Dan treated us all once again to a buffet breakfast and we were full as ticks when we finished. Gin had some stops planned for the morning, and we set off to learn some history of the Jackson area. One of the early settler’s of Jackson Hole was William Menor, who arrived in 1894 and built his homestead on the banks of the Snake River. He constructed a ferry that became a vital crossing for the early settlers of the valley. His original whitewashed cabin and store, as well as other outbuildings, remain there on the bank of the Snake. A replica of his ferry boat sits nearby. Another cabin on site belonged to Maude Noble, who bought out Menor and took over his ferry business in 1918. Maude would later become instrumental in the founding of Grand Teton National Park.
The crowning glory of Menor’s Ferry Historic District, however, is most definitely the Chapel of the Transfiguration. Built in 1926, the log church sits on land donated by Maude Noble. The chapel is built of lodgepole pine, and the pews are from quaking aspen. Above the altar is a window framing the Tetons; I think this is seriously the most beautiful location for a church that I have ever seen. The grandeur of the mountains and the plain log church create a perfect match of magnificence and simplicity. It is absolutely stunning.
Another piece of Jackson Hole history is the Mormon Row. This early settlement from the 1890’s was a thriving community, with ranches, homes, irrigation ditches, a church and school. Mormon Row dispersed in the mid-1900’s as the land was acquired to expand Grand Teton National Park. Many of the historic buildings survive, but we were most interested in the barns. One of the barns is the most photographed barns in America, and we wanted to get a picture too. There were a few other visitors to Mormon Row this morning; a huge herd of hundreds of buffalo happened to be passing through. Once again we were in the right place at the right time, and we watched until the herd passed far into the meadow.We took our barn photos and lots of buffalo photos as well, and headed for Teton Village where our hostel
is located. Our route was the Moose-Wilson Road, an eight-mile stretch of narrow, sometimes rough road that is prohibited to vehicles 20 foot or over and is closed in the winter. As we wound our way through meadows, marshes and forests we had another stroke of luck. A moose was grazing in a creek near the road! This elicited a raucous outburst from every one in the van; we had been dying to see a moose and here she was, right in front of us. We bailed out and watched her browse, snapping photos all the while. Now our list of wildlife sightings is almost complete; only a wolf sighting has eluded us…so far.In Jackson, we booked a whitewater rafting trip for later in the day, than ate lunch. We had some time to kill
before we could check into the hostel, so spent some time downtown browsing the art galleries. Wow, are we out of place here! This is definitely a place for the rich, with paintings and sculptures costing in the tens of thousands of dollars. But it was fun to look, and dream. If I ever win the lottery…..A word about the hostel. It is a clean, simple place to stay with showers and beds. It is very busy in ski season, but it has quite a few guests at this time of year too. Some of the group was totally freaked out when they heard we were staying in a hostel. It had the nickname “Hostile” and “Armageddon” before we even arrived. But once we checked in and the haters saw our rooms, the bitching pretty much stopped. Hell, we didn’t even have power at our last location! It’s all good, people.
After arriving at the rafting office, we loaded onto a bus to take us to the Snake River. We were soon buckled into our life vests and met our guide, Eric. He hit it off with our group immediately, and after a few quick instructions we were on the water. If you’ve ever done whitewater rafting, I don’t need to tell you how much fun we had. If you haven’t, nothing I can say will come close to describing it. The sheer rock walls rising above us, the roar of the rapids as we approached, the adrenaline rush when paddling hard through the frothing water, the exhilaration after each section of white water…..yes, it’s awesome! 5 of our group of 7 got blue bracelets for being on the swim team, i.e. jumping into the river. Even me! I will wear it proudly.
An hour of laundry and a late dinner finished out the day. Another wild, wonderful day in Wyoming has come to an end. Goodnight!
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