No Rest for the Weary

After awakening at our resort in Teton Village (the upper crust of Jackson Hole), our first order of business was to find a CHEAPER place to stay for the night. I started dialing a list of hotels and ‘no vacancy’ unless we paid $300 for a room. I called the Kudar Motel and was told- yes, we have a cabin for $90, want it? I almost jumped through the phone. Yes!!! More on the cabin later. In order to make the most of our resort investment in Teton Village, abutting the ski slopes (of course with no snow yet), I worked out in the gym before we left. What a gym!

Then off to Teton National Park. The Tetons are distinctive mountains and considered ‘alpine’ in the US. I’m not sure what the criteria is, but these are the only ones. And yes, crazy people do climb them. The Snake River is at the foot of the range and makes for great fishing and pictures. The park is quite impressive for its beauty, but also for its facilities: lodges, visitor centers, museums. And it still is very undeveloped. The other significant find is wild animals! We had fun spotting moose, elk, coyotes, deer.

Fearlessly we decided on a hike. The trail around Jenny Lake is relatively flat and considered ‘easy’ per the national park hiking guide. A comment about the national park hiking guides: a paved walkway is not considered a hiking trail as we city folks might think. The easy trails are typically hilly, even when described as flat, and rough with rocks and uneven surfaces. As some of you may know, balance is not a strong skill for me. Despite these challenges, we had an invigorating and beautiful 2 hour hike around half of Jenny Lake and up to Hidden Falls (considered ‘moderately difficult at this point). We took the park boat back across the lake which was a nice reward for all that work.

Excited about having a room for the night, we decided to go back and find it. The Kudar Motel cabins were built in 1938 by a woman who is still alive (98 yrs old). Her cabins are in the registry of historic buildings. We were so excited to see them and even more excited when we found out that they had bathrooms with showers! The cabins are truly log and that is what you see on the inside. We had 2 rooms plus a bathroom, with TV, microwave and small refrigerator. Wow!!

With all that hiking and working out, I was so hungry I was going to start chomping on the log walls. Knowing how grumpy I get when hungry, Mark wisely decided we should go forage for food. We found an interesting restaurant that once was a taxidermy museum called Gun Barrel Steak and Game House restaurant. They specialize in game (aligning with the décor from the museum) and it was delicious!!

We walked around the town, complete with wooden sidewalks, cowboy bar, and elk antler arches at each of the four corners of the town square in Jackson. Realize that elks lose these antlers each year and they are typically eaten by smaller animals for calcium. In this case, they became art!

We slept quite well in our cabin. Cool air, no noise, cozy bed. We slept 10 hours that night!! We clearly needed the rest. Much more restful than the Teton Village resort room we had the night before.

Food and Drink: The buffalo prime rib and sirloin steak from the Gun Barrel restaurant were great! Cooked over a flaming grill – viewable from the tables – the meat was tender and cooked to rare/med rare as it should be for such lean meat. Both steaks were moist and delicious, accompanied by garlic mashed potatoes and fresh beans, cooked to just crunchy. Mark’s house beer was medium lager and very good. My syrah was perfect with the buffalo meat.