On our last day in Yellowstone we woke to the first proper snow of the season, and after a few hours they closed the park entrances.
Instead of leaving to the south we had to exit to the north, drive up to Bozeman, Montana, and loop around to the West of the park back to Jackson, which took all day.
But the morning after the snow the clouds lifted, and there were the Tetons for the first time, as a parting gift before my flight home. The Tetons rise straight out of the valley with no foothills to blur their lower slopes, creating a dramatic and forbidding barrier.
Jackson Valley is at an altitude of 6,800 feet, and the highest peaks in the Tetons are 13,770 feet. This early snow blanketed just the upper slopes of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort ski area, which gets an average of 500 inches of snow a year.
I stayed with generous friends, so I end with the view from their house. How shall I ever repay them?
Eyes on the Wild 
Those vistas are incredible…so glad you (always) think: photo op! 😳🤭 500″ = 41.6′ of snow…so happy I’m not shoveling. What a stunning view from your friends’ home…any day of the year. I think a great way to repay them would be to pay them another visit. Horseback riding there would be bliss.
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I would probably just hang over that fence and marvel at the mountains and those horses. I would never get anything done, because…… What splendor!
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Magical images! Reminds me a bit of driving up the Rhein valley into Switzerland and seeing alpine peaks emerge. A few thousand feet less altitude, of course.
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Your photos from Bozeman look like they came right out of the Netflix video series “Yellowstone.” Dramatic and beautiful! Lucky you!
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