Jackson Hole

Jackson Hole is a mountain valley about 1,900m up and a very long way from any sea. Swimming means the lakes at the foot of the Tetons. String Lake is shallow and sandy-bottomed and warms enough by late summer for a real swim. Jenny Lake and the larger lakes stay bracing even in August, and snowmelt keeps the Snake River too cold and fast for anything but floating trips.

For a few weeks in midsummer a lake swim makes a good break from a hike. For the rest of the year the water is too cold, so this is not somewhere to come for swimming.

For a town of its size, Jackson eats well. A lot of wealth passes through the valley, and it pays for more chef-driven dining rooms than a mountain town would usually have. The regional menu is elk, bison, local beef and Rocky Mountain trout, often served with huckleberries, which also turn up in ice cream, jam and cocktails. Around the Town Square you find steakhouses, Western-style saloons with good burgers, coffee roasters, bakeries feeding early starts and a few serious wine lists. In summer a farmers' market runs on the square.

The range is still small. There is little street food, not much variety between cuisines and almost nothing cheap. Teton Village eats mostly at the ski hill.

The town's own sights are few. The elk-antler arches at the corners of the Town Square and the wooden boardwalks give the centre its Western look. The National Museum of Wildlife Art sits on a hillside above the elk refuge and holds a strong collection of American wildlife painting and sculpture. A small local history museum covers the trappers and homesteaders.

Inside the national park are the barns of Mormon Row, with the Tetons rising behind them, and the log Chapel of the Transfiguration, whose window frames the peaks. They are moving to see, but small. Most visitors fit all of it into a day between hikes.

Nights out follow the mountain calendar. In winter the après-ski bars at the base of the ski resort in Teton Village fill up loudly as the lifts close. In town, a historic saloon with saddles for bar stools and a country dance floor is the classic night out. A few brewpubs and cocktail bars around the square keep things going for a while longer.

Most people here get up early to ski or hike, though, and the town goes quiet well before midnight. There are no clubs to speak of, and in spring and autumn the bars can be close to empty.

This is one of the great mountain bases in the world. The Tetons rise straight out of the valley floor with no foothills in between, and Grand Teton National Park begins a few minutes from town, with trails up Cascade Canyon, around Jenny Lake and to alpine lakes beneath the peaks. Yellowstone's south entrance is about an hour and a half north by car. In winter a tram at Teton Village climbs to 3,185m above some of the steepest lift-served terrain in North America, and the backcountry, cross-country trails and snowshoeing cover the rest of the valley.

Wildlife is a big part of a stay: moose in the willows, bison and pronghorn on the sagebrush flats, bald eagles along the Snake River, and black and grizzly bears in the park. Thousands of elk winter on the refuge next to town and can be seen by horse-drawn sleigh. Summer brings whitewater rafting and scenic floats on the Snake, fly fishing, mountain biking and climbing. Autumn has golden aspens and the elk rut.

Almost every excursion from Jackson goes into the landscape, not to another place. Over Teton Pass, the small Idaho farm towns of Victor and Driggs make a pleasant drive with a quieter look at the western face of the range. South and east, the ranch towns of Pinedale and Star Valley have small local museums. None of them is worth a whole day for its own sake.

The historic buildings of Yellowstone, such as the old lodges at Old Faithful, are worth seeing, but they are part of a trip into the park. The real Western towns of the region are a long drive away.

For families who like the outdoors this is a rewarding place. Children love seeing moose, bison and elk from the car, earning Junior Ranger badges in the national parks, walking the flat lakeside trails, taking a scenic float on the Snake, riding a winter sleigh through the elk herd and going to the summer rodeo. The ski resort has a good ski school. The town is small, safe and easy to manage, and the staged shootout on the square is a summer favourite.

There are no zoos, aquariums or theme parks, though. Days involve long drives into the parks, and the altitude and changeable mountain weather tire small children. On a rainy day there is little to do.

The town itself is compact and easy to walk, with shops, restaurants and lodgings within a few blocks of the Town Square. A local bus runs between town and Teton Village, about 20km away, and is most useful in ski season. The airport sits inside the national park a short drive north.

For almost anything else you need a car. There is no public transport into Grand Teton or Yellowstone, trailheads are spread across the valley, and wildlife watching works best at dawn and dusk on your own schedule. Without a car, visitors depend on guided tours and shuttles, and winter driving calls for care and good tyres.

Shopping in Jackson means a few blocks around the Town Square, along covered boardwalks. The town is known for its many galleries of Western and wildlife art, from bronze sculpture to landscape painting. It also sells handmade cowboy hats, boots and leather goods, turquoise jewellery and high-end ski and mountaineering gear.

A few upscale fashion and homeware boutiques serve the valley's wealthy residents. Otherwise the range is narrow, there are no markets or department stores, and much of the rest is T-shirts and souvenirs.

This is one of the most expensive places to stay in the United States. Hotel and condo prices in summer and ski season are very high, rooms can be scarce, and meals, drinks, lift tickets, rental cars and guided rafting or wildlife trips all cost resort prices.

The best things here cost little once you arrive. Each national park charges its own entry fee, but the fees are modest next to the cost of staying, and trails, viewpoints and roadside wildlife are free. Staying over the pass in Idaho, or visiting in the quiet months of late spring and autumn, makes a real difference.

Live performance is strongest in summer. The Grand Teton Music Festival, running since the 1960s, brings players from leading American orchestras to the timber concert hall in Teton Village for several weeks of classical concerts. In town, an arts centre hosts touring acts, dance and small theatre productions, and summer adds outdoor concerts, chuckwagon dinner shows with cowboy music, and country bands in the saloons.

Outside the festival season there is little beyond community theatre and bar bands.

The valley's natural hot springs are its best asset for rest. A pool fed by hot springs sits in a forested canyon south of town, and in winter the last stretch is reached by snowmobile or dog sled. Closer to town, a hot springs park on the banks of the Snake River has several soaking pools and is easy to reach by car. In town and in Teton Village, wellness mostly means the spas of luxury resorts, plus yoga studios and massage aimed at sore skiers.

The pace helps. Evenings are quiet, the town goes to bed early, and a soak or a massage after a long day outside is a normal part of a stay. Still, bathing is not part of daily life here, and there is little in the way of spa culture beyond the hotels.