ID and WY (Jackson Hole)

The next day I continued through central Idaho into Wyoming.

This is a mountain with numbers on it called the "number hill", which started many years ago.  The graduating class of 1920 from Butte County HS painted the number 20 on the hill to symbolize school spirit.  Since then, the tradition held strong and each year a new class puts their number on this hill.

 

 This is from the USS Hawkbill (submarine).

Since 1949, more nuclear reactors (> 50) have been built on the ID Nat'l Laboratory plains than anywhere else in the world.  Commercial power reactor prototypes were developed here.  This lab became a major research center internationally for developing peaceful uses for atomic energy.

These are heat transfer experimental reactors outside the EBR-1 (the world's first nuclear power plant).

This is the beautiful Snake River that I crossed as I wound my way through Southern Idaho into Wyoming.

This guy is a better fisherman than I am.  He caught 2 fish in about 5 minutes of watching!!

My next destination was the famous Wort Hotel in Jackson Hole, WY.  This was a nice, quite, little town, well decorated, and not too crowded.  Beginning in 1922, Hollywood came to Jackson to film a number of westerns and dramas, such as "The Cowboy and The Lady", "The Big Trail", "The Big Sky", "Bad Bascomb", "Shane", and "Spencer's Mountain".  This hotel was the "home away from home" for many actors like Henry Fonda.

 

The wort family were hunting and fishing guides in the Teton and Gros Ventre backcountry.  High profile clients like Clark Gable frequented their tours.  This is at the top of the grand staircase, which is an original from 1941 that barely survived the great fire of 1980.  During the filming of Shane in 1951, Jean Arthur (an actress I've never heard of) made a grand entrance each morning before filming started by sliding down the staircase banister.

The Wort Hotel maintains the original black jack table, poker games, roulette wheel, and slot machines.  The black jack table stood in the Silver Dollar Bar for years, but had to be moved into the basement (Snake Pit) once the state gambling laws were enforced in the mid-1950s.  You needed a password to be allowed in to these secret games.

 This is the Silver Dollar bar.  The white circles are all silver dollars.

Here is a history on the Wort Hotel.  To read it, just double click and enlarge the letter.  There are 2 hallways that have a lot of photos and history about the family roots of the town of Jackson, the employees of the Wort Hotel, and townspeople who have become part of the Wort legacy.

 The bathrooms at the Wort Hotel also had many interesting sayings and pictures on the walls.

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."

"Between 2 evils, I'll always pick the one I've never tried."

"It's not the men in my life that count; it's the life in my men."

"I generally avoid temptation, unless I can resist it."

Here is a paraglider coming off of the mountains in Jackson Hole.

I went from Jackson to the Jackson Hole resort in Teton Village, just 1 mile from the Grand Teton National Park.  Beautiful place!

I hopped on the legendary aerial tram, which went to the top of the Tetons (10,450 ft).  The tram goes up 4,139 ft in 12 minutes and is a must see for anyone in the area!!

These images are on the way up the tram.

 As you can see, there is still a lot of snow up in the mountains!!

I had wanted to do some of the hikes up here, but none were open, and it would have been too slippery even with ski poles to try hiking, so I just spent 15 minutes up here walking around and enjoying the view.