The trail that we would take was the middle trail between the KC trail we hiked the other day and Josie's Ridge at the very top. The hike yesterday took us about midway up the hill. We started out climbing:
and climbing:
and climbing some more:
We walked through some open areas like the ones above, and we then went through a lot of wooded areas:
and we came to a fork in the trail where we had to decide whether to continue on our trail - the Sink or Swim trail - or continue up to the top on Josie's Ridge trail:
Yesterday's hike was planned to take the middle trail, so we continued on the Sink or Swim trail.
The trail took us mostly through wooded areas at this point, but we had occasional peek-a-boo views of the town below:
We even caught a glimpse of the Elk Refuge that is just north of town:
Eventually, we came to another fork in the trail at the Sno-King Resort area where the chairlift is located and also where the horseback riding starts out using the switchback trail up the hill from Jackson:
At this point, we decided to take the trail down to the Sno-King road and head back home.
We came to the tunnel that we had always been curious about that we had seen from the Sno-King road. The tunnel was part of our descent from the trail, and is the logical way to get back to civilization. Here are a couple shots of the tunnel:
It was a beautiful tunnel - as tunnels go - and we walked along the sidewalk to get to the other end which was quite a ways down. The tunnel is actually the only route you can take to get to the Pine Glades Townhomes complex that is advertised at the front end of the tunnel:
Notice the starting price of $1,395,000!! You really do have to have money to burn to justify most real estate in Jackson Hole. They looked nice, but not $1.4 million nice.
Our walk home along Sno-King road takes us past an area that is dedicated to preserving the habitat and is an area that is primarily open where the Flat Creek flows through brush and open terrain. Suddenly, Josie stopped and grabbed my arm and said look over there, it's a deer. Sure enough, a huge buck - still in velvet - was just lying along the edge of the brush and minding his own business:
It was an unbelievable sight to have such animals so close to where the noise and traffic is all around.
The total hike would be considered moderate to strenuous and took us almost 3 hours and covered 7.4 miles. It was definitely a good workout, and Josie collected some wildflowers along the walk back:
and created this beautiful arrangement:
The icing on the cake for the day was a wonderful birthday dinner at the Gun Barrel restaurant:
The restaurant was previously a museum and there were animals and old rifles throughout the restaurant:
We both ordered the Velvet Elk and really enjoyed the meal. We also had a couple glasses of wine, and the bill was $97. With our complimentary entre tickets, it cost us only $27. What a deal, and a fine way to celebrate Josie's birthday. Here is a shot of our table:
It was a terrific day and this morning we are recovering from the extreme exercise of the hike, and the heavy meal last night. Our plan was to take another hike somewhere, or a bike ride, but we are rethinking that schedule, so we will decide shortly...
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