Day 11: Goin' to Jackson

Goin' to Jackson

Got up, packed up and headed down the road to Jackson, and, more importantly, the Grand Tetons! Quiz: do you remember what the Continental Divide is? We drove over it several times and couldn't remember. Sadly, Owen, who is usually our fountain of knowledge for things like this was also in the dark.

Driving into the Grand Tetons is an astounding sight. They are the mountains that one would picture if you were coming up with the perfect mountain. They are tall, dramatic, snow covered, and stunning. We headed to Jenny Lake for the boat ride, which we took for the short trail to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. Like the rest of the Grand Tetons, they were more beautiful than one would imagine possible. We got to see a pika, a tiny alpine rabbit creature, on the way to the falls.

Although many of the guides said one day was fine for Grand Teton, it's really not, we found ourselves rushing around trying to get what we could in. We flew from Jenny Lake to the Moose Junction Visitor Center, a beautiful building with a wall of windows facing the Tetons and a giant stone fireplace, to try to get another Junior Ranger badge for the kids. Another success, we now have three Junior Rangers at three National Parks. These Junior Ranger programs were easily the kids favorite part of the trip. They loved the challenged of the activities, had fun at the programs, and the patch at the end was like icing on the cake.

Proudly badged up, we headed to Jackson to check out the town and say a quick hello to a dear college friend, which though brief, was wonderful. We then got subs from the New York City Sub Shop, which ironically is the sandwich place the locals frequent. We made our way to the town center to eat. At the town square in Jackson, there are four arches made of elk antlers. It's creepy, especially only a few miles away from the national elk refuge. It's like saying, elks, you stay there, you're safe, but you get into town and all bets are off.

Jackson Shoot Out.  

As we neared the town center, there were a bunch of people waiting as if for a parade. There was no parade, there was a "town shoot-out.". For the past 55 years during the summer every night at 6, except Sunday, the good citizens of Jackson put on a shoot out skit. If someone is performing a shoot out skit a few feet away from you, you have to watch so we did. I couldn't see too much of it, but there was drama and gun shots and the kids liked it, so why not? We settled down to business and chowed down on our sandwiches which were delicious. We then stopped at Moo's homemade ice cream and sorbet and strolled through the strange grouping of statues eating out treats. We couldn't figure out any rhyme or reason to the why of the statues, but you could sit on a bench with: Jack London, Einstein, Abe Lincoln, Mark Twain, or St. Francis. There was also a large statue of some guy on a horse with a boy on his lap. We asked an older gentleman who he thought he was and he said, "I don't know, but I have a real nice photo of him." With that, it was time to bid adieu to Wyoming and start our trip home.