To celebrate our 50th anniversary, we had planned to go on a Llama Trek in Teton National Park. It was supposed to be a back-country camping trip where the llamas carried all your camping gear. Well with all the screw-ups in the government, especially with the national parks, our trip got cancelled. But we decided to go ahead with visiting Jackson, Wyoming and doing our own outdoor adventure.
Courtney and I had purchased plane tickets to fly into Jackson early and do some sketching. Bruce was going to drive with Charlie and meet us later in the day. Flying to Jackson on United Express was certainly a lot nicer than flying on Southwest. I can't remember the last time I had an entire row to myself (probably pre-COVID). The views out the window were stunning.
Jackson is a tiny airport, so they don't have traditional jetways. Instead, you just walk off the plane down a ramp onto the tarmac. Everybody kept stopping on the way into the terminal to take selfies with those gorgeous mountains in the background.
The first day we all went on a hike. I was a little nervous about bears, but I rented some bear spray while I was waiting for Courtney at the airport. Mostly I hiked behind Bruce and Courtney figuring I'd be long gone back to the car before they even got the bear spray out of their pack.
I'm not the biggest fan of scaling mountains, so I picked a trail that wasn't too steep and was supposed to have lots of wildflower meadows along the trail.
That trail turned out to be quite a jungle. The wildflowers were beautiful, but being late-summer, also full of pollen and seeds. Charlie got absolutely covered in them, because he can't resist sticking his nose into everything. Since we're having a drought in Colorado, I'm not used to all this foliage so close to the trail either. I'd have worn long pants if I'd known, but luckily there were no mosquitoes or poison ivy.
One of the things that impressed me about the trailhead was how well-kept the site was. Even the port-a-potty had a colorful mural painted on all the inside walls.
The next day Courtney and I rented eBikes while Bruce and Charlie went on another hike. We decided to ride up to the Teton Village Ski Resort (you can see all the cutouts for ski lifts in the background).
The bike trail was really nice - paved and surprisingly flat. That turned out to be a good thing, because about 5 miles out of town, I discovered that the rental shop had given me a bike with a low battery. I managed to make it to Teton Village before the battery totally died, but I headed straight to the bike shop and switched it out for a fresh one.
That afternoon, Courtney and I went down to the river to sketch. We were staying in a cabin along the Snake River. It was really nice with 2 bedrooms, a mini kitchen, and an outdoor deck.
I had brought some floating chairs thinking we'd go for a swim in the river, but the water was way too cold. However, several times we saw people floating down the river on paddleboards. If we'd been staying an extra day, I think I would have found out where the rental place was and tried it myself. I think I would have been OK as long as I didn't try to stand up and fall in.
On the last day, we took Courtney to the airport and then drove home (almost 10 hours - yikes!). Along the way I couldn't resist stopping at this little coffee shop. When I got my drink, I saw that they had mini-huckleberry donuts - yum. So this didn't turn out to be the llama trek I'd originally planned, but I think our little multi-sport adventure turned out to be even better.
