Weekly Update - Jackson, WY

Upper Mesa Falls

Our second week is over and we're - more or less - settling in here near Jackson, WY.  I'm beginning to develop a dislike of the town.  The people that live and/or work here or great, but it's a tourist trap.   Tourist here come with short tempers - most shorter than mine, and think nothing of running out in front of traffic on a major US highway to take a picture.  And the town isn't even all that crowded, yet.  We're told it will only get worse as the season continues.

We've taken a couple of days to park outside of the main areas of the town and walk in.  Like I said, tourist trap.  Food's good.  Ice cream great.  Art galleries are nice.  Prices high.  Workers complain that it's too expensive to live here.  Grocery stores generally packed with people.  If you need to go into town, it's get in early and get out quickly.

We worked in a day trip to Mesa Falls, near Ashton, ID on Sunday.  It's nice area to visit on the Idaho side of the Tetons.

Lower Mesa Falls

It's busy at the falls, but mostly a quiet side of the Tetons.  Of course we're here a little early for the season, so I'd expect it to get a little busier as the summer progresses.  A lot of people who work in Jackson live in this part of Idaho.  They say the challenge is to make it over Teton Pass in the winter.  Otherwise, it's considered a nice, scenic commute into town.

For us, well, we're settling in at the hatchery.  The view from the trailer is stunning, so it's easy to get up and moving.  Currently, folks are trickling into the hatchery for a visit, though it seems as if one car turns off the highway and all that are following decide "Hey, that's an idea - let's do that."   We're told each season is a little different, so we'll just have to see how busy the place gets as the season progresses.

Oh, the new batch of fish eggs arrived yesterday from the Auburn State Fish Hatchery.  The hatchery only got about 20,000 eggs as they're experimenting with how to raise them in the trays.  Once the state hatchery has their eggs hatched and grown to "sack" fry, they'll transfer about 100,000 "sack" fry to the Jackson hatchery to bring the hatchery up to it's planned quantity of fish.  The year old fish that are currently here will move to the Palisades Reservoir in Idaho in September.   The fish currently here are large enough to move, but the plan is to not transfer them while the reservoir is being used for irrigation purposes.  I guess there's no need to get new fish sucked into irrigation pipes!

That should bring you up to date.  We're doing fine.  Getting used to working in the sun after weeks of traveling in the rain.  We're still getting our "talk" down for the tours.  Donna says her talk takes 15 minutes while mine takes an hour and a half.  I don't think I take that long, but I do have a bad habit of chatting with the visitors.  People come from all over and have all kinds of experiences.  Most are here on vacation, having a blast, and it's easy to get jealous of all the wild life they're seeing while we're not seeing all that much.  Well, that's not entirely true as we're just seeing different wild life.

Coyotes run the hill behind us.  A fox is raising her kits across the road from the hatchery housing area.  Raptors seem to hang out over the hill that the coyotes run.  There's a single swan and a single heron that visit the hatchery pond.  A real cute weasel is seen from time-to-time around the visitors cabin.  Muskrats are in the pond.  According to a wildlife camera, there's a badger going after the ground squirrels (we're parked in ground squirrel country).  And, finally, the trout are giving the visiting fishermen to the hatchery's pond a run for their money.

OK, OK.  I'll end now.  Thanks for checking up on us.  Until next week, David