Around the Blogosphere in Wyoming

A few weeks ago I was contacted by the Three Bay B Chicks from Moxie Media. They wanted to take a virtual road trip across the U.S. and visit bloggers in each of our 50 states. Sounded like fun to me! They sent their mascot - Moxie Mona - to take a tour of my fair valley. So, today, sit back and learn a little about this wonderful place that I call home!

I am fortunate enough to live in beautiful Jackson, WY. Jackson is a small town (population of about 10,000 permanent year round residents) at the south end of the valley of Jackson Hole. Jackson Hole, with about 20,000 year round residents, is about 80 miles long and 15 miles wide. We're bordered on the north by Yellowstone, hemmed in on the east and west by the Teton and Gros Ventre mountain ranges and taper to a canyon at the southern end. Grand Teton National Park consumes a good portion of the valley.

Looking down on Jackson from atop Snow King earlier in the summer

Jackson has four distinct seasons - Summer, Fall, Winter, and Mud. Summers are short but divine. Winters are long and can be brutally cold here, but with two ski resorts (the well known Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and the lesser known town ski hill Snow King), who cares! Bring it on! And if you don't downhill ski, you can always snowshoe, cross country ski, snowmobile, or just hunker down by a nice, warm fire. Mud season (otherwise known as spring in the rest of the country) is when residents do their best to leave this beautiful valley to get a warm, green fix elsewhere.

We did our best to show Moxie Mona (aka Supergirl to my daughter) a few of the sights in my small town. First stop, a view of the Tetons!

A tourist hub in Jackson is the town square. There's an antler arch at each corner of the square. Don't worry - no animals were harmed to get these antlers. Elk, deer, and moose naturally shed their antlers each year. Like every good tourist to Jackson Hole, Moxie Mona needed a picture in front of one of the famous arches.

She's there - really - at the very bottom of the arch on the inside left hand side.

While the locals tend to avoid the square in general (can you say tourist central? Though there are some good stores aimed as much at locals as tourists - and great restaurants - on and surrounding the square.), the local farmer's market draws us to the square every Saturday. It's not easy to grow stuff in our high mountain valley, so local fare can come as far away as Washington. It's fall here already, so we took Mona to the last farmer's market of the season - whimper!


Going on at the same time, the Fall Arts Festival. One of the highlights of the festival is the Quick Draw. Selected artists set up on the square with a blank canvas and have two and a half hours to complete a work of art all while a gaggle of people watch. It's fascinating to watch the works of art unfold.

You can kind of see the start of a painting of a bear in the background.

Alas, our time with Moxie Mona has come to an end. Wish we had time to show you more of the wonderful things this valley has to offer, but life is busy and Moxie has more places to visit. Hope she - and you! - had fun learning a little about our home in northern Wyoming!

Head to Mahem & Moxie to check out the other blogs involved in the Around the Blogosphere event. Take a virtual tour of the nation with Moxie Mona!