Easy Rider 2006: Day 6 - Pocatello to Jackson

(Just a reminder - if you click on a picture, you'll get a larger version in a separate window)

Greetings from Jackson, Wyoming -- a town that ranks high on the tacky tourist scale. It's in a very lovely setting, high in the Teton Valley, with mountains and rivers galore -- exceeded in number by t-shirt shops, ice cream stands, and "trinket" outlets. The universal reaction among many we are traveling with is "its a big mall!", albeit one with staged gunfights in the town square and stage-coach rides, and all within spitting distance of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Needless to say it attracts tourists by the veritable bus load, not to mention RV, and yes, motorcycle riders. This place is beginning to look like a mini motorcycle rally town -- like Sturgis or Daytona during Bike Week. Most of the riders are coming from the Western Harley Owners Group rally in Billings that ended yesterday, and I'd bet motorcycles came close to outnumbering cars at times today.

We got a very early start this morning, meeting up with fellow Chorus folk, Thatcher and his girlfriend Rose (Thatcher is one of the token straight guys in the Chorus, and Rose is the costumer). Both of them have been riding the tour, but they skipped the initial ride to SLC and met up with the Chorus in Pocatello. We showed them the route we planned to ride and they wanted to ride with us, so we all met up at 715am in the hotel parking lot.

We headed north east out of Pocatello on US 91, reversing the route we took down from Blackfoot two days earlier. After Blackfoot it was all new however, and once we left Twin Falls on US 26 we started climbing up into the Mountains. After crossing the Snake River, we turned east on Idaho 23, and climbed up and over Teton Pass before dropping down into the Old West town of Jackson. It was another glorious morning for a ride -- and in fact it was cool enough to cause me to switch to a long-sleeve t-shirt. There was a fair amount of west bound traffic too -- a harbinger of what I expect we'll run into in Yellowstone Park over the 4th of July Holiday.

We got to Jackson in good time, about 1130, a good two hours ahead of the Chorus. The hotel rooms were not ready so we grabbed lunch at the "Million Dollar Cowboy Bar" -- Buffalo Burgers all around. Once the rooms were ready after 3p, we freshened up a bit and rode out to Teton Village to take the Jackson Hole Ski Resort tram up to the top of 10,000 foot Rendezvous Peak. Tony and I both realized we'd like to ski Jackson sometime, and were sad to see that they are closing their famous Tram this fall and we'll never get a chance to ride it skiing. The view of the Teton valley was spectacular, and one couldn't see a single tacky tourist in a fanny pack or a t-shirt/polished rock/stuffed animal shop, and the grazing Moose made you forget for a moment you were close to the worlds largest outdoor mall.

We had a nice quiet dinner at a great sushi place that made dumplings that reminded us of Tony's mom's homemade ones, and now we've retired to the room for a good nights rest. We are up early for what promises to be the best day of riding yet - through Grand Teton and Yellowstone Parks, and up and over the Beartooth Highway to Billings, Montana. We should have a group of four to six other chorus folks on this ride, all leaving at this time with us. The idea of riding over Beartooth is what prompted the whole idea of riding this trip to begin with, and we want to get out of Jackson and across the Parks before the tourists wake up and start up their lumbering mobile homes.

From an overpriced, underutilized hotel in Jackson, WY..

Tony and Gary