Jackson, WY

June 30- July 7th, 2018

On the drive from Twin Falls we stopped in American Falls, off of US 30, to see the Register Rock.

Register Rock is a historic site where Oregon Trail emigrants carved their names on a rock. The rock is located in Massacre Rocks State Park.

Welcome to Wyoming. I loved driving over the state line on the Teton Pass.

We stayed in Victor, ID right outside of Jackson as our base to explore Jackson and Grand Teton NP. Teton Village RV Resort had TeePees, cabins and glamping tents you could rent. They had an inflatable slide, pool and playground. These were great for breaks from school work. We started our 2018-2019 school year as soon as we got back from Georgia. This way we will be able to add in more breaks through out our adventure in places that have so much to see. The girls flew through their 4th and 6th grade curriculum, I’m sure this year will be much the same. 5th and 7th grades- here we come. It’s amazing how much you can get done with only 2 kids in a classroom and work at the pace that suits you.

The weather was up and down all week. One day it was a bit cold while we were working.

Chris and I attempted running this week. I say attempted because I ended up walking and he cut his short because it’s so hard to breathe here. 6600 feet above sea level.

Victor, ID is home of the world famous Huckleberry Milkshake. WOW! It did not disappoint. I mentioned in my post about Montana that they have Huckleberry EVERYTHING in this park of the country, and I couldn’t be happier. I love any kind of berry. This soda shop and gift store store has ‘quiet country town’ written all over it.

Chris got in a round of golf this week at Teton Springs Resort.

Jackson Hole

The town is called Jackson, WY but everyone calls it Jackson Hole. It’s a valley next to the Tetons. The winter brings skiers so it’s a year round tourist city.

Bar J Chuck Wagon

The family at Bar J’s has been putting on this dinner and show for over 40 years and they do it right. I highly recommend reserving one of your night for this event.

You are assigned a picnic table with 12-15 other folks. We sat next to a family from Augusta, GA… imagine that?

While you are waiting for dinner to start you can ride a little train and walk around sampling the steak on the grill and the biscuits straight from the cast iron skillet. We brought a new travel size game that Francey gave us, called Qwixx. It’s our favorite out to eat- waiting for our meal- game. It’s similar to Yahtzee.

The cowboys running the show are ranchers when they aren’t singing. The fiddle player is a 4 time national champion. They were fantastic. The price includes food, show, tax and tip. Great value.

In the center of town there is a square that is anchored on each corner by Antler Arches. The National Elk Refuge is on the outskirt of town on the drive to the Grand Teton NP. Every year the Boy Scouts go out and pick up the antlers in the refuge, sell them for enough money to buy feed to sprinkle in the fields for the Elk during the winter.

We walked around town and stopped in to visit Jacob, a guy we met while on the Whale Watching tour in Alaska. He works at Thomas Mangelsen’s gallery.

If you love Grizzly’s, Grand Teton National Park and photography, you have to stop in and gawk at his work. He is known for photographing 399, a female Grizzly in the area.

The largest grizzly hunt in the Lower 48 in 40 years is opening in September in Wyoming. More than 7,000 people applied for a chance to kill one of the 22 bears they are allowing to be hunted. They had a lottery for permits; 15 instate tags at $600 and 7 out-of-state tags at $6,000 each. Among the tiny number of people who won the lottery for permits was Tom Mangelsen. He plans to shoot the bears with his camera. This was his way of protesting the hunt.

Yellowstone grizzlies were placed on the endangered species list in 1975, but has rebounded to about 700. The other two states that border Yellowstone, Idaho and Montana have their own views. Idaho also approved a hunt of a single male grizzly; Montana rejected a grizzly hunt this year.

Here’s how the WY hunt works; hunters will be allowed into the field, one at a time, for 10 days each. The hunt in those areas will end when the first female is killed or after 10 males are killed. In two other areas that are farther from parks and more populated by humans, as many as 12 bears, male or female, can be killed.

Phil Beaux park is also known as the Teton Boulder Park. A family I met online, that is doing the same thing we are, had posted about this park so I had made a note to visit when we were in town. Instead of rock climbing they boulder climb. Very unique. It’s at the base of Snow King Mountain- which is the ski resort. It’s also where they shoot off the fireworks.

I saw on social media that a friend from Georgia was in the area for summer vacation. We met up at Pinky G’s Pasta and Pizza for a casual dinner. It was featured on Diners, Drive-in’s and Dives.We enjoyed catching up with them and sharing our week itineraries. They inspired us to go white water rafting on Yellowstone River.

The Jackson Hole Rodeo- Where the west is still wild!

In 1890 Sylvester Wilson brought the first group of settlers over Teton Pass into what is now Jackson Hole. Wilson is a neighboring town, named after the family; which we ate dinner at one night. The restaurant had food truck menu items. We ordered street tacos and sat outside at the picnic tables. They even have a drive through liquor store. Reminds me of Newby’s in Panama City.

The rodeo has been passed down through the generations and they still compete in the rodeo.

Mackenzie has most looked forward to visiting Wyoming since we began this adventure. Chris always talks about settling in Wyoming so she wanted to see what it is all about. She said that she will buy a horse farm out here when she becomes a pediatric oncologist.

Half way through the rodeo show that they ask for all the kids in the audience to go to the center of the arena. They get to participate in a race to grab a red bandana off of a baby calf’s neck. We knew about this ahead of time so instead of wearing cowboy boots they wore sneakers so they could run faster. As soon as they made the announcement they threw off their cowboy hats and ran down to the field. They had them do some warm up exercises in the dirt…yes the manure filled dirt. They had them do push ups and roll over in it. They even had them put a handful in their pockets as a souvenir. The girls went right along with it 🙂 We were cracking up!

Bull riding is the most dangerous sport in the world! I’m so glad we didn’t grow up around here because I’d be a nervous wreck if my children had gotten into this sport. We watched a girl mount a horse and 5 seconds later fall and break her arm.

We celebrated July 4th in Grand Teton National Park (see our next post on my favorite mountain range to date) but then decided to watch the fireworks from the top of the RV instead of the crowded town of Jackson. Apparently their are fabulous fireworks in Idaho Falls but we aren’t into the traffic and crowds of this holiday.