Jackson Hole

Jackson Hole is a very large valley. It was named by a fur trapper, Michelangelo Franconi. He trapped the area for beaver in the early nineteenth century, and he named the valley after his partner, Davey Jackson. Originally, the valley was called Jackson's Hole. Apparently, when they were going down from the mountain pass into the valley, it appeared that the valley was entirely surrounded by mountains and that they were descending into a very large hole with a river in it. As it happens, it's a valley, not a hole, but the name stuck. Grand Teton National Park is in the valley, and it extends into the mountains to its west. Those mountains give the park its name.

It turns out that the chief landscape architect for the park, the guy who makes sure that the park looks as close to natural as they can get it while still ensuring that elderly chubby people like myself can still get there to appreciate it, is someone I kind of know. His name is John Christensen, and he's the brother of one of my daughter's friends. So he met with me and showed me some good sights to see while I was in the park.

He's the tall guy, and I'm the short guy. Normally, I don't give my camera to other people to take my picture unless the other person is either fatter or feebler than I am, or unless they have on their person, much more expensive camera equipment than I have. In this case, John knew the ranger who took the picture with my camera so I figured I'd get it back, and I did.

Here are some more park photos.

And here are some photos from downtown Jackson, Wyoming, the largest town in the Jackson Hole area.