Grand Teton National Park

Jackson Hole Arrival

We landed in Jackson Hole on Saturday at 12: 19 pm.  Our flights were on time and problem-free.  We took the rental car van into Jackson Hole to get our car.  It was about  a 20 minute ride  and we saw our hotel – Elk Refuge Inn, on the way into Jackson Hole.

We got a Prius and I was familiar with some of the features because it is a bit similar to the Camry Hybrid.  We decided to go to the town square and have a look around.  We were both hungry since we only had pretzels on one flight and nothing on the other.  Parking was difficult as it was lunch time.  We finally found a place right on the square and walked to the nearest restaurant called Town Square Tavern.  It had a balcony outside and a good view of the town, so we decided to eat there.  Unfortunately, we didn’t look at the menu ahead of time.  This is meat country!  I think everything on the menu was burgers, chicken etc. Shawn had a chicken sandwich and I had humus with pita bread and cucumbers.  The waiter was a nice guy but he didn’t know a thing about waiting on tables.  He didn’t bring napkins, silverware or the bill.

After eating, we looked around the shops and galleries.  There were many western clothing shops, art galleries, jewelry stores, bakeries = everything the tourist desires!  The square featured elk antlers on each corner.  We couldn’t get close to take a photo because the area was inundated with Chinese tour groups all taking photos with their iPads, iPhones, and cameras.  We decided to return early the next morning when there weren’t so many people around. Here are a few photos of the town.  It reminded us of the towns we visited in Alaska on a cruise several years ago.

It was almost 3pm so we decided to go to our hotel.  It was back toward the airport about 15 minutes from Jackson Hole.  When we arrived , the clerk said they needed another hour to get our room ready.  We had passed by  the visitor’s center, so returned there to learn more about the area and check out the grounds while waiting to get into our room.

It was a very nice Visitor’s center with a souvenir shop and replicas of local wild animals. The grounds were very interesting as there were wet areas with plants, reeds and redwing blackbirds.  They had a bridge with walkways to view the whole area.  We were told that during the fall and winter the elk meander down from the mountains and roam around the grounds.

We whiled away an hour and finally returned to the hotel and found that our room was ready.  We were on the second floor.  The inn was like a motel – just two stories. We had to go around the back and then we parked right in front of our door.  It was an ok inn –  nothing really fancy but it was very roomy and beds very comfortable and it did have a teeny kitchen and microwave which was nice. It had a huge window with a view toward the mountains.

It was 4pm when we checked in.  We were both so tired, I think we fell asleep around 6pm. Needless to say, I didn’t get anything done on my blog.  So here I am on day two trying to get day one completed.