Jackson, Wyo. – This charming town of 9,577 residents is the principal municipality of the area known as Jackson Hole. It’s also the seat of Teton County.
Astride the Snake River – or rather Flat Creek, a tributary thereof – it’s home to the National Elk Refuge. And it’s a convenient headquarters for the second leg of our vacation.
Grand Teton National Park, a short drive northeast of Jackson, brings us to the majestic Tetons and their surrounding flora and fauna. It is a multi-faceted thing of beauty.
People talk in terms of the Grand Teton region dating back 12,000-15,000 years, but modern history seems to date from the early 1800s when the Tetons were a hotspot for fur traders. When Yellowstone got national park protection in 1882, efforts to save the Tetons from rampant commercialization began. The Grand Teton National Park was established in 1929.
Among its beautiful lakes is the 18,000-year-old, glacier-formed Jenny Lake, 260 feet deep and 226 acres in area. From its banks we hike, upward along Cascade Creek to Hidden Falls.
We watch the channeling of the mountain’s melted snow into the lake that is acknowledged as Wyoming’s most beautiful. We imagine the outflow into the Snake River via Cottonwood Creek, only a mile and a-half away.
Jenny freezes each winter and usually thaws by early May. This year she did not thaw until nearly June. She’s full of trout: cutthroats, native to the area and endangered, and brown, which were brought to the area decades ago and prey on the cutthroats. Jenny has a campground, a lodge and a ranger station. She’s real and she’s spectacular!
We hike to and along the smaller but similarly lovely Taggart Lake – a four-mile hike gently rising some 400 feet on its course. The landscape is dominated by brilliant yellow aspens.
Then there’s Jackson Lake, with its large, luxurious lodge. A convention is taking place while we visit, so it’s bustling. It has two fine restaurants, replete with a terraced outside area that looks out onto the mountain range with a prairie in between – a panacea, we are told, for watching wildlife in the mornings.
Jackson Lake Lodge also has corrals offering horseback riding. On Wednesday, the eighth day of our vacation and our second day in the Tetons, we go on a 75-minute trail ride. There are seven on the ride.
Susan draws a 21-year-old called Walker, which is overweight and known for her gastrointestinal “issues.” Thus, they bring up the rear, right behind me, on Foxy, a 12-year-old known for occasionally jumping fences. This is a walking tour, though, and the horses are well-trained.
We succeed in not falling off, and the vistas with which we were presented on a ride up the mountain are magnificent. However, seeing as how neither of us had ridden in three decades, we have a certain soreness about us after the ride.
As was the case with last week’s topic, the written word fails to convey the full extent of the experience.
Vic Fleming is a district court judge in Little Rock, Ark., where he also teaches at the William H. Bowen School of Law. Contact him at [email protected].