Jackson, Wyoming: Monday was a gray day in the Rockies, we drove the length of Grand Teton National Park. The fall colors had a watercolor quality in the mist.
On the way back we saw the most spectacular sunset over the Tetons range. I’ll bet the other DrC soon has a couple of great photos of Mt. Moran, backlit with fiery red clouds, on her blog.
We also saw a magnificent bull elk guarding his harem of several cows, he had a true trophy rack of antlers, but was safe as anything in the park which is a game refuge. No photo of him.
The elk were migrating down from their summer range in Yellowstone, to their winter range just north of Jackson townsite on the Flat Creek plain. They are fed there by federal folk who give them hay all winter.
The rationale is the elk once migrated to lower elevations perhaps in Idaho where winter wasn’t so cold and food easier to get under snow. The town of Jackson has completely filled their migratory route with streets and houses so they are fed just north of Jackson.
The other DrC likes to call this federal handout “welkfare.” It isn’t unique, the state of WY also winter feeds elk on a site just south of Alpine and perhaps elsewhere.
WY makes money from out-of-state elk hunters many of whom employ local “outfitters” as guides, caterers, and transporters. Local motels and restaurants also benefit. Hunting makes tourism here a three season affair, as it happens in fall.
Summer here is camping, fishing, and river rafting; fall is hunting; and winter is skiing, snowboarding, and snowmobiling. Our dead season for tourism is spring, which comes late and features mud. If you owned a motel here, spring is when you’d take a vacation.
