The Wild West Part IV -- River Deep, Mountain High

This part of the trip is covered by the Track My Tour app which you can follow here if you wish. Get app, thanks again Chris!

We hadn't really thought about it being around the 4th July that we had planned to come out to Jackson and hereabouts. Apparently two weeks ago, it was empty but this is the busiest week of the summer. Certainly traffic in the national parks was pretty brisk. Also wherever there was a significant spot (like Old Faithful) there were a lot of people. It also showed itself in our booking for accommodation. Both availability and pricing. But it did mean we'd be in a small town USA for the 4th July parade!!

Our hotel. We stayed in the little annex to the left. Ski runs all over.

The first night back in Jackson we went to the rodeo, just walking distance (we didn't as it rained) from our hotel, Snow King Resort. I'd booked a Mountain View room with the room rate reflecting that premium nature but found that the mountains rather than being over a lake away as at Jackson Lake Lodge were in fact less than 20 yards away so impossible to view with other than a cricked neck. Looking upwards that is.

The rodeo was wonderful. The heavens opened as we arrived but luckily we were under cover so rode the storm for the next hour or so until the skies brightened and became a starry, clear night again. Bronco riding, cow riding, horse racing and turning displays, cow roping and the simply wonderful sheep scramble where every child under the age of 12 went onto the ring and chased down 3 unsuspecting sheep trying to pluck something off the sheep's collars. The children kept coming and coming and coming! Tons of them. Just madness resulted.

A couple of teenagers were sitting next to us and we started chatting. They were from Texas and had driven up from Dallas a day or so before. The boy's name was 'Judd' and he was 16 years old. I asked if he had a car. He said 'Yup'. What kind, I asked. 'A truck'. He got out his phone and showed me a picture of a huge flat bed truck with cow bars front and back. Of course his name was Judd and of course he had a truck and of course he spoke in single syllables. He's from Texas! At a rodeo. What else would I expect?

It was still clear on the 4th July morning and we made it to the parade area, just down the road and this time we did walk. I'd mentioned it to Viv last night at the rodeo that I do think that the Americans have a wonderful respect for their flag, their nation and their vets. I don't know if this 100% true of course but the way the rodeo did the intro, the various flags -- town, state then stars and stripes -- and then the national anthem. It was all very rousing and inspiring. We Brits tend to be almost apologetic about it and find such outpourings of emotion to be rather cringeworthy and shy away from it all. But I was happy to cheer at the end.

Same at the parade. Huge cheers for everyone and everything and I do wonder just why all these people show up to parade, but then again why not? It is the collection of all the theys that make the community, town, state and country. The rodeo girls from last night carrying the flag, the ambulances, the fire fighters, the local organizations and of course Chewbacca on a skate board wearing the stars and stripes. Who would miss him out?

It was still clear so we jumped on the ski lift to the top of the nearest ski mountain as there was a hiking trail all around the peak. It wasn't the longest trail and definitely not the most difficult but it certainly ranks up there as one of the most picturesque. Just stunning actually.

Grand Tetons

Jackson the town and the 'Hole' further along the valley

It was so enjoyable that we decided that rather than catch the ski lift down, we'd walk. It was only 3 or so miles down the mountain in a sort of zig zag fashion. It did enable us to check out some of the ski slopes on the way down. The double black diamond one called fuzzy bear or something like that was almost vertical!

The mountain bike trails were not the ones we walked down. Those were far too wimpy for the bikers. Theirs were almost vertical like the ski slopes and followed a sort of in and out pattern through the tree line with jumps, rocks, streams.... I thought it was impossible to even walk down until I saw a group of kids skipping up the trail, probably whistling or humming.

Not the bike trail

Our hotel was only 5 minutes from downtown (did I mention that Jackson is actually a pretty small little town?) and after our exertions we felt that something cool and cleansing was required to hold us over until the fireworks planned for later that night. We chose the fabled Million Dollar Bar on the square and found it everything a modern western saloon should be!

Fine local brew!

As a result, Viv went out and bought a pair of cowboy boots (sorry another pair) while I contented myself with a hat. I know, we just have to come back out here again so we can wear this stuff. OK then.

Fireworks were fun and happily ended just before a rainstorm of epic proportions crashed down all around. The thunder and lightning actually did have the nod over the fireworks in the end.

Great visit. Too brief. Again.

The Wild West Part III -- National Parks

I tracked the tour for this segment of our road trip so if you'd like to follow it moment by moment, you can do so here. And of course, thanks Chris for the great app!

Our plan for our stay in the Jackson area was to spend a couple of days in the Grand Teton National Park, in Jackson Lake Lodge to be precise, and during that time visit Yellowstone and generally cram as much in as we could in the relatively few days we'd be there. Luckily, it was great weather so we didn't suffer too much seeing as we'd omitted to know that Jackson is 7,000 feet high with many of the places we'd be visiting substantially higher than that. with mid-summer average temperatures in the 70's, this meant it could get chilly at times. Personally I wish I'd thought of that and remembered to bring a pair of jeans rather than just the shorts and T-shirts. But you live and learn!

It wasn't long enough but the location and views were breathtaking.

One of the smaller lakes along the way. The tallest peak is something over 13,000 feet
 

View from our balcony

Our day trip to Yellowstone was great. Bus tour with a dozen random people. The area itself is underpinned by a dormant volcano with the bulk of the park's area being its caldera. That is why there are so many geothermal areas, over 10,000 at last count and increasing all the time as new hot spots suddenly emerge and burst into the open. Most are small but there are a few larger areas with larger pools. Old Faithful is but the most famous of these.

Old Faithful is the most predictable of the pools that erupt. It is about 1 hour 20 minutes plus or minus 20 minutes between eruptions. Of course we had to stay!

The park area itself is so immense that it was impossible for us to do anything other than a shortish circle and hit a few high points. People come from all over the country to spend their family vacations camping, in a RV, fishing -- trout fishing is amazing there apparently -- hiking, biking... you name it. Really a special place. I am really glad there were visionaries around to make sure it stays unspoiled.

One of the things I am impressed by are the rangers and forest management. You get the feeling from media reports these days that forest fires are all over the place due to drought conditions brought on by climate change or whatever, but many of the forest trees have evolved so that they may only produce seeds and spores once the tree has been through a fire. This is an all natural event which Mother Nature has devised ingenious ways to accommodate. Obviously some fires are more severe than others. The guide said that the last big one in the 1980's had over 10,000 fire fighters at its peak. It does help that the entire area is dotted with lakes which this year are overflowing given the amount of rain that has been happening (but thankfully not when we were there).  In the park are huge areas of dead trees from the last/recent fire but in all instances you can see small saplings pushing up to replace them. It also helps that areas like this make it easier to spot the critters that are meant to abound here. We didn't see many because traffic was so busy (it was 4th July weekend!) but did see quite a few bison, elk, brown and grizzly bears. Not Yogi though.

Great time. Sadly too short. This place is a keeper!

The Wild West Part II -- Jackson

The town is called Jackson NOT Jackson Hole. Jackson Hole is the entire valley in which Jackson is situated at the southern end, with Yellowstone National Park in the north. The Hole was in fact first 'discovered' by western fur trappers, actually one Mr. Jackson after which ... you get the idea.

The 'Hole'

When you look back at history from say a couple of hundred years perspective and get past the old history book notion that history was just a series of unconnected dates, you do realize that they are not and it all goes back to Napoleon.

Why does that guy keep sticking his nose in everywhere? Years ago I was reading a PG Wodehouse book where a not very deep conversation between a couple of airhead drones touched on old Boney whereupon one of the savants came up with the glorious comment... "whatever did that poor fish do other than getting hammered at Waterloo?" Quite a bit actually including this. Tangentially this time though.

So... the French Revolution in 1789 brought forth many changes, one of which was almost endless war with practically everyone in Europe until said occasion in 1815. Wars are expensive so by the time Boney took over and completed his looting of the countries nearest to him, Switzerland and Italy, he realized that the loot so acquired was nowhere near enough so he cast around looking for any other family silver that wasn't cutting it whereupon one of his aides named Junot came in with yet another horrendous report from Haiti. The revolution there was going really well but for the wrong people; the freed slaves. They had been fighting against the revolutionary government in France who was acting in a very non revolutionary manner ever since the Revolution began. Despite Junot's genocidal tactics, whenever the French looked the other way, something bad happened that usually included French soldiers getting massacred in hideous ways. In short it was a total mess. Now Boney, had a strategic desire to create a major port in New Orleans and use Haiti as a stepping stone to upseat the British in all their Caribbean locations but that required time, effort, money and resources .... none of which Boney had to hand. Just this bloody European war. But the American colonists were friends of theirs, weren't they? And that feller Franklin something was ambassador. He was always droning on about this or that. But it did offer a neat way out. Sell him (well the Americans) the huge Louisiana territory and raise some cash which Boney really did need and could put to use at once. That other strategic thing was a nice thought but really he had to take care of business at home first. And of course, you never go broke by taking the money.

So Boney got the money and the Americans a huge new territory about as big again as what they had already. How they financed it is another fascinating story! The Americans certainly didn't have that kind of ready money. But it was done. And now they also had a huge new tract of land to explore and do something with. I mean they bought it, right? So it must be theirs irrespective of who was actually there right now. Read about the full story here from Wikipedia.

You got a lot for your money back then. 3 cents per acre.

This all took place in 1803 and towards the end of that year, the then US President Thomas Jefferson hosted a couple of roughnecks who had a mad cap idea to head out in canoes and explore the new territory starting in St Louis and then heading north or wherever the Missouri River led to in the end. Presumably the western ocean somewhere. Their names were Lewis and Clarke.

Their story is one of the great pioneering stories and is all the better known by virtue of the fact that they kept sending back reports to GHQ. This must have kept reducing the number in their party over time and it was on just one of these side trips one of the guys (John Colter) took in 1804 was with this just in mind. However he took a wrong turning by mistake (this is all river bound and rivers do look pretty much alike I think, certainly then) and tripped over and into Yellowstone Park, kept on going south and well as they say the rest is history.

You can see how a wrong turn back then would get you to a whole new place

The history books report all of this with such veneration that it almost behooves me to not do that as I can just imagine Lewis & Clarke rushing back to the president gushing with the news that this new area is millions and millions of square miles of virgin land with forests, lakes and rivers and such just waiting for new settlers from the east and elsewhere. To which I presume TJ saying something along the lines of what did you think would be there, if not that? But I am sure he didn't. He congratulated them and gave them comfy sinecures somewhere miles away from both the new lands and also TJ himself in Washington, so there was no chance of them bumping into him and asking how the settlement program was coming along. He would have filed it all away for future generations to figure out just what on earth they do with this enormous new land they had acquired as there were no new settlers to spare from back east just then.

Settlement didn't start until the 1820's but only sporadically as the entire valley was snow bound for seven months a year which wasn't very encouraging with the technologies then available. Think Grizzly Adams and the Revenant movies. Then make it a lot worse. However this also meant that for large parts of the year, there were no Indian tribes around either. In fact across the plains, there were few permanent Indian settlements courtesy of both terrain/weather but also the migratory patterns of the critters that they preyed upon. Given the size of the country and the few numbers of mainly itinerant people around, I find it amazing that anyone could find anybody else. So for many years, there was relative peace. Into the 1850's anyway.

We visited the Little Big Horn Battlefield Monument -- its actually about 7 hours drive away in south eastern Montana -- and in the visitor centre there is a picture of the agreement of 1851 which set aside vast tracts of land for the Indian tribes. The land size was virtually all of South and North Dakota and more than one-third each of Montana and Wyoming. Given that at one of the peak gatherings of several tribes on the eve of the battle itself encompassed some 6 tribes and 8,000 people, this seems to me like a tiny number of people with a huge amount of land.

It was that battle and the events that followed it that spurred greater settlement in the Jackson region but what took Jackson to all new heights was Theodore Roosevelt and the sheriff of  Deadwood, Seth Bullock. They were big friends and TR stayed with the sheriff when he was out west and just loved to roam around Yellowstone to the point that the pair of them decided rather informally that the scenery and location was of such grandeur that it should be protected in virgin state forever. This was before development so the perfect time to do this, and of course miles and miles and miles away from any other development like say Chicago. And no trains. And no roads. So they got together a state wide agreement to set aside the land and then jointly took it to Washington for federal approval. This took place in 1872 and so Yellowstone became the first national park in the US.

Soon after, train tracks were built and tourists started arriving and where should they find to stay but that charming little western town of Jackson.

The Grand Tetons

150 years later it is still small but still charming and has expanded its ambitions to encompass the Grand Teton National Park in 1929 (huge mountain range) and discovered that for some insane reason, otherwise perfectly rational people had this massive desire to launch themselves off the top of mountains down impossible slopes in winter, by tying sticks to their feet, and in summer, by bike. Same paths, I kid you not.

There are roads now and also traffic jams...

... but not everywhere

Oh yes, and those economists also like it.

The Wild West Part I

Now I cannot remember whether this is Part 1 or whatever for this title but as it chronicles our visit to Wyoming and car trip back to Chicago across the prairies, that's what I will call it. More parts to follow.

I don't know if I've mentioned before in this blog that Viv and I have the notion to visit every one of the 50 states in the USA, so we do and this trip ticked off a lot of new ones for us. But of course that isn't the reason for wanting to do this trip, it's that Viv and I enjoy road trips and the US is so big and so diverse that it makes it really interesting, fun and easy to do. This time... and it really never occurred to me before in this way ... I really do see why the Americans love their driving, their big cars (bikes and trucks too) and not that infrequently do not feel the need to get a passport as their country is both big enough and accessible enough for anyone.

We were in Toronto after our Bermuda trip and whilst not exactly wondering what to do with ourselves, had a couple of notions of things to do whilst we were in North America. My first thought was to circumnavigate the Great Lakes. Lake Ontario is one of them so the start and end point wasn't too far away and as the lakes spread out across the continent, they take in a mass of both US states and Canadian provinces.

The Great Lakes

Then we remembered we'd have to hire a car and cross the international border at least a couple of times, if not more. And we've heard about the increased delays with all the Homeland Security stuff so thought it may be simpler to just stay in one country which meant looking for a flight west somewhere and then onwards. So Plan B (again mine) was to hire a car in Chicago and then drive out to the Rockies... and back. In a week or so. Viv said isn't that quite a distance so I looked on Google Maps and discovered that yes indeed it was a long way. About 3,000 miles there and back actually.

So onto Plan C.

Viv suggested flying out to the Rockies and then hiring a car and drive back. Now this was a better idea and of course the driving distance back would be just about half of Plan B, so much more manageable. And we'd get to spend some time way out west too instead of just driving there and turning right around.

Next question was where? Then I remembered about Jackson Hole which is in Wyoming.

Being a nerd, all I knew about Jackson Hole was that it was the home of the annual Fed jamboree, sort of like a Davos but in the USA. It takes place in August each year. This is what the Kansas City Fed website (the sponsors) say about it:

'The Jackson Hole Economic Symposium is an annual symposium, sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City since 1978, and held in Jackson Hole, Wyo., since 1981. Every year, the symposium focuses on an important economic issue that faces world economies. Participants include prominent central bankers and finance ministers, as well as academic luminaries and leading financial market players from around the world.'

Pull the other one, I say. What a load of nonsense. They could do this symposium in Cleveland or Dodge City even if they wanted to stay in Kansas, but by chance selected the most picturesque little town on the edge of the Rockies with plush resorts and 5 star dining everywhere you looked. Does the 7,000 feet high mountain air really clear the boffins' minds or is this just a total bean feast? Yeah, right.

... which of course was great for us as (a) the great and the good would not be there and (b) it sounds like a really spectacular place.

It was.

Booking flights, car, accommodation and tours was of course a breeze but before we left we went for dinner to a friend's house in Toronto and he told us that Jackson Hole was THE Mecca for skiing in North America. We didn't know this but then again he and his family are big skiers so they do know even though they've never visited. He backtracked later that same evening and said that Jackson Hole was A Mecca, rather then THE but still its reputation was pretty darned good.

So much to look forward to then. One thing that was a pain was the flight leaving Toronto to make the connection to Jackson Hole. It was at 6.30 am which meant a ridiculously early start. Why couldn't those important people complain about the ungodly hours? Oh yes, forgot. They use their private jets.

Cool airport!