XC Skiing at Grand Teton National Park

 March 10, 2024

Third day of Cross Country skiing on this trip to Jackson Hole was the best day to be at the park. It was just my father and I. 

Last day

And the ski gods were smiling with this view of the Grand Teton this morning.

 

Blue Bird day at Grand Teton National Park

We started from the Cottonwood Creek Parking area and you could not have asked for a better day. There was a slight breeze which made the standing temperature of 24 degrees feel like 24 degrees. My Dad, his girlfriend Peggy and I headed north towards Jenny Lake and compared to last year, there was a lot more snow. 

Good Morning Grand Teton!

When I got up Thursday morning and looked out the front window The Grand (Teton) was enshrouded by clouds.

XC Skiing at Grand Teton National Park

Two years ago I started XC Skiing from this very same spot but it was snowing that day and the Tetons were obscured. Today, however, was not the case and these majestic mountains were in full view.

Jackson Hole Gravel Adventure

I have always wanted to do some sort of epic ride but never found anything that I felt comfortable enough with.  That is until my father offered up his condo in Jackson Hole in early May to me and my brother-in-law, Will, to stay at and do some riding. After buying our airline tickets I did some digging for Gravel Routes in the area and poured over satellite imagery looking for dirt roads. I found some in Jackson Hole but in neighboring Teton County, Idaho, there were tons.

Susie's Nipple Gravel Grinder

Fitzgerald's also talked about riding in Teton County, ID, the valley on the west side of the Tetons. In the words of the shop owner, they have a shit ton of gravel roads over there because it's all farmland. In my pre planning stage I had seen that and drawn up a few routes that looked fun.

In looking at some of the routes that the bike shop suggested the thing that stuck out in Will's mind was riding along the state line. The Tetons are completely in Wyoming and the state line runs up the east side of the Idaho Teton County valley so I incorporated those rodes with my own route that focused on Susie's Nipple, a small hill top on the western edge of the valley to come up the with Susie's Nipple Gravel Grinder.

The Dirty Grand Loop

 

The Grand Loop is where you ride from Jackson on the Cycleway parallelling Highway 89 and then into the park and up the Jenny Lake, turn around and come back, only once leaving the park, you head down Moose-Wilson Road and then loop back into Jackson.  Since Will and I were on Gravel Bikes I thought it would be fitting to expand the route to hit more dirt roads along the way and this would be our first big ride of the trip - 80+ miles.

Hoback Roubaix

The Grand was finally visible at the start of our second ride of the trip. In my internet reconnoiter of I came across a road called Falls Creek Road and the bike shop confirmed there was a good section of dirt on it, too.

National Elk Refuge Gravel Ride

 

Originally, I wanted to ride the causeway along the Snake River to acclimate to the altitude but found out that it doesn't really go through. There is a trail but it's on private property and trespassing is taken pretty seriously around these parts.  Fitzgerald's suggested a ride through the Elk Preserve. It's an out and back but there's a little climbing and they felt it would be a good opener, so off we went.