Jackson Hole's Old West Snow Country - Page 3
By Tom Kagy | 11 Jan, 2026

The rigors of blizzard-skiing Rendezvous Mountain were offset by a wagon ride into the National Elk Preserve and browsing the Wildlife Art Museum and Jackson History Museum.

Attesting to the resort's full-service staffing, two more patrolmen showed up.  Seeing that I was too exhausted to ski they prepared a sled.  A few minutes of riding gave me time to recover and step back into my skis for the final couple of runs.

We were trundled out toward the elk herd in the National Elk Preserve in an old-timey open wagon pulled by a pair of drays.  Below is the elk herd that offered the wagonload of tourists qualiity photo ops.  (Tom Kagy Photo)

The storm came in full force soon after, with 40 to 50 mph gusts making the snow fly horizontally and making visibility impossible without goggles.  In any event my right leg wasn't in condition to handle more runs, and would remain so for the next several days.

The fresh snowfall gave Jackson an entirely different mien on our return from elk viewing than the one seen on our arrival, though the array of horseless carriages spoiled the effect a bit.  (Tom Kagy Photo) 

Fortunately, skiing was the most strenuous activity we had planned for our Jackson Hole stay.  The next day was scheduled around the National Elk Refuge which dominates the vast tundra on the edge of town.  

The Jackson History Museum offered us glimpses of what life looked like back in the day.  Below are some kids' toys from the early days of the 20th century.  (Tom Kagy Phot

The overnight storm brought more snow and temperature down to the single digits.  After another luxe custom breakfast prepared by Sarah, the Inn's chef, we added a couple of layers of clothing and started the day by driving up about ten minutes to the National Wildlife Art Museum located on a scenic bluff about 7 minutes north of town.  We spent an hour browsing among the impressive collection of wildlife scuptures, paintings, photos and film, before heading over to the museum's stylish cafe with tables offering a great view of the vast elk herds we would soon be observing at close range.

As we departed Jackson for Sun Valley we were ravished by a parting view of the Inn adorned with icicles.  (Tom Kagy Photo)

Near the time of our 12:30 appointment for the elk tour we drove back toward town limits to the National Elk Preserve and Greater Yellowstone Visitor Center, the starting point of our sleigh ride.  From there we boarded a white bus with a dozen other tourists for the drive back up Highway 191 to the dirt road access to the elk preserve which happens to be just opposite from the bluff on which the Wildlife Art Museum sits.

We were a bit disappointed to learn that due to the relatively low snowfall thus far, we would be taking a wagon instead of a sleigh.  The pair of big dray horses didn't mind it, however, as it was much easier to pull a wagonload of about a dozen tourists than to pull a sleigh, we were told by our thickly-bungled female guide Shandell.

The horses pulled us about a mile out to a point a couple hundred yards from the edge of the elk herd.  The herd consisted mainly females and young males without the big antlers who had come down from the mountains in early December for the winter, leaving the older males with their big antlers to linger in the mountains while recovering their body weight and energies from an exhausting mating season that had begun in September.

To our naive shivering question as to whether late December was the coldest time of the year, Shandell laughed before letting us know that it typically got much colder in January and February, often getting down to -20°F.  That day was a relatively balmy 18°. 

After photo op in which passengers were shuffled between the two sides of the wagon for optimal angles vis-a-vis the elk, we headed back to the waiting bus for the drive back to the Visitor Center.  We browsed the Center's photo exhibits and made some purchases at the souvenir shop before dring back to town for a hot lunch at Cafe Genevieve a block east of the Town Square on East Broadway.  We enjoyed the rustic charm as a setting for some French onion soup, Reuben sandwich, fried chicken, avocado toast and some excellent capuccino.  

Just a half block further east on the same block is the Jackson Hole History Museum which gave us a relaxing hour's interlude browsing artifacts from the days of hardy beaver trappers and early settlers who, unwittingly, laid the foundation for what would become the most upscale packaging of the American snow-country experience.

The next morning's final breakfast at the Inn by the Creek had us sharing the big table with an ultra-fit older couple from Washington DC.  They were in Jackson for the wildernerness vistas and cross-country skiing.  The husband was a former Duke professor who had headed up the Obama Administration's initiative to improve veterans' services by combining a profusion of several dozen websites into a single unified portal.  The wife was a Paris-trained chef who had accompanied her husband in jobs and postings in a couple dozens cities around the world through his half-century career. 

Our final breakfast was as delicious as our other two: fresh-squeezed orange juice, mixed fruit with yogurt, eggs cooked our way, including as omelettes with spinach, gruyere cheese and tomatoes, freshly baked bread and good coffee.  We were also armed with some tips on some good restaurants at Sun Valley, the second half of our snow sojourn, just a six-hour's cruise over the snow-covered southern edge of the Tetons and across the high plains of southeastern Idaho toward the Sawtooth Range.