Grand Tetons and Yellowstone Road Bike Tour

Jackson Hole and Yellowstone. It is the striking visage of the Grand Tetons—named by a 19thcentury French fur trapper, no less—that sets it apart from the rest of the Rocky Mountains. First, in the highest, sky-scraping thrust—an abrupt 7000-ft jut above Jackson Hole—that peers over a no less impressive supporting cast. So sharply serrated, the sub-peaks evoke a Great White shark’s lower jaw stretched atop a high plateau.

Only 40-miles long by ten-miles wide, this relatively small segment of the Rockies is also the youngest. Unlike other ranges in the Rockies, the Tetons have not been around long enough to acquire the foothills, or softer lines shaped by centuries of erosion. The Grand Teton National Park and adjoining National Forest protect this unique geographical feature, which peaks out at 13,770 feet; not to mention the wildlife, wildly lush subalpine meadows, and rich recreation opportunities we savor.

Each glorious morning, set against the dramatic Tetons, we stage an Upper Rockies tour: spanning three states, inhaling peaks, surging past cirques; beneath enormous, yawning canyons only to circumnavigate glacial lakes. Through an 18-million acre big mountain ecosystem, rich in bear, moose, wolf and elk, we’ll sweep across Yellowstone into The Bridger-Teton National Forest: crossing the Snake River and reveling in such American West icons as Old Faithful.

In our downtime, we might even indulge in a contemporaneous deconstruction of Yogi Bear and his purple bowtie wearing bear cub sidekick, Boo-Boo, if not the subtext and social hierarchy around Jellystone national Park…