A hole in Wyoming

Wyoming has the best car registration plate in America. No arguments. It's got a huge rock, featured in Steven Spielberg's 'Close Encounters of a Third Kind', and it's got a cowboy riding a bucking horse. Classic. Most other plates are drab, California just has the name on it, Oregon has a tree on it and New Mexico's is just yellow. Wyoming's only challenger is Utah which has a rock arch from the national park but that doesn't beat a cowboy and a square lump named Devil's Rock.
Only an hour or so out of Idaho Falls and we're into Wyoming and the small town of Jackson. It's also known as Jackson Hole as it sits in a dip at the bottom of surrounding mountains. It's a very decent place and has no doubt become so due to the influx of cash from the few ski resorts right on the edge of town. Not only that but the sharp mountain peaks Grand Teton National Park is only a few miles out of town.
The town has a small square, a rarity in towns we've seen so far, that is covered in lights and and elk antlers. Don't worry no elks were harmed in the making of the four antler archways cornering the square. There's a large elk refuge just outside town and the antlers are collected by boy scouts, once the elks have shod them of course, and sold for donations to the local council.
A more famous park is situated just north of Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone. At this snowy time of year though the south and west entrances to Yellowstone are closed to all but skis and snowmobiles.
With the snow coming down heavily we visit the Grand Tetons. French explorers named the mountains 'Les Trois Tetons'. To those in the know this means 'The three tits' or breasts, whichever you prefer. Those French explorers must've been mighty lonely to think that these jagged mountains look like breasts but I'm sure it got them through those cold nights. Again most of the roads are closed to snow but one is open and we drive it to see what we can see. Not a lot it the answer. Cloud covers the top of the peaks and the snow is getting progressively worse throughout the day. A huge lake is laid out before us but you'd never guess it as it's completely blanketed in soft snow. This kind of snow is great for the ski resorts but not for the sight seeing. Still you can tell it's an impressive place. I try my hand at a bit of snowboarding on yet another thickly covered hill with little success.
The dark rolls in and soon we find ourselves struggling to see more than 10 metres in the now sideways blizzard. The wind is blowing snow off the edge of the road into the cars path like a snow-making machine. Roads that were clear that day were covered the next morning in a good few inches of soft white powder.

At least the next day gives us a brief view of the breasts, I mean peaks. Impressive they are and I can imagine that when summer arrives the park will be even more stunning with the huge lakes and green fields that are currently lying under all this snow.


From the morning in Wyoming into the afternoon into Idaho to enter Montana and West Yellowstone. A small village covered in house-high snow where lanes are forged out beneath glowing motel signs. The west entrance is still closed and we head on north to a small town called Livingston which carries on the dull tradition of western towns. At least from here it's only an hours drive to the only year round open entrance to Yellowstone National Park.