Day 4: Grand Tetons, Jackson Hole Ski Area, Jackson, and Wilco Concert!
Another early morning for us as we headed an hour north back into the park for a fancy buffet breakfast at the famous Mural Room in the pristine Jackson Lake Lodge. It was built in the 1950s but had a modern design and has been updated. It boasts an impressive view of the Tetons from giant windows facing west.
The Jenny Lake hike we were going to do was completely full by the time we arrived at 9:00 AM, so we called an audible. After seeing some cool structures from the park's early days at the Menor's Ferry area, we decided to drive the narrow Moose-Wilson road south out of the park to Jackson Hole resort.
I've always wanted to ski at Jackson Hole resort and hopefully will do so one day. They have it well set up for summer fun, too, with the hole base area looking awesome with well designed buildings and pops of its signature red color everywhere. Reed got to the do the bungee activity and managed to figure out how to do double back flips as well as front flips while being twenty feet in the air. Reed, Charlotte and I did the ropes course. I knew they'd be fearless and amazing at it. But I was also really proud of myself for doing well at it and doing the zip line off both the levels - which was absolutely terrifying to me. I had a lot of fun watching them master different elements and seeing their satisfaction with how they were doing and having fun at this challenge.
We stopped into downtown Jackson after that to walk through the town square and Antler Arch and see the famed Million Dollar Cowboy bar. We did some shopping and strolled through the town on covered wooden boardwalks. We had a nice chunk of time to rest and relax at the pool late that afternoon.
Our evening adventure was to take the gondola up the Snow King Mountain for an evening concert at their natural amphitheater on the top of the mountain. We got to watch sunset over the Tetons while listening to Wilco, a great band who puts on a sweet live show with lots of improvisational jam segments to it. We left halfway through. The ride down the gondola with no lights on for ski runs was really cool - the lights from Jackson illuminated the town and was really quite a sight.
