Saturday, May 25th, 2013
Just like we heard before going to bed, we were awoken by a Sage Grouse flapping its wings. I was starting to wonder if we had parked nearby a lek. We took an excursion up the mountain to Goodwin Lake Trailhead. As we were hiking along the trail, we listened to the trees creaking in the breeze and the birds chirping. The conifers were fragrant.
We ended up taking a wrong turn on the fire trail, but soon found ourselves back on the right path. A couple coming from the other direction confirmed it, but warned us that there was a lot of snow on the trail ahead of us. There was, and we tried trudging through it for a while. Once it got waist deep, we gave up and decided to turn around.
Once we made our way back to the van, we changed out of our soggy clothes and headed down the mountain to Jackson. We got to see some Bighorn Sheep on the way down.
We grabbed coffee at “Cowboy Coffee,” browsed around the shops, then ate lunch at “Mountain High Pizza Pie” before purchasing our tickets for the Jackson Hole Rodeo. Now, I’m not much of a “country girl.” Line dancing and country music makes me cringe. So I wasn’t initially too excited about going to the rodeo and I didn’t really know what to expect, but “When in Rome”.
I ended up having a blast! We watched men riding bulls and broncos, and team roping competitions (although I felt kind of bad for the calves involved in the roping bit). Boys as young as 3 years of age rode on beefed up calves, and the barrel racing done by the women and girls (one as young as 5), was impressive to watch to. The amount of precision involved in all of it was amazing.
They announced a dance competitions and picked a few people out of the crowd. The crowd cheered for the final two competitors who were then blindfolded and one of the two was pulled aside as the other danced all by himself, unbeknownst to him. The moves on that guy were hysterical! After they removed the blindfold, he handled his embarrassment with grace, and bowed before his adoring fans.
Next, they called all the children down on the field for the next crowd involved competition. Trevor joked with the people seated next to us, that they were going to release all the bulls on the field. The guy next to us laughed and replied that it’s the best part of the rodeo. They didn’t do that fortunately, but they released 3 sheep and told the kids to catch them and get the ribbons that were attached to their necks. The kids and sheep ran around in a frenzy, and it was absolutely hilarious! Those were some fast sheep!
The rodeo was great, but I was happy to remove my frozen buns from those cold bleachers. We strolled around Jackson at night which was lit up with neons, and walked passed the famous “Million Dollar Cowboy Bar” which was swarming with the local police acting as security.
Back at home, when you see a man wearing a cowboy hat, it’s comical. Here when you see a man wearing a cowboy hat, you better believe he’s an actual tough-as-nails cowboy and he’s nothing to laugh at.
Jump Back to Part 37: Noodle Arms, Fuzzy Man Panties & Sage Grouse
Jump Ahead to Part 39: Marmots and Bighorns and Bears, Oh My!
OR
Start Over at Part 01: The Blue Bubble, Freebies & A Rude Awakening
Stubbs Rambles On 