When we were first planning our trip, we knew that visiting The Tetons and Yellowstone in April would be a little risky. It’s still pretty much winter there, and a serious brand of winter. Extreme cold and the relatively exposed plumbing of an RV just don’t mix, and Cramer certainly didn’t relish the thought of driving on slick ,snowy mountain roads. We’d gotten into the habit of calling people during our planning phase (the internet isn’t perfect for everything), so when we wanted to know whether we should head north for our trip, Jess got in touch with a ranger at Yellowstone. “Well, that depends,” he answered, “how hardy are you?” She thought she was pretty hardy, having grown up through Syracuse winters. “Well,” the ranger continued, “It’s a great time to visit because not only is it not crowded, this is also the time of year when you can see some baby animals who have just been born, wolves are most active, and bears are coming out of their hibernation.” That was mixed news. Baby animals! But…some of us are afraid of bears.
And as was mentioned, Cramer was afraid of having to use snow chains on Franklin. But having them and not needing them would be far better than not having them and…we needed some chains. We picked some up in Soda Springs Idaho, then took 34 north out of town. Things got real scenic real quick. And snowy. Luckily, the roads were clear, which allowed us to enjoy all the birds. Skirting the Aspen Range of mountains to our East, we passed by Blackfoot Reservoir and Gray’s Lake National Wildlife Refuge and saw all kinds of birds: herons, cranes, egrets, lots of ducks, and a flock of pelicans or some big birds, red tail hawks and lots of other birds of prey. It was definitely an area we’d like to revisit with better binoculars.
After a pretty tolerable drive of a little over two hours, we made it to Jackson Hole and restocked on gas and food. Next stop was to get the lay of the land at the visitors’ center. Hmmm. It was open, but no one was working there. Maybe the Jackson Historical Society and Museum across the street could help us out. Nope. Closed too. This time of year in Jackson, just after ski season ends and before spring hits, most everything is closed down. Luckily, we found an outfitters in town that was not closed and bought some bear spray. That’s right, we bought special mace made for bears. If you want to go for a walk around the Tetons or Yellowstone, you want to have some bear spray.
We were excited to check out the park and see those mountains, so we headed up the road to Moose, Wyoming, where the park headquarters are located. Deserted! Plenty of space for parking Franklin, though. We hopped on our bikes and headed for the Moose Entrance to the park. Finally we found a ranger. He checked our 4th grader pass, and we pedaled up the road a bit. Actually, it was a bike path, and it would have given us a spectacular, up-close view of the mountains if they hadn’t been cloaked in clouds. It wasn’t raining, but it looked like that could change any minute. We made it to a point where the path was completely covered in snow and turned back.
After exploring some historical pioneer buildings and a cool old ferry for fording the Snake River closer to where we parked, we got back into Franklin to drive a short ways up the road to Mormon Row. Nestled next to Blacktail Butte, this collection of homesteads was apparently established in 1890 by Mormons from the Salt Lake Valley looking for space. After marveling at a herd of elk grazing not far from the road, we parked near one impressive old barn and its accompanying pink stucco house. Now the clouds had parted, opening up a stripe of blue sky and revealing the full majesty of the Tetons. And boy was it crazy imagining being those Mormon settlers trying to survive here over 100 years ago. But what a view!
It was time to get to camp and settle in for the night. If we had been visiting in May instead of April, we could have crossed over the Snake River in Moose and made it to where we were staying at the Fireside Resort in nearby Wilson. But it was April, so we had to drive back down through Jackson and cross the river on the Teton Pass Highway. Fireside Resort is just about the only place in the area for RV camping, especially that time of year, but we’d recommend it instead for its rows of adorable tiny, modern cottages that line the road into the camp. And the hot tub.
The next morning we were eager to get back to exploring around Jackson, this time in a more mobile rental Jeep that our camp offered. We picked up some breakfast bites and coffee to go at Cowboy Coffee and the Bunnery (must hit those spots if you’re going to JH) then headed to the National Elk Refuge. The road that leads east out of town that takes you right into the 25,000+ acre refuge that protects not only elk but also bison, bighorn and pronghorn sheep, swans, eagles, and trout. Where the pavement ended a gravel road continued north between snow-covered, cloud-capped hills and through Doug Fir and sage brush. Near the entrance at the southern end of the refuge the terrain was marshy and bustling with waterfowl and elk. Very soon, though, a butte rose up on our left, and this gave us our first real close-up bighorn sheep experience. These guys were grazing all along both sides of the road, lazily crossing the road, and crag hopping way up on top of the rocky butte above us. We spotted some bison too before turning around and heading back out of the park.
Our next stop was going to be the National Museum of Wildlife Art, but sadly it was closed. There are many sculptures around the grounds of the museum that the boys scampered around and marveled at, we took some pics and repeated our mantra, “I guess we’ll just have to come back to Jackson to check this place out more!” We regrouped and decided to do a short, easy hike to Taggart Lake, a small lake et the end of Avalanche Canyon pretty close to the base of Grand Teton. Cramer strapped the bear spray on, we attached our Yak Trax traction devices, and immediately out of the trailhead parking lot were staggering around on a snowy, slushy trail. Within the first half mile, Sam lost one of his Yak Trax. So sad. We slogged through the snow toward the mountains, and they peeked out from under heavy cloud cover. The trail was only about a mile and half, but we saw plenty of other hikers. Luckily, no bears. We made it to the lake feeling like intrepid explorers and found it frozen solid. The hike back down was faster, and we found Sam’s missing Yak Trax hanging from a post at the trailhead.
We felt we’d earned a reward for our hard snow slogging, so we found some ice cream in the center of town. After that it was time for the hot tub. Even though it was chilly and drizzly, the camp’s good-sized and hot hot tub restored us in time for dinner. We’d found a nice brew pub, Roadhouse, with a lot of room right on the town square called. Jackson had been good about Covid precautions, so we felt comfortable going to a restaurant there. For those of us who were good about sticking to our vegetarianism they had great options, and for Cramer, who was not good, they had an amazing elk Philly cheese steak.
Like a lot of other places we’re visited, we wished we had more time in Jackson, especially in that hot tub. But it was time to move on. We’d made a bit of an error in our planning, and instead of being able to just drive straight north from Jackson through the Tetons into Yellowstone, turns out we would have to go around. Yeah. That southern entrance into Yellowstone is closed until mid May. Instead, we’d have to drive around to the western entrance. We couldn’t even take the shortest route there, because it would take us over the Tetons on a road that has crazy steep grades going up and down. Oh, and there was a snow storm happening. We’d gotten away so far with not having to use our snow chains, so we would be taking the very scenic route.
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