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Explore | Yellowstone

Yurting in Yellowstone Feel the wildness and quiet of winter in the park by staying at a small yurt camp that offers guided cross-country skiing. // Text and photography By Dina Mishev The fresh powder is about as deep as the spaces between the trunks of the immature lodgepole pine trees I’m tromping through on skis: 18 inches. Breaking trail is hard work, and, because of the tightness of the trees, the trail I leave behind me looks like the path of an intoxicated penguin. Nowhere does it go straight for more than five feet. Still, there is nothing else…

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Explore | Dog Sledding

Paw Power Sit back and enjoy the experience, or try your hand at mushing, at three area dogsledding outfitters. // By Molly Absolon The dogs jump and bark, leaping in place and eager to go, only barely held in check by an anchor in the snow. They remind me of a bunch of unruly kids—anxious to let off steam and impatient at having to wait.  “The first 30 seconds seem chaotic. The dogs are so excited,” says Abby Tarver, the owner of Call of the WYld, which offers hour-long dogsled tours at the base of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort for a quick…

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Feature | Photo Essay

Wyoming Highway 22 A commute like none other. // Photos and text by Bradly J. Boner Spanning only 17.5 miles between the Idaho-Wyoming border and the town of Jackson, Wyoming Highway 22 isn’t the Cowboy State’s shortest highway, but it is definitely one of busiest, and certainly among the most scenic. The road winds over Teton Pass, a 1,200-foot ascent in only about two and a half miles from the west, before plunging about 2,200 feet down into Jackson Hole on the eastern side of the Teton range and into the hamlet of Wilson (population about 1,500). From there, Highway…

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Feature | Board Makers

Hand-crafted Boards Jackson Hole’s ski and snowboard makers carve their niches one turn at a time.  // By Rachel Walker    // photography by NATALIE BEHRING Like many, they came for the mountains and the snow. Come winter, they rose early to get the first tram and chased friends down secret stashes at the resort. They humped gear up Glory Bowl and toured into Grand Teton National Park. And as they threw themselves to the elements, they forged unique connections to this valley. How many people come to Jackson Hole and find their life plans upended as one season turns into…

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Feature | Ski Touring

No Lifts Necessary People skied in Jackson Hole long before the arrival of ski lifts…and they still do. Today it’s called ski touring, and it is more popular than ever. // By Dina Mishev A s I hike up a well-established bootpack on Mt. Glory, a hulking peak rising 2,000 vertical feet just north of Teton Pass, my headlamp is one light among dozens. Each spotlight is a person carrying a backpack with avalanche gear like a probe pole and snow shovel inside and a snowboard or skis strapped to the outside. We’re “dawn patrolling,” mountain-town speak for squeezing in…

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Feature | Endangered Species Act

Endangered No More The year 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, a landmark law that made the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem whole. // By Mike Koshmrl In the fall of 1983, Brian Czech was an early-career U.S. Forest Service ranger patrolling his favorite place of all time, the Teton Wilderness, when he saw something he’d never seen before: a grizzly bear.  The bruin was treading through six inches of fresh-fallen powder in the backcountry at Fox Park, a remote mountain meadow a mile south of the Yellowstone National Park border and eight miles west of the Continental…

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Feature | Snowmobiling

Tremendous, Treacherous Togwotee The Continental Divide Trail System is a mecca for snowmobilers looking for backcountry and groomed-trail riding. Hazards lurk, too, and sometimes get the best of flatlander sledders. // By Mike Koshmrl  // photography By Todd williams Dreamy powder days tearing along the frozen slopes up on Togwotee Pass have been easy to come by in Skinner Bell’s lifetime. Bell was born to and raised by a Togwotee snowmobile guide, Jerry Bell. And Skinner, too, went on to build a career guiding on the roughly 600 miles of trails that span out in all directions from the federal…

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Local Life | Jackson Hole Icon

Tram Jam Band The originators of ski-bum music celebrate their 30th anniversary in 2023. // By Mark Baker You know it’s cold outside when you need a hair dryer to unstick your lips from the brass.  “Because the valves will freeze,” Peter “Chanman” Chandler says. The frontman for everyone’s favorite ski resort band, Tram Jam Band, a name that conjures an image of marmalade on the move, was talking about fellow band member Powell Miller and how he keeps his trumpet from icing up when it’s below zero—or colder. “Never any complaints—20 below or 40 above, they’re out there,” says…

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Local Life | Go Deep

Boots We tested these so you don’t have to. // By Rachel Walker KODIAK GLACIAL/DUNDONALD WATERPROOF ARCTIC GRIP What is it? An unfussy tall leather boot that’s insulated, has unimpeachable traction, and is stain-resistant (aka shielded from salt discoloration), this Kodiak is tough enough for long, dark winter days outdoors, but attractive enough for date night.  Strengths The boot’s Vibram Arctic Grip outsole is as reliable as Nokian Hakkapeliitta winter tires on Teton Pass on the most challenging winter-driving day. A side zipper makes for easy access; the 200-gram Thinsulate insulation keeps feet warm without bulk. Weaknesses Some may find the simple, unfussy…

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Local Life | Hello: Profile

Mekki Jaidi Building businesses and growing roots in Jackson Hole. //By Mike Koshmrl Mekki Jaidi was a New York City-based derivative trader when he first glimpsed Jackson Hole in August of 2012. He and his then-girlfriend-now-wife, Jane, were aboard a Delta Air Lines flight from Salt Lake City to the Jackson Hole Airport. The pilot made one of those standard, yet incredible, slow descents down the Snake River corridor through the heart of the valley. It was Jaidi’s first time seeing the Tetons, and, trite as it sounds, it was love at first sight. “I didn’t even think something like…

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Local Life | Hello: As Told By

Laurie Andrews This community leader runs trails and nonprofits.  //By maggie theodora Laurie Andrews first visited Jackson Hole in the summer of 2001. A rock climber, she and three friends came here to climb the Grand Teton. She says she loved the climb, but that it wasn’t the highlight of the trip. Before returning home, the group checked out Jackson. “It was a Saturday morning, and the farmer’s market was going on,” says Andrews, who, at the time, worked for The Nature Conservancy in Seattle. “I looked around and was like, ‘How does someone live here?’ The Grand was fun,…

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Local Life | Hello: Q&A

Paul Bruun Meet Jackson’s own fly fisherman-foodie-journalist-politician. // interview by jim stanford Paul Bruun caught his first Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat trout on upper Flat Creek in 1969. Thus began a lifelong passion for the region’s premier native fish and eventually a guiding career that spanned 37 years on the Snake. In 1973, the Miami native moved here to become editor of the Jackson Hole Guide. Today, at age 78, Bruun is nearing 50 years of writing for Jackson Hole newspapers, mostly about fishing and food, and his “Outdoors” column still appears every other week in the News&Guide. Along the way,…

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Local Life | Blast from the Past

The Alpenhof This Teton Village lodge provides all the cozy creature comforts you’d expect from a European ski chalet. // By Tibby Plasse No cows with bells will greet you at The Alpenhof Lodge in Teton Village, but basset hounds do bound out from beneath an array of European flags to welcome you to this Tyrolean-style hotel. At check-in here, you’re handed a ceramic key ring, not a plastic card. You’re shown the ski locker, a communal wooden room off the lobby, where you store your gear alongside fellow guests who are also enjoying the ’Hof’s European ways. These European…

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Enjoy | Food

6 Places to Eat in Teton Village Read this guide to learn where to go—and whether you can roll in wearing your ski boots or will want to change into shoes. // By Lila Edythe RESTAURANTIl Villaggio Osteria serves lunch and dinner in a cozily chic space inside Hotel Terra at the base area. ON YOUR FEETLunch is definitely a ski-boots-on crowd. Dinner, less so. Après at the marble-topped bar goes either way. FOODAlthough “best pizza in the valley” is a highly, and hotly, contested topic among locals (and also dependent on personal taste), Osteria has to be on everyone’s…

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Enjoy | JH Pantry

460 Bread This Driggs-based bakery mixes ancient traditions with local ingredients and high-tech equipment. // By Sue Muncaster When I asked my two visiting grandnieces (two- and five-years-old) what they wanted from the supermarket, they both shouted “raisin bread!” They didn’t know this, but my neighborhood market, Victor Valley Market, stocks amazing raisin bread, courtesy of Teton Valley-based 460 Bread. But raisin bread is among 460 bread’s most popular loaves, so heading there from my home, I hoped there was a loaf left. There was. Back at home, I slathered toasted slices with butter. When the girls headed home a…

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Enjoy | Taste of Jackson Hole

Lamb at The Blue Lion // By Sue Muncaster  Rack of lamb has been on the menu at the Blue Lion for more than 40 years. On the restaurant’s busiest nights, as many as 40 of the 120 entrees served are this $75 dish—an epic eight-bone rack of New Zealand lamb roasted in a Dijon-herbed breadcrumb crust served over a creamy fresh peppercorn sauce with wild rice, seasonal veggies, and a side of jalapeño mint jelly.  In a house across the street from Miller Park a couple of blocks from the Town Square, the Blue Lion opened in 1976 with…

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Enjoy | Art

A National Treasure Steady in its mission, the National Museum of Wildlife Art continues to adapt and evolve to meet modern demands for accessibility, diversity, and excellence. // By Rachel Walker Rising from the hillside only a few miles north of Jackson’s Town Square, the National Museum of Wildlife Art blends into the landscape so seamlessly that it could be easy to miss. The museum’s driveway is marked with five bronze elk and an unassuming sign, and the building, clad in Idaho quartzite and inspired by the ruins of Slains Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, only peeks out over the hillside.…

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Enjoy | Culture

On Point Dancers’ Workshop seeks to bring the art of movement to the Jackson Hole community. // By Rachel Walker When Babs Case arrived in Jackson Hole in 1998 to be artistic director of Dancers’ Workshop, she found a beloved nonprofit arts organization with about 60 students. Now Dancers’ Workshop is one of the valley’s most important cultural institutions. With an annual operating budget of $2.2 million, Dancers’ Workshop today attracts performers from all over the world even as it strives—and succeeds—to reach Jackson Hole residents of all socioeconomic levels. Since its founding in 1972—the organization celebrated its 50th anniversary…

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Enjoy | Design

Log Time Although no longer the dominant force it once was in the Jackson Hole materials palette, there’s still something special about living with log, especially when combined with open, light-filled spaces.  // By maggie theodora In March 2021, work started on a 5,000-square-foot log house in Crescent H Ranch. Built in the mid-1990s, when everyone wanted a log cabin in Jackson Hole, the house was being remodeled and added on to by its new owners, who worked with Baxter Design Studio. “There is a real warmth to log and a feeling of the Old West, but the house didn’t…

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Enjoy | Health

Nature is the Cure Spending time outside—no exercise required—is one of the easiest ways to improve your health and well-being. // By Bevin Wallace  // Photography by bradly j. boner Every time I try to grab onto the rock face in front of me, my hand comes away, crumbling debris sifting through my fingers. My legs are shaking with the effort to find a decent foothold. I try not to look down because the sight of the valley far below gives me vertigo. There’s no going back down this couloir, which my friends and I had been told was “not…

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