.

Daily through Labor Day, corner of Broadway and Cache, tickets start at $4 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WILDLIFE ART: This wildlife museum takes an expansive view of the genre with its 4,000-plus-piece permanent collection. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, tickets $14 (adults), $12 (seniors), $6 (1 child), $2 (additional children), free (5 & under), 307/733-5771, wildlifeart.org

AI WEIWEI: CIRCLE OF ANIMALS/ZODIAC HEADS WORLD TOUR is a unique exhibit featuring Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei’s twelve bronze animal heads representing the Chinese zodiac. Through October 11, National Museum of Wildlife Art, 307/733-5771, wildlifeart.org

MAY 22-25: THE 34TH ANNUAL OLD WEST DAYS celebrate Jackson’s rich history with live music, theatrical entertainment, arts and crafts, food, rodeo events, and more.

307/733-3316, jacksonholechamber.com

JUNE 2: 2015 SUMMIT ON THE SNAKE GUIDE NIGHT is an educational evening about the Snake River corridor. Learn from local experts about the Snake’s birds, mammals, geology, and plants. 5 to 10 p.m., Old Wilson Schoolhouse, $10, 307/690-3529, snakeriverfund.org 6: 25TH ANNUAL JACKSON KIDS FISHING DAY educates our future fishermen about sustainable fishing and includes free lunch

BRADLY J. BONER

JACKSON HOLE FARMERS MARKET: This

weekly event at the Town Square is the perfect way to start your weekend—with a fabulous showcase of fresh produce and goodies grown and made nearby.

Local chef/restaurant demonstrations and entertainment changes weekly. 8 a.m. to noon, Saturdays from July 11 through September 26, Town Square, jacksonholefarmersmarket.com

Part of the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival, the QuickDraw Art Sale and Auction (September 19) challenges artists to create an original work in ninety minutes. Pieces are then auctioned off.

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PRICE CHAMBERS

The Fourth of July Parade through downtown Jackson is one of the best ways to celebrate Independence Day.

and an afternoon of fishing in Sleeping Indian Pond. 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Jackson National Fish Hatchery, free, 307/7332321, wgfd.wyo.gov

wine auctions in the country and benefits the Grand Teton Music Festival. Time/ location varies for events, tickets from $125, 307/732-9965, jhwineauction.org

11: MIX’D MEDIA IN CELEBRATION OF AI WEIWEI: CIRCLE OF ANIMALS/ZODIAC HEADS is an outdoor evening of art at the NMWA’s Sculpture Trail. 6 to 9 p.m., National Museum of Wildlife Art, free to members or $10 at door, 307/732-5412, wildlifeart.org

27: THE 2015 TARGHEE HILL CLIMB—WRUN FOR WRAY is the first in the Race to the Summit Series. It’s 2.9 miles to the top of Grand Targhee Resort. 10 a.m., Plaza at Grand Targhee Resort, 208/353-2300, grandtarghee.com

11-14: CONTOUR MUSIC FESTIVAL is four nights and three days of music, art, and culture at the Snow King ball field.

Artists include Thievery Corporation as well as Jackson’s finest local bands like Sneaky Pete and the Secret Weapons.

Snow King ball field, tickets start at $125, contourmusicfestival.com 13: JACKSON HOLE HALF MARATHON & 5K is a unique opportunity to run from Teton Village to East Jackson. 8 a.m. run start/7 a.m. walk start (half only), $70 for half marathon/$25 for 5K, Phil Baux Park (finish), jhhalf.com 25-27: THE 21ST ANNUAL JACKSON HOLE WINE AUCTION is one of the top charity 168

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015

JULY 1-3: GRAND TETON MUSIC FESTIVAL OPENING WEEK CONCERTS 6 p.m., Walk Festival Hall, tickets start at $25, 307/733-1128, gtmf.org 4: GRAND TETON MUSIC FESTIVAL MUSIC IN THE HOLE 6 p.m., Walk Festival Hall, free but ticketed (no tickets necessary for audio feed at Village Commons), 307/7331128, gtmf.org 4: 4TH OF JULY 10K starts at 8:45 a.m., Owen Bircher Park, 307/733-5056, tetonparksandrec.org

8: MICHAEL ISRAEL’S WILD WILD WEST benefits the Special Olympics Wyoming. Cirque du Soleil meets Picasso. 7 p.m., Center for the Arts Center Theater, tickets start at $40, 307/733-4900, jhcenterforthearts.org 9: MIX’D MEDIA IN CELEBRATION OF IN DUBIOUS BATTLE: SHELLEY REED 6 to 9 p.m., National Museum of Wildlife Art, free to members or $10 at door, 307/732-5412, wildlifeart.org 11-12; 17-18: THIN AIR SHAKESPEARE—A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM is a free, family friendly outdoor performance of Shakespeare’s most popular play by Off Square Theatre Company. 6:30 p.m. lawn opens for picnics, 7:30 p.m. outdoor performance, Center for the Arts Outdoor Amphitheater, free, 307/733-4900, jhcenterforthearts.org 17-19: 11TH ANNUAL TARGHEE FEST is the ultimate all-around mountain lifestyle and music festival in the Rockies. Grand Targhee Resort, 208/353-2300, grandtarghee.com 25: 47TH ANNUAL SNOW KING HILL CLIMB begins at the Town Square; runners

13: MIX’D MEDIA IN CELEBRATION OF OLDEST LIVING THINGS IN THE WORLD: PHOTOGRAPHY BY RACHEL SUSSMAN 6 to 9 p.m., National Museum of Wildlife Art, free to members or $10 at door, 307/732-5412, wildlifeart.org

do 2.3 miles to the top of Snow King Mountain. Town Square, 307/733-5056, tetonparksandrec.org

AUGUST

15: 2015 PIERRE’S HOLE 50/100 BIKE RACE Experience tests of endurance, fortitude, and strength. 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Grand Targhee Resort, registration starts at $75, 208/353-2300, pierreshole50-100. athlete360.com

1: RENDEZVOUS MOUNTAIN HILL CLIMB to the top of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort tram. 8 a.m. hike/9 a.m. run, Teton Village, 307/733-2292, jacksonhole.com 7: BENEFIT CONCERT FEATURING VINCE GILL to support the Center for the Arts. 8 p.m., Center for the Arts Center Theater, tickets start at $150, 307/733-4900, jhcenterforthearts.org

9: JACKSON HOLE LAND TRUST 35TH ANNIVERSARY PICNIC is a celebration of Jackson’s present and future land conservation efforts. 4 to 8 p.m., $50 adults, free for children 12 & under, 307/733-4707, jhlandtrust.org

OCTOBER

5: JACKSON HOLE MARATHON AND HALF MARATHON is one of the most beautiful runs in America. 7 a.m. start on Center Street (marathon) and South Park Loop

8: MIX’D MEDIA IN CELEBRATION OF AESOP’S FABLES 6 to 9 p.m., National Museum of Wildlife Art, free to members or $10 at door, 307/732-5412, wildlifeart.org JH

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12: LOTOJA challenges amateur cyclists to complete 206 miles over three mountain passes and through Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming, all in one day. It ends at Teton Village. lotojaclassic.com

4-7: WYDAHO MOUNTAIN BIKE FESTIVAL is a weekend of talking bikes, guided group rides, live music, races, and parties.

Grand Targhee Resort, passes start at $35, 208/201-1622, wydahorendezvous. athlete360.com

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10-20: 31ST ANNUAL JACKSON HOLE FALL ARTS FESTIVAL is one of the premier cultural events in the Rocky Mountain West. jacksonholechamber.com

12: OLD BILL’S FUN RUN 10 a.m., Jackson Town Square, 307/739-1026, cfjacksonhole.org

SEPTEMBER

7-9: 28TH ANNUAL GRAND TARGHEE BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL Grand Targhee Resort, 208/353-2300, grandtarghee.com

(half marathon), registration starts at $60, 208/787-2077, jacksonholemarathon.com

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