Jackson Hole, Wyoming: The Snake River—June 25, 2024

Yesterday we drove through Grand Teton National Park and then stopped for dinner at Jackson Lake Lodge. We both remembered the Lodge from years ago when we came through here. It was built in 1955 by John D. Rockefeller Jr., and at the time, was more modern than other park lodges so was highly criticized for its lack of rusticity and “lodginess.” However, the architecture has held up over time because it’s such an eclectic mix of wood, stone and concrete and seems to fit in so well with the landscape. The grand lobby is stunning.

We also visited Mormon Row, which is an historic Mormon settlement at the southeast corner of the park. This settlement was largely constructed starting in the late 1890’s and many of the buildings are still standing. If you think about settling in Wyoming in the late 1890’s, it had to be really tough. The weather was brutal and there was no reliable water source, so the settlers grew crops using irrigation. Between 1896 and 1937, they dug ditches by hand and with teams of horses, building an intricate network of levees and dikes to funnel water from central ditches to their fields. In the winter, the ditches froze.

Today we went on yet another trip down memory lane, a raft trip down the Snake River. It was a raft with seats with backs, so much more comfortable than the raft trip we took with our three little girls back in 1982, where we all simply sat on the sides of the raft. I can’t remember a lot of details about that raft trip because it was 42 years ago. But I remember it fondly and I do have pictures at home of all of us on the raft that I will try to remember to post as a follow-up. Makes me wonder where all of those years went.

By the way, we were in a group with three rafts, eight people per raft. We realized after we got in our raft that they had grouped all of the senior citizens in our boat. You never think of yourself as old, but other people must notice.

Today our guide/pilot on the raft trip, Jojo, told us that we were going by Harrison Ford’s ranch, which is about 800 acres. He supposedly lives here at least part of the time. Not many people live full time in Wyoming—although it’s the 9th largest state, it’s the 50th state in population. It’s like everyone who first came here decided Wyoming was too cold and too harsh topographically and moved on to California.

Oh, and another thing Jojo mentioned was Grizzly 399. She is famous. She was born in 1996 and inhabits Grand Teton National Park. She is followed by as many as 40 wildlife photographers, has her own Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Well, a human set them up, but anyway. Her claim to fame is bearing 22 cubs and grandcubs, which is quite an accomplishment in the Grizzly world. She also often has triplets rather than twins. I am kind of sad that she has to be called 399 rather than Iris or Mary Ellen. We didn’t see her, of course, but I found a picture. She has apparently also had quadruplets.