Jackson Hole, Tetons, and Yellowstone, 2024

In October, I got to visit Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for a work offsite with our engineering team. I was barely over a month into the new job, and since we’re pretty distributed, it was a great way to meet many of my teammates in person for the first time. While Jackson Hole was out of the way for everyone, it turned out to be an awesome backdrop for our time together. The sessions were productive, and the team-building activities were fun.

We got to explore the Tetons and Yellowstone, which were both stunning. The trip was a great way to bond with my new colleagues and experience the beautiful national parks.

The Moulton Barn. When you have no other buildings, your barn becomes a tourist attraction.

Mr. Stathis.

One of the team activities was a safari. It wasn’t a real safari. We barely saw any wildlife, but we did see some great landscapes in the Tetons and along the Snake River.

Jackson Lake

There isn’t much to do in downtown Jackson. The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar is a tourist trap, but it’s a fun one.

Eli Mosley’s band played there both nights we were in town.

Michael, Mr. Mosley, was manning the merch table.

When the retreat was over, this one showed up and we drove to Yellowstone.

We stayed at Old Faithful. This was a short walk from our cabin. The intensity of the volcanic activity in the area is amazing. There’s steam coming out of the ground everywhere, and the whole place smells like sulfur.

The various geysers are relatvely predictable, and the park service has a schedule of when they’re going to erupt. We were walking next to this one a few minutes ahead of time, and it was just a rock with a bit of steam. Then, all of a sudden, it exploded, and kept going and going.

Grand Prismatic doesn’t look like much from the ground.

It’s crazy to think that the shallow ground just below the surface is teeming with life.

In any case, this is more like the life we were expecting to see.

The trail we wanted to do was closed due to bear activity, so we took a detour to the next one in our list. The “powerline” trail was eponymous, so kind of a let down, but it was still a nice walk to the waterfalls we were after.

Back at Old Faithful, we watched the geyser erupt, and headed to dinner.

The next day, we drove to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The views and the colors were amazing, but we realized that the park is more of a “drive to the next sightseeing spot” park than we would have liked. We strung together a few short hikes, but kept going through parking lots. Sometimes the cutouts had other visitors though.

Next up was Mount Washburn. The people at the bear spray rental place told us that it was safe enough to hike even though the park service recommended against it this time of year. We didn’t see any bears, but honestly we were both a bit on edge the whole time.

When we made it back down to the parking lot, an Italian woman told us that they were staked out looking for bears. She had seen us coming down the trail as a grizzly was on the ridge directly below. She was clearly relieved to see us make it back, and we were very relieved to not have seen the bear, but also a bit disappointed she didn’t at least take a picture of us with him.

The next day, we drove to Yellowstone Lake on the way out of the park. It was a nice drive, and a good bonus hike to add to the trip.

We drove back towards the Tetons, and stopped at Jackson Lake Dam.

There had been a fire in the area, and the smoke was a huge bummer. We had been looking forward to a hike through the Tetons, but they were obscured by the haze.

Luckily, when we got to Jenny Lake, the smoke had cleared enough that it was enjoyable. We couldn’t take the boat across the lake, but hiked up to Inspiration Point, and on to the falls.

When this guy jumped onto the trail, we freaked out. At first we thought it was a bear and were a bit startled, but then we just needed him to get out of the way so we could keep going or we’d miss our flight.

Well, the haze hadn’t fully cleared.

The airport is tiny, and you walk on to your plane to this view. It’s a nice way to leave.

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