Over Easter weekend, my wife and I took a few days to stay in Jackson Hole. It’s the off-season, so Jackson was free of the usual state of siege by fellow vacationers, leaving us plenty of room to do our thing. Our thing this weekend, we had decided, was cycling from Jackson to Teton Village. 

As the weekend drew near, we monitored the weather forecast, watching the storm clouds gathered and considering that we just might need to find an alternate activity, like staying indoors and gorging ourselves on Oreos. This wasn’t necessarily an objectionable course of action, but it’s not something we had to go to Jackson to do, either. 

Luckily for our waistlines (and this blog post), the rain miraculously cleared up that fateful Saturday morning, leaving blue skies. 

For us, the trail started right across from Flat Creek Inn. At the time we went, that particular section of the actual biking trail was closed for the season, making it necessary to ride about a mile down the road to hop on the trail, but it’s been open since the end of April. From there, it’s a simple matter of heading right through town, turning right on Broadway (at the elk arch), and staying the course until you follow the turn toward Teton Village. You can’t miss it. From there the trail remains easy to follow. 

I was actually pretty impressed by how clearly marked the trail is. These handy guideposts are installed at every fork, letting you know exactly where you want to go. 

The day was breezy but warm, the skies blue with a healthy feathering of cloud. With this being the offseason, our fellow cyclists remained few in number, but every now and then we passed someone and offered a friendly nod. 

Before leaving, I had grabbed some ice for our water bottles in the Flat Creek store. The clerk asked me where we were planning to bike. When I told him, he said I was likely to see some moose. Regrettably, the moose were a no-show on our ride (maybe, unlike us, they’d chosen the stay-in-and-gorge-yourself-on-Oreos course of action that morning), but I did take a picture next to this big fake moose, which was more considerably more obliging than the real thing.

At Teton Village, we stopped for lunch. We found a seat next to the log fence and munched on Epic Bars and other snacks. This is not a sponsored post, but if Epic Bars wants to sponsor me, I wouldn’t say no. Man shall not live on bread alone, but I’m pretty sure he could live on Epic cranberry bison bars.

On the way back, my bike was a little low on air. Luckily, like an oasis in the desert, the trail provided this handy bike repair station a few miles from Teton Village. I was able to top off my tires and make it the rest of the way despite a few persistent leaks. 

Our journey came in at just under 30 miles and took us about two hours and forty minutes, not including the respite for lunch in the middle. It was long enough to feel like we’d gotten a good workout, but short enough that it wasn’t too taxing. If you’re in town with a bike and want a few hours of consistently enjoyable calorie burning, I highly recommend retracing our steps. Or treads, or whatever. 

We’ll be back later this year to do some more biking. Jackson is crisscrossed with lovely bike trails, and we’ve hardly scratched the surface.

Maybe next time we’ll actually see some moose.