Tim + I escaped the freezing temperatures in PA last weekend for a mini getaway to even colder temperatures, all the way out west to the beautiful mountain town of Jackson Hole, Wyoming! The entire Fair clan absolutely loves this area, but it was my first time there! Apparently it’s even more beautiful in the summer, but the winter scenery was pretty darn amazing.  In case any of you travel bugs out there are planning to go out west anytime soon, I thought I’d share a few things we did that were super fun! I’ll also share where we ate, stayed + snowboarded! This town is totally doable in 4 days, which is what we did after booking super last-minute flights. We had a crazy January full of 6 amazing weddings and getting away for a few days was just what we needed! Since we planned our trip so last-minute, flights were way too expensive to fly straight into Jackson Hole. We ended up finding flights into Idaho Falls, Idaho, about a 1 hr. 45 minute drive outside of Jackson. We got to drive through the beautiful Idaho-Wyoming mountain pass, which was actually gorgeous and a fun way to start soaking in the beautiful mountainous scenery.
We stayed at the absolutely lovely Rustic Inn in downtown Jackson, and we loved it! Super cozy cabins right on the river, with a “nature walk” through the cabins and the backdrop of a mountain. They were very reasonably priced and included a gigantic hearty breakfast each morning!By the time we got into Jackson that afternoon, we just spent the rest of the day exploring the adorable western town! The first night, we got dinner at The Merry Piglets, a Mexican restaurant with unlimited fresh-baked chips and house made salsa followed by pulled chicken tacos + Coronas. Highly recommend it! Later in the evening we checked out the Philly /Jackson Hole semi-pro hockey game to cheer on a few of our Philadelphia friends who play on the team (and hang out with one of our past couples, Katie + Mike!)

The next morning, we were awake bright + early to snowboard on the legendary Jackson Hole Ski Resort. Scarily steep, blizzard like conditions at the top and the prettiest views you ever saw…I for sure conquered my fear of big-mountain snowboarding on this trip! Tim absolutely loved it.

Loved this little coffee shop at the base of Teton Village! For those wanting to stay a little closer to the skiing action, Fireside Lodge was another place we looked into, with similar adorable cabins. We might stay here next time 🙂 Another restaurant we enjoyed was Snake River Brewing Co, which had delicious hot sandwiches + brews.We ate at The Kitchen the second night, which was a little on the pricier side but thanks to a few free app/drink coupons from the hockey game we went to the first night, we loved it. High quality ingredients + a vibe that makes you feel like you’re eating in an igloo! Our final day, we rented a snowmobile and explored some of the stunning back country about an hour south of Jackson! We took snowmobile trails out to the Granite Falls and Granite Hot Springs, which was an amazing experience! We spent most of the morning snowmobiling through a blizzard that dumped at least 6 inches of snow on the ground while we were out.
Eventually we made it to the Hot Springs! (after getting our snowmobile buried in almost 6 feet of powdery snow, having a minor freakout then digging it out with our hands…haha). This is what you see as you arrive to the hot springs area! It seriously looked like Narnia! HYep, that’s all fresh snow on this bridge!

Another awesome thing was passing all the dog sleds!! These pups were adorable – they were soooo excited to pull the sleds and after their lunch break at the hot springs, the dogs all started howling in unison and jumping in the air straining to start pulling the sled again! SO cool, however the people on the dog sleds looked slightly miserable / freezing so we were thankful we did snowmobiling instead, since ours had heated hand grips! The snowstorm cleared up in the afternoon and we got to see more gorgeous scenery, and even a moose! We just had our little Fuji X-M1 with a fixed lens on, so we couldn’t get any closeups of the moose, but they were awesome. 🙂We were chilled to the bone after being soaking wet all day, so we grabbed some hot spiced drinks at the lobby bar and relaxed at the Rustic Inn’s fireplace before dinner. We were pretty tired from all the trekking and swimming, so we just got a casual dinner at Pizzeria Caldera and a drink at the famous Cowboy Bar (you sit on saddles!) before calling it a night.We loved this quick little trip out west and can’t wait to plan another visit in the summer months to see what other beauty Jackson Hole has to offer!