From Washington, Montana is just a long day's drive. Yet the farther down a narrow two-lane road, or better yet a flat gravel highway, Montana no longer is just a vacation destination. An allure exists that brings people from all over the country to escape, and in many ways this becomes true. Montanans tend to fight heavy snow, wildfires, and hot summers, but at the same time receive an adventurous yet kind spirit unrivaled by big cities.
I love the Idaho Panhandle and parts of Central Idaho, but when I return home over Snoqualmie Pass, I tell myself go far or go home. The rolling forests, rocky peaks, and crystalline lakes may be spectacular, but why go so far when even better granite peaks and alpine lakes are an hour from the back door.
Montana, even just a bit beyond the Idaho border, is a different case. As a resident of an unnamed valley in Idaho said in reference to Montana's Centennial Valley, "I live in a valley in Idaho like the Centennial, except not surrounded by these gorgeous mountains". Everywhere has valleys, some burning up, with cattle and friendly ranchers. But in Montana, there exist wider valleys with less people, more animals, and more prominent peaks. Here peaks aren't just the local high points, they are mountains deserving names, with their own distinct forms of rock and interfaces to the fragrant grasslands below.
Then, there's Yellowstone. A creature on its own, originally an American creation but increasingly an international phenomenon. The landscape in the park is clearly Martian; how else would goo pile up and red boiling pools bubble endlessly. The visitors and staff, however, make for a very different site. People show up to West Yellowstone, MT for a taste of the West and find machine gun rentals, a big grocery store, and a hundred t shirt shops. A polar opposite from the town gas station and range stations, but still a Montana attraction.
I love the Idaho Panhandle and parts of Central Idaho, but when I return home over Snoqualmie Pass, I tell myself go far or go home. The rolling forests, rocky peaks, and crystalline lakes may be spectacular, but why go so far when even better granite peaks and alpine lakes are an hour from the back door.
Montana, even just a bit beyond the Idaho border, is a different case. As a resident of an unnamed valley in Idaho said in reference to Montana's Centennial Valley, "I live in a valley in Idaho like the Centennial, except not surrounded by these gorgeous mountains". Everywhere has valleys, some burning up, with cattle and friendly ranchers. But in Montana, there exist wider valleys with less people, more animals, and more prominent peaks. Here peaks aren't just the local high points, they are mountains deserving names, with their own distinct forms of rock and interfaces to the fragrant grasslands below.
Then, there's Yellowstone. A creature on its own, originally an American creation but increasingly an international phenomenon. The landscape in the park is clearly Martian; how else would goo pile up and red boiling pools bubble endlessly. The visitors and staff, however, make for a very different site. People show up to West Yellowstone, MT for a taste of the West and find machine gun rentals, a big grocery store, and a hundred t shirt shops. A polar opposite from the town gas station and range stations, but still a Montana attraction.
Grand Teton National Park connects to Yellowstone, but the connection is rather long (at least to a carload of kids eager for supper and a run) and acts as a filter for some of the best users of National Parks (fewer RV sites, fewer amenities, fewer paved trails, fewer wolves). We tend to stay at the AAC Climbers' Ranch, a hodgepodge of dude-ranch buildings from the Double-Diamond Ranch. A different group of inter nation tourists, this time from France, the British Isles, and other areas where people love their mountains and the Alp-like access and setting of the Teton Range. There isn't much to do or see in the park that can't be done of foot or by canoe, and sometimes by a combination of both. Want a view into Idaho or a hard rock climb? The Tetons have it. Want a paved loop trail to view wildflowers and see some wonders of the world? Maybe not so fast, at least when in Wyoming...
My great uncle is a Wilson, descended closely from Nick Wilson, the founder of Wilson, Wyoming. Wilson is right by Teton Village and Jackson Hole Ski Resort, home to million-dolla town homes and an aerial tram. Wilson, though, retains its own turn-of-the 20th-century feel, with Nan's Fish Creek Inn and a few hundred single-family homes guarded both sides of WY-22 on the way to Teton Pass. The grocery/ hard ware/ everything else store that defines so many small towns was staffed by a summer staffer, who knew nothing of the town. How horrid, yet what a treat for someone to be able to experience life in the Tetons a bit outside of Jackson and Teton Village.
What perpetuates "job tourism"? Stay tuned...
My great uncle is a Wilson, descended closely from Nick Wilson, the founder of Wilson, Wyoming. Wilson is right by Teton Village and Jackson Hole Ski Resort, home to million-dolla town homes and an aerial tram. Wilson, though, retains its own turn-of-the 20th-century feel, with Nan's Fish Creek Inn and a few hundred single-family homes guarded both sides of WY-22 on the way to Teton Pass. The grocery/ hard ware/ everything else store that defines so many small towns was staffed by a summer staffer, who knew nothing of the town. How horrid, yet what a treat for someone to be able to experience life in the Tetons a bit outside of Jackson and Teton Village.
What perpetuates "job tourism"? Stay tuned...
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