Jackson, WY --- Circle the Wagons!

When we arrived in Jackson early this morning, our first stop was the hospital.  Nothing serious, but Kevin needed to see an ophthalmologist.  After a windy/dusty day in Moab, his eye had been bothering him all weekend.  Turns out he had a small piece of plastic lodged in his cornea!  Five cringe-worthy seconds while the doctor fished around in there with some sharp tweezers, and Kevin was good as new!  So it was on to the Jackson town square (and the arches made of antlers).  They looked pretty sharp – so we kept our corneas away from them.

We had a nice lunch at Eleaven then walked around town a bit.  We just couldn’t resist going into the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar for a couple of overpriced beers, even though it is a total tourist trap.  The bar was inlaid with 1920’s-era silver dollars, and there were saddles for bar stools.  Yee haw!

But we still hadn’t seen any Tetons yet, so we headed over to the Teton Village Tram to get a bird’s-eye view of the valley.  The tram climbs a stomach-dropping 4,139 feet to the summit of Rendez-vous Mountain (height 10,450 feet) where you get stunning panoramic views of the entire valley and surrounding mountains.

At the top, it was actually snowing!  We weren’t quite prepared for that, and made a beeline for the cozy hot chocolate stand.  But not before we got a quick peek at the peaks of the Tetons (behind Kevin).

There was a professional photographer at the top taking pictures, so we let her pose us for a shot (ski-poles included).The highlight of today was a dinner tour.  And not just any dinner tour – a covered wagon ride followed by a cowboy barbecue.  We figured since we’d seen someone literally traversing the country in a covered wagon, the least we could do was try it for one evening.

Bar T-5 Ranch operates a Covered Wagon Cookout where a wagon train of tourists heads into the Cache Creek area of the Bridger-Teton National Forest.  SPOILER ALERT: along the way, there is an Indian attack!

There was a stage at the pavilion where they were setting up to serve dinner.  The emcee called for a “volunteer” to help get the show started and, as usually happens, picked the person who least wanted to be up on stage – Kevin.  Luckily, he wasn’t asked to do anything he didn’t want to do.  In fact, once he found out the task he volunteered willingly.  His job?  To ring the dinner bell and be first in line at the barbecue buffet!

After dinner, there was a talented four-piece band (complete with fiddler) that played some old-time cowboy tunes like “Ghost Riders in the Sky” and “Devil Went Down to Jackson (Georgia)”.  It was a great way to spend an evening, we would definitely recommend it if you are ever in the Jackson area.