Welcome to my blog! This post is part of my vacation recap, so take a look at the other posts HERE. Thanks for stopping by 🙂
We spent a large part of our trip hiking at the National Parks. With such amazing scenery, and active wildlife, it was hard not to! But we did schedule some “rest time” during our stay at Grand Teton. The park is located right on the edge of a ski town – Jackson. We have never skied at Jackson Hole Ski Resort, but it did get added to my bucket list now!
It was interesting to see a ski town in the “off season”. We are usually there when it’s covered in snow! Everyone was on the search for the perfect t-shirt or sweatshirt to take home as a souvenir. We checked out all of the shops, which requested we wear masks to visit. I gladly agreed with this policy because you just never know where other people are from!
Besides shopping, the Jackson Hole area is the spot for whitewater rafting! Have I ever mentioned that fast/small boats are not my thing? I was a little nervous about going into the rapids on a raft, so I booked two river trips. We did have to wear our masks on the bus ride.
The first one was a “scenic trip” down the Snake River. Luckily it was the perfect day – mid 70’s and sunshine! The scenery was beautiful, and we did get to see some wildlife (but not a ton).
The second part of the day was spent on the rapids! I got a bit nervous when our guide had to give the safety talk which included how to swim back to the raft if we happened to get “separated” or what to do if we find ourselves under the overturned raft. Yikes!
Much to my surprise, the rapids raft trip was just a whole lot of fun!! I even sat in the front row and got soaked as we hit some really big waves!
We were celebrating my son’s 15th birthday that week so the guide offered him the opportunity to “ride the bull” and sit on the front. That sounded crazy! But he had a great time doing it, and my daughter did it too.
I would gladly do another rapids raft tour!
In celebration of our big day of rafting, we stopped by the Victor Emporium, which was right down the road from our campground. Their speciality is huckleberry shakes. I was so hungry I sucked my shake down without a picture! Huckleberries are a regional food and it’s also a main food for bears! The more you know 🙂
Another popular thing to do in Grand Teton is take pictures of the historic buildings in the area. Heck, everything is great to take pictures of!
On the way out of town to our next destination, we saw the big spud! Coming up next, our stop at Glacier National Park.
Q: Have you ever been whitewater rafting? Did you get in the water??
Q: Have you ever had huckleberries?
Awww, I love seeing the pictures from Jackson. Back in the 80’s the antlers were hung over the streets and seeing the big arches were new to us when we returned two years ago.
Good for you for riding the rapids! My husband wanted to do it when we lived in Utah, but I wouldn’t. I’m not a great swimmer and think I would panic if thrown overboard.
And to answer your question about huckleberries, we have wild huckleberry trees that grow along our running trails and every June we do a “huckleberry run.” Well, this year it was a walk, but we still made sure we ate some right off the tree!
The rapids were better than I expected, but I’ve heard some stories that did make me nervous too! I have a fear of drowning 🙂 Jackson is a cool town. I look forward to seeing it during ski season!