Home Experiences
The Valley, by Season
What there is to do here changes four times a year. This is our read on it.
How to Use This
We Do Not Sell Experiences
There are companies in this valley that will sell you a package. We are not one of them. We manage residences, and the people who manage them have lived here long enough to know which outfitter answers the phone, which stretch of river is fishing, and which week in September the aspens actually turn.
So this page is not a catalogue. It is what we tell guests when they call and ask what they should do — organised by season, because in Jackson Hole the season decides almost everything.
Winter December – March
The Season Everything Else Is Measured Against
The resort at Teton Village runs 4,139 vertical feet of it, and the tram takes you to the top in about twelve minutes. That is the headline, and it deserves to be — there is very little skiing in North America like the top of Rendezvous Mountain on a clear morning.
What the headline misses is how much winter happens off the hill. Snow King sits at the edge of town and runs lights at night, which is where locals ski after work. Nordic tracks are groomed at Teton Pines and up Trail Creek. And the National Elk Refuge holds several thousand elk through the winter, close enough to town that you can be among them in a horse-drawn sleigh twenty minutes after breakfast.
The Moose–Wilson road closes for the season. Plan on the highway.
On the Mountain
- Jackson Hole Mountain Resort — the tram, and the terrain under it
- Snow King — the town hill, lit at night
- Grand Targhee — over the pass, deeper snow, fewer people
Off the Hill
- Sleigh rides on the National Elk Refuge
- Groomed nordic at Teton Pines and Trail Creek
- Granite Hot Springs — snowmobile or dogsled in
When It Snows Too Hard
- The galleries on Center Street
- A long lunch in Wilson
- The Mangy Moose, for the reason everyone goes there
Spring April – May
The Weeks Nobody Tells You About
Locals call it mud season and mean it kindly. The resort closes in early April, the valley empties, rates fall further than at any other point in the year, and for about six weeks Jackson Hole belongs to the people who live in it.
There is one thing that happens in spring and at no other time: the inner park road opens to bicycles before it opens to cars. For a few weeks you can ride the Teton Park Road with the whole range on your right and no traffic at all. Ask us for the dates — they move every year with the snowpack, and they are not well advertised.
The single best value season in the valley, if you can accept that some things are shut.
What Is Open
- Teton Park Road — bikes only, before the cars
- Lower-elevation trails, as they dry
- Town: everything, and no queue for any of it
Wildlife
- Elk leaving the refuge for the high country
- Bears out of the den, cubs in tow
- The first calves and foals in the hay fields
Worth Knowing
- Runoff makes most rivers unfishable by mid-May
- Some restaurants close for a few weeks entirely
- Snow above 8,000 feet well into June
Summer June – August
Two National Parks and a River Through the Middle
Grand Teton begins fifteen minutes north of town, and Yellowstone begins where Grand Teton ends — the only place in the country where that is true. You can be at the Jenny Lake trailhead before eight and in Cascade Canyon before the crowds have parked.
The Snake River runs the length of the valley and does two entirely different things: a slow float through the park where the reflection of the range is the whole point, and a genuine whitewater canyon south of town. Both are worth a morning. And the fishing here is the reason a certain kind of guest comes back every year — the Snake, the Green, the South Fork, all within a couple of hours.
Evenings belong to town. The rodeo runs Wednesday and Saturday nights through the summer, which sounds like a tourist thing and is not; the Grand Teton Music Festival plays in Teton Village most of July and August.
Book anything guided well ahead. July is the tightest month in the valley.
In the Parks
- Jenny Lake and Cascade Canyon — go early
- Delta Lake — hard, unmarked, worth it
- Yellowstone — 60 miles to the south entrance
On the Water
- Scenic floats through the park
- Whitewater in the canyon south of town
- Fly fishing — the Snake, the Green, the South Fork
In Town
- Jackson Hole Rodeo — Wednesdays and Saturdays
- Grand Teton Music Festival, July and August
- The Farmers Market on the square, Saturdays
Autumn September – November
What the Locals Would Choose
If we were told to visit once and pick the week, most of us would pick something in late September. The aspens turn on the canyon walls, the crowds have gone, the light gets long and low, and the elk begin to bugle — a sound that is difficult to describe and impossible to forget once you have stood in a canyon at dusk and heard it.
It is also, quietly, the best fishing of the year. The brown trout move, the rivers clear, and the guides who were booked solid in July have space in October.
Some park roads and services close from early November until the winter season opens.
Wildlife
- The elk rut — Gros Ventre and the park, at dawn or dusk
- Bears feeding hard before the den
- Raptor migration down the range
Outdoors
- Aspens turning, late September into October
- The best trail conditions of the year
- Brown trout on the Snake and the South Fork
In Town
- Fall Arts Festival, September
- Restaurants at their least booked
- First snow on the peaks by mid-October
If You Only Do Four Things
What We Would Do
01
The Tram, First Car
Ten minutes before the queue forms.
The aerial tram climbs 4,139 feet from the village floor to the summit of Rendezvous Mountain. On a clear winter morning the first car up is a different experience from the fourth — no wait, no crowd at the top, and the whole valley underneath you before the light gets flat. In summer it runs too, and hardly anybody is on it.
Winter · Summer
02
The Park Road Before the Cars
A few weeks in spring, bicycles only.
Every spring the Teton Park Road is plowed and opened to cyclists and walkers before it opens to vehicles. Miles of pavement with the range on one side and no traffic at all. The dates shift with the snowpack and are announced late, which is exactly why it stays quiet. Ask us in March and we will watch it for you.
Spring
03
A Float, Not a Raft Trip
The slow stretch, early, with nobody talking.
The whitewater south of town is genuinely good. But the float most worth doing is the quiet one inside the park at first light, when the water is still enough to hold the reflection of the whole range and the wildlife has not yet moved off the banks. It is not a thrill. It is the single most beautiful hour available in this valley.
Summer · Autumn
04
The Rut, at Dusk
Late September, in a canyon, standing still.
In autumn the bull elk bugle, and it carries. Drive up the Gros Ventre or into the park an hour before dark, stop, and wait. There is no ticket and no guide required — only patience and the sense to keep your distance. Guests who have done this once schedule their return trip around it.
Autumn
How We Help
We Do Not Take a Cut
We do not book your guide, sell you a package, or take a commission on your dinner reservation. What we keep is a short list of the outfitters, guides and restaurants we use ourselves — and when you call, we will tell you which one to ring, what to ask for, and when to ask for it. It is a less impressive offer than a concierge desk. It is a more useful one.
- We tell you who to call
Fishing guides, float operators, backcountry guides, ski instructors, private chefs, sitters. Short lists, not directories.
- We call ahead when it helps
A table that is hard to get, a guide who is nearly booked. Sometimes a local voice on the phone is the whole difference.
- We tell you what not to bother with
Which is often more valuable. Some of what gets marketed hardest here is the least worth your morning.
The Year at a Glance
Twelve Months, Honestly Described
Where You Stay Matters
Access Is a Function of Address
Half of what is on this page is easier from one part of the valley than another. Ski mornings work from Teton Village. Dinner and the galleries work from downtown. The river works from the south end. We can tell you which of our residences puts you closest to the week you are actually planning.