Hello Wyoming!

I hope everyone is having a great week. I am out in the Wild West with my family, so I thought I'd start recapping some of our adventures. I'll probably finish up the rest of the trip on the plane and post next week. We flew into Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Sunday afternoon. You can't take a direct flight from Boston, but it seems like Chicago and Denver are big feeders into the area. A few interesting facts about the area of Jackson Hole:

1. Jackson Hole is the name of the area, but Jackson is the actual town. Inside the town of Jackson is the ski area called Jackson Hole. Have I lost you yet?

2. The Jackson Hole airport is very small, no need to shuttle to your rental car in this airport. It is right there!

3. Jackson is a fun, wild west tourist town that makes a great base for exploration of Grand Teton National Park which is only five miles north of town. It is also a great place to stay on the way to Yellowstone National Park which is 56 miles away (to the south entrance).

When we arrived in Jackson Hole, we drove about fifteen minutes to our hotel in downtown Jackson called The Wort Hotel. There was a fun cowboy theme throughout the hotel.

On our first night we visited the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar which was a short walk from the hotel (actually everything in Jackson is a short walk, ha). Apparently this bar was called The Cowboy Bar until a fire in the 1950s ruined part of the bar. When it cost a million dollars to fix up, the owners renamed it the Million Dollar Cowboy bar. It's also important to note that the drinks were great and the seats at the bar are saddles. True story.

On Monday morning we started our exploration of Grand Teton National Park with a trip up to Jenny Lake. Hikes in the Jenny Lake area are a fun way to see the Teton mountains and all the beautiful landscape in the area. We decided to do the hikes to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Trail. These are pretty popular and if you want to make them shorter you can take the quick boat ride across the lake. We decided to hike across the lake which is a little over 3 miles, then we took the boat back. Once you get to the other side it's about .5 to Hidden Falls and 1 mile to Inspiration Point. If you decided to hike back, the whole thing would be a little over 8 miles, but I kind of liked getting to see the lake from the water as well so I'd recommend a one way boat ride.

The hike to the other side of the lake was very flat and easy. Other than a minor altitude/my-stomach-is-terrible breakdown about two miles in, it went pretty well. Thank goodness for Advil, my patient family and Eric pouring cold water on my head.

 

My first reward for continuing the hike was Hidden Falls.

The hike up to Inspiration Point is definitely more of an uphill climb, and it kind of involves some narrow pathways where a cliff is on one side. I thought it was perfectly safe myself, but it's probably not for everyone.

The view is so, so worth it though.

After the climb down, we caught the quick boat ride back across Jenny Lake, which provided more gorgeous views.

I do just absolutely love hiking in cool places and man, does it seem that the US and Canada have so many cool places. I swear I will never be done traveling!

 

Have you ever been to a wild west town?

Tell me something fun you have planned for this weekend. Happy Friday!

 

 

 

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