The Wild and Icy Plains of Wyoming

I love Jackson, Wyoming, where cowboy boots and belts meet big bucks (of both the animal and financial varieties).  On the weekend of November 16, 2018, Dave and I visited Jackson.

We stopped, on our way, at the picturesque LDS temple in Star Valley, Wyoming.

It was late and dark on Friday night, when we left Jane Moench Green's wedding reception.  We stopped at a motel in Brigham City. It was snowing as we drove from Brigham City towards Afton, Wyoming, the next morning.  David took the route through Montpelier, Idaho, rather than through Logan Canyon, which is treacherous in the snow.  We found the scenery breathtaking.  At first there were late autumn scenes, with fields and buildings colored in deep rust and gold.  As we drove further into the storm, we passed winter colors of dark evergreens covered with white snow, with gray, rushing brooks alongside.  We drove through northern Utah, southern Idaho, and finally into Wyoming.

The countryside felt remote and isolated, as we climbed up and up into the icy High Desert.  Near the top of a mountain ridge, we passed the Lander Cut-off, where pioneers on the Oregon Trail cut south towards California.

David made reservations for the 10 a.m. session at the Star Valley Temple.  There were only two sessions on this Saturday, compared to the 14 or more sessions at the Salt Lake Temple.  The session was so full, though, that the officiators brought in folding chairs from other parts of the temple.

We thought of Gay Bastian, mother of our daughter-in-law, Heidi, who grew up on a dairy farm in Star Valley.  It is a dream come true for small LDS communities to receive their own temple.  The temple was decorated in shades of blue, with paintings of the Teton Mountains and alpine lakes, and images of the fireweed flower in the stained glass windows and upholstery.  The fireweed is an image of rebirth, since the fireweed plant is the first to blossom after a fire.

Next stop was Jackson, where we stopped at top-rated Liberty Burger for lunch.

I loved the individual apple pies.

We then spent several hours wandering through the high-end art galleries in Jackson.  Paintings and statues that cost $10,000, $20,000, or even $50,000 were not uncommon. We daydreamed that we had a huge, bare house in our own Utah mountain resort of Park City, and we took turns suggesting the treasures with which we would decorate it.  A full size bronze of a mountain man.  An 8 foot square painting of the Tetons in the fall.  A chair made of antlers and silky-soft leather.

We stopped by Jackson's iconic antler arch and then drove back to Afton for the night.

As we drove back to Salt Lake on Sunday morning, Dave stopped the car again and again for me to get one more gorgeous photo, filled with empty skies, empty fields, and just a glint of sunlight.