5/31/11 – Grand Teton National Park

In the morning after only a couple hours, we had reached Jackson Hole Wyoming, a town that seemed to be made up almost entirely of outdoor enthusiasts. Also the home of Mountain Khaki’s- one of my favorite brands of outdoor clothing. As I spend so much time at work selling their product, I decided to drop in and pay a visit to the designers that work in Wilson, WY- a sort of suburb of Jackson Hole. The small studio consisted of only one room in a modern commercial building tucked almost seamlessly into the small community between the mountains and a babbling mountain stream. 
The two designers and their husky were very welcoming and excited to meet visitors that had come so far. They inquired about the Bill Bartee and life in general at Jesse Brown’s in Charlotte, reaffirming my appreciation of the small size of the company and the personal relationships they keep with their vendors. We left there with a hand drawn map to some local attractions and felt as if we had made some new friends.

After we entered the park and began to review the maps we had received at the gate, it quickly became apparent that the majority of the hiking trails and attractions would still be closed due to the record setting snowfall that had accumulated during the winter. 
According to the ranger station, the snow pack was somewhere between 230 and 250 percent of the annual average- giving us a milder view of the mountains as they would appear in winter rather than the full summer we were experiencing back home.

Like a jagged pile of broken porcelain china, the line of mountains jutted skyward out of the flat sagebrush and pine covered flat lands. The sheer snow covered faces of the Teton range demanded at least a few hours of sitting in wonderment. Sam had a hard time believing how anyone could climb to the summit of Grand Teton and ski down, the subject of an exhibit in the visitor center museum. I think next year, I’ll have to take her up to Brevard to watch the Banff Mountain Film Festival or at least the Radical Reels Tour as they make their rounds there.

After driving the road that loops around the center of the park, we found our way to the campsite suggested by our friends at Mountain Khaki on the adjoining US Forest Service land. 

As we cooked and ate nestled in the aspen grove, we had the perfect view of the sunset as it glowed from behind the jagged peaks of the Teton Mountain Range.