Jackson Hole magazine // Summer 2018

SUMMER 2018

Wild for Wildlife Eighteen-year-old Isaac Spotts is an up-and-coming wildlife photographer.

ENVIRONMENT

Teton Glaciers

GETTING OUT

Kids’ Day Out

ON THE JOB

Mayor Pete Muldoon

CULTURE

Van Life

A life lived wild is a life well lived.

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This is not intended to be an offer to sell nor a solicitation of offers to buy real estate in Shooting Star by residents of Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, New York, New Jersey, and Oregon, or in any other jurisdiction where prohibited by law.

THESE MATERIALS AND THE FEATURES AND AMENITIES DESCRIBED AND DEPICTED HEREIN ARE BASED UPON CURRENT DEVELOPMENT PLANS, WHICH ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE BY THE DEVELOPER AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE. NO GUARANTEE IS MADE THAT ALL OF THE FEATURES, AMENITIES, AND FACILITIES DEPICTED BY ARTISTS’ RENDERINGS OR OTHERWISE DESCRIBED HEREIN WILL BE PROVIDED, OR, IF PROVIDED, WILL BE OF THE SAME TYPE, NUMBER, SIZE, OR NATURE AS DEPICTED OR DESCRIBED. REFER TO PLAT MAPS, LEGAL DESCRIPTIONS, AND CCRs FOR ACTUAL LOT SIZES AND RESTRICTIONS. ACCESS TO AND RIGHTS TO USE RECREATIONAL AMENITIES WITHIN THE DEVELOPMENT MAY BE SUBJECT TO PAYMENT OF USE FEES, MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENTS, OR OTHER LIMITATIONS.

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Jackson Hole

Summer 2018

Features

Page

60 RYAN DORGAN

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70

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An exotic species crashed the upper Yellowstone River’s native cutthroat trout population, but the trout are now recovering.

Glaciers created much of Jackson Hole’s and Grand Teton National Park’s landscapes. Today, the glaciers in the Tetons are in decline.

Whether out of choice or by necessity, some Jackson Hole residents call a van their home.

BY MIKE KOSHMRL

BY WHITNEY ROYSTER

The Comeback of the Cutthroat Going, Going, Gone?

Van Life

BY LESLIE HITTMEIER

PHOTO GALLERY

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Wild for Wildlife //

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ISAAC SPOTTS

ON THE COVER: Upon learning that his photo of a red fox would be this summer’s cover image, photographer Isaac Spotts replied, “I’m so excited right now I could cry!” He captured this image while part of the Nature & Wildlife Workshop at the National Museum of Wildlife Art. “This was a local fox at the Craig Thomas [Discovery and] Visitor Center in Moose and it was just wandering around when I pulled up,” Spotts says. “I got to spend a few minutes with it before it wandered off into the woods. Because it was so busy looking for food it almost never looked up at me. So I felt very happy when I came back with this shot of it posing!” Follow Spotts’ Instagram @isaacspicz 8

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

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Jackson Hole

Summer 2018

22 TETONSCAPES

Wild & Scenic Rivers Act, Hole Food Rescue, Post Office Blues, RexSpecs

Page

98

30 PIQUED Some of our favorite summer stuff

34 Q&A Meet the Locals Anna Olson, Mark Houser, Hailey Hardeman

40

ON THE JOB

Mr. Mayor

The demographics of people getting joint replacements are changing—they’re younger than ever.

BY MOLLY ABSOLON

48 DESIGN Changing with the Times

94 LOOKING BACK Take a Hike Through History Cache Creek is locals’ favorite place to bike and hike.

BY JOHN SPINA

98 OUTDOORS Home Base Grand Teton Climbers’ Ranch is rich in climbing history.

BY GERALDINE STAL

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

Don’t be embarrassed to spin fish.

BY MIKE KOSHMRL

118 Getting High Mountain summits for all fitness levels

BY GERALDINE STAL

122 BODY & SOUL Sleep On It

BY DINA MISHEV

BY LILA EDYTHE

12

112 Jackson Hole’s ‘Other’ Angling

BY DINA MISHEV

The “Mountain Modern” aesthetic has arrived in downtown Jackson.

JEFF DIENER

BY JOOHEE MUROMCEW

Sleep your way to better physical and mental health and performance.

44 BUSINESS Joint Effort

126

We’ve designed the perfect day for you and your family.

Being mayor of Jackson is just one of Pete Muldoon’s three jobs.

Page

107 GETTING OUT Kids’ Day Out

126 NIGHTLIFE Pedaling into the Night Trade happy hour for a mountain bike ride.

BY MIKE KOSHMRL

130 DINING Eat Out, Literally Jackson Hole has plenty of al fresco dining options.

BY MAGGIE THEODORA

140 ART SCENE Teton Inspiration This valley brings out creativity.

BY JULIE FUSTANIO KLING

148 AS THE HOLE DEEPENS Guests in Paradise

BY TIM SANDLIN

150 JACKSON HOLE MAPPED 152 CALENDAR OF EVENTS

GREG VON DOERSTEN

JH Living

Best of JH

Greetings from the Editor YOU KNOW YOU have a deep love for where you live when you miss it while on vacation. Late this winter and early this spring—just when I was eyeball-deep in the editing of this issue of Jackson Hole magazine—I was in Smithers, British Columbia, and then Taipei, Taiwan. Both places were amazing, the former for its wonderful funk and the latter for its frenetic-ness. Yet while in both places, I missed Jackson Hole.

Editing Mike Koshmrl’s feature story about fly fishing in the Thorofare (p. 60) made me wonder why I traveled halfway around the world to Taiwan but hadn’t yet done a summer backpacking trip into this remote region just south of Yellowstone National Park. After all, not counting this one, I’ve had twenty summers to make such an adventure happen.

Motivated by Koshmrl’s reporting and descriptions of grandeur and few crowds, even though I’m not a fly fisherwoman, I will make it into the Thorofare this summer.

Bummed because Mike’s story made me feel as lame as a Parisian who hasn’t gone to the Eiffel Tower, I next turned my attention to a story whose subject I had some familiarity with, journalist Whitney Royster’s “Going, Going, Gone?” (p. 70), about Grand Teton National Park’s glaciers. (Some of the best July skiing I’ve ever done was on Middle Teton Glacier, and I

love Schoolroom Glacier in the South Fork of Cascade Canyon for the glacial tarn below it, which is the color of milk of magnesia.) Royster’s story shares how glaciers have impacted the Jackson Hole landscape, looks into their decades-long decline, and reveals where you can go to see one.

These stories got me dreaming about the Jackson Hole landscape and the endless adventures to be had in it. The Tetonscapes about Jackson Hole Food Rescue (p. 24) and Jackson’s post office boxes (p. 26) physically made me homesick. The people who live in Jackson Hole are as inspiring and engaging as the valley is spectacular. Jackson Hole’s community is as unique as its mountains, rivers, lakes, and canyons.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. Read a Q&A with Anna Olson (p. 34), the newish president of the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce. Meet Pete Muldoon, who arrived in Jackson in 2000 to snowboard and, sixteen years later, cared so much for the community he ran for mayor. He won: Read about a day on the job with him on page 40.

And don’t miss this issue’s stories about mountain summits you can hike to (or not hike to and instead take a lift; p. 118), the valley’s best outdoor dining spots (p. 130), and why some locals live in their cars (p. 86). As always, whether you’re a longtime local or a first-time visitor, I hope you enjoy reading this issue of Jackson Hole magazine as much as I’ve enjoyed working on it. – Dina Mishev @DINAMISHEV @JACKSONHOLEMAG

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

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magazine

Jackson Hole

Rustic Elegance

Summer 2018 // jacksonholemagazine.com

Other than Jackson Hole magazine’s Instagram account, @jacksonholemag, what’s another local Instagram account you follow?

PUBLISHER

Kevin Olson @clbarchitects—This local architectural firm does amazing work and interior design that sometimes gives me ideas of stuff I can do in my own home.

@snakerivergrill—So I know what’s cooking!

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Adam Meyer EDITOR

Dina Mishev ART DIRECTOR

@liftlines_comics for a laugh that locals and visitors can appreciate.

Colleen Valenstein @sweetcheeksmeats for grabn-go breakfast updates.

PHOTO EDITOR

Ryan Dorgan COPY EDITORS

@jacksonholeecotours—It keeps me tuned into what’s going on with wildlife in the valley.

JH News&Guide on Facebook.

People can get fired up in the comments.

Michael McCoy

Nina Resor

@rangejh—I’m a big design geek so I love the account of this mag’s sister publication dedicated to architecture and design.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Molly Absolon Lila Edythe Leslie Hittmeier Julie Fustanio Kling Mike Koshmrl Joohee Muromcew Whitney Royster Tim Sandlin John Spina Geraldine Stal Maggie Theodora CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Bradly J. Boner Price Chambers Travis Garner Rugile Kaladyte Jacqueline Ra Zach Snavely Greg Von Doersten

Jaclyn Borowski Jeff Diener Leslie Hittmeier Joel Mikle Jonathan Selkowitz Isaac Spotts Ashley Wilkerson

ADVERTISING SALES

@jacksonholewild, because it’s inspired by the best wildlife filmmakers in the world.

For fast breaking news I follow (JHNews&Guide) editor Johanna Love’s Facebook feed. The new Hole Scroll app is free and has stories from the Daily and Weekly. @dinamishev—The personal IG account of this mag’s editor sometimes shows some fun behind-the-scenes stuff from the current issue.

Deidre Norman ADVERTISING ACCOUNT COORDINATOR

Maggie Gabruk AD DESIGN & PRODUCTION

Sarah Wilson Ben Shafer

Kyra Griffin Kal Stromberg

Lydia Redzich Taylor-Ann Smith

@stevemattheis—I’m absolutely obsessed with great gray owls and he’s always posting unreal shots of them from around the valley.

DISTRIBUTION

Hank Smith Jeff Young

OFFICE MANAGER

Kathleen Godines J AC K S O N H O L E , W YO M I N G

Open Nightly at 5:30 p.m.

84 East Broadway on the Town Square 307 733 0557 snakerivergrill.com

© 2018 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.

CELEBRATING 25 YEARS SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

15

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Mike Koshmrl (“The Comeback of the Cutthroat” p. 60) reports on the environment for the Jackson Hole News&Guide. The native Minnesotan earned a master’s degree in environmental journalism at the University of Colorado. Koshmrl has also written for Boulder Magazine, the Fairbanks Daily NewsMiner, and the Fort Collins Coloradoan.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

Jonathan Selkowitz (“Pedaling into the Night,” p. 126) transformed from a ski coach to ski photographer after assisting the late, great photographer David J. Swift in the early 1990s.

Selkowitz fell into a four-and-a-half-year apprenticeship with Swift, which evolved into a photography career that has encompassed commercial and editorial assignments around the world, including shooting three Olympics, numerous World Cup ski races, and World Championships for the U.S. Ski Team. In 2012, Selkowitz won the Federation of International Skiing’s Journalist of the Year award.

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Teton scapes

outdoors PACIFIC CREEK Pacific Creek, in the Teton Wilderness, flows through remote, stunning wildlands and 1 is best explored on an extended pack trip (whether by horse or foot is your choice).

Grizzly bears are common here.

BUFFALO FORK The Buffalo Fork allows for fly fishing, hiking, camping, horseback riding, and 3 dramatic mountain vistas. Keep an eye out for grizzlies and signed private property.

SNAKE RIVER The Snake is the signature river and watery thoroughfare of Jackson Hole. Swim, hike, raft, fish, kayak, or standup-paddleboard it. The mellowest way to explore it is via 2 a scenic float in Grand Teton National Park (GTNP). Prefer adventure? Book a guided trip through the class III rapids in the Snake River Canyon.

Wild & Scenic

GROS VENTRE The Gros Ventre (Gro-vont) River roars through 4 the community of Kelly. A large, developed GTNP campground just west of Kelly harbors sites nestled beneath giant cottonwoods in the river bottom.

1 3

2

10

4

5 6

The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act is 50.

FLAT CREEK Running right through the town of Jackson—from the Dairy 5 Queen on the east to the Smith’s grocery store in the west, Flat Creek is best explored by inner tube. There are a couple of exciting drops along the way, but the creek is never that deep.

7

9

HOBACK RIVER A drive to Bondurant through the Hoback Canyon 6 offers amazing views. Some sites in the canyon are protected for their historic value—in the 1800s, mountain men held several rendezvous in the vicinity.

BY WHITNEY ROYSTER 10 WYOMING HAS APPROXIMATELY 109,000 miles of rivers, of which 409 miles are protected under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year. This act protects waterways for their scenic, recreational, wild, cultural, and/or historical attributes.

For example, the Snake River north of Jackson is designated for its scenery; south of Jackson, as it flows through the Snake River Canyon, it’s recognized for its unique recreational opportunities. (The section of the Snake between these two points is not designated by the act because it has been altered by extensive dike work.)

Here’s a review of some of the best national and scenic stretches around the valley. JH

22

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

SOUTH FORK The South Fork of the Snake River supports the largest riparian cottonwood forest in the West. The South Fork is also designated a “National Important Bird Area” for the 126 species of birds, including twenty-one raptor varieties, that live along it.

8

GRANITE CREEK East of Hoback Junction, Granite Creek burbles alongside 7 a ten-mile-long dirt road dotted with dispersed campsites.

Where the road ends is a naturally fed hot springs pool, Granite Hot Springs (see “Kids’ Day Out,” page 107).

GREEN RIVER Known for excellent early-season fishing, the Green River, which is 8 fed by snowmelt and glaciers high in the Wind River Mountains, offers copious roadside/riverside car camping spots.

9

GREYS RIVER The Greys River might be Wyoming’s most accessible wild and scenic river ... at least until the 25-acre Porcupine Landslide this winter dammed it and took out about one quarter of a mile of the sixty-two-mile-long road running alongside the river. The Bridger-Teton National Forest closed the road, but hopes to open it again this summer.

Teton scapes

community

Hole Food Rescue Once strictly an amateur, Ali Dunford has turned the art of ‘dumpster diving’ into a respectable profession.

IN 2012, WHEN Dunford moved to Jackson Hole from Boulder, Colorado, where she grew up and went to college, she was already a dumpster diver. “In college I started dating a dumpster diver,” she says. “I had no idea what it was until he showed me. Everything we ate came out of the trash and he’d make these amazing meals. That’s where I learned about food waste, and how much of it happens.”

A 2013 report co-authored by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Harvard Law School’s Food Law and Policy Clinic estimated $900 million worth of expired food is removed from the United States supply chain every year. Little of this food is actually bad: According to the report, “Expiration dates are in need of some serious mythbusting because they’re leading us to waste money and throw out perfectly good food, along with all of the resources that went into growing it. Phrases like ‘sell by,’ ‘use by,’ and ‘best before’ are poorly regulated, misinterpreted, and leading to a false confidence in food safety.”

In Jackson, Dunford rented a place 24

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

behind what is today Lucky’s Market but in 2012 was Jackson Whole Grocer. “I became this dumpster renegade, and showed friends how to do it,” she says.

“We’d go day after day, and it MISHEV was always a bounty. All of the selection that was inside the store would eventually make it to the dumpster.”

AFTER EIGHT MONTHS of doing this, “I reached a breaking point,” Dunford says. Her breaking point wasn’t that she had had enough of eating food snatched from the trash, but that there was so much food in the dumpster. And that was just one store. She had worked at Boulder Food Rescue for two months after graduating from the University of Colorado, so “I knew there was a solution,” she says.

She approached Whole Grocer owner Jeff Rice about rescuing the food the store threw out. “He was into the idea immediately,” she says. Within two months, Dunford was also rescuing food from Albertsons. Then came Persephone Bakery, the Farmers Market, Aspens Market, and several restaurants including Picnic. Lucky’s Market partnered with HFR as soon as it opened, and Smith’s finally signed on as a partner last fall.

The nonprofit moved out of Dunford’s garage in September 2014 and by July 2015 was able to pay Dunford a salary and hire coexecutive director Jeske Gräve. Cooley was hired in February 2017. Volunteers—there are about eighty of them and Dunford says HFR is always looking for more—do the majority of food rescue, sorting, and deliveries. There are about sixty volunteer shifts a week.

In 2017 Hole Food Rescue saved 213,010 pounds of food from going to waste and helped feed around a thousand Teton County residents every week. “We have an amazing amount of support from the community, through donors and volunteers,” Dunford says.

“Obviously, food rescue exists elsewhere, but there is something about the closeness and intimacy and size of Jackson that made it relatively accessible to do this and for it to take off so quickly. This was just a crazy idea I had and now we’re feeding a thousand people.” For information on becoming a HFR volunteer or to donate, go to holefoodrescue.org/volunteer. JH PORTRAIT: RYAN DORGAN

THE PHONE CALL came in just before I arrived at Hole Food Rescue (HFR) to interview founder and co-executive director Ali Dunford: Wyoming Game & Fish Department is

BY DINA offering the nonprofit a whole elk, confiscated from the person who harvested it illegally. Indeed, HFR could help feed a lot of people with several hundred pounds of elk meat, but the two freezers in its newly remodeled space in West Jackson are full of loaves of bread.

HFR “rescues” surplus food from valley grocery stores, markets, and restaurants, then donates the items to more than twenty different groups around the valley. Daily, HFR rescues about six hundred pounds of food and redistributes it to their partner organizations. In a lobby made cheery by blooming tulips in pots on a windowsill—HFR also rescues flowers from local food stores—Dunford and director of operations Hannah Cooley have a brief conversation about which partners might be able to use the loaves of frozen bread. The Senior Center? The Good Samaritan Mission?

Jackson Cupboard?

“We’ll get it figured out,” Cooley says.

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Teton scapes

local

Post Office Blues

locals say the two post offices aren’t enough. The lines at the new post office can be fifteen or twenty minutes long on an average day.

TODAY, WHEN THE question of why mail is not delivered to street addresses in Jackson comes up, the new post office is mentioned along with tales of the town voting the service down. “I’ve been here thirty-eight years and I’ve never seen that vote go by,” Tome says.

That’s because the “vote” happened several years before Tome’s arrival. And because it wasn’t exactly a vote.

In 1974, the town’s population was a little over two thousand. The local and regional USPS offices studied the possibility of home delivery

BY ERIKA DAHLBY - ILLUSTRATION BY RYAN STOLP in town. The postmaster at the time, Floyd Graefe, thought it was a nobrainer that locals wanted it. The regional office in Cheyenne concluded that Jackson was physically set up to have home delivery. With the DOREEN TOME WALKS to the post office every day, checking her USPS determining that it was an option, the decision was given over to P.O. box for hand-written letters and the local paper, and occasionally the community. The agency sent out surveys about the idea to eligible buying stamps at the counter. But the highlight is the people, not the residents. Informal polls indicated that more than 50 percent of locals mail: it’s the long-time employees, her friends, and her fans. (Tome wanted home delivery, but only 20 percent of those receiving the survey has written the Jackson Hole News&Guide’s responded. For the results to be valid, the USPS JH Senior column for nine years and readers required a response rate of at least 75 percent. always stop her to chat.) “It may be one of the So, the end result of this “vote” was no home HOW TO MARK YOUR PACKAGE RIGHT: last vestiges of this [Jackson] feeling like a small delivery of mail in Jackson. The idea resurfaced “Put your PO Box number in every town,” she says. occasionally in the ensuing years, but nothing possible spot—it’s the only way to ensure Tome has had a box at the downtown post came of it. Once the USPS invested $4 million in you’ll get your package,” is the advice office, run by the federal U.S. Postal Service building the new post office and it opened in 1994, given at all of the valley’s post offices.

(USPS), for almost forty years—always the same the fate of home delivery was pretty much sealed.

How many different ways can you do this? box number. Back then, getting a box wasn’t an Still, locals enjoy complaining about it, especially 1. John Doe 1234 easy task; there was a waitlist of more than one now as more and more shopping is done online.

2. 123 Broadway Ave, #1234 hundred people.

It’s not uncommon for packages to be returned to, 3. PO Box 1234 As the town’s population grew, the downtown say, Amazon because they arrive at the Jackson 4. Jackson, WY 83001-1234 post office added additional boxes. In the early post office bearing only a street address. And, nineties, the USPS even opened an annex with during the holidays, you might have to wait in line about two thousand boxes in Stone Drug, on for thirty minutes to pick up your packages.

West Broadway, to keep up with the demand. In the mid-nineties the Still, “If you go at the same time every day you’ll see the same agency built a 25,000 square-foot, modern-but-utilitarian post office people with such frequency that you could set your clock to the faces on the west side of town. Twenty-three years later, locals still call it the you see at a particular time,” says Erika Hartenstein, 39, a Jackson “new post office.” The postmaster at the time dubbed it the “biggest local who’s been going to the downtown post office since 1992. “This change in Jackson’s history of mail delivery.” Today though, many can only happen in Jackson.” JH

Locals love to hate that there is no home delivery of mail in Jackson Hole.

26

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Style and Substance A local company makes dog goggles, and also a convincing case that they are for more than just funny photos.

BY DINA MISHEV

Goggles for Dogs?

THINK THE IDEA sounds silly? After all, dogs have been around for millennia and have never needed sunglasses, right? “But dogs, when left to their own devices, will not spend the day out on a boat, on a SUP, or skiing,” Jesse Emilo says. “As we start to do more and more with our dogs, and ask more and more of them, we’re exposing them to conditions that aren’t natural for them and that they wouldn’t expose themselves to.” So yes, goggles for dogs. The police departments that RexSpecs works with have a motto: “If you’re wearing sunglasses, it’s not a bad idea for your dog to be, too.”

BEFORE JESSE EMILO and Aiden Doane (now also Emilo) were married, within the span of several weeks each of their dogs, respectively Yaz and Tuckerman, were diagnosed with eye conditions. Yaz, a sled dog Jesse adopted at six weeks old in Alaska (and who Jesse is quick to note is named after baseball Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, who played twenty-three years with the Boston Red Sox, and not after the birth control pill), got repeated sunburn in her lighter eye and on the skin around her other eye, a condition not unusual for faircolored dogs. Tuck, Aiden’s German Shepherd, had pannus, a genetic condition that, untreated, can lead to blindness. There were daily eye drops for Tuck and surgery for Yaz but neither of these was enough.

The vet also told the couple that Yaz and Tuck would no longer be able to spend much time out in the sun. (UV exposure exacerbates pannus and, of course, causes sunburn.)

“We were told not to bring the dogs out into the sun as much as we used to,” Jesse says. “Like not really take them outside on sunny 28

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

days. We live in Jackson, so that wasn’t an option. We thought protecting the dogs’ eyes with goggles sounded like a better idea.”

The couple bought a brand of dog goggles that had been on the market for about twenty years, “but didn’t work as well as we had hoped for our more active lifestyle,” Jesse says.

“We’re skiers, so our next step was starting to cut up ski goggles to find a better solution.”

The couple went through about thirty pairs of Smith Phenom goggles before getting the design right. Along the way—after talking with the veterinary ophthalmologist that diagnosed Yaz’s and Tuck’s eye problems, the couple decided that their goggles shouldn’t just be marketed as a medical or an outdoor lifestyle accessory, but also as a must for personalprotection and working dogs.

RexSpecs debuted at the 2015 Police K-9 Magazine Conference & Vendor Show in Las Vegas. Today, working dogs use about 70 percent of RexSpecs sold. You can see Secret Service and U.S. Marines dogs and ski patrol dogs at Arapahoe Basin, Tahoe, Copper Mountain, and Keystone wearing RexSpecs. Sales have been almost doubling annually since 2015.

People have contacted the company to ask if their goggles would fit goats and pot-bellied pigs, and if a gerbil could wear the extra-small size. “We’re going to stick to dogs for now,” Aiden says. JH

COURTESY PHOTO

Teton

JH Living

piqued

1/ DRY AND ORGANIZED When you don’t know what elements an adventure will hold, you can head out confident your gear will survive if it’s packed in Filson’s new Dry Backpack. The venerable company—it began outfitting men stampeding to Alaska for the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897—made this 28-liter, roll-down-and-cinch-top-closure pack to ensure you’ve got the room you need for all your gear and that your most important things stay dry, whether you’re out for a float or fishing. The exterior pocket isn’t waterproof, so stow your water bottle there and put your wallet, phone, camera, and keys in the waterproof main compartment. $175, available at JD High Country Outfitters, 50 E. Broadway Ave., filson.com

2/ SLEEP WARM

1

It’s likely you’ve long camped on top of a Therm-a-Rest. Now it’s time to camp inside a Therm-a-Rest. The company’s new Parsec mummy sleeping bag is a happy marriage of the perfect features. Rated to 20 degrees, the Parsec places varying amounts of 800-fill Nikwax Hydrophobic Down in different zones based on where warmth is needed most and uses a proprietary lining to trap radiant body heat, which makes it lighter and less bulky than similarly rated bags. Don’t even get us started on what Therm-a-Rest calls the “Toe-asis,” a downy hug for cold, tired feet. And all of this in less than two pounds. From $379.95, available online at thermarest.com

3/ BETTER THAN COFFEE?

2 3

Yes, we’ve car camped with coffee beans, a hand grinder, and other java accouterments. And we’ve carried packets of instant coffee with us into the backcountry. Then we discovered MTN OPS’ new Hot Ignites. (We’ve also discovered we don’t need to be camping to enjoy Hot Ignites; they give us consistent energy throughout long work days, too.) Each of the three Hot Ignite flavors—Charged Cocoa, Mountain Mocha, and Apple Cider— includes caffeine and, to keep the usual post-coffee crash at bay, nitric oxide, which ensures extended energy. $39.95 (for 30 servings), available online at mtnops.com

4/ CAST AWAY

4

Rio Product’s InTouch Big Nasty had us with its name. And the line had our fly-fishing friends with its short and powerful front taper, ultra-low stretch, and welded loops on both ends, which allow for fast rigging. If you’re casting big flies, you want to be casting with Big Nasty. $99.99, available at West Bank Anglers, 3670 Moose Wilson Rd., rioproducts.com

5/ LIGHT BRIGHT

5

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

We hate it when our headlamps are smarter than we are. We need them to be bright, but we also need using them to be intuitive.

Meet Princeton Tec’s Axis, the company’s newest headlamp, which was designed with us in mind—read: simple and usable.

Its 250-lumens are bright enough for any adventure. The press of one button sets lights on spot, flood, or red (and also turns it off and puts it into lock mode). A dial allows users to dim any of the beams to their desired level. $39.99, available at Teton Mountaineering, 170 N. Cache St., princetontec.com

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6/ WRAP YOURSELF UP, OUTSIDE

piqued 7

No longer does your coziest blanket have to stay indoors.

Kammok’s new Mountain Blanket has a hydrophobic exterior shell (made of the same 40D ripstop, Durable Water Repellant finish nylon fabric as the company’s iconic Wallaby hammock), ultra-plush fleece interior, stake out points at its corners, and thoughtfully positioned snaps that allow it to be used four ways: as a blanket, sleeping bag, or top quilt, or worn as a poncho. Also, it comes in a fun bright orange. $125, available at kammok.com

7/ YOUR FEET’S NEW FAVORITE German-based CEP has long been making some of our favorite socks. Why? Their precise fit combined with the fact we haven’t yet been able to kill a pair—despite efforts that include multiple fifty-mile runs and one five-day backpacking trip on which we wore the same pair of CEP socks every day(!). The company’s new Dynamic+Outdoor Light Merino model is now our go-to for allaround adventuring. They’re just thick enough to have the perfect amount of padding, are thin enough to keep feet from overheating on hot days, and are antibacterial with odor-reducing properties. $25, available at cepcompression.com

6 8 7

8/ LIGHT IS RIGHT Gregory has brought its considerable R&D to the ultralight scene. Its new Optic (men) and Octal (women) packs are built so you can comfortably carry everything you need for a multiday backpacking trip. And the Optic/Octal weighs only about as much as two loaves of hearty bread. Both packs—the Optic comes in 48- and 58-liter sizes, and the Octal in 45 and 55 liters— feature Gregory’s new ultralight aluminum tubular frame and a proprietary suspension system that carries better and allows for more ventilation than any other pack we’ve tested. Stowed in the pack’s top pocket is a custom-fitted rain cover. From $189.95, available at Skinny Skis, 65 W. Deloney Ave., gregorypacks.com

9/ VALUE-PRICED VIEWS 8

Lander, Wyoming-based Maven’s new C.2 binoc is the best value binoculars we’ve yet found. Nimble enough to fit in a coat pocket, the C.2 comes in 7x28 and 10x28 magnifications, both of which feature crystal-clear, extra-low-dispersion glass; fully multicoated lenses; a durable, lightweight polymer frame; and a scratch-proof lens coating. And all this for the price of dinner at the Snake River Grill. What’s Maven’s secret? They sell only direct to consumers. $200, mavenbuilt.com

9 9

10/ DRYING OUT

10

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

You never know when you’ll need a dry sack, but when you do, it’s often the case that you’ll really need one. Still, since dry sacks were heavy and cumbersome in a backpack, we’d instead use a plastic garbage bag and hope for the best. No longer. What changed? SealLine developed the BlockerLite Compression Dry Sack. These—they come in 5-, 10-, and 20-liter sizes—are light and ergonomic enough that using them on a backpacking trip makes sense. Now our sleeping bag lives in a BlockerLite and we know that whatever the weather, it will be dry. Same for our extra clothing. A bonus? Because they are compression sacks, we find there’s even more room available in our packs. From $39.95, available online at seallinegear.com

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JH Living

locals

BRADLY J. BONER

Anna Olson ANNA OLSON’S FIRST job in Jackson Hole was selling advertising for a CD-ROM project. It was 1996 and she had moved here from London to marry Jeff Olson, a native of Gardiner, Montana. “So, unlike most people, I moved here for the love of a person and [then] fell in love with the place,” Olson says. A native of Hampshire, on England’s southern coast, Olson left CD-ROM advertising in 1997 to become communications manager for Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. She worked at the resort for twenty years, during which time her three kids went through the Kids Ranch program. “I’m thankful to be here every day. There’s the obvious reasons and then there’s this community,” she says. “Once you connect with it, and I know this is cliché, but you get as much out of as you give it.” Olson has been on the boards of the Community Children’s Project, the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce, and Vertical Harvest. Last summer she started as president/CEO at the chamber.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

Q: Do you remember your initial impressions of the valley?

A: I couldn’t get over that this was a place we had landed by default. Or fate or luck, whatever word you want to choose.

Q: Were you a skier when you were hired to work at JHMR? A: I was a very, very low-average skier.

Skiing in Europe is just recreation and a fun thing to do in the sun. Most English people, they don’t want fresh snow.

Q: And now?

A: I think I’ve graduated from where I started. Jackson has taught me to just re-

ally, really enjoy skiing. One thing I’ve learned is that every day skiing is good. It doesn’t matter about the conditions.

Q: After twenty years of working for JHMR, employees get a lifetime ski pass. You left right after you had put in twenty years. Coincidence?

A: It truly, truly was not a factor. Timing has always been on my side.

THE POWER OF BEAUTY TRANSFIGURES ORDINARY EXPERIENCES

Q: What did factor into the decision to leave JHMR? A: A couple of years ago I was thinking that I could stay there for another ten years and enjoy it. The future of the ski industry is really interesting to me, especially with [JHMR] being independently owned. But I equally realized that I could try something else. I did look outside the valley, and quickly came to the conclusion I didn’t want to market another ski area.

Q: So, the Chamber of Commerce?

A: When I started having the conversation about leaving JHMR, my friend Shelley Simonton was part of it. In 2016 she was hired as president/CEO of the chamber. At the time, she was dealing with cancer and we all thought it was treatable. When it became obvious that her cancer was terminal, it took her two weeks to call me and tell me, “Anna, you should go for the chamber job.” With that, I threw my hat in and found out I got the job ten days before she passed.

Q: “Bittersweet” doesn’t even begin to describe that.

A: After I got the job, [Shelley and I] cried and laughed a lot. She was so excited for me, though.

Q: You’ll have been on the job for a year in early July. Are you excited?

A: I feel like I’m making a worthwhile difference. The job is very social, but with meaning. I work on behalf of members to support a vibrant economy. Also, I’m very curious, which this job feeds. I learn about people and their businesses every day.

Q: What’s an unsung business here?

A: How about an unsung season?

Spring, I feel, is just the most incredible time here. There’s such a sense of reawakening.

T U R N E R F I N E A R T. C O M

5 4 5 N O R T H C A C H E S T R E E T | J A C K S O N H O L E , W YO M I N G

INTERVIEW BY MAGGIE THEODORA

SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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BRADLY J. BONER

Mark Houser MARK HOUSER CAME to Jackson Hole at the invitation of a cousin who managed a rafting company. “With my background in Wisconsin growing up around canoes, it wasn’t a great leap,” Houser says. “I was right out of college and being a raft guide here seemed like a great way to transition to the next step.” That was the summer of 1976.

Today, Houser is a case manager at the Jackson Hole Community Counseling Center (JHCCC), but he worked seasonally as a carpenter from 1977 until 2013, which, he says, “I loved, and it allowed me the flexibility to come and go as I wanted.” He needed flexibility because he was so active outside of work advocating for social justice and also coaching the Jackson Hole High School (JHHS) speech and debate team. He did the latter for twenty years, and five times was named the Coach of the Year by the Wyoming High School Forensics Association. Houser has also been active in addressing issues facing the LGBTQ community, especially youth, for more than thirty years and is currently the co-advisor to the JHHS Gay Straight Alliance.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

Q: How did you get started with your social justice work?

A: The original root started in elementary school, when I had a serious speech issue. I spent years working with speech pathologists, always getting pulled out of class for that, and getting teased. I still remember how hard that was as a seven-, eight-, nine-year-old boy—to be viewed as “different than.”

Q: How does this kind of work affect you?

A: Sometimes I have to catch up on where young people are going. I have to address my own preconceived views of

the world, [as] someone who is sixtyfour. And sometimes that is challenging to do. Being involved in social justice work pushes me to look at myself more closely and learn more about who I am, in [both] a positive and negative sense, and to face my own prejudices and find ways to address those, which will never be a completed task.

Q: In your decades advocating for LGBTQ youth, do you feel like things have changed?

A: I have witnessed a significant change and also believe that the change is not as expansive as some people would feel. We now have a Gay Straight Alliance [at JHHS] that is fully embraced by the administration and supported by students.

At the same time, I think that people who may hold another viewpoint see how those viewpoints are received by society and have become more sophisticated as to when to express their view.

Q: Do you think kids in Jackson are different from kids elsewhere?

A: Youth in Jackson share universal needs and aspirations of youth everywhere. They want to be loved, embraced, and accepted for who they are.

Q: You reinvented your professional self when you were sixty. What was that like?

A: It is a little unusual when you’re sixty and looking at a new career path, but I could no longer do the physical work in the trades. Thankfully, I found this job as a case manager. Being able to help people have a life that is fuller and richer is satisfying.

Q: But taking this job meant giving up coaching speech and debate?

A: Yes, most traditional jobs don’t allow you to coach every afternoon and take Friday and Saturday off thirteen times a year to drive to tournaments. The speech team was a family and it was hard when it went away, but coming [to JHCCC] made it easier, since this job is so rewarding.

Q: Back to your very first career in Jackson—what’s your favorite stretch of the Snake River?

A: At this point in my life, I particularly enjoy the Oxbow, viewed from a canoe.

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INTERVIEW BY LILA EDYTHE

SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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RYAN DORGAN

Hailey Hardeman HAILEY HARDEMAN WOULD rather live in Wilson, Wyoming, than anywhere else in the world. The former Teton County Rodeo Princess loves cozy log cabins and taking her horses on trail rides into the wide open spaces that evoke an earlier era: a time before Pearl Street Bagels was the place to meet up with neighbors. Hailey’s greatgrandfather, Gerrit Hardeman, emigrated from the Netherlands and homesteaded in Kelly in 1910. He and wife, LaMar, moved to Wilson in 1956 and founded the Hardeman Hereford Ranch. Hailey, sixteen, wakes up at six a.m. every morning to do her chores, which include caring for nine horses and raising steers to pay for college. She has lettered in three sports—rodeo, basketball, and soccer—at Jackson Hole High School, where she’ll be a junior next school year. Hailey’s grandfather was the local rodeo announcer, her parents were high school sweethearts, and, if she has it her way, she will raise her kids here with the same grit, grace, and high spirits of her predecessors.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

Q: How do you become a rodeo princess?

A: You have to be brave to get up in front of people, and you have to memorize a speech and go in a room with judges for a Q&A and to model. I had to fall in love with the sport of rodeo and teach people about it. The perception is that rodeo is a trashy sport, but it is really expensive.

People don’t realize the expense, family support, and time it takes.

Q: What was the best part of being a princess?

A: Holding the American flag while everyone is looking at you—to have that feeling of everyone saluting you.

Q: Was this something you wanted to do for a long time?

A: I always looked up to those girls. I think why I liked it is that public speaking is something I’m pretty good at. The speaking and modeling taught me how to be a confident young lady.

C ELEB R AT I N G 5 5 Y E A R S

Q: Why did you stop?

A: I’m kind of a tomboy, and all that you had to do for it was overwhelming. After a few years I didn’t want to be a princess.

Q: Nine horses—are they all yours?

A: I paid for two [myself] but get to ride all of them. My sister and I share them, depending on the rodeo and on which horses perform better indoors or out.

Q: Many young women dream about having a horse. Does the reality live up to the dream?

A: Most definitely it does. It’s hard when your friends want to go to the movies and you have to feed and clean out pens and ride, but I literally think, “Every girl dreams of this and this is my life.”

Q: How does it feel to ride a horse at a gallop?

A: It’s the coolest feeling ever. It’s a great stress relief. I go riding a lot with my [younger] sister, Gracie. We both work hard so it’s nice to get away. We have little clips on our saddles for a speaker and we just play music.

Q: Favorite tunes to ride to?

A: Before a rodeo my dad always plays Queen for me to get pumped up. If I’m just riding by myself, I play Florida Georgia Line.

Q: Do you ski, too?

A: Yes. Q: Are you more comfortable on a horse or skis?

A: A horse. Horses and rodeo are a part of my identity; skiing is just a fun thing to do.

Q: You want to raise your own family in Wilson. Do you also want to ranch?

A: Yes, I would love to be able to keep the family land. I see ranches getting sold and it makes me sad.

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INTERVIEW BY JULIE FUSTANIO KLING

SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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JH Living

on the job

Mr. Mayor Being mayor of Jackson is just one of Pete Muldoon’s three jobs.

BY DINA MISHEV // PHOTOGRAPHY BY RYAN DORGAN

“CO-WORKERS HAVE fun with me every once in a while,” says Jackson Mayor Pete Muldoon. “‘Oh, look, the mayor is coming!’ they’ll say. But I don’t get special treatment.” Muldoon isn’t talking about Jackson Town Hall staffers ribbing him, but his SkyWest Airlines co-workers at the Jackson Hole Airport, where he works three or four three-hour shifts per week as a ramp agent.

Scheduling a sit-down interview for this article with Muldoon took a couple of weeks because he’s always working. In addition to his SkyWest job, he DJs most Thursday nights at the Stagecoach’s Disco Night and runs Jackson Hole Production Company, which he owns with Jeff Eidemiller. Muldoon is also the singer and/or guitarist and/ or keyboardist and/or songwriter for bands including The Deadlocks and Major Zephyr, which has shared the stage with Grammy winners including Steve Earle and Asleep at The Wheel. And then he spends more than forty hours a week on mayoral duties. (“It’s 24-7 really,” Muldoon says.)

These duties range from researching policies and proposals as diverse, and often complex, as paid parking in downtown and hiring a housing ombudsman, to reading a proclamation at the Wyoming Special Olympics or being stopped by constituents at the grocery story to chat about their opinions on an issue. And meetings. Lots and lots of meetings.

Being Jackson’s mayor could easily be a full-time job, but it doesn’t pay enough to allow for this (unless the mayor is wealthy). “The reality is that it’s expensive to live in Jackson,” says Muldoon, forty-five. “I’m not the only one here working three jobs.”

He’s not the only mayor to have worked outside the town office, either, although he might be working more jobs concurrently than any of his predecessors. (Muldoon is also the first mayor to be elected since the office’s term was changed from two years to four years. His term started in 2017 and will end in January 2021.) Mayor Sara Flitner (2014–2015) ran Flitner Strategies, a communications 40

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

firm established long before her election and Less than 12 hours after DJing which is one of the things that makes the job also worked as a mediator. Mark Barron Disco Night at the Stagecoach you interesting to him. But, if there were a typical bought High Country Linen Service with a can find Mayor Muldoon loading day, it could look like this: a nine a.m. meetbags and pushing airplanes out to partner in 1981, became sole owner in 1990, the runway at Jackson Hole Airport. ing on rezoning, an eleven a.m. meeting on and opened Blue Spruce Cleaners in 1994 parking, a lunch meeting on housing, a one and continued to operate both while he p.m. with a county commissioner, an hour of served as mayor from 2003 to 2014. (Barron was Jackson’s lon- phone calls beginning at two p.m., a joint town/county meetgest-serving mayor since the 1960s; he was elected for six ing at three p.m., and after that a Jackson Town Council workterms.) Sam Clark (1989–1990) worked at the Jackson office of shop and meeting that goes until whenever they’re done, which Mountain West Farm Bureau, an insurance company of which they usually try to be by ten p.m. In early March, he already he later became CEO. And Abi Garaman, a mayor for one term had fourteen meetings scheduled for April. in the 1980s, was a nature photographer and business owner.

“Each one takes time to prepare for—reading the staff reports, talking to the public, asking staff more questions,” IT WAS PARTLY because of his being an economic everyman Muldoon says, adding that this goes for everyone on the Town that Muldoon decided to run for mayor. “It’s a community I’m Council, not just him. (The Jackson Town Council comprises passionate about,” he says. “I wanted to four elected members.) be able to do some good for the comYou might notice the lack of meet“I THINK IT IS THE KIND OF JOB munity and I felt we needed a workingand-greets, which, Muldoon says, “are class mayor.” definitely part of the job, but they’re not THAT NO MATTER WHAT YOU THINK Muldoon, who grew up on Air a part of the job I’ve spent a lot of time IT WILL BE LIKE, IT WON’T BE. Force bases around the country, joined on. I probably neglect it somewhat. You COMING IN WITHOUT EXPECTATIONS the National Guard on his seventeenth could spend thirty hours a week doing LEFT ME NO SURPRISES.” birthday and nine months later was it. I view the other part of the job—polcalled up to the Army to serve in the icy making—as more of a priority, mak– MAYOR PETE MULDOON first Gulf War. He moved to Jackson in ing good policy on behalf of the com2000. He’s always been interested in munity. And I really like that stuff. One politics, saying, “I’ve read a newspaper of my favorite parts of the job is workdaily since I was eight years old.” In college he began writing ing with the Town Hall staff. I like coming down here and having lengthy opinions about the political economy. “I was never in- meaningful discussions with staff members. It’s a really great terested in politics as a horse race,” he says. “But I was always bunch of people here.” fascinated by how policy affects our lives every day, and how it Muldoon’s other jobs have benefits, too. In regard to being can improve them.” up on stage with one of the bands he plays with, he says, “It’s the While Muldoon wasn’t a fan of campaigning, he is a fan of best feeling in the world when you are really clicking with five the job, which he says he came into with no expectations. “I other people in the band and doing your craft well.” And the think it is the kind of job that no matter what you think it will airport: “It’s a good place to go,” he says, “load a few hundred be like, it won’t be. Coming in without expectations left me no bags in fifteen minutes in the cargo pit and forget about your surprises.” Muldoon says there is no typical day as mayor, worries. Pushing the planes back is always fun, too.” Prior to beSUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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Top: Mayor Pete Muldoon speaks to members of the Jackson Town Council before taking a vote in June 2017 regarding the replacement of portraits of President Trump and Vice President Pence in the Town Hall lobby with a portrait of Shoshone Chief Washakie.

The decision to remove the portraits drew national attention.

Bottom: You’ll find the mayor working his late-night hustle at the Stagecoach Bar in Wilson, where he DJs the weekly Disco Night.

ing elected mayor Muldoon was able to take advantage much more frequently of this job’s travel benefits—flying on standby pretty much anywhere for free.

(Muldoon’s snowboarding, which was what first brought him here, has suffered similarly: “I was out twice this year. I went out twice last year, too. I wish I could get out more often, but at the moment I’ve got other priorities.”)

This past winter he did manage a short trip to Mexico. “It was quick, but a good place to go and get caught up on email.” Yes, while in Mexico Muldoon happily spent much of his time going through his mayoral email inbox. “This job has a lot of email and communication,” he says. “The most relaxing thing about a vacation like that one is coming home—my inbox is empty.”

IT IS THE replacement of portraits of President Trump and Vice President Pence with a portrait of Chief Washakie that Mayor Muldoon is probably best known for; his decision to do this made 42

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

the national media. The town council eventually overrode him, and the portraits of the president and vice president have been rehung in the Town Hall lobby. However, Muldoon doesn’t spend much time thinking about it. “I think that there is so much that we’re doing to improve the lives of citizens. That is my day-to-day reality, not portraits,” he says.

During his first year in office, he and the town council funded Redmond Street Rentals, twenty-six apartments that locals will move into this August; provided in-town summer camping for public employees [see “Van Life,” page 86]; finalized the Budge Landslide remediation project; increased tenant protections; and wrapped up an agreement with Snow King Resort to amend its Base Area Master Plan. The elected officials have also spent significant time working on “Engage 2017,” which Muldoon describes as “a huge project that involves rezoning most of town, updating our parking requirements, updating our housing mitigation, and amending our

housing rules and regulations. We’re not done with it yet, but I’m very proud of the work we’ve done so far.” The project is slated for completion this summer.

The Town of Jackson’s government is set up so that the mayor is one vote of five in passing legislation. Muldoon leads bimonthly town council meetings (the first and third Mondays of every month) but his vote carries no more weight than those of the four town councilors. Open to the public, these meetings are the only opportunity for the town councilors and Muldoon to have group discussions, and they are one way for Jacksonites to get their opinions on the record. (“We get a lot of emails, too, and we read all of them and often respond to each,” he says.) Discussion, both among the electeds and the public, is often lively. But it is never haphazard.

“For every item we talk about, there is the perception that somebody slapped something down on the dais and said, ‘Here, let’s talk about this thing,’ ” Muldoon says. “That is absolutely not how it happens. Weeks, or months, of researching and talking about it have already happened. We typically don’t discuss things unless we’ve done a lot of research because we don’t want to waste everyone’s time, including ours.”

For Muldoon and the town councilors, these Mondays start at three p.m. with a workshop. The official meeting starts at six p.m. “We really can’t go past ten,” Muldoon says. “We don’t make any decisions after that. Seven hours is a long time to stay focused.” Muldoon adds that post-meeting, “sometimes [Town Manager] Bob McLaurin will make me go somewhere and drink a beer to relax, but I think it’s more so he can relax. I usually go home and go to bed. The last thing I want to do after that [long meeting] is any socializing at all.”

Also, it’s possible Muldoon will have to get up at 4:15 the following morning to work at the airport. JH

JH Living

business

Joint Effort

The demographics of people getting joint replacements are changing—they’re younger than ever. For better or worse, Jackson Holers are a great case study.

SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

BY MOLLY ABSOLON

ROB HESS SAYS he was “this close” to calling for a wheelchair. One of the owners of Jackson Hole Mountain Guides and president of the American Mountain Guide Association’s board of directors, Hess was on his return journey from leading an iceclimbing clinic for aspiring guides in Canada when he found himself crippled by pain and unsure he would be able to walk between gates at the Denver airport. He gritted his teeth and limped through the terminal, dropping into his seat with relief when he arrived. It was a wakeup call. If Hess, fifty-seven, couldn’t walk, he couldn’t guide. If he couldn’t guide, his career was over.

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“Being in chronic pain affects everyone around you,” says Hess. “I found myself questioning my existence, looking at what I did for a living and wondering if I would be able to continue.” Hip pain came on gradually for the accomplished mountain athlete and guide. Like so many others who find themselves with joint arthritis, he started noticing little things: He had trouble buckling his ski boots; he was stiff when he got out of bed in the morning; he couldn’t swing his leg up and over things. After a few years of the little stuff building up, the pain became serious enough that he was forced to give up ski guiding for a season. As his world shrank it be-

came clear it was time to do something.

“I am super glad I did it,” Hess says, five years after he had his hip replaced.

“People ask you, ‘Do you wish you’d done it sooner?’ I say, ‘You’ll know when it’s time.’ Your pain begins to progressively hamper your lifestyle. When you get to the point where it’s starting to shut you down, you’ll know.”

BETWEEN 1993 AND 2010, the number of total knee replacements in the United States more than tripled while that of total hip replacements doubled.

Those numbers are expected to continue to rise. Nationally, the increase is attributed to a rise in obesity, but what’s going on around Jackson Hole is different— here it’s younger people, as well as fit baby boomers, who are having their joints replaced.

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NATIONALLY, THE INCREASE IN JOINT REPLACEMENTS IS ATTRIBUTED TO A RISE IN OBESITY, BUT WHAT’S GOING ON AROUND JACKSON HOLE IS DIFFERENT—HERE IT’S YOUNGER PEOPLE, AS WELL AS FIT BABY BOOMERS, WHO ARE HAVING THEIR JOINTS REPLACED.

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Town of Jackson Gem $7,500,000 “It’s a matter of lifestyle,” says Dr. Maurice Brown, who performs joint replacements at the Teton Valley Hospital in Driggs, Idaho, as part of a team with Rexburg orthopedic surgeon Kevin Lee. “Every time you ski or play sports it’s a risk event. If people are more active, they are more likely to sustain an injury.”

Injuries to joints create more wear and tear and bone spurring, ultimately destroying the cushioning cartilage and leaving people with debilitating boneon-bone pain. Many athletes can’t even recall when such an injury might have occurred. Hess remembers a hard ski turn in heavy snow that sent a shooting pain up through his hip. He might have torn his labrum—the ring of cartilage on the outside rim of the hip-joint socket—during that turn. Or he might not have. His hip might have been worn out by the miles and miles he spent on his feet during his forays into the moun-

• 4 Blocks from Town Square • Teton and Mountain Views • 9,376 Square Feet on 2 1/2 Lots • 5 Bedrooms and 7 Full Baths • Borders National Elk Refuge • Guest/Caretaker Apartment • Pool/Hot Tub

SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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Kees Brenninkmeyer Foundation tains. Or there could have been some genetic preIN THE MIDDLE of his heli-ski season in Alaska, guide Kees Brenninkmeyer injured his disposition that made him more susceptible to knee. He limped through a couple more weeks of work, but it was clear the knee needed arthritis. Regardless, at fifty-two, his hip looked surgery. Brenninkmeyer was able to afford the best surgical center he could find: the like that of a ninety-year old and he was ready to Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado, which is known for helping injured athletes return to get his life back. “I feel like I was given a new lease their careers. His surgery was successful, and he realized after his recovery that many of on life,” Hess says. “I’m doing what I want to do at his colleagues did not have the financial resources he did. For them, a similar injury could a reasonably high level. I wouldn’t have been able jeopardize or even end their careers.

In 2007, Brenninkmeyer and his girlfriend died in a mountaineering accident. In his to do that without my new hip.” honor, his family established the Kees Brenninkmeyer Foundation, whose mission is to fiHess is part of a growing trend in joint replacenancially assist injured alpine guides, ski patrollers, and instructors who require surment surgery. During the decade between 2000 gery to continue their careers. The application for assistance is rigorous, but once acand 2010 the U.S. National Center for Health cepted, an individual’s medical expenses are completely covered.

Statistics recorded a 205 percent increase in the In Jackson Hole, many mountain athletes, including Wesley Bunch, Rob Hess, Zahan number of people between forty-five and fiftyBillimoria, Renny Jackson, Maura Longdon, and Forrest McCarthy, have benefitted from the four years old opting for total hip replacements, foundation’s generosity. They haven’t all required joint replacements, but they have all while the rate of total knee replacements nearly been able to rebound from potentially career-ending injuries to continue to guide, instruct, tripled for that same age group. Records aren’t and patrol in the Tetons and beyond. keesbfoundation.org available for younger patients.

Brown says that growth is a reflection of people’s refusal to slow down, as well as the revolutionary improvement in the prosthetics available for joint replace- when he was forty-two after a series of failed surgeries to fix a ments. Technology has bumped the projected longevity for new ski injury, and then had a hip replacement in 2012 at age fortyhip and knee joints up to thirty years or more. “When I was eight. Bunch has guided fifteen high-altitude expeditions since doing my residency in 1995 we thought knee replacements his hip surgery. This past winter he guided in Antarctica and would last ten years, so we wouldn’t do them until people could on Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America. not walk,” Brown says. “Now we’ll do joint replacements on ar“I never knew I had a hip problem,” Bunch says. “Then I thritic athletes who can only ski fifteen days a season instead of hiked up to Goodwin Lake [in the Gros Ventre Range] and their normal one hundred. That’s a huge difference from not couldn’t make it back to the car. I had to crawl.” Like Hess, being able to walk three blocks.”

Bunch’s guiding depended on his mobility and his artificial joints have prolonged his career.

ASK AROUND JACKSON Hole and it doesn’t take long to find But it isn’t only professional guides who benefit from the people who’ve had a joint or two replaced. You’ll see them absence of pain and the ability to move. Deb Frauson, execubackcountry skiing, biking, hiking, climbing, even guiding or tive assistant to the superintendent of Grand Teton National ski patrolling. Take Wesley Bunch, who had a knee replaced Park, says her world had shrunk to a hundred yards before her bilateral knee replacement, which she had done in June 2017.

“Five years ago I was hiking up Mount Taylor in the Tetons,” she says. “Last year I “I NEVER KNEW I HAD A thought I’d never hike again.

HIP PROBLEM. THEN I

HIKED UP TO GOODWIN LAKE [IN THE GROS VENTRE RANGE] AND COULDN’T MAKE IT BACK TO THE CAR. I HAD TO CRAWL.” – WESLEY BUNCH, HIGH-ALTITUDE EXPEDITION GUIDE

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

My whole world had become smaller.

Now it’s opening up in terms of potential. It will take time and I’ll have to figure out my limitations, but it’s cool to find out you can be physical again after being so debilitated.”

The desire to continue outdoor pursuits “represents a classic Jackson Hole patient,” Dr. Angus Goetz told the Jackson Hole News&Guide last October.

Goetz does as many as five replacement surgeries at St. John’s Medical Center on an operating day. For many patients the positive results are evident immediately.

Brown says there have been studies that look at the outcomes of joint replacement surgeries in terms of their cost benefits to society. “These are kind of heartless economic studies,” he says.

“But they do show that patients see huge improvements that are a benefit to society. Instead of leaving someone in pain and unhappy, you fix their joint and they can return to work and their quality of life is much improved. Heart surgery followed by joint replacements have the highest positive return on society.”

THIS IS NOT saying that joint replacements should be taken lightly. The surgeries are brutal and violent, using drills, clamps, saws, and spreaders to cut the bone and clean out the joint. Rob Marin, of Driggs, who had his hip replaced six years ago when he was forty-nine, says he made the mistake of watching a video of a hip replacement surgery before his own. “That really got to me,” Marin says.

“It’s the surgical version of carpentry. It’s pretty savage. Those guys [the doctors] are sweating.”

Complications are rare but not unheard of. Marin ended up with some internal bleeding and eventually his surgeon had to reopen his incision to drain the wound, but overall Marin feels his quality of life is much improved.

“People’s expectations can be pretty high,” says Dan Streubel, a physical therapist in Driggs who has helped rehab countless joint replacement patients. “It’s not restoring a joint to the way it was in

your thirties, but it does improve on your current condition. You can be active for a long time with some caveats. For example, you shouldn’t expect to be jumping or pivoting quickly on an artificial joint.”

Streubel and Crystal Wright of Wright Training in Jackson say that you can improve your outcomes by going into joint replacement surgery as fit and strong as possible, and then follow up with rehab. According to Streubel, 80 percent of one’s recovery takes place during the first three to six months, with the remaining 20 percent taking place in the first year. Where he sees people falter is when they fail to continue to strengthen their new joint.

Wright, who has worked with dozens of people both before and after joint replacement, says, “There’s a lot of work to do after surgery. Rehab is so important and then it’s important to move on to strengthening. Without these things people may still have a lot of pain.

“People also need to be careful with impact and with overusing the good leg in the process,” she adds. “There is so much you can do to balance out your body: strengthening, Pilates, yoga ... but that was less emphasized in the past.”

Hess says his experience verifies Streubel’s and Wright’s recommendations. “I’d been training at Mountain Athlete [now Mountain Tactical Institute] before my surgery,” he says. “But in anticipation of surgery [Mountain Tactical Institute owner] Rob Shaul helped me with a program to up the ante and to focus on the core to strengthen as much as possible all the supporting muscles for the hips to make my rehab as seamless as possible.”

“Two weeks after surgery I returned to training. Rob helped me work around my hip,” Hess says. “I was hiking and climbing high in the Tetons in twelve weeks. Thanks to discipline, hard work, and a little help from some friends—especially Rob—I was basically given a new lease on life. I’ve been able to go back to mountain guiding and ski guiding and my way of life with relative ease.” JH

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SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

47

design

WHEN AMANGANI OPENED on East Gros Ventre Butte in 1998, it was the valley’s first hotel to modernize the traditional Western aesthetic that had been dominant since dude ranches here began hosting guests in the 1920s. Logs and animal mounts were out and clean lines, Pacific redwood walls, and floor-toceiling windows were in. Several years later came the Four Seasons Resort and Residences in Teton Village.

When it opened, I described its interior as “cowboy cosmopolitan.” Long accustomed to overstuffed, leather-upholstered, brass-tacked armchairs, I was taken with two sleek, highbacked armchairs just off the lobby that were upholstered in a brazen black-and-white cowhide and whose oversize arms were of bird’s-eye maple. It was completely contemporary, yet completely Jackson Hole. Then Hotel Terra opened, also in Teton Village. Its lobby featured a steel and stacked-stone fireplace and artwork made from reclaimed barn wood by local artist Ben Roth.

It took more than another decade for this contemporary take on the Western aesthetic—called “mountain modern”—to reach downtown. In 2015, after three years of design work and construction, the Darwiche family opened Hotel Jackson a couple of blocks from the Town Square. Its exterior has additive and subtractive forms and a materials palette of stone, reclaimed wood, and patinaed metal. Inside are Native American-inspired artworks and textiles, leather and velvet sofas, and sleek white leather chairs. And last summer in downtown Jackson, one new hotel opened and two motels finished major remodels. The look of each of these is still Western, but, like Hotel Jackson, done with a contemporary twist.

But don’t worry—if mountain modern isn’t what you’re looking for when visiting Jackson Hole, there’s no shortage of properties maintaining a traditional Western aesthetic, including Rusty Parrot Lodge and The Wort Hotel. “Hotels are not one size fits all,” says Sadek Darwiche, Hotel Jackson’s general manager.

“People have different tastes. I think that a complete community is one that isn’t homogenous but has different styles. And now downtown Jackson does.” If mountain modern is your aesthetic, whether you’re looking for a place to stay or searching for design inspiration, check out these hotels and motels.

COURTESY PHOTO

JH Living

Changing with the Times The “Mountain Modern” aesthetic has arrived in downtown Jackson at new and newly remodeled hotels and motels.

BY LILA EDYTHE

Sweden-based Westerlind curates the products sold in the remodeled Anvil Hotel’s lobby mercantile.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

P ho t og r a ph er : Ma t t he w M i ll ma n

I nspir e d b y Pl a c e

Architecture jackson,wy

Interior Design

bozeman,mt

clbarchitects.com

COURTESY PHOTOS

Clockwise from top left: The Anvil Hotel’s 49 guest rooms feature cozy mountain design elements by Brooklyn-based Studio Tack; SpringHill Suites by Marriott in downtown Jackson; a unique offering at Mountain Modern Motel is the bunkbed room, which sleeps six; Hotel Jackson bathrooms have floors done in tiles that emulate wood.

HOTEL JACKSON “I really wanted to go more modern,” Darwiche says. “But my dad [Jim] said we needed to stay connected to the area, and he was right. So, we figured out how to blend modern with the mountains, while also having the design be timeless. Actually, timelessness was first and foremost. We wanted a place that would be beautiful and relevant well into the future.”

Local architect Roger Strout designed the fifty-five-room hotel, which is the first LEED-certified hotel in downtown. “Working with him set the stage for what the interiors would look like,” Darwiche says. A key early interior design decision was walls of reclaimed barn wood. “Vertical is how barn wood had been used traditionally, so we went horizontal,” Darwiche says. There’s a huge stone fireplace with a two-story chimney, also done in stone, but the stone is limestone, quarried in Wyoming, rather than the more traditional Western material of river rock. “It’s cleaner, but still of this place,” Darwiche says.

Bathroom floors were another compromise. Darwiche’s initial idea for them 50

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

was concrete. “But that was too modern,” he says. “Instead we found tile that is still clean but has some emulation of wood.” 120 N. Glenwood St., Jackson, 307/733-2200, hoteljackson.com ANVIL HOTEL Brooklyn-based design firm Studio Tack turned two formerly nondescript—we’d maybe even go so far as to call them ramshackle—downtown motels into the Anvil. The new property reopened last summer after the two separate buildings—the Anvil and the El Rancho Motel, both built in the 1950s—were each fully remodeled. The new Anvil has 49 rooms that aren’t just mountain modern, but also pretty hip. (The designers are based in Brooklyn, remember.) The lobby, which has cozy seating and a wood-burning stove, doubles as a mercantile and café. The former sells goods “for the modern adventurer” curated by Sweden-based Westerlind, which has its U.S. flagship shop in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City.

The café sells pastries from a local bakery and coffee and espresso drinks made from beans roasted locally by Snake

River Roasting Company.

All rooms are identical in style and design with parquet wood floors, wrought iron beds, brass fixtures, rain showers, and, on the beds, custom Woolrich blankets. The property partnered with Healthy Being Juicery on each room’s mini-bar offerings: Instead of Snickers and Coke, expect kombucha and artisan dark chocolate. “We’re not trying to be luxury,” says general manager Erik Dombroski. “We want to be a comfortable, fun place to sleep with a knowledgeable staff that loves to share what they love about Jackson.” 215 N. Cache St., Jackson, 307/733-3668, anvilhotel.com SPRINGHILL SUITES It took more than two years to build the 121-room SpringHill Suites, which is downtown across the street from one of the few vertical farms in the country (Vertical Harvest; free, one-hour tours are offered several times a week and we highly recommend signing up for one at verticalharvestjackson.com). At more than 135,000 square feet, this building is hard to miss. But the property works to

P H O T O : D AV I D M A R L O W

w w w. m i l l e r- ro o d e l l . c o m 4 0 6 . 5 5 1 . 6 9 5 0

BRADLY J. BONER

Black metal accents, dramatic armchairs, and faux skulls make the breakfast area at SpringHill Suites textbook mountain modern.

blend in with the surrounding environment: The exterior is wood and bonderized metal. Inside Salt Lake City design firm Edge ID went for “mountain modern,” says interior designer and project manager Shelby Groves. “Everything in the area is obviously very rustic, but architecture, including this building, is starting to become more modern. We wanted to keep this property with the

times, while also keeping it classic.”

So, impressive elk antlers sit on shelves above the small lobby marketplace. One of the walls in the breakfast area has eight faux cow skulls with the horns painted gold, black, or white.

“That’s a definite nod to the area’s heritage,” Groves says. There are also black metal accents and dramatic white armchairs. While mountain modern style is

all the rage is Jackson, Groves says Edge ID works on hotel projects across the country and that “the modern part doesn’t fit the bill everywhere. There are some mountain towns that aren’t going that way.” Groves thinks the style works in Jackson because the area “gets tourism from around the world and that forces it to keep up with how architecture and design are changing in the larger world.” 150 W. Simpson Ave., Jackson, 307/201-5320, marriott.com MOUNTAIN MODERN MOTEL For decades, the Painted Buffalo Inn sat quietly in the triangle where Broadway and Pearl Avenue meet. Last summer, the 135-room motel made itself seen by updating its exterior—trading its former yellow paint for a dark stain and adding corrugated metal accents.

Even bigger changes weren’t visible

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

Since 1980

Local architect Roger Strout designed Hotel Jackson, which opened in 2015.

COURTESY PHOTO

from outside. Every room was redone in an adventure theme. Now, on walls above beds are huge murals of valley landscapes taken by local photographer Ryan Sheets. These images include a bison grazing on Antelope Flats to the East Face of the Grand Teton to an angler on Flat Creek. In some bathrooms, there is wallpaper featuring a topographical map of the area. By each room’s entrance are cubbies and hooks made for storing gear from skis to backpacks. Director of sales and marketing Spencer Long says, “I like to say that we cater to the adventure traveler.

This title can cover a wide range of clientele. All of our guests may not be able to ski the steepest terrain or climb the highest mountain, but the majority of [them] aspire to be that person. So, the adventure traveler might be a couple in their 70s on a bus tour through Yellowstone, a family of four out for a Western vacation, or eight dudes here for a ski trip.” Making the adventure theme modern are pops of color in pillows, carpets, stools at

high-top tables, and bedding. And that’s just in the rooms.

Vermont-based TruexCullins Architecture + Interior Design, which did the interior design for the entire remodel, won the Gold Key Award for Excellence in Hospitality Design specifically for the new lobby. 380 W. Broadway, Jackson, 307/733-4340, mountainmodernmotel.com JH

SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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Special Interest Feature

FALL CREEK VIEW HOME – RIVERMEADOWS, WILSON

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.

OVERLOOKING STONE FLY LAKE

8,300

square feet

5

bedrooms

One of the valley’s best water properties, this Crescent H Ranch property is just over 35 acres with water everywhere you look. Five bodies of water cover over 10 acres. A magnificent 5 bedroom, 6 bath plus 2 half baths home with office and media room. The Crescent H Ranch offers the best amenity package in Jackson Hole.

MLS#

54

5

bedrooms

4.5 baths

This custom home, built by esteemed local firm Teton Heritage Builders, has been meticulously maintained.

With an open floor plan and views of the Teton Mountain Range and the Snake River from nearly every northfacing window, this stunning log construction home is undeniably impressive. Set on a serene site on the eastern side of scenic Fall Creek Road in the Rivermeadows subdivision, this distinctive property is surrounded by conservation lands, providing an authentic wild-and-freeWyoming experience.

5,200,000 dollars

17-767 MLS#

Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty Dave Spackman - (307) 739-8156 spackmans@jhsir.com - spackmansinjh.com

TABLE ROCK WEST – ALTA, WYOMING

3,544

square feet

3

bedrooms

baths

Absolutely stunning custom home on 42 acres of productive farm ground in Alta, WY. One of the “Crown Jewels” in all of Teton Valley, this beautiful mountain retreat was built with the highest attention to detail and craftsmanship. Reclaimed materials used throughout, massive log accents, and walls of glass offer views of the Teton peaks from every room. A large kitchen opens into the dining and great rooms, perfect for entertaining large gatherings.

2,499,000

13,500,000

18-113

square feet

4

8

baths

dollars

5,846

Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty Barbara Allen - (307) 413-3510 barbara.allen@jhsir.com - jhsir.com

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

dollars

16-1677 MLS#

Teton Valley Realty William Fay - (208) 354-2439 info@tetonvalleyrealty.com - tetonvalleyrealty.com

FOREST RIDGE – VICTOR, IDAHO

3,500

square feet

5

bedrooms

5

baths

Nestled in the foothills of the Big Hole Range on the west side of Teton Valley, this well-maintained custom home boasts 4 private bedrooms with en-suites. Inside, the grand entry gives way to a vaulted living room with fireplace, large Teton view windows, and a cozy den with a cast iron stove. The basement offers a bunk room, half bath, and office. There is an oversized 2 car garage, with additional garage for equipment—perfect for the recreationist.

17-1395 MLS#

Teton Valley Realty Mark Rockefeller - (208) 354-2439 info@tetonvalleyrealty.com - tetonvalleyrealty.com

NATIONAL PARK LIVING

4,850

square feet

5

bedrooms

4

baths

Touch the Tetons from this beautiful 4,850 square foot home on 3.5 acres inside Grand Teton National Park!

Enjoy big Teton views from the expansive great room.

Large first floor master, office and exercise room. Quality construction, kitchen for the gourmet cook. Fish in Pacific Creek, hike, bike, ride horses, snowmobile, cross-country ski all inside the park and national forest. Yellowstone National Park and restaurants are very close and all in a wildlife paradise.

— MLS#

square feet

3

bedrooms

3

About 1.25 hours from the Town Square in JH. Three Peaks Ranch is set on 640 acres with a 3,280-sq. ft. hand crafted custom log home nestled adjacent to USFS in the mystical Wyoming Range in a grove of aspen trees, two fishing ponds stocked with rainbow and brown trout. The three tallest peaks in Wyoming are visible from Three Peaks Ranch including the Grand Teton, about 90 miles to the North.

baths

dollars

18-723 MLS#

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

Jackson Hole Real Estate Associates, LLC Steve Duerr - (307) 699-4920 steveduerr@jhrea.com - steveduerr.com

8.5 ACRES WITH TETON VIEWS!

8.5 acres

—

bedrooms

—

With the Grand Teton and Jackson Hole’s Aerial Tram as your backdrop, this 8.25 acre parcel provides a blank canvas to paint your own dream home in a highly coveted area of the valley. Located in Gros Ventre North, a gated subdivision conveniently situated between the Town of Jackson and Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. This lot allows for several different building options, all of which provide special mountain vistas unlike any other.

baths

2,388,000

1,995,000 dollars

3,284

2,200,000

790,000 dollars

THREE PEAKS RANCH – MERNA, WY

dollars

16-1840 MLS#

Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty Audrey L. Williams - (307) 690-3044 audrey.williams@jhsir.com AudreyWilliamsRealEstate.com SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

55

BREATHTAKING 360 VIEWS

1.6 acres

—

bedrooms

—

Incredible 1.6 acre building site with breathtaking 360 degree views, including the Grand Teton, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, the Sleeping Indian and dramatic canyon views. Located in a cul-de-sac in Bar B Bar Meadows, and adjacent to an elk migration corridor, this lot is unquestioningly one of the best vacant parcels left in Bar-B-Bar. A level building site, with community water and underground utilities to the property line.

baths

18-551 MLS#

acres

—

bedrooms

—

Arguably the best lot in Grand View Estates! Incredible views of the Teton Range, JH Mountain Resort, and the Sleeping Indian in a small quiet subdivision. A beautiful stone bridge greets your arrival as you cross over two enchanting ponds hugging the building envelope which is sited perfectly to maximize the view corridors. All utilities are in place and ready for your dream home.

baths

18-446 MLS#

56

6

bedrooms

7

dollars

— MLS#

3.3 acres

—

bedrooms

—

2,145,000

Jackson Hole Real Estate Associates Budge Realty Group & Michael Pruett - (307) 413-2700 michaelpruett@jhrea.com - budgerealestate.com

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

The Clear Creek Group Real Estate John Resor and Steve Hancock - (307) 739-1908 jresor@shootingstarjh.com

LOT ON BEAR HOLLOW DRIVE

baths

1,750,000 dollars

square feet

This timeless Western masterpiece overlooks the head waters of Fish Creek and provides spectacular views of the Tetons. This Shooting Star home is approximately 7,450 square feet with six bedrooms and seven bathrooms. The home features impressive vaulted ceilings, three massive stone fireplaces, a country kitchen with Sub Zero and Wolf appliances, a spacious master bedroom with his and her baths, an extra-large laundry area, media room, expansive decks, Jacuzzi spa, outside barbecue, and many other elegant amenities.

12,750,000

The Clear Creek Group Real Estate Devon and David Viehman - (307) 690-4004 david@jacksonholereport.com - tccgre.com

GRAND VIEW ESTATES

3.07

7,450

baths

850,000 dollars

WESTERN MASTERPIECE AT SHOOTING STAR

dollars

11702032 MLS#

This Park City lot boasts stunning panoramic views from the top of Sun Peak neighborhood, situated between Utah Olympic Park and Park City Mountain Resort. A short drive to historic Main Street and Kimball Junction and 30 minutes from Salt Lake International Airport. See renderings of site-specific house plans by nationallyacclaimed Prescott Muir Architects at prescottmuir.com/ work/premise/cedarresidence. Plans are HOA-approved but can be altered with client input. Take a video tour of the property at 2740bearhollow.com.

Windermere Real Estate Scott Rabin - (435) 659-1099 scott@utahrabin.com - utahrabin.com

DOUBLE L RANCH LUXURY HOME – FREEDOM, WYOMING

4,248

square feet

4

bedrooms

4.5 baths

Located in the desirable Double L Ranch sporting community on the Salt River, this newly constructed, custom timber frame home features dramatic views of the valley landscape, and mountain views can be seen from every room in the house. The shared Double L Ranch community offers members access to world class fishing, hunting, hiking, snowmobiling, and amenities including an equestrian center, 2,100 foot grass airstrip with private hanger, trap range, fish ponds, and private golf course.

2,650,000 dollars

— MLS#

Live Water Properties Tate Jarry - (307) 413-2180 info@livewaterproperties.com - livewaterproperties.com

RARE 3 CREEK RANCH 50+ ACRE HOMESITE

51.97 acres

—

bedrooms

—

baths

This spectacular tract is the last opportunity to own one of the largest acreages in 3 Creek Ranch. Combining the best of 3 Creek Ranch, Tract 1 boasts a beautiful mosaic of wetlands with Cody Creek running through the homesite, and massive Teton views. Resting between protected lands to the north and west, this property encompasses a portion of the trumpeter swan habitat— an area rich in both wildlife and waterfowl.

— MLS#

2,996

square feet

4

bedrooms

Stare at the Tetons as you watch the migratory birds fly by this immaculate, Broker owned, Melody Ranch home. Surrounded by open space on a half acre lot with a seasonal stream running through the beautifully landscaped yard. High-end finishes throughout.

3

baths

UPON REQUEST dollars

— MLS#

RARE Properties of Jackson Hole LLC Richard Armstrong - (307) 413-4359 rick@rarejh.com - rarejh.com

FISH CREEK RIDGE

3,022

square feet

4

bedrooms

4

Nestled in the pine and aspen forest off of Fish Creek Road in Wilson, Wyoming, this elevated, sunny home is quiet and private, yet minutes away from the town of Wilson, hiking trails and the bike path. Features of the home include a modern and completely updated kitchen, heated floors throughout, and 4 en-suite bedrooms/baths.

There is plenty of room to expand on this one-of-a-kind 4.26 acre property.

baths

8,100,000 dollars

KNOCK YOU OVER ... TETON VIEWS

2,650,000

3 Creek Ranch Real Estate Services LLC Todd Domenico - (307) 739-9292 TDomenico@3CreekRanch-JH.com - 3CreekRanch-JH.com

dollars

18-202 MLS#

Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty Huff | Vaughn | Sassi - (307) 203-3000 theteam@jhsir.com - mercedeshuff.com SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

57

6630 UPPER CASCADE DRIVE

6,658

square feet

4

bedrooms

Beautiful and contemporary log home great for families or as a retreat property. Huge Teton views, living, kitchen/ dining room, family room, office, workout room, sun room, large spa and sauna plus 4 bedrooms and 6 baths. Very liveable and extremely well cared for. There are two ponds and excellent, mature landscaping. It is an easy drive to town from the property.

—

acres

—

bedrooms

This rare mountain property offers abundant sunshine, mature pine trees and stands of aspens providing privacy without compromising its sunny exposure. The building site is perched on a sloping lot taking in expansive southeast views. Located one lot from the forest for crosscountry skiing, biking, hiking, horseback riding, etc. This lot also has the added benefit of allowing for 2 horses.

—

58

17-217 MLS#

Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty Pamela Renner - (307) 690-5530 pamela.renner@jhsir.com - pamelarenner.com

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

Cabin & Company Tom Hedges - (307) 690-2495 tom@cabinandcompany.com - cabinandcompany.com

NOWLIN MOUNTAIN MEADOWS

3,803

square feet

4

bedrooms

baths

855,000

MLS#

dollars

3

—

baths

dollars

5

bedrooms

1,295,000

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

INDIAN PAINTBRUSH BUILDING SITE

4.01

square feet

12 Bannock Circle is one of two custom designed Cabins developed by the Eden Group. Designed by Ellis Nunn, built with post and beam structural design, constructed using only hydrometer checked logs and sold fully furnished with a Laurie Waterhouse furniture package, this cabin stands sentinel to all other cabins at Teton Springs. Located above the 11th hole and overlooking stocked fishing ponds.

Excellent rental revenue producing property.

baths

6,950,000

MLS#

4,229

5.5

6

baths

dollars

TETON SPRINGS LUXURY LOG HOME

UPON REQUEST dollars

— MLS#

Exceptional home ideally situated on 5.14 acres in Nowlin Mountain Meadows an inholding inside the National Elk Refuge with sweeping views of the Tetons and Sleeping Indian. Attention to detail and a thoughtful floor plan, make this 4-bed home an ideal residence for indoor and outdoor entertaining in an extremely special setting. The great room and kitchen feature a Montana Granite pass-through fireplace, poured concrete floors with in-floor heat, and weeny edge cedar and recycled timber throughout. The Teton views from almost every window are impossible to ignore!

Jackson Hole Real Estate Associates Nancy Martino - (307) 690-1022 nancymartino@jhrea.com

W

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2018

The Comeback of the

60

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

A

An exotic species crashed the upper Yellowstone River’s native cutthroat trout population, but decades of aggressive eradication efforts aimed at the invasive fish have morphed the remote river back into a bucket-list destination for anglers.

longside photographer Ryan Dorgan, I stalk the banks of the sluggish, coiled upper Yellowstone River just south of Yellowstone National Park. We’re looking for signs of the iconic Yellowstone BY MIKE KOSHMRL cutthroat trout, a strain of the PHOTOGRAPHY BY RYAN DORGAN Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s only native trout species and a prized target of anglers. It doesn’t look promising. We’ve walked the river’s banks for hundreds of yards only to be greeted by slow-going, featureless “frog water” that clearly lacks fish. Then, past a broad bend, we see fish rise, sipping bugs from the surface of a deep run off the far bank.

We—me, my fly rod- and camera-wielding comrade Dorgan, and this pod of cutthroat trout, or “cutties”—are deep in the Teton Wilderness in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. We’re about twenty-five miles upriver from where the Yellowstone River dumps into North America’s largest high-elevation lake, Yellowstone Lake. Although not outlined as such on U.S. Geological Survey maps, this is the heart of a region known as the Thorofare, which is generally considered to be the upper Yellowstone River drainage, including its major tributaries, the largest of which is Thorofare Creek. Dorgan and I and the cutties journeyed long and hard to get here.

Assuming the latter arrived here from Yellowstone Lake, they traveled the twenty-five miles packing sperm or eggs and an innate drive to run upstream to procreate. Dorgan and I backpacked in twenty-eight miles from Turpin Meadow, humping food for five days and camera, camping, and fishing gear that easily clears a hundred pounds.

A trout finally slurps up Dorgan’s buoyant Parachute Adams fly as it drifts past. Hooked, the fish reveals that, despite its long swim, it has plenty of fight left. We reveal that we packed for this adventure haphazardly. A true catch is thwarted not only by the fish’s fight, but also by our lack of a landing net. The big cutthroat evades Dorgan’s swiping hand, snaps his tippet, and escapes. But I don’t have to see it landed to know it’s one of the biggest cutties I’ve ever seen.

We should be disappointed but aren’t. After all, the Thorofare is a bucket-list destination for both of us. By one measure, it is the most remote place in the Lower 48 states: Hawks Rest, the 9,700-foot cliff band that towers over us, is the farthest you can get from a road in the contiguous U.S. We’re here fly fishing, on a river we have to ourselves, for a species of

The author casts into the calm waters of the upper Yellowstone River.

SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

61

Wildflowers in mid-August may be a rare sight in the Thorofare most years, but heavy snows the previous winter made much of the 28-mile hike to Hawks Rest impassable until late summer, and pushed the wildflower season back.

have many “resident” fish. About eleven months of the year, the upper Yellowstone’s cutthroat live in Yellowstone Lake. Just a few cutthroat live in the Thorofare year-round, and those are generally smaller fish in small streams. Only four of ninety-five cutthroat that Yellowstone fisheries biologist Brian Ertel captured and tracked one season stayed in the river system throughout the year. The rest were Yellowstone River sojourners, swimming upstream to lay their eggs and deposit sperm on gravels. This—the spawn—is when the Thorofare becomes the best cutthroat trout fishery on the planet.

Or that’s when the Thorofare used to be the best cutthroat trout fishery on the planet.

It’s impossible to guess how big the upper Yellowstone River cutty spawn was historically.

The watershed upstream from the lake is too big and too remote to make such an assessment worthwhile. But there are some numbers for other tributaries flowing into Yellowstone Lake: In 1945 the park began monitoring the spawning run at Clear Creek, just one of the fifty-nine streams the species historically uses to spawn.

The documented number of cutties spawning there peaked in 1978, at more than seventy thousand, but by the mid-2000s fewer than six hundred fish were making the same journey—a crash of more than 99 percent.

The reason for this population decline was never a mystery (but it did go unnoticed for almost a decade): In the mid-1980s, lake trout, a large, toothy, fish-eating species not native to the Rocky Mountains, showed up. It’s believed a trout naturally found nowhere else in the world. Had we come scofflaw “bucket biologist” moved them illegally from Lewis forty years ago, we wouldn’t have had to look so hard for fish, Lake to Yellowstone Lake, though the theory has never been but we would have been sharing the river with plenty of other proven. (In 1890, the park had introduced lake trout into its anglers. Twenty years ago, anglers and Yellowstone cutties were Lewis and Shoshone Lakes, both of which were historically in equally short supply. Today, the subspecies is coming back, fishless.) A long-lived species, lake trout that reach trophy and fishermen are just starting to realize it. Right now might proportions can tip the scales at more than forty pounds and be the most perfect time to fish the stretch the tape to fifty inches. And Thorofare. they’re usually fish eaters. One Yellowstone Lake study found that the THE UPPER YELLOWSTONE River big trout, also called mackinaw, ate an watershed before it reaches Yellowstone average of forty-one cutthroat trout THE 2002 BOOK Trout and Salmon of North Lake has been called the best cutthroat annually. More recent research deterAmerica recognizes fourteen subspecies of cuttrout fishery on Earth. The Yellowstone mined they’ve largely shifted their dithroat trout, or “cutties.” Each subspecies is nastrain of cutthroat here is genetically ets to “scuds,” a freshwater shrimptive to a unique geographic area, but no native pure, whereas in some other parts of like critter. Yellowstone Lake’s mackipopulations are found outside of the western U.S. their range they’ve hybridized with naw population grew exponentially, It was probably a cutty that was the first trout enrainbow trout, creating “cutbows.” swelling from an estimated 130,000 countered by Europeans in the New World: In 1541, Historically, the numbers of them here fish in 1998 to 800,000 by 2012. It’s Spanish conquistador Francisco Vázquez de were, to use a scientific term, incredistayed around that level since, though Coronado recorded seeing trout in a river near ble. But just for a while each year. The the average size of individual lake Santa Fe, New Mexico. These were most likely Rio big Yellowstone River itself doesn’t trout is falling.

Grande cutties.

CUTTHROAT FAMILY

62

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

A Yellowstone cutthroat trout makes a strong showing above the river’s surface as it battles the pull of an angler’s line.

It wasn’t just mackinaw that were eating Yellowstone Lake’s cutties out of a home, though. A long-term drought across the Intermountain West hurt populations, as did the arrival of the exotic, microscopic parasite Myxobolus cerebralis, which can cause fish to get whirling disease, an infection that bends a trout’s spine and causes it to swim in circles. Because infected fish cannot effectively feed, the disease is often fatal.

Native to Europe, whirling disease is now found in waters in about half of the U.S. states.

Cutties are considered a “keystone species” in the upper Yellowstone River watershed, and their decline caused a ripple effect throughout the animal kingdom. This “trophic cascade” affected an estimated forty species like birds, bears, river otters, and mink, many of which lost a key food source. This dynamic relationship explains the “Lake trout kill elk” bumper stickers seen on cars and trucks around Jackson Hole. Grizzly bears abandoned former cutthroat-crammed spawning streams in the springtime in favor of feeding on elk calves. As the cutthroat population crashed, the osprey that fed on the species left. (In 2001, between fifty and sixty pairs of ospreys nested around Yellowstone Lake; in 2015 64

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

there were fewer than five.)

Managers have been netting and killing lake trout in Yellowstone Lake since their presence was discovered and confirmed in 1994, but for many years the efforts were inadequate to make a dent.

Early on, the park’s fisheries biologists naively thought they were getting a handle on the lake trout population, unknowing they were on the front end of an exponential growth curve. Todd Koel, the Yellowstone staffer who’s been in the middle of the fight for eighteen years, recalls that in 2002, when fishing boats caught and killed around twelve thou-

sand mackinaw, they were certain the population was near collapse. “Man, were we wrong,” Koel says. The lake trout kept showing up, and spreading, and so they ramped up netting pressure dramatically.

Now more than 300,000 lake trout are caught and killed each summer by contracted commercial fishermen imported from the Great Lakes. (The caught fish don’t go to market, but instead are dumped dead right back into Yellowstone Lake, which is another story in itself.)

Although overall lake trout numbers are about as high as they’ve ever been, the number of large macks, which eat the most fish, has fallen off. Finally, cutthroat are showing signs of bouncing back, and they’re now about twice as numerous as they were in the early 2000s. The lake’s improved population has translated to more fish—and better fishing—in the Thorofare.

“ALL THE INDICATIONS and the reports that we’re receiving in the last handful of years is that [cutty] fishing has improved dramatically compared to the mid-2000s,” says Sam Hochhalter, a Cody-based Man, horse, elk, and grizzly bear all frequent the banks of the remote upper Yellowstone River.

Unique Unique Unique Unique Ranch Ranch Ranch Ranch and and and and Estate Estate Estate Estate Offerings Offerings Offerings Offerings InIn In Wyo In Wyo Wyo Wyo ming ming ming Unique Ranch and Estate Offerings In Wyo ming Snake Snake Snake Snake River River River River Woods Woods Woods Woods Snake River Woods Two Two Two remarkable, Two remarkable, remarkable, remarkable, adjoining adjoining adjoining adjoining residential residential residential residential lotslots lots consisting consisting lots consisting consisting of 8.65 of ofof 8.65 8.65 of acres 8.65 acres acres located acres located located located in in inin in Two remarkable, adjoining residential lots consisting 8.65 acres located oneone one of Jackson’s of one ofof Jackson’s Jackson’s of Jackson’s most most most unique most unique unique unique settings. settings. settings. settings.

BigBig Big Teton Teton Big Teton views, Teton views, views, privacy, views, privacy, privacy, privacy, 200-year-old 200-year-old 200-year-old 200-year-old one Jackson’s most unique settings.

Big Teton views, privacy, 200-year-old trees trees trees and trees and and aand gorgeous aand agorgeous a gorgeous spring spring spring creek spring creek creek all creek all compliment allall compliment compliment all compliment thisthis this authentically authentically this authentically authentically improved improved improved improved trees agorgeous gorgeous spring creek compliment this authentically improved opportunity. opportunity. opportunity. opportunity.

Quaint Quaint Quaint Quaint guest guest guest cabin, guest cabin, cabin, tack cabin, tack tack shed tack shed shed inviting shed inviting inviting inviting wall wall wall tent wall tent tent and tent and and aand beautiful aand abeautiful a beautiful opportunity.

Quaint guest cabin, tack shed inviting wall tent abeautiful beautiful horse horse horse barn horse barn barn with barn with with round with round round round penpen pen help pen help help create help create create the create the the ideal the ideal Jackson ideal Jackson Jackson Jackson lifestyle lifestyle lifestyle lifestyle forfor for the for the horse barn with round pen help create theideal ideal Jackson lifestyle forthe thethe discriminating discriminating discriminating discriminating investor. investor. investor. investor. $5,750,000. $5,750,000. $5,750,000. $5,750,000. discriminating investor. $5,750,000.

Grand Grand Grand Grand Cascade Cascade Cascade Cascade Grand Cascade Beautiful Beautiful Beautiful Beautiful Jackson Jackson Jackson Jackson family family family family home home home and home and and 2nd and 2nd 2nd lot2nd lot lot with with lotwith with Beautiful Jackson family home and 2nd lotwith huge huge huge Teton huge Teton Teton views, Teton views, views, views, 4 beds, 44 beds, 4beds, 6beds, baths 66 baths 6baths incredible baths incredible incredible incredible spaspa spa huge Teton views, 4beds, 6baths incredible spaspa andand and workout and workout workout workout rooms. rooms. rooms. rooms.

Chefs Chefs Chefs kitchen, Chefs kitchen, kitchen, kitchen, grand grand grand Living grand Living Living Living and workout rooms.

Chefs kitchen, grand Living room room room with room with with stone with stone stone fireplace, stone fireplace, fireplace, fireplace, family family family room, family room, room, game room, game game room game room room room room with stone fireplace, family room, game room andand and office. office. and office.

Fabulous office.

Fabulous Fabulous Fabulous landscaping landscaping landscaping landscaping with with with 2 ponds with 22ponds 2 and ponds and and and and office.

Fabulous landscaping with 2ponds ponds and stream. stream. stream. stream. $7,400,000. $7,400,000. $7,400,000. $7,400,000. #17-2386. #17-2386. #17-2386. #17-2386. stream. $7,400,000. #17-2386.

Also Also Also available Also available available available forfor for $6,950,000 $6,950,000 $6,950,000 for $6,950,000 unfurnished. unfurnished. unfurnished. unfurnished.

Also available for $6,950,000 unfurnished.

Majo Majo Majo Majo Ranch Ranch Ranch Ranch Majo Ranch

987-acre 987-acre 987-acre outfitting outfitting outfitting outfitting ranch ranch ranch ranch in in inin in Exceptional Exceptional Exceptional Exceptional ranch ranch ranch on ranch on the onon the the on banks banks the banks banks987-acre 987-acre outfitting ranch Exceptional ranch the banks gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous valley valley valley valley 1 1hour 1 1hour hour 1hour from hour from from from of of of the of the Shoshone the Shoshone Shoshone Shoshone River River River River with with with withgorgeous gorgeous valley from ofthe the Shoshone River with Cody, Cody, Cody, Wyoming Wyoming Wyoming Wyoming onon on the on the banks banks banks banks sweeping sweeping sweeping sweeping lawns, lawns, lawns, lawns, numerous numerous numerous numerousCody, Cody, Wyoming onthe thethe banks sweeping lawns, numerous of the of the Wood the Wood Wood Wood River.

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Custom Custom Custom Custom cabins,unparalleled cabins,unparalleled cabins,unparalleled cabins,unparalleledviews. views. views. views.of of ofthe the Wood River.

Custom cabins,unparalleled views. owners owners owners owners home, home, home, home, lodge lodge lodge and lodge and and guest and guest guest guest Surrounded Surrounded Surrounded Surrounded by by by forest by forest forest forest with with with with owners home, lodge and guest Surrounded by forest with accommodations accommodations accommodations accommodations and and and one and one one of of the one of the the of 100100 100 acres 100 acres acres exceptional acres exceptional exceptional exceptional hunting, hunting, hunting, hunting, accommodations and one of thethe 100 acres exceptional hunting, finest finest finest finest outfitting outfitting outfitting outfitting operations operations operations operations in in inin in fishing fishing fishing fishing and and and riding. and riding. riding. riding.

Offered Offered Offered Offered finest outfitting operations fishing and riding. Offered Wyoming.

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Exceptional Exceptional Exceptional Exceptional private private private private turnkey turnkey turnkey turnkey with with with livestock with livestock livestock livestock and and and and Wyoming. Exceptional private turnkey with livestock and cutthroat cutthroat cutthroat cutthroat fishing. fishing. fishing. fishing. equipment. equipment. equipment. equipment. cutthroat fishing. equipment. $10,750,000 $10,750,000 $10,750,000 $10,750,000 #16-2026. #16-2026. #16-2026. #16-2026. $6,950,000 $6,950,000 $6,950,000 $6,950,000 #17-1428. #17-1428. #17-1428. #17-1428. $10,750,000 #16-2026. $6,950,000 #17-1428.

John John John C. C. C. Pierce Pierce Pierce John C. Pierce

Associate Associate Associate Associate Broker Broker Broker Broker Associate Broker

Wood Wood Wood Wood River River River River Ranch Ranch Ranch Ranch Wood River Ranch

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Contract fishermen— many from the Great Lakes—are imported to Yellowstone each summer to net and kill hundreds of thousands of invasive lake trout that plague Yellowstone Lake’s native cutthroat populations.

fisheries supervisor for the Wyoming Game and Fish Latecomers might be motivated by that fact that cutthroat are Department. In Yellowstone Lake’s smaller tributaries, where not the only thing plentiful during the peak spawn; at that same the cutthroats are easily counted, the aquatic migrations are time mosquitoes are said to ascend from the massive wetlands steadily coming back. “But it still isn’t the glory days of pre-lake surrounding the river in clouds that would make the Arctic tuntrout, where catch rates were really high and anglers were having dra proud. But by August, when most spawners are back in the thirty-, forty-, fifty-fish days. Those days are still in the past.” lake, the bugs aren’t a problem. While the peak of the spawn is While in the Thorofare ourselves, Dorgan and I run into generally late June through early July, every summer is different someone who experienced these glory days, Leland Christensen, and at the whims of runoff and water temperatures. a Wyoming state senator and horseman who has rarely missed Ertel studied cutthroat spawning migration in the upper a summer trip into Hawks Rest since Yellowstone River system in-depth, he first came more than thirty years sharing his results in a recent edition of Outdoor writer Charles ago. Christensen remembers his secthe North American Journal of Fisheries ond-ever trip here, when he sat on the Management. In the span of three Hallock, in an 1884 article in riverbanks with a North Carolinian weeks, the river-running trout cover an The American Angler, is friend and caught one cutthroat after average of more than fifty straight-line credited with first giving another. “We caught eighty-two miles in a round trip. To figure this out, cutties their common name. straight fish without missing,” he says. a multiagency crew of fisheries biolo“We were doing it together, just laughgists caught nearly one hundred cutHallock came up with ing. We were hooking them, popping ties, implanted them with telemetry “cutthroat” because the fish them off, hooking them again.” They sensors, and then tracked them from have distinctive red, pink, or weren’t small fish either. Outfitters say airplanes flown a few hundred yards orange linear marks along the typical cutthroat that run from the over streams. This research cohort of lake into the Yellowstone River stretch fish entered the upper Yellowstone durunderside of their mandibles. anywhere from eighteen to twenty-two ing the first two weeks of June. By July inches, though one study put the aver10, most of them were back in age spawning fish at sixteen inches. Since it’s not the 1970s and Yellowstone Lake. By August 1, just eleven of the tracked fish because Dorgan and I have missed the peak spawn, we don’t remained in the river. Two stragglers were detected in the river expect any fifty-fish days. in September. The reason for the exodus is uncertain, but Some Thorofare travelers miss the spawn on purpose. Hochhalter’s hunch is that it’s a product of a healthy, connected Others miss it because of the vagaries of Mother Nature. fishery—cutthroats are safer, have more food, and spend less (Dorgan and I miss it because of work and other obligations.) energy in the lake, and so they go.

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Supervisory Fishery Biologist Todd Koel has spent the last 18 years working to tame the growth of invasive lake trout populations in Yellowstone Lake.

“I think it’s really a statement of having large, intact, and interconnected habitats,” he says. “When you grant individuals the option of migrating to more choice habitat, they’re just going to do it.”

Even if you guess right on runoff and water temperatures, there could be remnants of winter to contend with. The winter before I went in, a near-record snowpack left mountain passes impassible and rivers raging as the main spawn came and went. Chris Hart, a Forest Service horsepacker and patroller, persevered through this lingering snow and high water to get to his patrol cabin at Hawks Rest. He spent the first three weeks of July there and saw only five people. On the most commonly used trail from Jackson Hole into the Thorofare, he passed the hydrological oddity known as the Parting of the Waters, a National Natural Landmark where North Two Ocean Creek splits into Pacific Creek and Atlantic Creek; the former empties into the Pacific Ocean and the latter into the Atlantic. Descending Atlantic Creek, Hart made “first tracks.”

“Usually this place is overrun by then,” Hart tells me over a glass of whiskey at his patrol cabin. “It was so nice. So nice.”

Of course, the crowds are all relative. Don’t mistake the mates are accurate, just 750 private hikers a year make it to Thorofare, under any circumstances, for Jenny Lake. One of Hawks Rest. In our five days in the area during primetime Hart’s first visitors was a grizzly. “I was having a cup of coffee backpacking season, Dorgan and I stumble into just a handful and went to put some dishes in the sink and it pops up right of folks a day—Christensen’s camp, a Wyoming Catholic there in the window,” Hart says. “I went ‘oh, shit,’ and backed College orientation class, a couple of outfitter groups, and a up, and he said ‘oh, shit,’ and ran up the hill.” Later, although smattering of fragrant Continental Divide Trail thru-hikers. the water was still ripping by and clouded Dedicated overnight angling parties are with sediment—unfishable, by most wholly absent, as far as we can tell. standards—Hart threw a lure into the The solitude is surprising and strikYellowstone River to see if he could catch ing given the grandeur of the landscape, The annual cost of a fresh meal. Out came a cutthroat. which to me is reminiscent of Alaska and, well, pretty grand. It is also surprisYellowstone’s lake trout AS LITTLE DATA as there is on ing given the Thorofare’s history. The eradication program is Yellowstone cutthroat populations in the name “Thorofare” comes from the furabout $2 million.

Thorofare, there’s even less data on the trading era, when it was a relatively busy number of human travelers here. No perplace for frontiersmen trying to make a mits are necessary to visit and camp in buck, and Thorofare Creek offered the the area and going there without an outeasiest passage over the Absaroka Range. fitter is free. Wilderness rangers and patrol cabin volunteers do Today the Thorofare is home to the full suite of native terconsider Hawks Rest to be the busiest spot in the 585,000-acre restrial wildlife that lived there before pioneers settled the Teton Wilderness. When pressed for an estimate, they say about West. This includes an unnerving concentration of grizzly 11,000 people annually visit here, and that 80 percent or more bears. There’s no estimate for the number of hump-backed of these come in on horses. Also, commercially outfitted visi- bruins that live here, but multiple, chronic clashes with elk tors outnumber do-it-yourselfers two to one. If these guessti- hunters each fall attest to their abundance.

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In modern times, it was the early twentieth century up until the 1980s when the Thorofare was a thoroughfare, bustling with backpackers, anglers, and hunters willing to endure the allday horse trip or the even longer hike to get there. “It was just camp after camp after camp back then,” Christensen says.

“Once you hit Atlantic Creek, almost every little spot there’d be a camp.” The 1988 wildfires, which swept across much of the Teton Wilderness and over a third of Yellowstone National Park, thinned the crowds a little. The concurrent decline in spawning runs meant the number of anglers also fell off.

Backpacking as a general pursuit has also declined, and some people theorize that locally backpackers have steered clear due to the rise in the Teton Wilderness’ grizzly population.

This meant that by the 1990s and 2000s and even early 2010s, the Thorofare was less of a thoroughfare, though commercial overnight trips were always a fixture, as were elk hunters’ spike camps come fall. Those who know it best say it’s getting busier. Dorgan and I run into one outfitter, Boulder Basin Outfitter’s Carl Sauerwein, who says he doesn’t even bother with the mainstem of the upper Yellowstone River when he’s guiding hardcore fishermen during peak spawn.

He’s got other Teton Wilderness haunts— I still don’t know the locations—where there’s similar-quality fishing and his clients don’t have as much competition from fellow anglers.

The allure of the trip is the unrefined adventure, and it certainly isn’t for everyone. The upper Yellowstone’s muddy banks were just as marked with grizzly tracks as boot prints when we visited. I duped a single cutthroat that wasn’t spotted in the water beforehand. The fish was a hog, like the rest of them, and I hit it in fast water on the hike out, as an ominous wall of clouds was building to the west over Two Ocean Plateau, home to the trickle of water that eventually becomes the Snake River. It buckled my four-weight rod and had me trotting down a sandbar to give it line before I brought it to hand, and it scurried off back to its haunt in the current. I’d like to think it wasn’t much later that the cutty’s instincts kicked in, and it swam all the way back to Yellowstone Lake. JH

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GOING, GOING,

GONE? GRAND TETON MIDDLE TETON SCHOOLROOM GLACIER

TEEPEE GLACIER MIDDLE TETON GLACIER

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MOUNT OWEN TETON GLACIER PETERSEN GLACIER

Climbers hike up Garnet Canyon en route to the summit of the South Teton.

Two of Grand Teton National Park’s eleven glaciers—Middle Teton and Teepee—are passed by climbers on the most popular routes to the Grand, Middle, and South Teton summits.

FALLING ICE GLACIER TRIPLE GLACIERS SKILLET GLACIER

BY WHITNEY ROYSTER SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

ZACH SNAVELY

MOUNT MORAN

Over the last 10,000 to 160,000 years, melting and receding glaciers created much of the Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park landscapes we know today. In thirty years, it’s likely some of the park’s glaciers will be history. Does it matter?

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BRADLY J. BONER

TETON GLACIER

EVERY SUMMER, WHEN the snow melts and the hiking season starts in earnest, Forest Dramis likes to run to Disappointment Peak, which rises southeast of the Grand Teton.

The route to the summit takes him through coniferous forests, open fields, and, finally, high alpine terrain where little but mosses and lichens grow. From the peak’s 11,618-foot summit, Dramis, forty-three, looks out on Teepee Glacier—to the east of the Grand Teton—and, to the north, Teton Glacier. Over the eight years he’s done this, what he’s seen from Disappointment Peak’s summit has changed.

“I noticed it last summer,” Dramis says. “You can no longer see the toe of the Teton Glacier. That was kind of a stark reminder for me.”

Whatever your thoughts are on climate change, unequivocal research that started more than a century ago shows that Grand Teton National Park’s (GTNP) glaciers are shrinking. Of the park’s eleven glaciers, all have lost mass based on side-by-side comparisons of photos taken fifty years ago and current images.

Quantitatively, National Park Service (NPS) researchers have found that the Middle Teton Glacier shrank by 36,000 cubic meters in 2015 and 2016. In terms of volume, that’s the equivalent of 15 Olympic-size swimming pools. In 2017, it lost another 3,000 cubic me72

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

A climber tops out on Teewinot with the North Face of the Grand Teton and the Teton Glacier visible in the distance.

ters—far less than the prior years’ 36,000 cubic meters, but still a loss continuing the trend of glacial shrinkage.

Teepee Glacier, below the East Face of the Grand Teton, has shrunk by 60 percent in the last fifty years.

This number was derived from the study of aerial photographs. Other methods of identifying and quantifying changes in a glacier’s size include Global Positioning System (GPS) elevation surveys, a type of mapping that allows researchers to see changes in relative volume, topographical surveys, and ground penetrating radar (GPR). The latter has not yet been done on any of the park’s glaciers, but GTNP physical sciences branch chief Simeon Caskey hopes to use it in the near future because it is the best way to measure a glacier’s depth.

The park’s remaining nine glaciers—Teton, Skillet, Petersen, Falling Ice, Schoolroom, the East, Middle, and West Triple glaciers, and a recently identified unnamed glacier near Glacier Peak—anecdotally and through photographic evidence are all diminishing in size.

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK is a rugged landscape formed by glaciers. Billions of years ago, there was continental drift and collision. Hundreds of millions of years ago, magma filled cracks in the continen-

tal plates and ancient seas deposited sediment that formed limestone and shale. About 13 million years ago, further shifting of plates, a stretching of terrain, and a series of earthquakes caused the mountain range to begin rising.

Then came three periods of glaciation. The first glaciation, the most widespread and the one the least is known about, happened at a time when the valley floor was about a thousand feet higher than its current level and the present system of canyons opening onto the valley from the Tetons had yet to form. The entire area was covered in ice as thick as two thousand feet. Between approximately 160,000 and 130,000 years ago, a glacier again covered most of Jackson Hole, its southern extent just south of where the Town of Jackson is today. By about 130,000 years ago, this glacier, which featured “arms” marking the beginnings of the canyons in the Teton Range, had receded from the valley.

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How glaciers form “A GLACIER IS JUST an ice mass that moves,” researcher Simeon Caskey says. “Essentially the snow is slowly transformed into ice by compression and recrystallization. Once it transforms into ice, it will actually move downhill by the force of gravity.”

As the ice moves downhill, Caskey likens it to a bulldozer or conveyor belt—the ice is scraping and dragging across the surface, picking up and depositing rocks and debris. When glaciers recede, as the Tetons’ are now, people can see the moraines, which are accumulations of dirt and rock marking the former margins of the glacier.

The most recent glaciation, occurring between 25,000 and 10,000 years ago, was when glaciers really got going on the area’s landscape. This was when Death, Granite, Garnet, and Cascade Canyons were carved and Leigh, String, Jenny, Bradley, Taggart, Phelps, and Jackson Lakes were formed as we know them today. Again though, these glaciers melted. The eleven glaciers in the park today date to much more recent (relatively) times: a neoglaciation period approximately 600 to 700 years ago.

EIGHT OF THE Lower 48 states have glaciers. Of those, Wyoming has the third most; only Washington and Montana have more. The other states are

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Terminology

IN 2017, CASKEY was hired as GTNP’s physical sciences branch chief, a lengthy title that means he’s responsible for researching the park’s geology, air quality, and hydrology (glaciers fall under the final category). He’s the first to hold that title, but not the first to undertake such work. Caskey came to GTNP after working as a hydrologist in Lander for the Shoshone National Forest. Before that, he worked in Laramie as a district hydrologist for the Medicine Bow National Forest. Caskey was born in Alaska, grew up in Michigan, and earned a Master of Science degree from Colorado State University in geosciences. While in Fort Collins, he traveled to Wyoming frequently for study and SCHOOLROOM GLACIER recreation.

Tall, fit, and thoughtful, Caskey rattles off the names of all the park’s glaciers, their aspect (the directions they face), the canyons they tower over, and the peaks they lie below. He has a particularly soft spot for Schoolroom Glacier, located at the base of Hurricane Pass at the top of the South Fork of Cascade Canyon. “It has a different geographic location, and feel and presence, to it than the others in these alpine cirques,” he says.

Surrounded by spectacular scenery, Schoolroom encompasses panoramic views of the Tetons and west into Teton Valley, Idaho.

In 2015, before Caskey arrived, park staff worked to standardize its glacial research with help from people currently monitoring glaciers in the Rocky Mountains and North Cascades. Installed were temperature and solar radiaZACH SNAVELY

Glacier: A slow-moving mass of ice formed by accumulation and compaction of snow.

Permanent snowfield: Accumulation of snow that doesn’t totally melt in summer. This can turn into a glacier if snow compacts to ice and begins moving. Sometimes called a “young glacier.”

Temporary snowfield: A snowfield that, by the end of summer, has totally melted.

Ablation zone: The area(s) of a glacier that are typically, but not always, near its toe and which melt, reducing the glacier’s size.

Accumulation zone: The area(s) of a glacier where snow and ice build, increasing the glacier’s size.

Equilibrium zone: Where accumulation and ablation balance—a rising equilibrium line means a glacier is receding.

Active glacier: A glacier that is moving.

Dead glacier: A glacier that is no longer moving.

Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, and Idaho. Within Wyoming, the Tetons have fewer glaciers than the Wind River Range, which has about forty peaks higher than 13,000 feet and twenty-five named glaciers. The Bighorn Mountains in north-central Wyoming have one glacier, and the Absaroka Range northeast of Jackson Hole claims two.

Throughout the West, glaciers are retreating. At best, a handful are tenuously classified as “active.” An active glacier is defined not by its gaining volume but by its movement, such as developing crevasses or calving. If any of the active glaciers in the West are gaining volume in addition to moving, it is in amounts too small to be measured. In Montana’s Glacier National Park, the NPS website says that glacier recession models indicate the park will be without any active glaciers by 2030.

GTNP researchers think the same could be true for their park. Studies performed here indicate all the glaciers in Grand Teton are losing volume, but some are still moving and, hence, are active. GTNP’s active glaciers include the Teton, Middle Teton, and Falling Ice glaciers. Others, like Teepee and Petersen Glaciers, park researchers say are “probably not” moving anymore.

Climbers make their way up the South Teton. The Schoolroom Glacier is visible to the far right and Snowdrift Lake, at the back of the North Fork of Avalanche Canyon, is seen on the left.

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tion sensors, time-lapse cameras, aerial and ground photography capabilities, GPS surveys, discharge monitors, and radar imagery. To determine glacial activity, Caskey and his team now use GPS elevation surveys of the glacier’s surface combined with time-lapse photos. The former are not easy to accomplish, nor without risks. Crampons, ice axes, ropes, helmets, and mountain-savvy rangers are just the beginning of GPS work.

EXPERIENCE THE TETONS LIKE NEVER BEFORE

What do glaciers and Snickers have in common?

THE VISUALS OF THE movement of a glacier have been likened to a Snickers—yes, the candy bar— bent into a U shape so it’s flat on the bottom and steep on the sides. As a Snickers bends, the chocolate part develops cracks just as glaciers develop crevasses. Continuing the analogy, the consistent flow of glacial ice is like the caramel, and debris picked up and carried by the ice can be compared to the Snickers’ peanuts.

Because of the specialized skills and experience GPS elevation surveys require, the glacial monitoring team relies on two to four Jenny Lake Climbing Rangers, the park’s elite rescue squad.

The climbing rangers traverse the steep ice of the Middle Teton Glacier with sixfoot-long rods and GPS units to collect data on the surface of the ice, Caskey explains. They spend several days a year, usually during the first week of September when most of the summer melt has happened but new snow has yet to fall, collecting the data Caskey and his team need. Humping packs that weigh between thirty and fifty pounds, they hike up to the Lower Saddle, at an elevation of almost 12,000 feet, and establish a camp for several days.

As dangerous and difficult as it is to conduct field studies on GTNP’s glaciers, Caskey and his team have it relatively easy. “Our monitoring is unique in the sense that we have very steep glaciers but they’re also relatively small and accessible,” Caskey says. How steep are GTNP’s glaciers? He compares the pitch of glaciers in the Wind River Range to green ski runs, while those in the Tetons are black diamonds. However, Caskey says, “We can go [monitor glaciers]

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SCHOOLROOM GLACIER

GREG VON DOERSTEN

Top: The tarn directly below the Schoolroom Glacier at the back of the South Fork of Cascade Canyon.

Bottom: The Middle Teton Glacier is one of the three active glaciers in Grand Teton National Park.

MIDDLE TETON GLACIER

GREG VON DOERSTEN

STARTING IN 2013, GTNP began to release an annual “Vital Signs Summary.” The document analyzes four categories of park resources—climate and environment, cultural resources, natural resources, and challenges—to provide baseline data from which the park can determine whether things are trending toward “protection for future generations” as dictated by the Organic Act of 1916, which created the NPS (these reports may be found at nps.gov/grte/learn/nature/ vital-signs.htm). The report includes glaciers as a resource indicator for climate and environment. Since 2015 it has classified GTNP’s glaciers as in “long-term decline.”

Caskey is by no means the first person to study GTNP’s glaciers. As far back as 1878, artists with the Hayden Survey noted a glacier in their drawings of the Teton Range. In 1926, three years before GTNP was founded, Fritiof Fryxell, who earned a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Chicago and wrote his dissertation on mountain glaciation, noted “at least seven” glaciers on Mount Moran and the Grand, Middle, and South Tetons. He described them as being on the east faces of the jagged peaks, above 10,000 feet in elevation. (Fryxell went on to be GTNP’s first naturalist, serving in that position from the park’s founding in 1929 until 1935.)

In the 1940s and ’50s other researchers looked at the park’s glaciers but none published his findings. In the 1960s, a researcher hammered metal stakes into the toe of the Teton

without having to take a helicopter or walk twenty-five miles, [as researchers] in other glaciated ranges [must].”

Through this research and time-lapse photographs, sophisticated computer programs, time in the field, and mapping software, Caskey and his team seek to determine the volume loss of each glacier in the park. “We can say they are shrinking,” he says.

But that doesn’t mean they will disappear entirely. Some research indicates that as the glaciers recede in volume, they nestle against more protected landscapes—alpine cirques deep in shadows. These geographic protection points can positively affect the glacier’s lifespan. Some glaciers are more exposed to the sun. Because of these factors, Caskey says, extrapolating data to determine a glacier’s lifespan is “not linear.” There are too many variables scientists cannot predict, and how the geography will or will not protect the ice is just one of them.

Another is how weather patterns might change.

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Glacier, then returned the next year.

Because the stakes he had placed the year before were no longer in the ice, he estimated the glacier lad lost about 1.5 feet in depth. Today, Caskey’s research has been boosted by funding from the Grand Teton National Park Foundation, which has given about $45,000 for glacier research over several years.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

RECREATIONALISTS LIKE DRAMIS are not the only individuals to notice the change in the park’s glaciers. Forrest McCarthy has spent a lot of time in the Tetons as a climber and guide and is now working on his Ph.D. in glacial research.

“I first stepped on the Teton Glacier in probably 1991,” he says. “In those days you could pretty much step off the terminal moraine and onto glacier ice. Now it’s thinning. It’s obvious. The toe of the glacier is upstream of the moraine. It’s receded and thinned, significantly.”

When glaciers recede, it’s “not pretty,” says McCarthy. Sharp, steep rock is exposed. This makes once-accessible climbing routes, with approaches over glaciers, more difficult. Glacial recession “has changed climbing in the Tetons,” he says.

“It’s made classic alpine climbs harder, less accessible, and not as interesting.”

Some climbing routes, like Black Ice Couloir, are nearly gone, he says. Other routes are becoming more dangerous.

The loss of glaciers also makes the park “a little less scenic,” McCarthy says. “People driving through the park won’t see them.

The Teton Glacier Turnout will become something of the past.”

Shrinking glaciers in GTNP don’t affect only sightseeing and climbing.

Without glacial ice to melt in the late summer, some fisheries and aquatic environments could dry out. Studies done in areas of the Wind Rivers similar to the Tetons reveal some of these environments get as much as 12 percent of their runoff from late-season glacial melt. People who rely on later-season water for irrigation or recreation will be pinched, as well. Fish relying on lateseason streams connecting alpine lakes could find their spawning and migrations interrupted, or impossible. There’s a species of stonefly, a food source important to trout, that lives within a hundred yards of glaciers’ terminuses.

These insects could disappear, which would also affect trout populations.

Without as much glacial melt feeding

into them, the water in creeks and streams will be warmer, which can affect fish migration and give rise to algae blooms. And the park’s spectacular late-season wildflowers rely, in part, on glacial meltwater.

One of the reasons Caskey is passionate about glaciers—and glacial research—in the Tetons is because these mountains are some of the only places in the Rocky Mountains where you can see glaciers from the car. “It’s such a great outreach component to tell and show people this is an amazing geologic feature we can see the evidence of all around us,” he says. “It’s potentially leaving us at a faster rate because of the decisions we are making on a day-to-day basis.”

Maybe, he says, people will change some behaviors when they have a tangible vision for impacts. “I really do think these are powerful landscapes from a science perspective but also an educational perspective. They mean a lot to me from that standpoint. It’s sort of sad but it also gives us an opportunity to convey a message.” JH

Glaciers in the wild HOW DO YOU KNOW if you’re looking at one of the park’s eleven glaciers, or just at a snowfield? That’s tricky. In winter, of course, you can’t tell one from the other. But in the summer, glaciers tend to be dirtier, and gray or bluish in color.

Visiting the Teton Glacier Turnout is one way to know you are looking at a glacier (the Teton Glacier is in the cirque below the Grand). And on Mount Moran, the Skillet Glacier is prominent as it faces northeast over Jackson Lake. The Middle Teton Glacier sits at the top of Garnet Canyon and is one of the most surveyed glaciers in the park because of its relatively easy access. (Also, it’s less steep and less dangerous than the park’s other glaciers, which allows researchers to spend more time on it.) Rays of sun refracting off the glacial silt, or finely ground rock, from Petersen Glacier, near the top of the North Fork of Cascade Canyon, turns Mica Lake its signature turquoise blue. Nearby Lake Solitude is not glacier-fed and is therefore the more typical high-mountain blue.

If you get up close to a glacier—something few people do—you’ll see that it pulls away from nearby rock walls, forming a gap between rock and ice.

This is called a bergschrund. Snowfields don’t have bergschrunds. Glaciers also have crevasses—deep fissures or cracks in the ice—that are evidence of ice moving.

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Wild for Wildlife PHOTOGRAPHY BY ISAAC SPOTTS “WHEN I WAS TEN, my granny gave me a tiny digital camera,” says eighteen-year-old Isaac Spotts. At thirteen, he used money from an acting gig—he was Tommy in the Orlando Repertory Theatre’s production of Dr. Dolittle—to buy a Canon Rebel T3 camera. “That was my first decent camera,” he says. When he was sixteen, Spotts’ family moved to Jackson Hole from Orlando.

“Back in Florida, I took pictures of animals, but they were in zoos,” he says. “Here it’s totally different. It’s insane.” Last May, Spotts, who graduated from Jackson Hole High School this spring, got a job at Wyoming Camera Outfitters. “My stuff has really improved since I started working there,” he says. “My manager, Travis, and my co-workers have been so helpful.”

Spotts says the patience required to be a wildlife photographer is something he’s always had. “Wildlife photography is an art,” he says. “There is so much you need to learn, and patience is so important. Here, moose stroll through town and you can just drive up to them, but most animals are hard to find and skittish.” For a series of photos of river otters, Spotts went with a friend to a “pond back in the boonies where he knew otters lived,” he says. “We saw them—and they saw us—from about sixty yards and [then] they disappeared. We just lay down and waited for them to get comfortable with us and come closer. About an hour later they were swimming ten feet from us and catching fish.”

Being on the ground is a key component of Spotts’ style of shooting. “I have to be at an animal’s eye level, or lower,” he says. “It makes the portraits feel more intimate—looking into the eyes of an animal.” Spotts doesn’t have a favorite animal to shoot, but, “after spending a lot of time looking for them last winter,” he saw two wolves in two days. “They are the most beautiful animals in the world,” he says. Spotts saw them while he was driving along the Gros Ventre Road near Kelly. “I was singing along to the radio and this gray wolf was thirty feet from the road staring off into the distance,” he says. “I pulled over and put the window down. It started moving away and then I let out this little howl and it looked at me and howled back. I got some good—but not great—shots, and that moment when it howled back at me was something else.”

While Spotts’ dream is to eventually show his photography in a gallery—maybe even his own—now you can catch his images of local wildlife on Instagram (@isaacspicz). JH SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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VAN Life 86

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WHETHER OUT OF CHOICE OR BY NECESSITY, SOME JACKSON HOLE RESIDENTS CALL A VAN THEIR HOME. STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY LESLIE HITTMEIER

Ben Hoiness and dog Lizzie (a friend’s) say goodbye to a storm while parked at a trailhead in the Gros Ventre Mountains.

EVERY MORNING I wake up to a new view.

Sometimes it’s a friend’s driveway. Other times it’s a sidewalk, or a pine forest. This morning, since I woke in the dark, there wasn’t much of a view out our van’s window. But, as my husband, Ben, drives us back toward downtown Jackson and away from where we spent the night— the Sleeping Indian trailhead in the Gros Ventres—the sun rises and I catch a lone coyote sniffing his way across an empty National Elk Refuge. There are a lot of things about living in a van that suck, such as having nowhere to pee, no desk to work at, and nowhere to really live. But it’s moments like this that make up for all that. Watching the sun come up from our home on wheels with a hot cup of coffee in hand is pretty awesome.

Ben and I moved into our van at the beginning of summer 2017. For a lot of people, van life means being able to travel whenever they want, or it means the freedom to live anywhere. For us, it meant we could both do work we are passionate about while living in an expensive town. I wanted to quit my nineto-five so I could start a production company with three other women. This was a dream opportunity, but one that wouldn’t be profitable for at least a year.

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Ben is an Exum Mountain Guide, a company that After a long day of prove anytime soon. Instead they say, “This is the helps clients reach the tops of the tallest peaks in guiding in the Tetons, new normal.” the Tetons, so it’s not like he could live anywhere Ben relaxes and chats In 2017, the average price of a single-family on the phone at a but here. Rent prices in any neighborhood in campsite on Shadow home in Jackson Hole was $1.86 million. The avJackson Hole, and even in the Idaho satellite com- Mountain. Fried rice erage monthly rent price for a two-bedroom munities of Teton Valley and Swan Valley, are too was for dinner. apartment was $1,800. And even those who can high for two people living on one climbing guide’s afford to pay that much in rent have a tough time wage. Moving into our van was a temporary solufinding a landlord to sign a lease and take their tion. We hoped that if we lived in the van over the summer, we money. According to 2014 data, the most recent year for which could 1) afford rent again by winter and 2) be able to find a figures are available, the rental market in Teton County has a place to rent. vacancy rate of less than 1 percent.

When Ben and I moved to Jackson in June 2016, we knew IT’S NO SECRET that the town of Jackson has a housing crisis. it was an expensive place to live, but we didn’t appreciate just The available housing—for rent and for purchase—is both ex- how expensive. According to AreaVibes, which assigns a pensive and scarce. Because of that, 47 percent of the work- “Livability Score” to communities across the country based force lives outside of Teton County, Wyoming. (The commu- on metrics including amenities, cost of living, crime rates, nity first recognized a loss education, employment, of local workforce housing housing, and weather, the as an issue in the early ninecost of living in Jackson ties, when the number of Hole is 44 percent above workers living outside the the national average. county was less than 15 percent.) According to the 2017 IT WASN’T LONG after we Jackson Hole Real Estate first moved to the valley end-of-year report, the limthat Ben started talking ited supply of houses and about buying a van. I liked the high prices have accelerthe idea but wasn’t conated to the point where vinced—I knew we’d have most local potential buyers to live in it full time for can no longer afford to even multiple years to afford the enter the market. David and Devon Viehman and Luke Ben cleans up for his twentySmith, the report’s authors, sixth birthday, using the biggest mirror available. don’t expect this will im88

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

expense. My parents offering to help us buy a car as a wedding present changed my mind. We decided on a Dodge Ram ProMaster because it’s the biggest van available that isn’t a $50,000 Mercedes Sprinter. In September 2016, we drove “Pam the Ram”—the most valuable thing we’ve ever owned—off the lot.

There are companies that exist solely to pimp out such vans. Businesses like Run Away Vans and Vanlife Customs will do anything from building out your entire van to making minor upgrades like custom cabinets or upholstery. There’s a legendary finish carpenter and artist named Scott Smith who works on vans in Mammoth, California. Under his company name, SmithMade Inc., he does advanced buildouts that involve things like installing teak wood floors and water filtration systems. Want to go really fancy? Smith can do a custom ceiling mosaic made of reclaimed wood.

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Such enhancements were not in our budget, however, so we spent months making Pam livable ourselves. We installed solar panels and a fan and built a bed, storage, and a kitchen. The latter had an oven, gas stovetop, refrigerator, and sink. Ben wired electricity. We painted the cabinets olive green and repurposed climbing nuts as handles. The final touch was installing a hangboard, which climbers use to build finger strength, above the door. We didn’t do these upgrades thinking we were pimping out our summer home; rather, we thought they’d make Pam a sweet basecamp for climbing and skiing road trips.

But my monthly paychecks stopped in May. Ben and I and our dog, Cash, moved into Pam in June. With Ben immediately off to do guide training, my first day of van life was a disaster. My debit card got lost and I spilled essential oils—lemongrass and grapefruit—on Pam’s floor. I got no work done because I spent the day driving around, looking for a spot to park that was quiet and shady and also had strong cell service

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and fast Wi-Fi. My quest was unsuccess- Left: Ben and friend Sophie Danison prepare unable to obtain legitimate housing due ful. I didn’t want to go to the library or a dinner: fried rice. Fried rice is a good van life to legal issues.” She says counting can be dinner because it’s easy, cheap, and all the coffee shop because it was hot and Cash ingredients fit nicely in the fridge. difficult as these individuals change locouldn’t stay in the van. The day ended cations sporadically, have hidden hikewith me drinking a bottle of Vinho Right: Ben working on the finishing touches in camps, don’t occupy their camps until Verde and Pam parked for the night in a of the sink installation, as dog Cash very late hours, and/or bounce between supervises. dirt pullout next to Akasha Yoga Studio ranger districts or forests. Cernicek says in East Jackson. That night I slept horthat some are directed to camp in the ribly and woke up stressed. Maybe we’d made a mistake. national forest by their employers.

The BTNF has stay limits because long stays are tough on LIVING IN A van, or in any other vehicle, is illegal within the land. When campers, whether in tents or vans, don’t move Jackson’s city limits and on the public lands that surround town. frequently, the land has little time to recover and regenerate.

People are permitted to camp for an allotted amount of time at Plus, long stays create problems with human waste, trash, and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) campgrounds like Curtis Canyon— campfires. “National Forest land managers are responsible for usually a maximum of fourteen days—and at privately owned conservation and multiuse of the public lands, not housing,” ones like the Virginian RV Park in town.

Cernicek says. “And they are not People can live in their van or in an RV equipped to keep up with demand if they are on private property and have and impacts of residency.” permission to be there. Living in a van Yet people continue to park their on Jackson’s streets is a big no-no, van-homes all over—on town streets, which I learned thanks to a very nice at undeveloped USFS campsites, at policewoman who kicked me out of slightly more developed USFS campPowderhorn Park for being there too grounds, in friends’ driveways, and long. Still, based on reports from even in “no overnight parking zones,” Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF) where they pull in late at night and patrollers, incident reports, and violaleave early. During Ben’s and my tion notices, it’s estimated that between summer of van living we met people three hundred and five hundred people doing all these things. There is an enlived in their vehicles around Jackson tire community of river guides who last summer. live in their vans and cars, some of “We believe residency is on the whom can’t afford rent and others rise,” wrote Mary Cernicek, BTNF’s public affairs officer, in an who can but don’t want to pay it. One day while “mobile ofemail. “The predominant populations are summer transient ficing” in the Home Ranch Welcome Center parking lot, I employees who are unable or unwilling to find or pay for the met Brendan Grady, a kayak guide for Rendezvous River limited housing opportunities available, but also include resi- Sports. As he chilled in his white 1992 Chevy Astro van waitdents who rent their homes and live in campers, and persons ing for friends before going out for an evening paddle, he told

The day ended with me drinking a bottle of Vinho Verde, with Pam parked for the night in a dirt pullout next to Akasha Yoga Studio in East Jackson. That night I slept horribly and woke up stressed.

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me the Snake River Canyon just south of Jackson is one of the most lucrative stretches of river for guides in the country; determined, personable guides can make five hundred dollars a day.

Last summer Sophie Danison, twenty-six, was not making five hundred dollars a day and did not plan on living in her car. She moved to the valley in July to work a contract editing job for Teton Gravity Research (TGR) and had a monthly housing budget of $800. She didn’t need anything fancy—a room in someone’s house would be fine. She started looking online and in local classifieds as soon as she arrived in town.

She met with a few friends of friends who said they might have rooms opening up. Danison says she was told more times than she could count, “You’ll be the first one we call.”

Waiting for a call to come, Danison lived in the TGR parking lot in her silver Honda Element, “Lafonda the Honda.”

With the rear seats removed, Lafonda had a little less than seventy-five square feet of cargo—a.k.a. living—space available. Danison built a bed frame where the rear seats had been. Her inflatable sleeping pad lived on top of the frame; underneath was storage. If she had to live in her car she wanted it to at least be cute, so she lined the inside of Lafonda’s back door with solar lights in the shape of pineapples. She didn’t find a place to rent until October.

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THE HOUSING SHORTAGE and high prices impact local businesses. Hannah Koivu, the general manager of Healthy Being Café & Juicery in Jackson, lived in her Ford Transit cargo van with her boyfriend last summer. She estimates that a quarter to a half of the café’s summer staff was unable to find a place to rent last year. However, she says, “The crew last summer never had any issues finding camping in Curtis [Canyon] or Shadow [Mountain].”

There are rumors that the BTNF will be cracking down on long-term camping this summer, though, and this concerns Koivu. “I honestly don’t know how we will be able to fill our staffing needs with the current housing crisis,” she says.

This past winter, Teton Youth and Family Services hired a new therapist for Red Top Meadows, a residential treatment and therapeutic wilderness program serving adolescent males.

The nonprofit’s executive director, Bruce Burkland, says, “We

have a great person lined up but she is having a difficult time finding somewhere to live.”

Joe Rice, the owner of Blue Collar Restaurant Group, which has Sidewinders, Merry Piglets, Noodle Kitchen, Bubbas BBQ, and Liberty Burger, saw this problem coming years ago and began taking steps to secure housing for his 250 employees.

Blue Collar has helped staffers purchase their own places, bought and remodeled Raver’s Apartments and now rents and sells them to employees at below market price, and gives some employees rent subsides. “We take care of our people and know we are only as good as they are,” Rice says. “They are the key to our success, period.”

Local housing groups, employers, and the government are helping, too. Three years ago, the Teton County Housing Authority (TCHA) finished the first phase of The Grove: twenty affordable, deed-restricted rental apartments. Eighty-seven households, each of which could make no more than 120 percent of the county’s median income, applied for the available units. Critical service providers were given priority but having such a job or volunteer position was not a requirement. Rents are based on occupants’ salaries, and two-bedroom units range from $1,125 to $1,325, utilities included, per month.

This summer, another phase of The Grove will be finished: the first eight of twenty-four planned threebedroom units built by Habitat for Humanity. Local families who make no more than 80 percent of the county’s median income and who have invested five hundred hours of sweat equity in helping build the units can apply to buy these. Also on track to be finished this summer are the Redmond Street Rentals, a partnership between the Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust, the Town of Jackson, and the Jackson/Teton County Affordable Housing Department. Like the first phase of The Grove, these twenty-six units are affordable, restricted, long-term rentals. And last November, St. John’s Medical Center finished construction on a twelve-unit complex of two-bedroom apartments for hospital employees These are rented at market rates—about $1,800 per month.

Last summer, the Jackson Town Council began the process of rezoning some residential neighborhoods with the goal of adding enough density to house 65 percent of the local workforce in town. The most density added will be south of town along the highway corridor.

There have also been some less traditional solutions tried: Last May, the Top: Ben and Cash on their first night in Pam the Ram. It was June in the mountains and it was cold, but we were happy.

Bottom: Julie Ellison cooks dinner in her van’s kitchen while Matt Segal (left) and Hadley Hammer (right) keep her entertained with good conversation. Ellison started living in a van in Boulder, Colorado, in 2015.

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OVER THE SUMMER, Jackson Town Council apBen and I got better at van proved an in-town municilife, although it was alpal “campground” behind ways more challenging the Teton County than life in a traditional Recreation Center. It was home. Mundane things, designed specifically for like going to the bathsummer workers unable to room, showering, doing find a brick-and-mortar laundry, and taking care rental and wanting to sleep of our dog required planin their cars. No tents alning. But then there were lowed. From June 16 to Sophie Danison lived in “Lafonda the Honda,” a Honda Element, for the evenings when we did June 30, a space in the Rec almost four months before finding a place to rent. that cliché #vanlife Center parking lot was thing—parked some$225 per month. Despite where new and beautiful, low demand for this “offseason” price, in the high-season months of July and August opened the back doors, and lay in the bed drinking wine and rents more than doubled—to $465 per month. For their money, watching the sunset. That’s not something that can be done renters could park in designated spaces and had access to a por- in a traditional home. There were evenings when we cooked ta-potty. Campers, who had to show proof they were employed dinner while gazing at the Tetons. There were group camin Teton County, could also use picnic tables in the nearby Home pouts with car-dwelling friends. We made tacos and played Ranch parking lot, but they had to buy monthly passes to the spike ball. Also, we did what we set out to do. We saved almost Rec Center to use its bathrooms with running water and show- seven thousand dollars, which we used to move into a place with some roommates, one of whom is Danison. Ben and I ers. This project’s population peaked at nine occupied spots.

“The Rec Center was a very limited project,” says Jackson aren’t opposed to moving back into our van, but for now mayor Pete Muldoon, who lived in an old camper himself for we—and Danison—smile whenever we look out at our(!) three summers after he lost his home in the Great Recession. driveway and see Lafonda and Pam sitting there empty, their “But I think it worked well for what it was. It got some people purpose downgraded from mobile home to transportation. out of the woods and sleeping in a safe place near where they It’s also pretty nice no longer having to plan my life around figuring out where to pee. JH worked. It’s not a substitute for a home, though.”

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JH Living

looking back

Take a Hike Through History

Cache Creek, a wildland area about one mile from the Town Square, is locals’ favorite place to bike and hike. It’s also a large part of how Jackson came to be.

EVEN WITH THE majestic Tetons looming to the west, it was a diverse, narrow canyon on Jackson Hole’s southeastern edge that called to the valley’s earliest settlers. This canyon had gently rising (compared to the Tetons, at least), 2,000-foot-high side slopes and a creek running down its middle. Wildlife was as abundant as wildflowers, and, because the canyon was close to the growing town of Jackson, locals came here for logs and timber to build their cabins.

For all this canyon had to offer, it was its creek that defined it, a fact revealed in its name. The area is not called Cache 94

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Canyon, as most similar areas would be referred to, but Cache Creek. Early residents developed a relationship with Cache Creek, and the area is still a large part of Jackson life.

Today’s Jacksonites often call

BY JOHN SPINA Cache Creek the “town’s backyard” because of its proximity to downtown and the many miles of mountain biking and hiking trails that wind through the canyon. As important and popular as Cache Creek is to locals now though, in the late 1800s and early 1900s it was the lifeblood of the valley.

Surrounded by high mountain passes and vulnerable to extreme weather events, Jackson Hole remained largely undeveloped during America’s industrial revolution. Until the 1810s and ’20s, its only human visitors were Native Americans, who passed through seasonally on the trail of game. The first white men to arrive were hunters and trappers

Opposite: A man and his team of horses digging out the Cache Creek catch basin in the 1920s.

like Jim Bridger, John Colter, and the valley’s namesake, Davey Jackson. In the 1870s there were some unfruitful attempts at gold and silver mining in the valley. It wasn’t until 1884 that John Carnes and John Holland became the first Anglo-Americans to take up fulltime residence in the valley. They homesteaded at the mouth of Cache Creek. By 1900, the valley’s population was 639. By 1920, it was 1,381. There were many things that drew homesteaders to Jackson Hole, and Cache Creek and its resources helped them stay.

CACHE CREEK OFFERED homesteaders timber for their homes, fresh water, and quick access to wildlife migration corridors for hunting. Eventually, it even provided electricity. In 1918 EC Benson connected two turbines to Cache Creek that could power sixteen nearby homes for three hours each night. His concept proven, Benson convinced the Town Council to let him bring hydroelectric power to the whole town. This was a large and complex project, but Benson was driven. By the last week of January 1921, Benson’s power plant on Flat Creek, a larger creek that flows through the National Elk Refuge before Cache Creek joins it on the northeast side of town, was ready for operation. This power station provided enough electricity for the entire town.

Cache Creek provided another, very different type of power, too: In 1924 John P. Noker opened the Jackson Coal Mine more than four miles up Cache Creek. Because Cache Creek had long been used for timber, was already a popular area for walks, and was a favorite hunting spot of many, trails had been naturally worn in. The “trailhead” back then was one-and-a-half miles west of the current trailhead, near a damn used to supply water to the town. While these unofficial trails served their purpose, they weren’t solid or straight enough to handle the loads coming out of the Jackson Coal Mine. It was so Noker could get his coal to town that the road alongside Cache Creek today was first built. (Before the Jackson Coal Mine, it took twenty days to get coal to the valley, via first the railroad to Victor, Idaho, and

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then a wagon over Teton Pass.) The mine was productive and remained open until the mid-1930s, at which time other sources of fuel became more economical.

1960s, Charlie Peterson got a permit to build a camp three miles up the creek. Welcoming hunters for years, the camp was bought in the 1990s by Joe Albright, who already owned Flat Creek Ranch, a luxury dude ranch tucked onto the banks of that creek THE CLOSING OF the Jackson Coal Mine jibed with locals’ several valleys north of Cache Creek. Albright had no plans to changing ideas about Cache Creek, which in 1905 had been resurrect the Cache Creek camp though, and in 2000 the U.S. included within the boundaries of the Forest Service removed it. newly designated Teton National Forest.

Of course, it wasn’t just for visitors that Not surprisingly, John D. Rockefeller, who locals wanted to protect Cache Creek.

“IT’S EASIER TO DEAL WITH later was responsible for the enlargement There was the fact it was the town’s priTOURISTS THAN CATTLE,” THE of Grand Teton National Park, was instrumary water source. This actually won out RANCHERS ARE SAID TO HAVE mental in the founding of the Teton over recreation in the area: In 1942, the JOKED WITH ONE ANOTHER. National Forest. In his book A Contribution town government restricted public travel to the Heritage of Every American: The and intensive recreation, and halted all Conservation Activities, Rockfeller wrote, mining, forestry, and grazing in Cache “The two reasons which have moved me to consider this proj- Creek to ensure its health. In the 1960s, the road that was built ect are: 1st, The marvelous scenic beauty of the Teton for the Jackson Coal Mine was closed to all vehicles, upstream Mountains and the Lakes at their feet, which are seen at their of what is today’s Cache Creek trailhead. best from the Jackson Hole Valley; and 2nd, The fact that this In the late 1950s, while Cache Creek was on recreation lockvalley is the natural and necessary feeding place for the game down, a group of investors wanted to develop a major ski resort which inhabits Yellowstone Park and the surrounding region.” in Jackson Hole. Despite the restrictions on activity in the area, Locals had begun to think not only about what they could take Cache Creek was the group’s obvious choice—it was on nationfrom the Cache Creek area, but what they could do to preserve al forest land, had a wide array of terrain, and was right next to it, even if their desire to protect the area was not entirely for town. The investors hired two independent consulting firms to environmental reasons. conduct studies about a Cache Creek ski resort; thankfully, both In the 1910s, ’20s, and ’30s, European royalty and wealthy determined the area was not a suitable location. easterners had begun to come to Jackson Hole to see the In 1965, with the idea of Cache Creek Mountain Ski Resort mountains and lakes Rockefeller wrote about, and to hunt the dead and the town’s water finally coming from a well system, area’s populous wildlife. Local ranchers, who had long strug- Teton National Forest Supervisor Bob Safran lifted the recregled to survive the valley’s short growing season and harsh cli- ation restrictions in the area. (The Jackson Coal Mine road was mate, began opening their homes, for a fee, to these visitors. kept closed, however.) Locals were happy to have their backyard Jackson Hole had its first dude ranches. “It’s easier to deal with wilderness playground back and didn’t take the area for granted tourists than cattle,” the ranchers are said to have joked with anymore, as many had in the past. one another. Dude ranches would bring guests on horseback rides into Cache Creek—a “wilderness” area close to town.

A 1930 view of Jackson. Cache Creek is the drainage coming down Cache Creek hunting camps were established, too. In the from the snow-capped peaks in the top center.

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Anna and Burns Ferrin’s place up Cache Creek, c. 1950.

“You think of using the public lands and the national forest for a sustained yield, but using the water resources, getting a few logs to build a house, permitting a coal mine that provided heat for the town, it’s very much of a utilitarian view. But it’s still public lands and making sure you’re not irreparably damaging anything,” says Linda Merigliano, the Bridger-Teton National Forest recreation manager, who has worked in and helped manage Cache Creek for nearly thirty years.

But Cache Creek’s biggest threat was still to come after 1965. Soon after the national gas crisis of 1973, The National Cooperative Refinery Association (also known as CHS, Inc.) proposed a large-scale oil and gas cultural resource survey of the area, extending all the way to Game Creek.

Included in the proposal was a new road and access pad area at the base of the Noker Mine Draw. “This really riled people up in Jackson,” Merigliano says.

“There was a sense that we’d been taking all these resources and developing for so long and enough is enough; there needs to be some balance here.”

With the help of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, the Jackson community rallied and hired lawyer Bob Schuster to represent them against CHS, Inc., which soon abandoned its ambitions for Cache Creek.

Since CHS, Inc. was chased out of town in 1981, Cache Creek has been left alone in terms of large-scale development proposals. But the town’s population is growing, and more and more

residents recreate in the area. While there’s little chance of oil and gas development happening in Cache Creek, hiking, biking, and horseback riding trails are being developed. In 1990 there were about forty miles of trails in Cache Creek. Today there are more than sixty miles. In 1990, approximately ninetyfour people and thirteen dogs recreated in the area on any summer day; by 2017, that number had grown to 185 people (and forty-three dogs).

Still, “It’s a pretty wild place,” Merigliano says. And it’s a slice of living history. JH

Photographer: Scott Peterson

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outdoors

Home Base Although the Grand Teton Climbers’ Ranch is rich in climbing history (and personalities), you don’t need to be a climber to stay there.

BY GERALDINE STAL

J.D. Disney and Jess McMillan hang out on top of a boulder overlooking the American Alpine Club’s Grand Teton Climbers’ Ranch.

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I MADE A fool of myself. Although I didn’t know it at the time. At the time—late last summer—I was sitting at a communal table beneath the cook shelter at the American Alpine Club’s (AAC) Grand Teton Climbers’ Ranch three miles south of Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park (GTNP), happily chatting with three long-time climbers. Every once in a while, I asked a question, but their stories and comments needed no prompting. They talked about routes; about hanging with some of the finest alpinists of the 1960s and ’70s, like Royal Robbins (who one of the three watched in a push-up contest) and Yvon Chouinard, who, in addition to founding the clothing company Patagonia, evidently has huge calves; about watching the wind pull the Exum Quonset hut on the Grand Teton’s Lower Saddle

GREG VON DOERSTEN

JH Living

from its moorings and blowing it away; about hitchhiking with Glen Exum; about getting thrown out of the Jenny Lake Campground and/or the Climbers’ Ranch. The three men were like a guidebook come to life, with added firsthand accounts of climbing and hanging out with some of the sport’s legends.

It was later, after we all dispersed to our cabins—ten dorm-style, co-ed cabins, each with between four and six bunks, are found at the Climbers’ Ranch—that someone told me it was Steve Arsenault, Bob Horton, and Alan Nagel that I’d been visiting with. I got their first names while we chatted, but left out were their last names and climbing resumes. “Steve and Bob climbed hard,” my bunkmate said. Back home two days later, looking in my guidebook

“THE FIRST VALUE THE CLIMBERS’ RANCH HAS FOR ANYONE, WHETHER THEY’RE A WORLD-CLASS CLIMBER OR A DUFFER LIKE MYSELF, IS THE PRESENCE OF A COMMUNITY OF PEOPLE WHO LOVE THE MOUNTAINS AND EXPRESS THAT LOVE THROUGH CLIMBING. OTHER THAN CAMP 4 IN YOSEMITE, THE GRAND TETON CLIMBERS’ RANCH IS THE ONLY SUCH PLACE INSIDE A NATIONAL PARK IN THE COUNTRY.”

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WILD by NATURE GALLERY

– BILL FETTERHOFF, CHAIRMAN OF THE AAC’S GRAND TETON CLIMBERS’ RANCH

to the Wind River Mountains, I saw that Arsenault put up several terribly difficult first ascents on Raid and Ambush peaks in the East Fork Valley. Google informed me that he had established too many new routes to count in New England’s Mount Washington Valley, near his home. Horton has been climbing in the Tetons for almost fifty years and made plenty of his own first ascents.

Nagel, who during our conversation described himself as “a duffer” in terms of climbing skills, never attained the technical level of Arsenault or Horton. But, over the last ten years he’s turned the Climbers’ Ranch library into one of the finest collections of mountaineering and climbing literature in the country and, in doing so,

Photography by Henry H. Holdsworth | Winter Aspens

95 West Deloney Avenue | Behind the Wort Hotel 307.733.8877 | www.wildbynaturegallery.com SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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seems to have memorized each book in it, especially the GRAND TETON CLIMBERS’ RANCH opened in 1970 ones having to do with the Tetons. When two twenty- under a special use permit granted by the National Park somethings preparing themselves dinner under the cook Service (NPS). It was meant to be the successor to the shelter, who had just returned that afternoon from their Jenny Lake climbers’ camp, which had been used by Teton first time climbing the Grand Teton, asked about “the giant climbers from the 1950s until it was closed in 1966 beblack column” in the middle of the East Face of the Middle cause of friction between climbers and Park Service perTeton, Nagel launched into details of the Black Dike Route, sonnel. In 1968 in Pasadena, California, over Easter rated at a relatively easy 5.4. Then Horton, who has a Ph.D. Sunday dinner, friends Nick Clinch, a lawyer, mountaineer, and then president of the American Alpine Club in geology, talked about how it was formed.

Replaying the conversation after learning who I’d been (AAC), and Horace Albright, a former head of the NPS, talking to, I was embarrassed that I asked Arsenault if he discussed the need for there to be a campground for had climbed Pingora, a classic in the Winds—and one that, climbers in Grand Teton National Park. Mountaineers in his day, he could have done blindfolded with a hand tied from across the country came to the range to hone and behind his back. But, by the time I curled into my sleeping test their skills on the Tetons’ solid, steep granite.

That summer, Clinch and Albright met in the park to bag on a top bunk in the Ortenburger North cabin, my embarrassment was replaced by wonder. I talked to these men look at potential sites, focusing on old dude ranches within for more than one hour, and, in a time when it seems every- the park’s boundaries. The top candidates were the former one spews about how awesome they are (whether they are Double Diamond Ranch and the Half Moon Ranch. Both or not), they never once mentioned what amazing climbers were dilapidated and hadn’t been used for several years. they were. Instead, they chatted with me, and the several The Double Diamond, which first opened in 1924, was selected because the central peaks of other youngish stragglers beneath the the range—the Grand, Middle, and cook shelter, like we were their equals.

South Tetons, along with Teewinot And that’s the point, says Bill “IF IT WASN’T FOR NICK Mountain, Nez Perce Peak, and Fetterhoff, chairman of the AAC CLINCH, WE WOULDN’T HAVE Mount Owen—could be approached Grand Teton Climbers’ Ranch comTHE CLIMBERS’ RANCH TODAY.” on trails directly from the ranch. mittee since 2007.

The Climbers’ Ranch has ten dorm-style historic log cabins and a communal cook shelter, shown here.

AMERICAN ALPINE CLUB

– ROBERT HYMAN, CLIMBER AND MEMBER OF THE CLIMBERS’ RANCH COMMITTEE

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“If it wasn’t for Nick Clinch, we wouldn’t have the Climbers’ Ranch today,” says Robert Hyman, a Washington D.C.-based climber and attorney who marked his twenty-seventh consecutive summer at the ranch last year. While Clinch secured the property, it was climbers and the first ranch manager, Dave Dornan, who made it habitable. “It was in very bad shape,” Fetterhoff says.

“Yvon Chouinard [who founded Patagonia in 1973] lived there for the first two summers, working on repairing much of the plumbing. Many of the people who stayed there at the time helped out.”

FETTERHOFF SAYS HE AND THE AAC RECOGNIZE THE FUNDAMENTAL OFFERING OF THE PHYSICAL PLACE: “A CHEAP BUNK, A FREE SHOWER WITH YOUR BUNK, AND AN UNBEATABLE LOCATION WITH ACCESS TO THE HIGH PEAKS.”

In 1985 the Taggart Lake/Beaver Creek fire destroyed about half of the ranch’s buildings. In the office today, you can see what looks like an abstract metal sculpture hanging on the wall just before the door opening into the ranch manager’s kitchen. These are melted climbing nuts found after the fire had torn through the ranch.

After Dornan left as ranch manager—there has always been a manager and an assistant manager who live on site—Rick Liu took over. He was the manager when the fire came through.

Next came Ruth Valsing, who was manager for ten years and retired to focus on teaching elementary school. She was followed by Paul Nash, who preceded Drew Birnbaum, who was followed by several managers who only lasted one season each. Bob Baribeau, who first visited the ranch in 1973, has been manager since 2016.

WHILE MANAGERS HAVE come and gone and the 1985 fire altered the landscape—“Before the fire, the whole ranch was in the woods,” Horton says—little

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Top: Jess McMillan and J.D. Disney hanging out on Cabin 5’s front porch. The ranch offers cheap bunks and free showers, with a discount for AAC members.

GREG VON DOERSTEN

GREG VON DOERSTEN

Bottom: The Climbers’ Ranch library has a collection of more than six hundred books and, through the summer, hosts slideshows and talks open to everyone.

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else about the ranch has changed. And that’s the AAC’s goal. “I’ve made it my business to make sure it doesn’t [change],” Fetterhoff says. “My mission is to preserve its core values. The first value the Climbers’ Ranch has for anyone, whether they’re a world-class climber or a duffer like myself, is the presence of a community of people who love the mountains and express that love through climbing. Other than Camp 4 in Yosemite, the Grand Teton Climbers’ Ranch is the only such place inside a national park in the country.”

Fetterhoff says he and the AAC recognize the fundamental offering of the physical place: “a cheap bunk, a free shower with your bunk, and an unbeatable location with access to the high peaks.” That was the reason I stayed there. But, while these are indeed special, especially the location, “what climbers find here is a ready-made community of other like-minded people,” Fetterhoff says, “for whom, and with whom, they may either share the immediate experience of the mountains or they may acquire a lot of knowledge from other climbers. The cook shelter is like a classroom, and every night classes in advanced mountaineering are informally taught, cheerfully taught, and randomly taught.”

And, as I learned firsthand, also humbly taught. After I told Arsenault the East Fork Valley was one of the few major areas in the Winds I had yet to explore, he shared his favorite route into it.

(Most of the first ascents he did were in the East Fork Valley.) “It’s about sixteen miles of hiking to get there and there are two ways,” he said. “But go via Boulder Lake. It’s less up and down.”

Fetterhoff tells a story about Alex Lowe, an Exum Guide and world-class mountaineer who was known as “The

Annually before it officially opens, the Climbers’ Ranch hosts Work Week, during which dozens of volunteers get the ranch ready for the summer season.

JOEL MIKLE

Mutant” for his climbing skills and strength until his death in 1999 at age forty in an avalanche on Tibet’s Shishapangma, one of only fourteen peaks in the world higher than 8,000 meters. “He lived in Cabin 3 at least one summer,” Fetterhoff says. “He wandered over to the cook shelter one night and listened as people talked about what they had done that day. He noticed that one person was being quiet and asked him what he had done that day. The guy responded, ‘I didn’t do anything, I just took a hike up to Amphitheater Lake.’ But Alex was like, ‘Wow, what a great day! What an experience!’ He knit that guy into the community. Over the

years I’ve always noticed that the creation of a welcoming atmosphere is sort of a heritage of the place and [one that] has been carefully preserved.”

You do not need to be a climber or member of the AAC to stay at the Climbers’ Ranch, although the latter do get nightly discounts. JH

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Your local guide to: GETTING OUT BODY & SOUL NIGHTLIFE DINING ART SCENE EXPLORING JACKSON UPCOMING EVENTS

BRADLY J. BONER

SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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ASHLEY WILKERSON

getting out

Kids’ Day Out We’ve designed the perfect day for you and your family.

BY JOOHEE MUROMCEW

A soak in the natural hot springs pool along Granite Creek is a perfect getaway from the heat, hustle, and bustle of summer.

GROWING UP IN Jackson Hole has been the greatest gift to our four kids. A ho-hum summer afternoon spent riding bikes to a friend’s house, taking a dip in a secret swimming hole on the Snake River, and eating grilled hot dogs in the glory of the Tetons would amount to a memorable vacation day for most visitors to our corner of paradise. When my editor asked for a “Kids’ Day Out” itinerary, my mind went on autopilot, and I immediately had a week’s worth of ideas to share.

Narrowing it all down to one realistically doable day (okay, it’s probably realistic only for Kelly Ripa-league super parents) proved a challenge. My goal was to keep it fun, of course, but also to give some idea of what locals enjoy, throw in a splurge or two, and encompass both the uncontainable glee of a six-year-old and the adventurous appetites of a sixteen-year-old. Parents, try to keep up—there’s wine at the end!

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Top: All ages agree the daily breakfast specials at Sweet Cheeks Meats are delicious.

Bottom: A family descends the trail from Inspiration Point on the west side of Jenny Lake.

BRADLY J. BONER

8 a.m. (ish) Get up early because there is nothing more glorious than a crisp summer morning in the Tetons. Hot air balloons dot the skyline, wild animals stir among the wildflowers, and traffic is light. Grab some hot breakfast sandwiches at Sweet Cheeks Meats on Scott Lane.

They offer just one type of sandwich daily—it’s different every morning and always five dollars. Whatever the day’s special, it’ll be delicious. (You know it’s going to be a really good day if there’s country sausage gravy on the side.)

9 a.m. (ish) Fortified, head out to Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park for a quiet morning hike. The 7.1-mile loop around the glassy, scenic lake is easy enough for little legs, but with enough variation in terrain to keep it lively for teens and adults. Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point are two particularly pretty spots to enjoy a breather. And, just in case legs are getting tired, about one-third of the way around (going clockwise), you can take a water shuttle back to the start. If you’re more into biking than hiking, rent bikes at Dornan’s, which was your first right after you turned off Highway 89 at Moose Junction. There’s a bike pathway from Dornan’s to Jenny Lake, about six miles in length (one-way). Don’t worry, the only hill is the one just inside the park entrance. After that it’s mostly flat. Take the pathway from Moose in the opposite direction of Jenny Lake and thirteen miles later you’ll be at the Jackson Town Square.

BRADLY J. BONER

12 p.m.

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Whether heading back toward town via bike or car, stop by Creekside Market & Deli, just beyond the Dairy Queen, for picnic supplies. Their deli sandwiches are a local go-to, though I cannot decide which is better—the hot Reuben or the BLT. Picnic lunch in hand, get out of town. Literally. Drive through Jackson on Cache Street and Broadway, continue southeast on U.S. 189/191 for twenty-plus miles, and then head northeast on gravel Granite Creek Road for about ten miles. Regular passenger cars can handle the dirt road, and a soak in the hot springs makes the dust and bumps (yee-haw!) totally worth it.

Kids seven and up can climb and zip through the wooded canopy at the Treetop Adventure at Snow King Mountain Resort.

BRADLY J. BONER

1 p.m.

At the end of Granite Creek Road, just past stunning Granite Creek Falls, the Granite Hot Springs Pool is a timeless throwback to wholesome fun in the Mountain West. Amenities are simple—no-frills changing rooms, outdoor bathrooms, and picnic tables. No alcohol is allowed, and the scene is always family-friendly. The nominal pool fee is cash-only.

(On one visit when I forgot my wallet, the very kind pool attendant told me to mail in the entrance fee when I remembered; seriously, people here are really nice.) Have a swim in the warm to hot-ish water, enjoy your BLTs (or Reubens) with chips and a soda, and take a short snooze in the sun because you’re going to need your energy.

4 p.m.

Back in town, head to Treetop Adventure at Snow King Mountain Resort. You could spend an entire day at the King between Treetop Adventure and the resort’s Cowboy Coaster (like a gravity-powered roller coaster), mini-golf, and Amaze’n Maze, and the nearby bouldering park. For your entire family,

however, Treetop Adventure (“Think Swiss Family Robinson meets X-Games!”) offers ropes/challenge courses and zip lines that provide a huge bang for your buck and your time. Options vary from the Flying Squirrels Course for kids seven and up— where parents, standing on the ground below, can watch their little ones—to progressively more challenging courses.

MONOgrAMMiNg & cusTOM OrdErs AvAiLAbLE.

H E L E N A ,

M O N T A N A

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get free weekly tips to help you nourish yourself

Visit or call!

Children under 16 must be chaperoned by an adult, and there are some height requirements.

Private guides are available for those who want more advanced instruction or those who are afraid of heights (me!). If you prefer attaining your higher elevations from a seated position, take the scenic chairlift to the top of Snow King Mountain. It’s not as scream-inducing as Treetop Adventure’s highest elements, but you are rewarded with beautiful views of our wonderful town and points beyond, including the National Elk Refuge.

7 p.m.

Stop by the Yippy I-O Candy Co. store on Town Square, because—well, because you’re on vacation, and your kids want candy. Nibble on sweets and caramel popcorn while your teen takes a selfie by the mounted bison in front of Jackson Mercantile. Marvel at the giant amethyst geode in the window of By Nature Gallery, where your kids can buy cool souvenirs like Amazonite pebbles and fossilized shark teeth. (Apologies in advance for the crying that starts when you won’t buy them the cave bear skull.)

8 p.m.

INTO

E STON W O L YEL

End your day at Calico Bar & Restaurant on Teton Village Road, an ideal place to collapse with a glass of wine and unpretentious pizza and pasta fare. Your kids—who are still not tired— will merrily join in a game of Frisbee, tag, or soccer on the expansive green lawn while you order up a large Ski Bum (pesto, spinach, Canadian bacon, artichoke hearts, olives, fresh tomatoes, pine nuts, and Parmesan) and a big glass of Chianti. Enjoy the sunset, pull on a sweater, and fantasize about moving your family here. JH

Calico Bar & Restaurant’s outdoor deck is adjacent to a large fenced yard so kids can play while parents eat (and drink).

OPEN DAILY | JUNE 15 – SEPT. 15

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BRADLY J. BONER

zipline

www.ZipSG.com | 307–587–3125 348 North Fork Highway, Cody, WY

RYAN DORGAN

The Jackson Hole Children’s Museum offers endless creative options for little ones to explore and play.

Rainy Day A MIGHTY THUNDER-and-lightning storm can be as beautiful and awe-inspiring as a sunset in Jackson Hole, but it can leave visiting parents scrambling to suddenly fill an afternoon. Don’t worry, storms tend to pass quickly, but in the meantime, here are some rainy day ideas to keep your kids occupied and off their smart phones: Jackson Hole Children’s Museum is especially good for younger children, who can spend hours at the magnet wall, building with Legos, painting in the Creativity Studio, playing grocery store, or getting to know the resident frog. 307/733-3996; 174 N. King St.; jhchildrensmuseum.org Teton County Recreation Center has an Olympic-size pool, hot tubs, a toddler water slide, and a big kid water slide. The pool, along with basketball courts, party space, and organized classes are open to the public. 307/733-5056; 155 E. Gill Ave.; tetonparksandrec.org

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Hole Bowl in the Powderhorn Mall is a mecca for indoor fun, especially if you must entertain a range of ages. Spend some time bowling and playing arcade games, shuffleboard, and pool, all while enjoying delicious food from the Pinsetter Restaurant. Parents will appreciate the fresh, clean bowling shoes for rent.

307/201-5426; 980 W. Broadway Ave.; holebowljh.com All generations treasure the Teton County Library. The children’s wing has books (duh!), but also lots of comfy places to read, and small, moderately noise-contained rooms for watching movies, playing video games, or reading some more. The children’s wing librarians are awesome, knowledgeable people who love kids and books.

307/733-2164; 125 Virginian Ln.; tclib.org The National Museum of Wildlife Art, boasting an impressive collection of important works of wildlife and Western art, also offers a cozy children’s play area and gallery with costumes, art tables, and interactive exhibits. Stay for lunch at Palate and sample the bison gyro or the wild game stew. The kids’ menu is healthy and house made, and the views outside are a masterpiece of their own. 307/733-5771; 2820 Rungius Rd.; wildlifeart.org

buildwiththegrain.com 307.576.5760 SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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JH

getting out

Jackson Hole’s ‘Other’ Angling Don’t be embarrassed to try spin fishing. Casting and jigging for trout can be top-notch in the valley’s lakes.

BY MIKE KOSHMRL // PHOTOGRAPHY BY RYAN DORGAN

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It’s about

connections...

Opposite: An angler casts in pursuit of lake trout at the mouth of Leigh Canyon in Grand Teton National Park (GTNP). Five species of trout call GTNP home, though the Snake River cutthroat trout is the only native trout species in the park’s waters.

Below: The author pulls a hook from the mouth of a lake trout while spin fishing from a canoe on Leigh Lake. The trip requires an overland portage from String Lake.

THIS VALLEY, LIKE MUCH OF THE MOUNTAIN WEST, IS A PLACE WHERE FLY FISHING IS KING, AND THERE’S A CLEAR STIGMA ASSOCIATED WITH USING CONVENTIONAL FISHING GEAR.

LURES AREN’T ILLEGAL in Jackson Hole, but sometimes it damn near feels like it. This valley, like much of the Mountain West, is a place where fly fishing is king, and there’s a clear stigma associated with using conventional fishing gear. Anglers come here to huck dry flies from 5-weight rods in pursuit of the Snake River’s prized fine-spotted cutthroat trout, among other species and other rivers and creeks. Throwing pieces of metal from a spinning rod into standing water has less allure. I know this from first-hand experience.

As a fishing-obsessed kiddo growing up in Minnesota, I spent almost every buck I had on spinfishing gear. Arriving out West—in Colorado—a decade ago, I picked up a packable Reddington fly rod and the lake fishing obsession of my youth was forgotten. Nothing changed when I got to Jackson Hole.

My first fly-fishing outing here was a foolish and fruitless late-May attempt at pulling a cutthroat out of a swollen and turbid Fall Creek. Now I know I should have been at Jackson Lake with a spin-fishing setup. But back then

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Steve Duerr Top-Producing agent for Jackson Hole Real Estate Associates in 2017

Associate broker Steve Duerr topped all other agents in sales volume last year at JHREA • Steve Duerr and Jackson Hole Real Estate Associates achieved leading status for ranch brokerages in the Rocky Mountain West.

• 20 years real estate experience.

• 35 years practicing law in Jackson Hole.

• Served on the Teton County Planning Commission; land-use master plan.

• Executive director of the JH Chamber of Commerce and Murie Center in GTNP. • Serving in his 28th year as General Counsel for the regional electric & gas cooperative utility.

• Pioneered the Jackson Hole Power of Place brand, seeking to strike the right balance between commerce and conservation, people and wildlife.

• Received the JH Chamber’s Power of Place Award for his leadership in business and conservation in Jackson Hole and Wyoming.

steveduerr@jhrea.com 307.699.4920 www.steveduerr.com

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IT TOOK FOUR YEARS OF LIVING HERE BEFORE

I didn’t have that knowledge, I PICKED UP THE CABELA RODS, SHIMANO much less the confidence to stand up to the local peer SPINNING REELS, AND CASTING SPOONS I HAD pressure that almost says fly SO LOVED AND USED IN MY YOUTH. IT TOOK fishing is the only type of ONE DAY OF SPIN CASTING TO EXTINGUISH MY fishing.

ADULTHOOD INDIFFERENCE TO THE SPORT. It took four years of living here before I picked up the Cabela rods, Shimano spinning reels, and casting spoons I had so into the lake again and again until the loved and used in my youth. It took one repetition produced a modest-size mackday of spin casting to extinguish my inaw, then another, and another. Pun inadulthood indifference to the sport. It tended, I was re-hooked.

In the spring and fall, using little was a spring day and I went to Phelps Lake in Grand Teton National Park, a lake more than a canoe or waders and the that I knew was home to lake trout, a.k.a. most basic fishing gear, I’ve grown fond mackinaw. This species generally inhabits of pursuing lake trout in places like deep waters but can be found and caught Phelps, Jackson, and Jenny lakes, as well in the shallows shortly after ice-off, and as destinations farther afield. again in the fall. Strolling Phelps Lake’s shoreline in solitude while wading its icy ROB GIPSON, REGIONAL fisheries waters, I plunked a Kastmaster spoon supervisor for the Wyoming Game and

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Local anglers joke there are likely a lot of closeted spin fisherman here, because peer pressure favors fly fishing.

Fish Department, had the opposite experience of mine: He arrived in Jackson Hole exclusively a spin fisherman and learned and eased his way into fly fishing. He wasn’t particularly vocal about his preference for spin casting, joking that maybe spin fishermen deserve their own support group. “I think a lot of people are closeted spin anglers,” he says. “Especially when I first moved here and didn’t know anything about fly fishing, I felt like people were judging. No one has ever said anything to me, but it was [my] perception.”

Although fly fishing from a driftboat now competes with spin casting for Gipson’s time, he still gets out with his spinning rod on excursions he says are sometimes two parts getting there and

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Fly fishing may be king across much of the Mountain West, but lures dropped in Jackson Hole’s deep lakes can tempt some of the valley’s biggest fish.

one part fishing. “One of my favorite things to do has always been to fish small wilderness lakes,” he says. “Spin fishing [on these] can be very productive, I think because they are smaller and the fish can’t go deep like in a big lake like Jackson Lake or Jenny.”

Lake trout, which are native to the Great Lakes and much of Canada, typically head for the depths once larger lakes thermally stratify—meaning when warmer water stacks up on top of colder layers. This happens a couple of weeks to a couple of months after ice-off, depending on weather. Once it does, the spin fishing gets difficult, at best, without a 116

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

bigger boat and technical gear that can get your lure down deep. Big lake cutthroat head deeper as well, but to a lesser degree. Summer visitors who lack flyfishing chops, but are versed with a spinning reel, can find success by seeking out flowing water. “The Snake can be really good,” Gipson says. (Spin fishing is legal on all Jackson Hole waters with one exception: Flat Creek’s meadow section on the National Elk Refuge.)

IN TERMS OF gear, what works in Jackson Hole is what works in other places. Some of Gipson’s favorite lures include Rooster Tail and Panther Martin

A Zany Western Musical Comedy June 1st-Oct. 6th

spinners and Jake’s Li’l Jake lures. There are also custom-made lures for local waters. Ron Jacobson, who grew up seven miles from Jackson Lake, is the owner and creator of JacobsonBaits, which makes tube jigs that can be found in the

aisles of Stone Drug, where he’s worked for twenty years. Stop by and Jacobson will point you in the right direction, and help you pick out gear. But go midsummer looking to spin fish and he’ll be blunt: “I’d tell [you] to go get a guide.” JH

NUTS & BOLTS ANY TYPE OF angling in Jackson Hole (and the rest of Wyoming) requires a state fishing license (wgfd.wyo.gov). For nonresidents it’s $102 (annual license) or $14 (daily). Residents pay $27 annually or $6 a day. All annual licenses also require a $12.50 conservation stamp. Starting from scratch, need gear, or want a guide? Signal Mountain Lodge offers guided fishing trips on Jackson Lake from May 19 to September 16. Rates are $115 an hour with a two-hour minimum, or $312 for a half day.

307/543-2831, signalmountainlodge.com SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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JH

getting out

Getting High Mountain summits for all fitness levels

BY GERALDINE STAL

HUNDREDS OF LADYBUGS crawl on the decides that lunching on the summit of a rocks and boulders beneath my feet. Thousands mountain where views stretch into three states flit about in the air in front of me, an ultrama- and where, on every spot not covered by a boulrine sky upping the degree of clarity of the pen- der, unexpected clumps of cheerful, dime-sized cil eraser-size bugs’ vermilion wings. Several yellow and purple flowers aren’t amazing enough on their own? dozen ladybugs are on me— Since this day on the on my shorts, on my bare summit of 11,302-foot arms, and, a companion tells IF THIS WERE A SWARM OF Static Peak, situated between me, in my hair. If this were a ANY INSECT OTHER THAN A Death and Avalanche canswarm of any insect other LADYBUG, I’D BE RUNNING yons south of the highest than a ladybug, I’d be freakpeaks in Grand Teton ing out; I’d be running down DOWN THE HUMMOCKY National Park, I have not the hummocky summit SUMMIT BLOCK OF STATIC again seen a ladybug swarm. block of Static Peak before PEAK BEFORE ENJOYING I have stood on dozens and enjoying the wondrous THE WONDROUS VIEWS INTO dozens of other summits views, the feeling of accomplishment that comes from and even returned to Static THREE STATES. getting to the top of somelooking for them. Still, even thing, and the satisfaction of sans ladybugs, each summit resting after several hours of strenuous exercise. has been exhilarating and magical.

And if the bugs weren’t ladybugs, I wouldn’t While it is the valley’s highest summits— stay on top long enough to enjoy my lunch of read: most difficult and demanding to get to— an almond butter/Nutella/banana sandwich. that get the glory, here are five summits that, alBut they are ladybugs, so giddily and in awe though easier to attain than the Grand Teton, I find a seat on one of the summit’s flatter boul- can be just as exciting. Two you can even reach ders. And then I enjoy all of the above, and also by a lift or tram. We’ve given each a difficulty enjoy being in the middle of a swarm of lady- rating that is relative only to these five advenbugs. Who am I to disagree when the universe tures. All distances given are round-trip.

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STATIC PEAK Distance: 16 miles and 4,000ish vertical feet Difficulty: 10 Trailhead: Death Canyon, in Grand Teton National Park Cost: A pass to GTNP, good for a week, is $35 per vehicle.

DINA MISHEV

The trail to Static Peak is well-trod and takes you into the heart of the Tetons, passing wildflowers, small waterfalls, and a raging creek fed by snowmelt. You might even see moose or bears along the way. But on this hike, more than others, it’s important to remember that when you reach the summit, you’re only halfway done. While Static Peak is among the easternmost of the Tetons, the trail to it is circuitous, requiring you to hike west and around neighboring peaks’ backsides before switchbacking up to a saddle 800 feet below the summit. While technically no trail leads from this saddle to the top, the terrain is easy as far as offtrail travel goes, and there is a faint unofficial trail to follow.

Cool things to look for from the summit include Timberline Lake, just to the north; Jackson Lake, which you can see the entire length of; and the Wind River Mountains, home to the state’s highest peaks and biggest glaciers and about fifty miles to the east-southeast as the crow flies.

Timberline Lake, at 10,312 feet above sea level, is often covered by ice into August. Admire it and then watch sail and power boats zipping around Jackson Lake.

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RENDEZVOUS MOUNTAIN

Distance: 0 to 2.4 miles with 1,600 feet of vertical gain Difficulty: 1 (take the scenic chairlift) or 3 (hike one way and take the lift the other way) or 5 (hike up and down) Trailhead: Snow King Mountain Cost: Chairlift is $20; $15 for those 65 and up or 6–12 years old The trail up Snow King Mountain isn’t just a great workout that includes views down onto the Town of Jackson, but it’s also the heart of the valley’s summer social scene. Hundreds of locals hike up the “Town Hill” every day, often in pairs or small groups of friends. If you’re looking to experience some local flavor, this is the hike for you. It’s also the hike for you if you don’t want to actually hike but do want to stand on a summit. Daily, a double chairlift carries people from the base area to the mountain’s 7,808-foot summit.

From the top, Jackson is revealed as the most perfectly situated town ever. Its neat grid of tree-lined streets extend right up to the southern boundary of the National Elk Refuge. (FYI, elk don’t live on this refuge in the summer; in winter, however, as many as 8,000 come down from the mountains to feed.) From the Elk Refuge, it’s an open landscape all the way to the Tetons, which you can see from a viewing platform a couple of steps from the top of the chairlift. Also evident from this summit are: 1. How Jackson Hole really is a hole, surrounded by mountains, and 2. There are so many more mountains than you can see from the valley floor. Look south and east from Snow King’s summit and range after range stretch into the distance.

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PRICE CHAMBERS

SNOW KING

RYAN DORGAN

Distance: 0 to 15.6 miles; 4,167 vertical feet Difficulty: 1 (take the JHMR tram) or 7 (hike one way and take the tram the other way) or 9 (hike up and down) Trailhead: Teton Village Cost: Tram tickets from $31 (online, jacksonhole.com) Rendezvous Mountain’s 10,450-foot summit is the most impressive one in the area you can get to without much walking. Few things but lichens, the hardiest of wildflowers, and picas, a tiny member of the rabbit family that has trouble surviving when temperatures exceed 76 degrees Fahrenheit, live here, where even in July and August it could snow. The Jackson Hole Mountain Resort tram offers an incredible opportunity to experience a full-on high alpine environment for all ages and fitness levels. On clear days you can see into three states and to the Wind River Mountains. Also, there’s a cozy hut at the top, Corbet’s Cabin, that serves made-to-order waffles, the doughy goodness of which you can smell almost as soon as you exit the tram. If you’re doing okay with the thin air up here, a “lollipop” trail, where the start and the finish sections are the same but there’s a loop in the middle, leads from the summit down into wildflower-rich Rock Springs Bowl. (Remember you’ll have to walk back up at the end!)

It’s also possible to take the tram one way and hike the Summit Trail the other. While taking the tram up and hiking down is easier on the lungs, expect your knees and quads to be sore the next day or two if you do this. Walking downhill for that long, and at steep grades, isn’t something you can easily train for. If you hike up, the tram ride down is free.

TAYLOR MOUNTAIN Distance: 8.3 miles, climbing about 3,200 vertical feet Difficulty: 7 Trailhead: Coal Creek, on the west side of Teton Pass, just before you leave Wyoming and enter Idaho Cost: Free This challenging-but-doable-for-most-people hike at the southern end of the Tetons starts by winding alongside a genuine babbling brook, Coal Creek, and then passes meadows of wildflowers and stands of ancient whitebark pine trees before reaching an impressive high alpine ridge and boulder-strewn, 10,351-foot summit. (A note on whitebark pines: It is entirely possible to walk past these without realizing how amazing they are. You’ll likely notice how gnarled they are, but you likely won’t know that this species can only grow and thrive in windy areas at high elevations. Also, they’re old—some of the whitebarks on Taylor are between 500 and 1,000 years old. That “baby” whitebark about the height of your hip? It’s already around a century old.)

From the summit, which you’ll likely have to yourself, the 360-degree views take in six mountain ranges. Close by is Rendezvous Peak (not to be confused with Rendezvous Mountain, which is where the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort tram goes). In the far distance, the Grand Teton’s East Ridge and the wispy snowfields beneath its 13,775-foot summit look impossibly delicate. To the right of the Grand Teton, you can see how Teewinot Mountain, which means “many pinnacles” in the Shoshone language, got its name.

BRADLY J. BONER

TABLE MOUNTAIN Distance: 13.2 miles, climbing 4,100 vertical feet Difficulty: 10 Trailhead: Teton Canyon, off Ski Hill Road in Teton Valley, on the west side of Teton Pass Cost: Free Table Mountain has some of the best views of any summit in the area—they encompass 360 degrees and include the Grand, Middle, and South Tetons, along with Alaska Basin, Hurricane Pass, and Cascade Canyon. While Table Mountain, 11,106-feet high and straddling the Jedediah Smith Wilderness and Grand Teton National Park, is rated a “10,” it is the easiest hike that gets you to a summit in the heart of the Tetons.

(Teewinot Mountain and the South and Middle Tetons are technically “hikes,” but only supremely fit hikers comfortable traveling without a trail in difficult terrain should attempt them.)

Table Mountain is an ambitious but reachable goal for ordinary hikers acclimatized to the area’s elevation and carrying plenty of food, water, and layers of clothing. If you fall into this category, it could be the most beautiful hike of your life. But don’t expect to have the summit to yourself. Do fill up your water bottles in the lush meadows of wildflowers before the trail switchbacks up to the mountain’s 1.7-mile summit ridge. On this ridge water is in as short supply as shade. The ridge ends in a loose, 300-foot-tall mound of pebbles and broken boulders. Navigate this section, which is the steepest part of the hike, and you’ve gained the summit. JH TRAVIS GARNER

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body & soul

Sleep On It

Sleep your way to better physical and mental health and performance.

BY DINA MISHEV

FOR MANY YEARS my attitude toward sleep was, “You can sleep when you’re dead.”

Unfortunately for my mom, I hadn’t yet adopted this thinking when I was in junior high school and high school and had a daily paper route that promised delivery of papers by 6:30 a.m. My mom, being the wonderful mom she is, got up thirty minutes earlier than she already had to for her job at the National Security Agency, so I could sleep thirty minutes more. She’d do all the assembling of the papers and get THE NEW YORK TIMES them loaded onto my official paper cart. I’d REPORTED THAT FOUR OUT OF then come bobbing down the driveway, FIVE PEOPLE SAY THEY SUFFER bleary-eyed and zombie-like, and get to FROM SLEEP PROBLEMS AT work delivering the day’s news to the neighLEAST ONCE A WEEK AND WAKE borhood, all the time wishing I was still in bed.

UP FEELING EXHAUSTED. ALSO It was shortly after moving to Jackson REPORTED: PEOPLE WHO SLEEP in my early twenties that I adopted the I’llSEVEN HOURS A NIGHT ARE sleep-when-I’m-dead mentality. And I kept HEALTHIER AND LIVE LONGER true to it for almost two decades—working THAN THOSE WHO SLEEP LESS more than sixty hours a week to get my THAN SEVEN HOURS A NIGHT. writing career off the ground, training for and doing 24-hour endurance races and ultramarathons, volunteering as an EMT and on Teton County Search & Rescue, and generally saying “yes” to anything that sounded remotely interesting. I, like so many other Jacksonites, made the time for all of this by sleeping less. During this time, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, depression, and stage III breast cancer. Also, I got about a half dozen colds every winter.

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A REPORT BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF MENTAL HEALTH FOUND DEPRESSION RATES WERE FORTY TIMES HIGHER FOR PATIENTS WITH INSOMNIA THAN THOSE WITHOUT SLEEP PROBLEMS. MENTAL HEALTH EXPERTS INCREASINGLY VIEW DEPRESSION OR ANXIETY AS AN EFFECT, RATHER THAN A CAUSE, OF INSOMNIA.

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Developing Good Sleep Hygiene, a.k.a. Good Sleep Habits * Go to bed at about the same time every night, and keep your morning wake-up time consistent (don’t sleep in more than a half hour on weekends—sorry!). * Don’t nap after three p.m. * Dedicate your bedroom to sleep (and romance). Your bedroom should be peaceful and relaxing, so no working, watching television, or eating in it. * Keep your bedroom cool: Over a 24-hour period, our body temperatures naturally peak and decline. Our internal temperatures are usually at their highest in early afternoon and lowest around five a.m. Helping your body get to a lower temperature faster can encourage deeper sleep. Roger Olin, manager of St. John’s Medical Center’s Sleep Disorder Center since 2008, says that for optimal sleep your bedroom should be about 65 degrees. (Studies show your bedroom temperature doesn’t have to be that precise: between 60 and 67 is the magic range; above 75 degrees and below 54 degrees can actually disrupt sleep.)

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Sleep Your Way to Being a Better Athlete IT’S BEEN REPORTED that twenty-time tennis Grand Slam winner Roger Federer likes to sleep between eleven and twelve hours a night. Michael Phelps, who’s won 28 Olympic medals (23 of them gold), has been quoted as saying all he’s got time for is swimming, eating, and sleeping. Usain Bolt, widely considered the greatest sprinter of all time, has said, THE RAND CORPORATION HAS “Sleep is extremely important to me—I need to rest and recover in order for the ESTIMATED THAT COLLECTIVELY, training I do to be absorbed by my body.”

COSTS ATTRIBUTABLE TO Utah-based ski mountaineer Noah Howell SLEEP DEFICIENCY IN THE U.S. told Van Winkle’s, a website dedicated “to EXCEEDED $410 BILLION IN 2015, exploring the relationship between sleep MORE THAN 2 PERCENT OF THE and the rest of our lives” and published by GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT. the mattress and bedding company Casper Sleep: “Sleep is the single most important thing I do. When I’m training, sleep is the one thing I won’t skimp on—I need my eight hours, plus a nap if I can. That helps me keep illness at bay and lets my body recover.” Little wonder the U.S. Ski Team opened a sleep center inside their Center of Excellence in Park City, Utah, and encourages athletes to nap between training sessions.

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“IT’S SHOWN THAT THOSE WHO NAP FOR A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME DURING THE DAY HAVE BETTER PRODUCTIVITY THROUGHOUT THE DAY VERSUS THOSE WHO DON’T NAP,” AMY BENDER, A SLEEP SCIENTIST AT THE CENTRE FOR SLEEP & HUMAN PERFORMANCE IN CALGARY, ALBERTA, TOLD VAN WINKLE’S, A WEBSITE DEDICATED TO EXPLORING THE IMPORTANCE OF SLEEP IN OUR LIVES. “THERE ARE PSYCHOLOGICAL EVENTS OCCURRING IN THE BRAIN DURING SLEEP THAT CAN HELP WITH MOTOR MEMORY, AND EVEN JUST A TWENTY-MINUTE NAP HAS BEEN FOUND TO REDUCE SLEEPINESS, IMPROVE CONCENTRATION, AND ENHANCE MOTOR PERFORMANCE.”

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“A surefire way to increase happiness I don’t blame insufficient sleep for cancer and MS, but I do blame it (par- is to get better sleep,” says Jackson-based tially) for how easily and often I got colds. Sharene Garaman, Psy.D. “Nothing else More and more research reveals how im- works as well to increase someone’s wellportant sleep is to physical and mental being—no application, no treatment, no health. A Harvard Medical School article medicine—than sleep. If someone isn’t published online reports there is some getting good sleep, everything looks evidence that insufficient sleep makes worse than it would with sleep.”

Yet, according to the Centers for you more prone to the common cold if you’re exposed to the cold virus; that, Disease Control and Prevention, more over time, continued sleep deprivation than a third of adults in the U.S. get inraises the risk for a number of chronic sufficient sleep, which the agency defines as less than seven hours health problems, including nightly. While “insufficient obesity, substance abuse, sleep” is easily defined and hypertension, diabetes, STUDIES SHOW agreed upon, sufficient stroke, heart disease, and, THAT GETTING LESS yes, cancer; and that insufsleep is different for everyTHAN SIX HOURS ficient sleep can leave you one, but experts say it’s beOF SLEEP A NIGHT more vulnerable to mental tween seven and nine AND THEN DRIVING hours a night. How much health issues such as deIS COMPARABLE TO sleep are you getting? JH pression and anxiety.

HAVING A BLOOD ALCOHOL LEVEL OF ABOUT .08 PERCENT, THE LEGAL LIMIT IN MOST STATES.

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nightlife

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

Pedaling into the Night Trade happy hour or, even better, an after-dinner drink for a mountain bike ride. The latter is done by headlamp, which makes it a totally unique experience.

Amanda and Nate Carey ride on Teton Valley’s AJ Linnell trail last fall.

JONATHAN SELKOWITZ

BY MIKE KOSHMRL

CARY SMITH, A national champion mountain biker who enjoys and excels at endurance events, began riding at night out of necessity—it was the only time he had to train. (Smith’s day job is as a dentist.) “Obviously it’s a necessity thing,” he says, “but I also do really enjoy it. The technology is really good and lights are really bright, and you can ride basically as fast as you can in the day. And it’s quiet. There’s nobody out there. It’s very nice.”

Sometimes the thing you want to help clear your head in the evening is silence. And perhaps a little bit of perspiration.

Since Jackson summer evenings often provide enough light to ride until past nine p.m., you don’t need a bright light to do a happy hour ride. On one of these, you can enjoy gorgeous light as the sun sinks behind the Tetons, casting a pinky-orange glow for much longer than you’d expect. But a post-dinner headlamp ride is, as Smith says, “very nice.” Smith has hit the trail after nightfall in places SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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Adam Smith rides the West Fork of Game Creek under clear night skies.

floor, where it switchbacks down from the ridge through thick timber, eventually merging onto the Phillips Canyon Trail and descending all the way to paved Fish Creek Road. If you’re looking for more of a workout, you can start and end at the Fish Creek Road trailhead, making it an eighteen-mile out-and-back that climbs and descends equal amounts.

Why night? Perched two thousand feet over the valley, on a moonlit night Phillips Ridge offers a full display of a night-bright Jackson Hole.

PUTT-PUTT TRAIL Level: Intermediate– JEFF DIENER

A local favorite day, dusk, and night, PuttPutt is a three-mile (one-way) singletrack trail over a mix of treed and open slopes about two miles from downtown Jackson.

(It has two starting points: at the Nelson Drive trailhead and the parking lot at the end of Cache Creek Road.) Wherever you start, expect well-graded, banked corners and some culling of obstacles—hikers are allowed on Putt-Putt, but the trail was built with mountain bikers in mind. On the way out, Putt-Putt gains more than three hundred feet but descends 750 feet. When this trail ends at the two-track Cache Creek Road, you’ve got several options, one of which is easy. We’ll start with the easy way: Roll onto the former road, now a two-track until it becomes a wide, dirt road about 1.5 miles above the parking lot. This route will take you right back to the Cache Creek parking lot. Another option is to turn around and ride back down the way you came. Option three is to link together singletrack on the south side of Cache Creek by crossing over the dirt road to the timbered Hagen Trail, which winds its way back to the Cache Creek parking lot. (This route does have several spurs, so if you want to do it we recommend you download trail maps of the area onto your phone for nighttime viewing.)

like Phillips and Black canyons off Teton Pass, and once even pulled off a through-the-night ride in the Mount Leidy Highlands, pedaling through grizzly bear territory from Ditch Creek out to the Horsetail trailhead off the Gros Ventre Road.

He sees deer and elk regularly, a black bear once, and on one occasion on the pass had a near-collision with a large ungulate he thinks was a moose. “But that happens during the daytime, too,” Smith says. “My point of view is that it’s a great way to get out and use your forest. Everyone should try it.”

Here are a few places you can try it: PHILLIPS RIDGE Level: Intermediate+ Much of this nine-mile singletrack ride in the southern reaches of the Tetons traces the ridgeline that stands tall over Wilson and the Snake River’s west bank. Access it from a marked trailhead halfway up Teton Pass to make it a mostly downhill, oneway ride (gaining five hundred feet, but descending two thousand). The pace picks up as the trail gets closer to the valley 128

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Why night? Dark is your only chance to have Putt-Putt to yourself. During the day it’s one of the most popular rides in the valley.

JONATHAN SELKOWITZ

Enjoying an after-work ride in the autumn.

GAME CREEK Level: Beginner Five miles south of Jackson this old Forest Service road, which has devolved into a wide trail, is perfect for bikers looking for a nontechnical ride. Starting from an unremarkable trailhead several hundred yards up on the east side of Game Creek Road, it starts off as a wide two-track road, then transitions to a sinJACKSON HOLE WILDLIFE Foundation co-founder Lorna Miller first became gletrack path after a couple of miles. Since this is an out-andaware of bikers riding with headlamps when she was “flabbergasted” to back you can turn around at any point. Most people go in about see bright lights moving down the Hagen Trail through the trees on the three miles. For a more strenuous ride, Game Creek can be flank of Snow King Mountain. She sees nighttime use of Cache Creek as linked to trails in the Cache Creek or West Game trail systems. another gash in wildlife habitat that’s perpetually unAgain, make sure you have der assault: The local critters once had the night to trail maps if you do this. themselves, and now they don’t. “We’re encroaching Also, both mountain bikconstantly,” Miller says. “We’re nibbling them to ers and runners have redeath. I’m not saying it’s outrageous right now, but if ported seeing mountain that’s the trend, who’s to say what it’s going to get THE BIGGEST FACTOR in helping avert unwanted encounters lions in this area, although like? If we’re really serious about wildlife and we’re with animals large and small is a light. Really, really bright no encounters have resultgoing to walk the talk on wildlife, we need to be conones. The Hub Bicycles owner Hal Wheeler, who slings several scious of these things.” ed in bloodshed. (FYI, models at his shop, explains that handlebar- or helmetmountain lions live in all mounted devices cast a beam that’s every bit as powerful as Land managers are also concerned about the chance the mountains around ordinary car headlights, and exposes every rock, drop-off, of surprise encounters with wildlife. “Animals are Jackson Hole; they’ve just and gleam from an animal’s eyes with ease. “The 1,500 to more likely to be bedded down at night and their sight been reported being seen 2,000 lumen range is what’s bright enough to make it as safe range is much more limited,” says Bridger-Teton as riding during the day,” he says. here most often.)

The Other Side of the Story

Light Bright

Why night? If there’s something more relaxing and magical than moonlight reflecting off Game Creek, which the trail parallels for some time from the trailhead, we have yet to discover it. JH

National Forest recreation manager Linda Merigliano.

“So, the likelihood of running into a critter in close proximity is much higher.” But when it comes to preventing conflicts between trail users and wildlife, Merigliano’s worries turn to more pressing matters than night biking. People running inattentively while wearing ear buds, badly behaving dogs, and hikers violating wildlife-closure areas are all more pervasive problems, she says.

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dining

Eat Out, Literally Whether an intimate patio or a deck with Teton views, Jackson Hole has plenty of al fresco dining options.

BY MAGGIE THEODORA

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DINING ON TOWN SQUARE

B R E A K FA ST, L U N C H A N D D I NNE R

135 E Broadway | 307-732-1910 G ENEV IEV EJH.C OM

The Handle Bar at Four Seasons Resort and Residences offers al fresco dining in the heart of Teton Village.

COURTESY PHOTO

DINING NIGHTLY 161 N Center Street | 307-203-2664 OR SETTOJH.C OM

INQUIRE FOR MENU AND AVAILABILITY 307-690-7878 GENEVIEVECATERINGJH.COM

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GLORIETTA

PERSEPHONE

Two words: weekend brunch. And two more: outdoor patios. For as diverse and numerous as Jackson Hole’s dining options are, we’re woefully lacking in brunch spots, especially ones where you can sit outside under the sun on a bluebird day (but enjoy shade from nearby aspen trees). This summer Glorietta Trattoria steps up to offer brunch with both traditional entrees (shrimp and grits and fried green tomato Benedict) and dishes that channel its Italian roots (Uovo in Purgatorio). The menu is the same if you opt to grab a table inside the restaurant around the large woodburning grill. But unless it’s raining, picking outside over in shouldn’t be a difficult choice. We love Glorietta’s warm and woody interior finishes, but they just can’t compete with dining outside on a beautiful Jackson Hole summer day. Paired with the food menu is a cocktail program developed by the pros behind New York City’s (and now Denver’s) popular Death & Co. It includes classics done with a modern riff like the Albright Spritz (gin, dry vermouth, peach, Serrano, lemon juice, seltzer, and sage) and brunch staples like Prosecco mimosas and Bloody Marys. 242 N. Glenwood St., 307/733-3888, gloriettajackson.com

Architectural Digest named cozy Persephone Bakery & Café “The Most Beautiful Coffee Shop in Wyoming.” We’ve visited some fun cafés around the state—we’re looking at you, Java Moon in Sheridan— but we have to agree with AD. At Persephone, tables are marble, one wall is adorned with dozens and dozens of antique wooden spoons, and, in a glass-fronted case, tarts, croissants, cookies, s’mores, and cinnamon brioche are displayed like pieces of art—but casually; the vibe is more French Boho than Michelin.

You could hang out here forever, refilling your coffee and making your way through each pastry (there’s also a menu of hot items served until three p.m.). But there are only about thirty seats, so it can get kind of crowded.

But, in spring, summer, and fall—stylish gas heaters prolong the outdoor season—Persephone opens its patio and garden, which more than doubles the amount of available seating. While it’s likely the line here will stretch out the front door no matter the season (Persephone does make the best croissant this side of the Atlantic, and the best chocolate chip cookies be-

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Dornan’s rooftop deck may have the best views of any restaurant in the valley.

RYAN DORGAN

River, which is close enough you can tween New York and San Francisco), Persephone’s outdoor deck and hear it from the parking lot. (Dornan’s when the deck and patio are open, garden more than double the also claims the valley’s best wine shop: there’s plenty of room to relax and seating at this downtown bakery and cafe.

Watching the sun set on the bank of hang out. For its downtown location, the Snake River while sipping a good it’s surprisingly peaceful, with planters overflowing with herbs and an adjacent large lawn. 145 bottle is a pretty nice way to end a day.) Dornan’s takes advantage of its singular location with an expansive E. Broadway, 307/200-6708, persephonebakery.com shaded front deck and a rooftop deck. The latter is above the Spur Bar/Pizza & Pasta Company. Bartenders DORNAN’S below have binoculars you can borrow; grab a pair and Dornan’s is both the best way to end an adventure in watch climbers summit the Grand Teton. Seriously.

Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) and one of the 12170 Dornan Rd., Moose, 307/733-2415, dornans.com best reasons to head up to the park in the first place. It doesn’t matter where you choose to eat here: Whether PEARL STREET BAGELS IN WILSON you get a sandwich made in the deli, a scoop of ice cream from the ice cream/espresso cart, brisket at the Maggie and Les Gibson founded Pearl Street Bagels in Chuckwagon Grill, a drink in the Spur Bar, or a pie at 1990, opening it on Pearl Avenue in downtown the Pizza & Pasta Company, you’ll be able to take in Jackson. In 1996 the couple opened a second shop, in some of the valley’s best views of the Tetons.

Wilson at the base of Teton Pass. Pearl Street Bagels is Located just outside the Moose entrance to GTNP, now a valley institution. The Jackson location often Dornan’s started as a roadside restaurant and bar in has a line stretching out the door for its made-freshthe 1940s. Today it’s a little village, with cabins, gear all-day bagels, house-made cream cheeses, smoothies, rentals, a small grocery store, and a gift shop in addi- muffins, and coffee drinks. The Wilson location’s tion to all the eating options. And there’s nothing be- claim to fame? Picnic tables on the banks of Fish tween all of this and the Tetons, other than the Snake Creek are right out its back door. Once, sitting at one SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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Top: Classic meets modern at Glorietta Trattoria with summer cocktails by New York City’s Death & Co.

THE HANDLE BAR Skiing past The Handle Bar in the Four Seasons Resort and Residences at the base of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (JHMR) in Teton Village, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s the perfect après-ski spot. Or rather that it’s only a perfect après-ski spot. But as perfect as it is in winter, when you can watch skiers pass by, The Handle Bar truly shines in summer, when its giant terrace offers in-your-face views of the Tetons, rising several thousand feet directly above, and also the entertainment of watching families playing in the JHMR bike park. If there’s something cuter than a six-year-old girl in a full-face helmet, shin and arm guards, and a glitter tutu learning how to catch air on her bike, we have yet to see it.

The Handle Bar rewards bikers with Friday Night Bikes: Every Friday night, if you show your JHMR bike park pass you get half-price burgers and a deal on draft beers. You don’t need to be a biker to appreciate the restaurant’s Barbeque, Bluegrass, and Bourbon nights.

Every other Friday (starting June 15), chef Michael Lishchynsky pairs his house-smoked ribs, roasted chicken, and pulled pork with a different featured band and whiskey. (The entire regular menu is available, too, including our favorite, the bison burger, which you can get topped with a sunny-side-up egg.) 7680 Granite Loop Rd., Teton Village, 307/732-5000, fourseasons.com/jacksonhole JH 134

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of these tables eating a salt bagel with honeywalnut cream cheese and wishing we had ordered a mocha latte instead of a plain espresso, a mom moose walked right down the creek. It wasn’t more than fifteen feet away. Eight seconds later, a yearling calf followed.

While you shouldn’t be shy about walking through the small kitchen in the back of the Wilson shop to get to Fish Creek and the picnic tables, don’t ask staff here to toast your bagel.

“We bake them fresh all day long,” you’ll be told.

While the difference between a fresh bagel and a toasted bagel can be debated ad infinitum, don’t bother. Instead, just enjoy it; because it was boiled for several minutes before being baked at 400 degrees, it’s the perfect combo of crunchy exterior and chewy interior. 5674 Wyoming Hwy. 22, Wilson, 307/739-1261, pearlstreetbagels.com

COURTESY PHOTO

Bottom: Pearl Street Bagels’ Wilson location offers outdoor seating for grab-and-go bagel and coffee lovers.

JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING • JHFINEDINING.COM

Distinctive

DINING EXPERIENCES

IN-TOWN

French-American Bistro 380 S. Broadway • Jackson 307-739-1100 • rendezvousbistro.net

Wine and Tapas Bar, Specialty Grocer and Bottle Shop

Modern American Cuisine

200 W. Broadway • Downtown Jackson

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TETON VILLAGE CMYK

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Spanish, Italian Plates and Wine Bar

Rustic Italian Fare

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Locally-Focused Specialty Grocer, Bottle Shop and Food Truck

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Weddings, Rehearsal Dinners, Private and Corporate Events 307-739-4682 • bistrocatering.net SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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Best of

JH

dining out

RESTAURANT

LOCATION

PHONE

BREAKFAST

LUNCH

DINNER

Branding Iron Grill

Grand Targhee Resort

307-353-2300

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Jackson

307-733-5474

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Jackson

307-732-1910

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Jackson

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Jackson

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Teton Village

307-200-4666

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Teton Village

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Jackson

307-734-1633 $/$$$

Il Villaggio Osteria

Teton Village

307-739-4100

Rendezvous Bistro

Jackson

307-739-1100

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Fine Dining Restaurant Group

Grand Teton Lodge Company

$$

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Grand Teton National Park

Mural Dining Room

Jackson Lake Lodge

307-543-2811

$

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Pioneer Grill

Jackson Lake Lodge

307-543-2811

$

$

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Blue Heron Lounge

Jackson Lake Lodge

307-543-2811

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Ranch House Restaurant

Colter Bay

307-543-2811

$$ $$ $$

Café Court Pizzeria

Colter Bay

307-543-2811

$

$

$

Jenny Lake Dining Room

Jenny Lake Lodge

307-733-4647

$

$

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Pool Cantina

Jackson Lake Lodge

307-543-2811

Pool BBQ

Jackson Lake Lodge

307-543-2811

$

Glorietta Trattoria

Jackson

307-733-3888

$$$

King’s Grill

Jackson

307-201-5292

$

Orsetto Italian Bar and Eatery

Jackson

307-203-2664 $$/$$$

The Pinsetter at Hole Bowl

Jackson

307-201-5426

Piste Mountain Bistro

Top of Bridger Gondola

307-732-3177

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Saddle Rock Saloon at JH Playhouse

Jackson

307-733-6994

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Signal Mountain Lodge

Grand Teton National Park

$

$

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Peaks Dining Room

Signal Mountain Lodge

307-543-2831 x220

Trapper Grill

Signal Mountain Lodge

307-543-2831 x220

Jackson

307-264-1820 $$

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Table 10 Restaurant Group Gather

Palate at National Museum of Wildlife Art Jackson

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307-201-5208

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The Silver Dollar Bar and Grill

Jackson

307-732-3939

Snake River Brewing Company

Jackson

307-739-2337(BEER)

Snake River Grill

Jackson

307-733-0557 $$$

Snorkels Cafe

Grand Targhee Resort

307-353-2300 $ $

Teton Thai

Teton Village

307-733-0022 $$ $$

Trap Bar & Grill

Grand Targhee Resort

307-353-2300 $ $$

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

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ALCOHOL

KIDS’ MENU

TAKEOUT

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Rocky Mountain fare with fresh, local ingredients

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Breakfast, lunch, and Jackson’s freshest baked goods

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Rustic Italian, pizzas, house-made pastas

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Bottle shop, grab & go food, provisions, food truck

J Casual dining on the deck overlooking the Tetons Dine-in, or pizza to-go by the slice

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Daily happy hour and outdoor dining

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Locals’ choice for rustic elegance

Average entree; $= under $15, $$= $16-20, $$$= $21+ SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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LUN CH WITH A VIEW PalateJH.com (307) 201-5208 Lunch at The National Museum of Wildlife Art 2820 Rungius Road CATERING AND EVENT SPACE AVAILABLE

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Best of

JH

art scene

Teton Inspiration This valley brings out creativity.

BY JULIE FUSTANIO KLING

Terroir, which closed a few years later, offered a fine dining experience that was ahead of its time, says Roth, who was a partner in the enterprise. But the remodel work he did to transform the space ignited a creative spark in him that changed the trajectory of his life. Roth has taught himself to work in mediums as diverse as metal and Artlab is one of a number plaster, leading him to a re- Teton of art-focused nonprofits that warding career as a full-time offer residencies and grants to artist and sculptor. artists.

RUGILE KALADYTE

THE LIGHT FROM the torch that Ben Roth used to weld the sheet metal adorning the interior of the restaurant Terroir (now Trio: An American Bistro) had a lasting impression. The renovations he was doing in 1998 felt so natural that Roth was taken back to a sculpture class he took as an undergrad at the University of Nevada. “Maybe I am an artist,” he thought, before recalling the creative block he’d had in the second—and last—art class he ever took. He returned to the work at hand.

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Whether it’s passion, persistence, the thrill of the adventure, sheer luck, or an otherworldly compulsion to capture the magic of this place—or all of the above—Jackson Hole has inspired creativity in its visitors since it was settled in the late nineteenth century. This is true both for those formally trained in visual arts and the self-taught. Archie Boyd Teater (1901–1978), one of the

BRADLY J. BONER

Local artist Emily Boespflug is slowly moving away from her job teaching at the Art Association of Jackson Hole to paint full time.

of his generation, Teater considered himself a loner who belonged to no specific school. But he did pay for art lessons at the Portland Art Museum with money he earned by trapping mink and muskrat, and he went on to paint in Europe and elsewhere in the world.

Teater always came back to Jackson Hole, though, where he earned the nickname Teton Teater.

best-known Western landscape impressionist painters, never finished the eighth grade. In Jackson Hole he repaired fences for ranchers and used the weathered tops of wooden posts for carving. Teater propped canvases on trees next to his campsite on Jenny Lake.

A lumberjack bought his first painting for fifty cents.

One of the most prodigious painters

TODAY, TEATER’S WORK is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among other museums, and Jackson Hole boasts one of the most vibrant art scenes in the nation, with a major wildlife art museum, a generous and expansive nonprofit art community, and more art galleries per capita than almost any other community. Recent shows at the National Museum of Wildlife Art include Chinese sculptor Ai Weiwei’s

SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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Ben Roth’s work spans mediums from metalwork and plaster sculpture to two-dimensional prints.

zone 100 percent,” she says. “As far as [being] an artist I haven’t even begun to go where I want to go.”

Also still figuring out where he wants to go with his art is Roth, who left the hospitality industry and officially began his art career in 2001, albeit with a spate of unfortunate timing. Roth’s first show was scheduled for September 11, 2001. His second exhibition, at Rare Gallery, was a week after the banking collapse of 2008.

From these experiences, he learned to persevere. He named a more recent show of his work 10,000 Hours, referencing Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, which touts how experience can make you world class in any field. “Jackson rewards hard-working artists if you go for it and put your all into it,” Roth says, adding that he’s been so prolific because of the pressure to survive here.

“I do think that being hungry makes for good art.”

JACLYN BOROWSKI

BEING AN ARTIST in Jackson is a double-edged sword: It is a small community and there are a lot of people who support the arts, but it is expensive to live here. “I definitely benefit from living here,” Roth says. “I’ve gotten hired for commissions in line at the grocery store. If I was working in Denver [where he grew up] I might have thrown in the towel.”

Nonprofits like Teton Artlab, JH Public Art, the Art Association, and the Center of Wonder—which empowers artists to take risks and contribute to the local arts culture—offer residencies and grants to work in Jackson. These opportunities inspire local artists to raise their game. “We don’t have access to ongoing education and development and we don’t have a university, but we are the only arts community with two national parks in our backyard,” says Lyndsay Rowan McCandless, executive director of the Center of Wonder. “Many self-taught artists end up figuring it out themselves because we’re so secluded. They feel a palpable energy here that attracts risk takers, and when visiting artists come and fall in love with this place, the artists who live here are reminded of why they are here.”

Fox, the artist who got Boespflug to enter her first plein air contest, grew up in Idaho, like Teater. In 2015 she was voted “artist of the year” by the Art Association. Fox says no matter what their training, artists in Jackson are all in the same field with the same resources and the same challenges. “Nature’s always going to do a better job than we ever can,” she says.

Jacqueline Ra, a self-taught photographer who lives a quiet life on the edge of Grand Teton National Park, agrees. She arrived in the valley in 2003, and her first photos were of sunrises and birds in flight taken “with a broken camera.” She has since graduated to images of newborn elk and of foxes with prey in their mouths, some of which she took right outside the windows of her cabin. “I go for weeks without interacting with people,” Ra says, “and in that emptiness, beautiful things show up. The Tetons have stunning lighting. Something about the atmosphere, the clean air, makes light quality really nice.”

It’s more than the physical for Ra, though. “There’s an element of magic with photography spirits who help arrange

Zodiac series, National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore’s Photo Ark, and Andy Warhol’s Endangered Species, which are in the museum’s permanent collection.

This kind of prestige can make Jackson Hole intimidating for artists like Emily Boespflug, an art teacher who grew up in Sheridan, Wyoming, moved to Jackson in 2004, and only built up the confidence to call herself a plein air painter around 2014. “Now I can’t even see colors right without starting a painting outside,” she says, adding that she is “somewhat in the middle” of being a self-taught artist and a scholar.

A graduate of the University of Wyoming with degrees in fine art and psychology, Boespflug surrounded herself with local artists she admires, while teaching and developing programs for the Art Association of Jackson Hole. When her friend, Katy Ann Fox, a Jackson painter who earned a Master of Fine Art from San Francisco’s Academy of Art University, invited her to a plein air art contest in Bryce Canyon, Utah, which Boespflug won, she was hooked. Now she is slowly moving away from her jobs as a teacher and program developer at the Art Association and building up her portfolio for art fairs and pop-up shows around town. “Hopefully I can get into the art 142

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

Top: A self-portrait by photographer Jacqueline Ra titled “Territory of Pte-Ska-Win.”

PRICE CHAMBERS

things for me.” she says. “Sending animals to say ‘hi.’

It’s an authentic record of what it’s like to live in an isolated field.”

Many local artists agree it is a combination of the relationship between animals and humans, the extreme energy of this place, and the robust art community that cause Jackson to inspire visual creativity.

For Roth, his art is adventurous, humorous, and sometimes risky. He’s made furniture from recycled materials like spoons and bike chains. Last year, he carved chain link sections out of an intact tree that he sculpted into a bench and draped over a fence along the Wilson bike path.

“My art comes from my concern for the environment and the relationship between humans and nature,” Roth says. “I don’t want to bang people over the head with a message. I want them to reach their own conclusion. Sometimes being adventurous means the outcome is uncertain, but interesting art gets made when you are adventurous.”

And Jackson Hole does nothing if not inspire adventurousness. JH

JACQUELINE RA

Bottom: In 2015, the National Museum of Wildlife Art hosted Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei’s Zodiac series.

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THE ANTLER WORKSHOP AND GALLERY

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.

CHRISTENSEN STUDIO GALLERY

World renown artist, Scott L. Christensen, makes his home just 20 miles from Jackson Hole. Christensen’s oil paintings, capturing landscapes as varied from the California coast to the English countryside, can be found exclusively at Christensen Studio in Teton Valley, Idaho. The unique gallery experience includes an opportunity to view the artist’s studio and working space.

Visits by appointment only. Victor, ID. 208-7875851. christensenstudio.com

Victor, Idaho (208) 787-5851 christensenstudio.com 144

A TOUCH OF CLASS

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

A unique gallery located in Dubois, Wyoming with a working pottery studio combined with an antler workshop. Stop by and meet the artists Kurt Gordon and Lyn Smith. The gallery showcases custom antler designs and local pottery mixed with antiques and interesting gift items. Two life size Bull Elk statues made entirely of antler stand in the yard, both statues are for sale and would add a great touch to any large lobby, home, or entryway. (Certified to buy/sell antler & horn.)

1404 Warm Springs Drive Dubois, Wyoming (307) 455-2204 antlergallery.com

CRAZY HORSE JEWELRY

Crazy Horse Jewelry opened in 1978 and has the largest collection of authentic, handmade Native American Indian jewelry and crafts in Jackson Hole. Visit our store in Gaslight Alley to explore intricate sterling and precious stone jewelry, home wares, rugs, authentic Zuni Fetishes, storytellers, baskets, pottery and spectacular beadwork. Our artists from Zuni, Navajo, Hopi and Santo Domingo peoples handcraft each item we carry, from contemporary to historical.

125 North Cache (307) 733-4028 crazyhorsejewelry.com

Add a little sparkle to your life by stopping by A Touch of Class. Showcasing spectacular jewelry and sparkling keepsakes, A Touch of Class has been serving Jackson Hole since 1983. Our familyowned boutique features premium selections and exclusive charms from internationally renowned brands such as Swarovski® and Pandora, plus locally made charms and jewelry to serve as a thoughtful memento of your time in Jackson Hole.

125 North Cache (307) 733-3356 facebook.com/ atouchofclassjh

DANSHELLEY JEWELERS

A visit to this gallery is an experience you’ll never forget! Designer/owner Daniel Harrison shares his 43 years of creative designs in a multitude of expressions. Complementing his work are collections from international and regional artists. Come in and see why “Inspiration begins at 6,000 feet.”

125 North Cache Street (307) 733-2259 danshelley.com

HINES GOLDSMITHS

THE LEGACY GALLERY

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WILDLIFE ART

Jackson’s original Fine Jewelry Store and exclusive designers of the Teton Jewelry Collection since 1970. Our collection features Teton pendants, charms, rings and earrings ranging in size and price range with our stunning Diamond pave and Gemstone inlay pieces being the highlight. In our Jackson studio we also handcraft the Wyoming Bucking Bronco jewelry and extraordinary Elk Ivory jewelry. We have created Wyoming’s largest selection of unique gold and silver charms indicative of the area.

Our entire collection is also available in Sterling Silver. We also specialize in a dazzling selection of hand etched crystal and barware.

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 celebrate its 30th Anniversary and has another location in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The National Museum of Wildlife Art, founded in 1987, is a world-class art museum holding more than 5,000 artworks 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 the history of wildlife art, from 2500 B.C. to the present.

Boasting a museum shop, interactive children’s gallery, restaurant, and outdoor sculpture trail, the Museum is only two-and-a-half miles north of Jackson Town Square.

80 Center Street (307) 733-5599 hines-gold.com

75 North Cache (307) 733-2353 legacygallery.com

2820 Rungius Road (307) 733-5771 wildlifeart.org

NATIVE JACKSON HOLE

Native has been serving clients in Jackson Hole since 1983. We feature contemporary, museum-quality fine art work, bronzes, and artisan, precious, and semi-precious jewelry. We specialize in local landscapes, wildlife, Western and one-of-a-kind Native American art. Whether you are searching for a specialty item such as a bull skull intricately adorned with historic buffalo pennies or a hand-crafted piece of unique, fine jewelry, our curated selection and decades of experience will to connect you to Jackson Hole’s rich living history.

10 West Broadway (800) 726-1803 nativejh.com

RARE GALLERY OF JACKSON HOLE

RARE Gallery, a collector’s destination! At 6,100 square feet, one of Jackson Hole’s largest and most acclaimed galleries, we represent nationally and internationally collected artists.

Featuring museum exhibited artists in mediums of painting, sculpture, photography, glass, 3 dimensional art, and designer jewelry. RARE Gallery was named Mountain Living Magazine “Hot Shop in Jackson Hole.” Our Curator is available for private gallery or in home consultations.

60 East Broadway (307) 733-8726 raregalleryjacksonhole.com

TRAILSIDE GALLERIES

Celebrating 55 years in western art. Since 1963, Trailside Galleries has been regarded as one of the preeminent dealers in American representational art, specializing in a rich and varied collection of works by the leading western, wildlife, figurative, impressionist, and landscape artists in the country.

130 East Broadway (307) 733-3186 trailsidegalleries.com SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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WEST LIVES ON TRADITIONAL & CONTEMPORARY GALLERIES

TURNER FINE ART

WILD BY NATURE GALLERY

With a celebrated reputation as one of the freshest, most vibrant galleries in Jackson, Turner Fine Art gallery is where collectors and art lovers not only find top quality original artwork but also the artists who create it. Our mission is to support the artistic success of each artist, to enthusiastically share the finest art with the community, and to foster relationships with collectors.

Since 1998 clients have been discovering an extraordinary collection of original western art at the WEST LIVES ON GALLERIES. 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 national and regional artists. Our knowledgeable staff will work with you to locate that special piece for your home or office.

Dedicated to capturing the natural beauty of Jackson Hole and the surrounding National Parks, WILD BY NATURE GALLERY features the unique and striking wildlife and landscape images of local photographer Henry H. Holdsworth.

Holdsworth is nationally recognized for his work with publications such as National Geographic, National Wildlife, Nature’s Best and Wildlife Conservation. Henry’s photographs are available as limited edition prints, notecards, local coffee table books, and guidebooks. You will find us one block west of the Town Square. Henry also offers a variety of guided photographic tours and workshops throughout the year.

545 North Cache (307) 734-4444 turnerfineart.com

55 & 75 North Glenwood (307) 734-2888 westliveson.com

95 West Deloney (307) 733-8877 wildbynaturegallery.com

"Our favorite knives." - Saveur

Made in the Tetons. Lifetime guarantee.

Just off the JacksonTown Square | NewWestKnifeworks.com | MTNMenGifts.com 146

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JACKSON HOLE FOOD & WINE

Summer Festival

E at June

21

June 21 -23, 2018 Drink

Support

TASTE OF JACKSON HOLE

Presented by Jackson Hole Mountain Resort RENDEZVOUS LODGE

Taste mouthwatering bites from top local restaurants along with an exceptional selection of wine, beer and spirits!

BIG WINES, SMALL PLATES Presented by Fine Dining Restaurant Group RENDEZVOUS BISTRO

June

22

A wine tasting and lunch featuring memorable stories from culinary enthusiasts illuminating the magical synergy of food and wine!

DINNER SERIES PRIVATE HOMES & UNIQUE JACKSON HOLE LOCATIONS

FEATURING SPECIAL GUESTS: Stuart Brioza & Nicole Krasinski, State Bird Provisions, CA; Walter & Margarita Manzke, République, CA; Ricky Estrellado & Ryo Hasegawa, Nobu Downtown, NYC; Dennis Cakebread, Cakebread Cellars; Lia Gilles, Vérité; Tim Mondavi, Continuum

June

23

SAVOR MEAD RANCH

Master chefs from New York and California collaborate with local culinary talent to host an epic summer bash with all the trimmings!

Supporting Hole Food Rescue

V I S I T J H F O O DA N DW I N E . COM

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as the hole deepens

Guests in Paradise

BY TIM SANDLIN ILLUSTRATIONS BY BIRGITTA SIF

SOME CALL IT a blessing, some a curse, and the oldest of the old-timers say, “It is what it is,” which means nothing to me. But the truth of living in the Lycra Archipelago—Jackson Hole, Sun Valley, Steamboat Springs, Aspen, Taos, a few smaller islands of cool—is that you get more company than folks who live in Amarillo. Paradise is nicer to visit than the Home of the Golden Sandies.

After careful study of these visitors, I have broken them into two groups—people you know and people you don’t know.

People you know are more welcome when it comes to sleeping on my couch, but even then, some summers they come in waves.

Last June, Cora Ann’s nephew, Lloyd, and three of his buddies crowded into the guest room for a week and a half. They had worked like millennial mice for fifty weeks and were ready to cut loose.

The boys installed a keg on Cora Ann’s Pilates table. They vaped in the bathroom. They posted our address on Instagram with the caption come on down.

Then they flew off to jobs in various states with legal marijuana. Kids these days make career choices based on personal values.

The very airplane Lloyd left on brought in Lucy Munn, Cora Ann’s college roommate from thirty years past.

Unlike Lloyd and his derelicts, who kept us awake all night but were basically self-entertaining, Lucy expected quality companionship. Lucy and her husband, Rich, slept all morning, hiked in the afternoon while Cora Ann and I worked, then at five Lucy and Rich were ready for us to eat, drink, and dance ourselves into a high-altitude frenzy.

Rich bragged, “I never saw a bar yet I couldn’t close.”

Cora Ann and I held our own until Lucy and Rick left, and my cousin, Josh, flew in. Josh owns Day Care Air, a commuter service for children of bicoastal joint custody divorce settlements. Licensed preschool teachers for flight attendants. Pilots dressed as Disney Princess characters. Josh is fabulously wellto-do.

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how relaxing that is in summer. Josh rented a houseboat and met a bevy of Lake Hotel cabin maids. We ended up in more a babysitting capacity than fellow rabble-rousers.

Next up was Wynn Powers, who worked with us at Signal Mountain Lodge thirty-two years ago, which, in his eyes, makes us next of kin. Wynn brought a bottle of diet pills so he wouldn’t have to rest on his vacation.

“I can sleep at home,” Wynn said. “You want to run up Snow King for the sunrise, then we can mountain bike Curtis Canyon and hunt rabbits with our bare hands. I’ll show you how the Arapaho barbecue bunny. It takes a tequila marinade.”

After that came eclipse week. Imagine a polyester and Cabelas Woodstock.

These were guests we more or less knew. The other kind are cat-hair-in-the-back-of-your-throat irritating.

Thursday before Labor Day, a couple who could have jumped out of a 1956 Oldsmobile advertisement showed up on our porch. The woman sported a genuine beehive ’do the color of Pepto Bismol. The man wore tartan pants—red and black checks—and a paisley pink shirt with a dickie that color of blue your toe turns when you stub it hard enough the nail breaks off.

The man flipped his cigarette butt into my lilacs. “Is this the residence of Cora Ann Pym?” I was all set to say, “I’ve never heard that name in my life,” when Cora Ann came out of the kitchen, drying her hands.

“That’s me.”

The woman said, “We are George Singleton and Mrs. George Singleton. We go to church with your parents

back in Velma Alma.”

George said, “We just love Franny and Walt.”

Cora Ann said, “My parents’ names are Delores and Peter.”

“Right. We just love them to pieces. Your mama makes the best pecan casserole in Chickasaw County.”

The guy pronounced pecan like he was from Florida and not Oklahoma where Velma Alma is.

He went on. “They were at our house for handcranked pawpaw ice cream and watermelon Sunday and Petey said he would snatch us bald-headed if we came all this way and didn’t drop in on his baby daughter.”

I said, “Tell Petey he doesn’t have to snatch you. You dropped by,” and started to shut the door. George was too fast for me. He stuck a pack of Larks in the crack so the door wouldn’t close.

George said, “We called the motel and the woman there said they was full and so’s ever’body else. We don’t want to bother you none but your daddy said if we ran into a difficult spot you might put us up for a night.”

Mrs. George said, “Or two.”

Cora Ann looked at me and said, “The guest room is taken but they could have Charlie’s bed and we could put him in a tent.”

“We don’t want to make a fuss,” Pink Beehive Woman said.

George said, “Honeybun, go out to the car and get the kids, and make sure both dogs do their business before you bring them in. You know how nervous Flim Flam gets around strangers.”

I said, “Flim Flam?” JH SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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JUST A FEW THINGS TO DO IN

JACKSON HOLE

JACKSON n Look for dogs wearing local product Rex Specs (p. 28). n Mail a postcard (p. 26). n See Jackson Mayor Pete

Muldoon perform with Major Zephyr (p. 40). n Pop into The Anvil for an espresso (p. 48).

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

n Hike up the old Cache Creek Road (p. 94).

TETON VILLAGE

n Take the chairlift to the top of

Snow King (p. 118).

n Take the tram up Rendezvous Mountain (and maybe grab a waffle) (p. 118).

n Grab brunch at Glorietta Trattoria (p. 130).

n Catch a free Concert on the Commons.

n Head to Sweet Cheeks Meats for a breakfast sandwich (p. 107). n Bowl a frame or ten at Hole Bowl (p. 107).

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK n Float the Snake River (p. 22). n Visit the American Alpine Club’s

Climbers’ Ranch (p. 98).

n Hike to Schoolroom Glacier (p. 70). n Stop at the Teton Glacier Turnout (p. 70).

n Do a family bike ride on the pathway from Moose to Jenny Lake (p. 107). n Visit historic Jackson Lake Dam. n Try for the summit of Static Peak

(p. 118).

WILSON

FURTHER AFIELD

n Head for the summit of Taylor Mountain (p. 118).

n Backpack into the Thorofare (p. 60).

n Grab a bite at Streetfood @ the Stagecoach.

n Fish for lake trout on Jackson Lake (p. 112).

n Listen to the Stagecoach Band play Sunday nights at the Coach.

n Soak in Granite Hot Springs (p. 107).

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151

Best of

calendar of events

RYAN DORGAN

JH

Summer/Fall 2018 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 Labor Day, tickets start at $20, 307/733-7927, jhrodeo.com AERIAL TRAM RIDES: Just because you can’t ski in the summer 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, along with 152

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

Riders cross the finish line during the annual LOTOJA Classic in Teton Village. The 206-mile, one-day bike race takes more than 1,700 cyclists from Logan, Utah to Teton Village.

access to hiking trails and endless photo ops. Through October, 307/733-2292, jacksonhole.com 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 5 to August 16, Walk Festival Hall, tickets start at $25, 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 6 to August 17, Walk Festival Hall, $15, 307/733-1128, gtmf.org

GRAND TETON MUSIC FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA: Enjoy some of the country’s best musicians playing in an unparalleled setting. Fridays (8 p.m.) and Saturdays (6 p.m.) from July 3 to August 18, Walk Festival Hall, from $25, 307/733-1128, gtmf.org JACKSON HOLE PARAGLIDING: Tour Teton Village from the sky 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 13 to September 19, base of Snow King Mountain, free, tetonslowfood.org/peoples-market

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: Celebrating its 31st anniversary this year, the NMWA takes an expansive view of the wildlife art genre with its 5,000-plus-piece permanent collection. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through October, tickets $14 (adults), $12 (seniors), $6 (1 child), $2 (additional children), free (5 & under), 307/733-5771, wildlifeart.org

MAY 5: COLLECTORS CIRCLE 20TH ANNIVERSARY opens at the National Museum of Wildlife Art and hangs through August 26. 307/7335771, wildlifeart.org 5:

“KIDS COLLECT,” which features photographs of collections of local kids and the kids’ thoughts on their collections, opens at the National Museum of Wildlife Art and hangs through August 19. 307/733-5771, wildlifeart.org

25-28: 37TH 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

RYAN DORGAN

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 change weekly. 8 a.m. to noon, Saturdays from July 7 through September 22, Town Square, jacksonholefarmersmarket.com

The Jackson Hole Shootout on the Town Square is the longest continuously running gunfight in the country.

JUNE 1: “INVISIBLE BOUNDARIES: EXPLORING YELLOWSTONE’S GREAT ANIMAL MIGRATIONS” opens at the National Museum of Wildlife Art and hangs through August 19.

307/733-5771, wildlifeart.org 3: 19TH ANNUAL RUN & RIDE FOR THE CURE is a duathlon race benefitting the cancer patient support fund at St. John’s Medical Center. 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., Wilson Elementary School, $20-$25, 307/7336094, skinnyskis.com 9: 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), $75 for half marathon/$25 for 5K, Phil Baux Park (finish), jhhalf.com 16: 14TH ANNUAL SHIRLEY’S HEART RUN is a community 5K fun run supporting the cardiology fund at St. John’s Medical Center.

8 a.m., Rendezvous Park in Wilson, 307/7397517, stjohnshospitalfoundation.org 16: 7TH ANNUAL PLEIN AIR FEST has more than fifty invited artists painting outside from the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s sculpture trail. Collectors bid on the

artwork later in the afternoon. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., National Museum of Wildlife Art, free, 307/733-5771, wildlifeart.org 21-23: JACKSON HOLE FOOD & WINE is a three-day festival celebrating food, wine, sprits, and brews and benefiting Hole Food Rescue. Tickets start at $150, 307/6904824, jhfoodandwine.com 23: WRUN FOR WRAY, THE GRAND TARGHEE HILL CLIMB is a roughly three-mile uphill run beginning at the base of the Dreamcatcher chairlift and ending after a 1,840 foot climb to the top of Fred’s Mountain. 9:30 a.m., Grand Targhee Resort, wrunforwray.athlete360.com 23-24: TETON OGRE ADVENTURE RACE is a 10-hour or 24-hour multisport adventure race that includes trekking/trail running, mountain biking, and paddling. Teton Valley, ID, $110 per person for the 10-hour event and $230 for the 24-hour, 208/9700999, tetonogrear.com 26: MIX’D MEDIA: Celebrate the “Invisible Boundaries” on display through August 19. 6-9 p.m., National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Sculpture Trail, free, 307/733-5771, wildlifeart.org SUMMER 2018 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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JULY 4: 38TH ANNUAL 4TH OF JULY 10K is a sure way to get your Independence Day off to a great start. Sponsored by Skinny Skis and Jackson Whole Grocer, and benefiting Friends of Pathways. 8 a.m., Owen Bircher Park in Wilson, 307/733-6094, skinnyskis.com 4: PATRIOTIC POPS is a concert by the Grand Teton Music Festival celebrating the Fourth of July. 6 p.m., Walk Festival Hall, $15, 307/733-1128, gtmf.org 13-15: ART FAIR JACKSON HOLE is a twiceper-summer outdoor, juried art fair that draws artists and artisans from across the country. Friday & Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Miller Park, $5, 307/733-6379, artassociation.org 18: GTMF FUNDRAISING GALA CONCERT WITH AUDRA MCDONALD, featuring the star Broadway soprano, goes to support the Grand Teton Music Festival’s year-long music education programs and outreach activities. 6 p.m., Walk Festival Hall, tickets start at $200, 307/733-1128, gtmf.org 19: MIX’D MEDIA: Celebrate the exhibit “CC XX: Collectors Circle 20th Anniversary” on display through August 26. 6-9 p.m., National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Sculpture Trail, free, 307/733-5771, wildlifeart.org 20-29: TETON COUNTY FAIR is the ultimate slice of local life, with games, rides, 4-H competitions, and concerts. Teton County Fairgrounds, 307/733-5289, tetoncountyfair.com

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tram. 8:30 a.m., Teton Village, $40, 307/7332292, rendezvousmountainhillclimb.com

cultural events in the Rocky Mountain West.

307/733-3316, jacksonholechamber.com

10-12: 31ST GRAND TARGHEE BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL features a lineup of top-notch acts including the Infamous Stringdusters, Greensky Bluegrass, and Marty Stuart & the Fabulous Superlatives. Grand Targhee Resort, $85-$239, 208/353-2300, grandtarghee.com

6-9: 26TH ANNUAL WESTERN DESIGN CONFERENCE is the preeminent showcase of one-of-a-kind works by artists and artisans working in wood, metal, leather, and other media, all with a traditional or contemporary Western twist. Snow King Sports and Events Center, 307/690-9717, westerndesignconference.com

12: JACKSON HOLE LAND TRUST 38TH ANNUAL COMMUNITY PICNIC is a celebration of Jackson’s present and future land conservation efforts. 4 to 8 p.m., Walton Ranch, $50 for adults, free for children 12 and under, 307/733-4707, jhlandtrust.org 10-12: ART FAIR JACKSON HOLE is a twiceper-summer outdoor, juried art fair that draws artists and artisans from across the country. Friday & Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Miller Park, $5, 307/733-6379, artassociation.org 22: MIX’D MEDIA: Celebrate the NMWA’s collaborations with the Art Association of JH. 6-9 p.m., National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Sculpture Trail, free, 307/733-5771, wildlifeart.org 31-SEPTEMBER 3: 9TH ANNUAL WYDAHO MOUNTAIN BIKE FESTIVAL is a long weekend of talking bikes, guided group rides, live music, races, and parties. Grand Targhee Resort, passes start at $89 ($40 for kids), 208/709-8564, tetonbikefest.org

SEPTEMBER

28: 50TH ANNUAL SNOW KING HILL CLIMB begins at the Town Square; runners do 2.3 miles to the top of Snow King Mountain.

9 a.m., $35 ($45 day of), Town Square, 307/733-5056, 4jacksonhole.org/1410/ snow-king-hill-climb

1: 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 (half marathon), registration starts at $85, 307/733-3318, jacksonholemarathon.com

29-AUGUST 4: 7TH ANNUAL DRIGGS PLEIN AIR FESTIVAL is a week full of wonderful art experiences in Teton Valley, ID. driggspleinair.org

AUGUST

5: 20TH ANNUAL JEWELRY & ARTISAN LUNCHEON combines an elegant lunch with beautiful jewelry, clothing, and accessories crafted by artisans from across the country, with a portion of event proceeds going to the National Museum of Wildlife Art. 11 a.m to 3 p.m., National Museum of Wildlife Art, $150, 307/733-5771, wildlifeart.org

4: RENDEZVOUS MOUNTAIN HILL CLIMB to the top of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort

5-16: 34TH ANNUAL JACKSON HOLE FALL ARTS FESTIVAL is one of the premier

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

7: PALATES AND PALETTES GALLERY WALK is the Fall Arts Festival’s official kick-off.

More than thirty galleries partner with local restaurants to participate. Free, 307/7333316, jacksonholechamber.com 8: 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. 801/546-0090, lotoja.com 8: OLD BILL’S FUN RUN is Jackson Hole’s biggest community fundraiser and includes race and fun divisions, 5K and 10K. 10 a.m., Jackson Town Square, 307/739-1026, cfjacksonhole.org 13-14: 30TH ANNUAL WESTERN VISIONS SHOW & SALE features works by the country’s leading wildlife artists and is the final opportunity to bid on beautiful pieces of art. $125, 5-8 p.m., National Museum of Wildlife Art, 307/733-5771, wildlifeart.org 22: JACKSON HOLE WILDLIFE FILM FESTIVAL is an unparalleled gathering of broadcast and media stakeholders, writers, scientists, and conservationists. Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Teton National Park, 307/2003286, jhfestival.org

OCTOBER 19: MIX’D MEDIA: Celebrate the show “Thomas D. Mangelsen: A Life in the Wild.” 6-9 p.m., National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Sculpture Trail, free, 307/733-5771, wildlifeart.org 20: “THOMAS D. MANGELSEN: A LIFE IN THE WILD,” which features 50 of the local wildlife photographer’s most iconic images from his 40-year career, opens at the National Museum of Wildlife Art and hangs through May 5, 2019. 307/733-5771, wildlifeart.org

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