A wine dinner with new friends and some random ranch shots.

Last night I was invited to attend a "wine dinner" with some new friends. They all relocated here from places like San Fran, CT, MA, etc. and met each other decades ago. One is/was a nuclear physicist, another a teacher turned ski instructor, another worked in the investment field, and one is a fly fishing guide. Very fun and diverse group. The evening started with a drink at Calico, a very popular local Italian restaurant and bar. 

Then we moved a few blocks up the road to the home where the dinner took place. The view of the Tetons from the deck was beautiful, and we nibbled on French bread rounds with an assortment of meats, olives, sun dried tomato and artisanal cheeses. Each couple brought 1 or 2 bottles of high end wine to share, and the hosts and their friends were all wine aficionados, avid skiers and world travelers. One couple had just returned from a month in Chile and Argentina, hiking and fishing. Some happy marriages indeed.

The hostess (in glasses) made a fantastic blackberry marinade for the pork tenderloin and did all the cooking AND grilling. She also grows her own veggies in a back yard garden. Even the broccoli was delicious, with whole cloves of garlic in it... everything nicely presented on square plates.

 

After finishing a bottle of white, we moved on to reds and this little gem from Chile, a big bold Bordeaux blend, over $100 a bottle. What a treat! After 14 weeks here, I'm still finding plenty of fun things to do and meeting great people. I think I'll stay another 6 weeks ;)

 

On to a new topic, I finally took a few interior lodge photos at the ranch and then today while I ate my lunch on the lodge's front porch, got a nice image of the front lawn, corral area and Tetons without snow! Sometimes, I can't believe I really live here. A new group of guests arrives today, only 18 of them, and beginning this week, it's adults only at the ranch. Woo hoo! In two weeks, breakfast time gets bumped up from 7:30 AM to 8 AM. That's good because the sun is coming up so much later now...I prefer to wake with the sun and not get jarred awake by an alarm clock. Been there done that after 15 years working in an office.

Stone fireplace, log walls and furniture, original artwork and bronzes, fresh flowers, beautiful rugs, mounted animal heads, wagon wheel chandeliers... pretty cozy eh? Soon, there will be fires in the lodge fireplaces at breakfast time too. Ah, ranch life...

Casper Ridge Loop and wildflowers galore!

This year, the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort opened a new trail for hiking. It involves taking an 8 person gondola car to the top of Rendezvous Mountain, elevation over 9,000 feet. The gondola is free and opens daily at 4:30pm, so I had to time my hike just right to get back to the ranch in time for dinner (not to be missed... it was duck!) At the tip of the pen is the trail, a horizontal line in blue. It's pretty much the highest hike on the mountain... short and sweet after the initial climb. Look how close it got me to the mountains behind... almost eye level!

It was a beautiful day, and a quick bike ride into Teton Village to catch the gondola. I hopped off at the summit around 4:45 and had to find the trailhead across the patio from the happy hour view-seeking revelers and diners. I was tempted to just stay and join them.

Once I found the trail, I had to make a steep vertical scramble up a wildflower covered hillside to get to the ridge. It took 10-15 minutes, and there were switchbacks to make it more bearable. I hiked straight up to the pine covered ridge in the photo below...yikes! It was a little unnerving to see the explosives warning signs. They detonate them in the winter to help avoid "unplanned" avalanches. Nice to know there might be some live ones still lurking in the underbrush. And I thought bears were my biggest concern here!

The Casper Ridge Loop is known for its wildflowers and still has some now that the ones in the valley have peaked. The hillside was covered with them! Below is the patio that I hiked up from..wow! Look at the view of the valley.

The trail was narrow, meandering and dusty...

The wildflowers were almost knee high.

Another view of my starting point below as it grew smaller and smaller....

This little rodent is a Pika. They live at very high altitudes are are in the rabbit family... big ears!

And of course there are endless varieties of chipmunks and ground squirrels here... adorable!

Here's my view as I headed to the tree line at the top of the ridge. Once there, it was a nice 1.5 mile loop out and back along the horizon and peaks.

Pretty amazing, and I had the whole trail to myself for a full hour once I left the base!

 

I passed a gnarled dead tree, and then the path started to level out a bit as I headed north along the Teton mountains. The terrain changed quickly to rocky. I was glad I had my bear spray with me because this IS their territory. Allegedly, some of the white bark pines on this ridge are thousands of years old!

There was a slight incline as I headed toward the turnaround point.

The valley below got smaller and smaller but I could see for miles! Once again, a danger sign... this time for falling rocks and a ledge at the ranger lookout point. Of course, I chose this precarious vantage point to take a selfie ;)

 

A quick detour from the hike to share the many wildflowers I saw. This is only a sampling, (10) believe it or not! I don't have a clue what they all are... just enjoy.

 The flower above was my favorite.

Back to the hike, the trail went through a pine forest, along the ridge line and through more jagged rocks. At least it was fairly level and the views were to die for.

It was impossible not to wonder about the geological events that occurred billions of years ago to create this jagged landscape and these mountains and glaciers around Jackson. Below is the view looking back along the pine covered ridge I had just come from...

 

At last I reached the end of the path out. There was a switchback that rose before looping back around the way I had come. I couldn't wait to see the view off the back of the mountain into Granite Canyon. 

Here are some bright, lichen-covered rocks along the path.... 

And now for the best part of the hike... the views off the back of Rendezvous Mountain... and look at the rocks in the foreground! I literally felt like I was at the top of the world.

And to think, this is covered in snow all winter, providing very vertical, challenging and off-trail skiing.  Below is Granite Canyon and the distant peak is Grand Teton, the tallest peak in the park at 13,776 feet. It's a major mountaineering destination, and a guide fell to his death there just last month... I felt like I was at eye level with it instead of viewing it from the valley like I normally do!

 

This is my favorite photo of the hike (below). It reminds me of a Frederic Church painting and almost looks surreal. I would love to have lingered, but had to get back.

I passed this cut tree on my way back and again saw the valley on the front side of the mountain.

 Wyoming is definitely full of wide open spaces and vistas that just go on forever.

As I doubled back and headed south along the mountain ridge line, back towards my starting point, I was about 100 feet higher up on the ridge, looking down on the trail I came out on. The sun was dropping behind the mountain too.

Then I saw a family of deer... they let me get pretty close and watched me the whole way across the ridge.

 

And there was the fawn! ;)

The view looking up as I started to descend again...

 

More knee high wildflowers!I could almost hear Julie Andrews singing, "the hills are alive with the sound of music..."

                        Almost back to my starting point at the top of the gondola....

          I just had to make my way back down that steep incline along the switchbacks...

One final shot of the flowers as I make my descent to the building below... steep, yes, but so worth it. One of my favorite hikes so far!

And I did make it back down the gondola and "home" to the ranch in time for a delicious duck and wild rice dinner ;)