Running Wild in Jackson Hole

So, here you are…….It’s been a short flight from Denver or Salt Lake City (or wherever you made your connection). But it is a leap into another realm. The plane drops down out of the clouds and suddenly there it all is, a landscape so sweeping and majestic that it makes you almost laugh as you press your face to the little square window: the mountains, saw edged and brilliant, marching out to the horizon; the Snake River running its sinuous course through the valley floor; the burnished tans and greens of the headlands.

You can immediately see why they call it Jackson Hole. The floor of the Valley sits at sixty-five hundred feet, but the Tetons on the western side soar like a wall to thirteen thousand feet, and the Gros Ventre Range to the east tops out near twelve thousand feet.  Trappers and hunters who found their way to the region in the early nineteenth century must have felt they were literally going over the edge as they descended into the vast encircled expanse.  It still feels this way today, as the plane drops down, far below the peaks and settles in for a landing at the airport.

No jetway here. You grab your bag, running shoes dangling from the handle, and exit the plane directly on the tarmac.  You take a deep breath and the obligatory selfie. The air is exhilarating and those mountains, its like they are right there in your face, well, because they are.  Your eye traces the wild, zigzag lines of the peaks – dominated by the central massif, the truly majestic Grand Teton – and follows the canyons cutting up in the deep, dark V s between the rises.  You try and imagine running there, following a trail up to the Teton Crest.  It seems like another world, or a new frontier perhaps, just like back in the “wild west” days.

Welcome to Jackson. That sort of spectacular vista, with its promise and its challenge, is everywhere here and why Jackson is a true mountain running mecca. Whether you are into running vertically or horizontally, there is something for every runner right outside your hotel room or a short, scenic drive past moose, bison, and elk herds.  

For those vertically inclined, you can hit a short 45 minute run at Snow King, the “town hill,” or holster your ultrarunning pack and spend all day running the Teton canyon trails and spine of the Teton Crest Trail.   What remains the same is an epic alpine running experience where every trail is so accessible without the need to spend time navigating foothills.  It’s like going to a concert to see your favorite band with no opening act.  No appetizer, just a five star main course on some of the most beautiful mountain trails in the world.

If horizontal running is your thing, nothing beats the “one of a kind” Teton views around the gentle path of Jenny Lake or the North and South path in Grand Teton National Park.  The mountains are your companion in every direction.

Whatever it may be, you don’t have to spend half a day just getting to the “good stuff”.  The good stuff surrounds you, leaving time for you to hit some rapids on the Snake River or try your hand at fly fishing.  Or maybe you dig meshing running and adventure and have your sights set on running to the top of Rendezvous Mountain at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and then paragliding down.  Or, if that makes your stomach turn, just grab a waffle at Corbet’s Cabin and then ride the tram down. 

Jackson Hole is the Wild West and a new frontier for you and your running.

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Eric Orton

World Renown Run  Coach and author of The Cool Impossible

Instagram: @borntoruncoach   Twitter: @BornToRunCoach   YouTube: Born To Run Coach