Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Jackson Hole has always been on Alex’s ski destinations bucket list, so for his birthday we hopped on a direct flight and landed straight in a national park. Jackson Hole is so named because the town of Jackson is surrounded by mountain ranges, including the Grand Tetons. Comically, even though we were in town for five days, the weather was so uncooperative that we couldn’t even see the Grand Tetons until the last day, just hours before flying out. Iconic mountains aside, the town is full of world-class restaurants, cute shops, and tons of western, cowboy vibes; we got to go on a sleigh ride to meet some elk; Jackson Hole Mountain Resort provided plenty of fancy skiing (despite the whiteout conditions when we went); and we even made a brief detour into Idaho for some beer and more skiing. See it all below!

Arrivals! Jackson Hole has one of the nicest airports in America. It’s like a giant fancy ski lodge, and it even has fireplaces everywhere. 

Snow King Mountain Resort overlooks the town, and they happened to be hosting a big snowmobile race the whole weekend we were there. It’s like slalom skiing but in reverse, and with snowmobiles.

Plenty of cute shops all around town.

And still snowing in late March!

This was our cute hotel, the Alpine House.

More wanderings around town.

There is a lot of really great food in this small town. For the first night, we had dinner at Glorietta just across the street from the hotel.

Lots of delicious pasta!

Made-to-order breakfast was included every day with our stay.

The main event, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort for Alex to go snowboarding. I don’t usually ski, so I went straight to the (very nice) Four Seasons Hotel for lodge time.

For lunch, Alex arranged for us to go up the gondola together for a meal up on the mountain. The intention was to have lunch with a view, but alas, it was a whiteout day and you couldn’t see anything, haha.

Views? What views? Not the best skiing conditions for Alex either.

But it was still a lovely day anyway.

A little apres ski cider back at the Four Seasons, and a brief visit to the Mangy Moose, which had live music and everything.

Dinner at the Snake River Grill.  Steak tartare pizza, and a birthday dessert.

The next morning, in the 15°F weather, we got to go out on a horse-drawn sleigh to visit the elk in the National Elk Refuge. 

So cold, but so beautiful!

The refuge feeds these elk over the winter, which is why they’re all just hanging out here.

Very cool to just see so many of them!

Warming up with some coq au vin at Persephone afterwards.

Valley Bookstore, where Alex found this record made locally by Coyote Queen. It became the soundtrack of our trip!

Then we drove in to the national park lands in Grand Teton National Park. Saw a few moose on the side of the road too!

The sign shows what the mountains should look like, but they’re still hiding behind the clouds.

Local yarn shop, Knit on Pearl. Picked up some of this local Idaho yarn and made Alex a pair of gloves!

Mountain Dandy.

Taking the road less traveled over to this little shop, the Workshop.

One of these fancy knives made it on to our wedding registry, and Amy and Mike were nice enough to get it for us!

Inside the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, where the seats are all saddles.

And dinner at Coelette. They have a very fun concept: the global snow line. So the food is influenced by food from snowy and mountainous regions all over the world.

A hot toddy, and a very tasty elk rice porridge (sorry elk!).

The next day, our foray into Idaho! 

Evidence of crossing state lines from Wyoming into Idaho… and then we went right back into Wyoming.

Because this was the way to get to the Grand Targhee Resort, a more local ski resort. Again, I found a place to post up inside while Alex went snowboarding. He said it was one of his best snowboarding days ever!

Besides the fact that there was toooo much powder so he totally got stuck and had to dig himself out at the end.

Still one of the best skiing days ever, says Alex.

Then, we visited Grand Teton Brewing Company in Victor, Idaho. They had a very tasty root beer, which was perfect for me since I don’t actually like beer.

Epic views all around.

And back in Jackson, some Korean food!

Final morning at the inn, one more full-service breakfast. So good!

And finally– a look at those much-touted Grand Tetons!

Some swans in the local river. And a glamour shot for our rental Jeep with the Tetons.

Glad we finally got to see those mountains, haha.

A wonderful little vacation!

Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She compulsively documents and blogs all of her daily adventures. Follow her on instagram and view more of her professional work at annawu.com.