The Guardian (U.K.) writes about the impact Covid-19 has had on so-called “gateway” towns which rely on tourist business from visitors to U.S. National Parks. The article mostly focuses on Mariposa, CA, which is outside Yosemite National Park and which, it is claimed, has suffered.
It also mentions in passing Jackson, WY, which is at the southern boundary of Grand Teton National Park and on one of the major entry routes for Yellowstone National Park, the nation’s oldest and one of its largest national parks.
In Jackson, Wyoming, a few miles south of Grand Teton national park, the town is “busier than we thought we’d be but still not as busy as a normal summer”, according to Rick Howe, vice-president of the Jackson Hole chamber of commerce. He says tax collections are down by about 36%.
The DrsC have been in Jackson perhaps 8 times this summer - it’s the location of our WY dentist and a favorite cafe, Liberty Burgers on Cache St. I promise you Jackson was busy until late August. We often had to wait for a table.
Bikers from west of the Rockies en route to the annual Sturgis Harley gathering truly have been fewer this summer. On the other hand, you’ve read about record sales of RVs this year? Their buyers have been out on the roads to the parks so it hasn’t seemed too quiet in northwestern Wyoming, home to two beautiful parks. A couple of times we couldn’t get parking at the Jenny Lake overlook because of the crush, and those were mostly cars.
Bottom line - take moaning about the “plight” of gateway towns with the proverbial grain of salt. The one I visit with some regularity has been booming, and Jackson is a three season town - summer touring, autumn hunting, and winter snow sports. Spring is the dead time here, if I were a local merchant spring is when I’d close for renovation or vacation.
Afterthought: Isn’t it strange that a British paper would imagine their readers interested in the degree to which small towns outside U.S. national parks were impacted by Covid-19? As a young Brit said to me some decades ago in another context, “Daft, innit?”
