We’re just finishing a two-week stay in the very small town of Dubois, WY situated at an elevation of 7200 ft on the Wind River east of Grand Teton NP. Dubois, with a population of only 900, most of whom are ranchers, has yet to be discovered by the masses and is sometimes referred to as an ’embryonic’ Jackson (that tourist mecca just outside Grand Teton NP). The high desert climate has the most ideal weather we have encountered on our trip, high’s in the low 80’s and low’s down into the 40’s at night with an occassional afternoon thunderstorm.
During our stay we did quite a variety of things. One of the first was to drive out to Torrey Lake to search for the several thousand-year old petroglyphs of the ancient Sheep Eaters, ancestors of the modern-day Shoshone Indians. Carved into the rocks high above the lake, we had to scramble up slopes and hang on to sage brush for support but were rewarded with images that boggle the imagination.
After finding the petroglyphs we continued to the end of the road for a beautiful hike up to a waterfall. We’ve had a bit of challenge getting used to the elevation here, this hike started at 8200 ft and went up to 8400 ft. We can definitely feel the fact that we come from an elevation of about 20 ft!
Our RV park, the Longhorn Ranch RV Resort, is as the name suggests also a ranch and offers trail rides into the Badlands on the other side of the river right behind our park. The Badlands are gorgeous and so off we went one morning on a 2 hour trail ride, me on my trusty stead Sandy and Leonard on Tinkerbell. We were led by Jan Marrou, a woman we came to know fairly well during our two-week stay, her family were 4th generation ranchers in Wyoming and her grandparents had originally owned the Longhorn. She was also an amazing singer (more about that later).
We also did some of our usual explorations of back roads, ending up at elevations of 9500 ft where mountain flowers are still in bloom and snow remains on the slopes.
The second week of our stay we were joined by my Aunt and Uncle who traveled down from British Columbia to join us for a week. It was a fabulous week enjoyed by 3 games of golf, lunches at the local restaurants, sightseeing trips into the backcountry and a trip into Grand Teton NP to see the sights there.
The Badlands provide the scenic backdrop for the 9 hole course
A beautiful backdrop for the Pedersens!
As mentioned earlier our trail guide was Jan Marrou, also know as the Cowboy Sweetheart, who we also discovered was a one woman show and was going to be performing at a local venue in Dubois. She put on an awesome show having an incredible Patsy Cline voice and with help from Leonard we were able to arrange for her to come and perform again at our RV park. It was a joy to be able to sit outside in the perfect weather and listen to her fabulous voice.
Some of the local flavor of Dubois
More local flavor
Fly fishing is also very popular here. We wanted to try it but the waters of all the rivers are still running very fast and high from the enormous snowpack.
Just like in the olden days!
Now we move on, into Grand Teton National Park to see what adventures we can find there. Stay tuned.
Sun and Sand Travelers 
Looks like a great couple of weeks. I wonder what the petroglyphs mean. Did they have microscopes? Someday I would like to head out that way again now that I found a cousin that I haven’t seen in forty years, that lives on a ranch in Boulder just south of Dubois. Did you happen to take a ride over to Thermopolis? Kind of an interesting place and a good place to soak the day away. Have fun in the Tetons.
Hi Mike, you should try and get out here you would love it. No idea what the petroglyphs mean, there were another batch in a different area that we wanted to find but ran out of time. We did go through Thermopolis but didn’t stop, it was hot there, too hot for soaking during the summer. Hope your summer is going well.
Beautiful scenery, the mountain meadow especially. A shame about the elk. It seems as though hundreds have contributed to arches across the region. Did Leonard jam with the Cowboy Sweetheart?
Actually the elk shed their antlers every year and people pick them up and use them, otherwise I would have been devastated by the arches.
Jan was going to come by our place and sing and Leonard play but we ran out of time. Too bad.