Jackson Hole Trip Review: Early Dec 2017

This is a bit late but with a few days off I finally have a chance to get caught up on everything. This trip was booked just before thanksgiving for early December Baton Rouge to Jackson Hole. I spent 5 days/4 nights with a friend and his dad and had a blast.

Flying into Jackson is tough early season, with the only connections available in Denver or Salt Lake. I chose Salt Lake just in case there were weather issues and I needed to drive the 3-4 hours there from a cancellation. Plus Delta had a nice A333 on the ATL-Salt Lake route, though there were 70 people on the upgrade list...



Below is a picture of landing to the SW into Jackson Hole Airport. The tetons are on the right so if you know you'll be landing to the SW get a seat on the DEF side of the plane.



The Jackson Hole airport is very nice, but does not have any food by the check-in area so be warned. The drive from the airport to the village is about a half hour. On the way, you drive through a huge game reserve that supposedly 10,000 elk like to hang out in. Unfortunately, we didn't see any elk until later in the trip.

Picture of the clock tower in the village


Once in the village, we stayed at the Hotel Terra. The hotel had a very european feel, with one master switch right next to the room door and showers that had the glass only extend half the length of the tub. The beds were comfy and the views were excellent, but we ran into several issues with the staff. First, when checking in the valet guy was baked off his arse. In trying to get the luggage to our room, he ran the baggage cart into the walls about 6 times and made it seem like he didn't know where he was going. The next morning, when asking about breakfast, the lady at the check-in desk suggested the Mangy Moose. So we walked over only to see it was closed... Third, we ask the concierge to make us dinner reservations at a place called Local. He tells us he will call and set up a reservation, we get confirmation that we're good for 6:30pm. Drive all the way to town then see a sign on the door that they're closed for a holiday party... Maybe we were just there too early in the season, but most of the staff did not seem to know all the ins and outs/had a lot of things to pick up on before busy season a few weeks later.

Pic of the mountain from hotel room


Pic of the outdoor pool, there's also a rooftop hottub


Skiing wise, there was a winter storm warning so we were excited about the powder. We skied for 3 days and there were no lift lines at all despite over a foot of snow. Hiking the headwall was quite the challenge for me, definitely had some altitude sickness.

Picture from the thunder lift


Not even 5 minutes later a blizzard showed up


On the last day, there was a surprise snowstorm on mid-mountain so the bottom and top were both sunny. Once we got to the top of sublette, it looked like this


For breakfast, since we were in the village, we went to the Mangy Moose and the Teton Mountain Lodge. The breakfast was very filling at the lodge, but the mangy moose was a cheaper option that had omeletes.

For dinner, we went to Rendevouz Bistro, the Silver Dollar Bar, and Teton Thai. Rendevouz Bistro was excellent, the silver dollar bar had two sides: the bar side and a fancier dinner side. We sat on the dinner side and I chose the elk potroast (it was delicious, pictured below). On the way to the silver dollar we passed by a dead elk on the side of the road, we decided that if it wasn't there on the return then that was likely my dinner plate



Teton Thai is located in the village and is similar to a hole in the wall type restaurant with only about 8 tables. The portions were huge and the food was also very good. Didn't have a bad meal while in Jackson.

On the return, flew through Salt Lake and got a nice picture of the lake.



Overall, had a great trip and would highly recommend Jackson Hole for a ski vacation. Early december was great and while all the terrain wasn't open, we were still able to find plenty of powder with no lift lines.