Jackson, WY

I knew very little about Jackson (or Wyoming in general) before arriving, other than there is a well-regarded ski area there (Jackson Hole) and that there are grizzly bears. Thanks to a Utah friend’s enthusiasm, I had some expectations that it would be pretty, negated by my mom’s scorn that it would be a “tourist trap.” After a few days, I can confirm all of the above.

The drive up from Utah was snowy and rainy, but nonetheless quite pretty, especially once we got within 45 minutes of town. We drove along the Snake River, which is known for it’s rafting and hot springs, and then ultimately drove out through Grand Teton National Park. (We considered going into Yellowstone National Park, but decided it was a little too far out of the way for this quick trip.)

In town, we enjoyed Persephone Bakery; Workshop, which sold locally-made art; the Center for the Arts; and Hand Fire Pizza, which is located inside of a converted theater. We tried to get breakfast burritos at D.O.G., but our timing was unfortunately off. Out of town we did 15-miles of hiking in the National Park in the snow, but didn’t see the majesty of the mountains until our drive out the following day.

The Good

• Cute town with interesting and varied shops and restaurants. I especially liked how art-focused things were.
• Tons of options for outdoor adventures. There are multiple nearby national parks, national forests, rivers, lakes, skiing, and surely any other adventure sport I could hope for.
• Jackson Hole Ski Resort is a definite draw. We didn’t make it to the ski area this time around, but there’s a good chance we’ll spend a few days there later this winter.
• It seems like Utah may become my family’s hub, so it’s nice that this is only a 4 hour drive away.
• Additionally, it’s a destination location, so I expect we’d have more distant friends and family interested in visiting us.

The Bad

• Excessively touristy. Even though we visited during off season on a rainy day, the sidewalks were bustling and restaurants were packed during peak hours.
• Excessively expensive. There’s not a single property on the market within 50 miles of town that is less than a few million dollars.
• It feels like a resort town, not a residential town. As an indicator, quite a few shops were advertising limited hours or extended closures while in “off season,” which for some spots seemed to be from October-May.
• Similarly, many of the access roads within the national parks were advertising closures from November-May. Although the snow predictions are heartening for skiing, I think the winters might leave me feeling cooped up and antsy.

The Verdict

No. Although Jackson boasts tons of nearby public lands and is a charming place for visitors, we’ve decided we don’t want to live in a resort town.

The main town square has four of these antler arches – there's definitely character, but maybe not my vibe. 

I really liked the large-scale art all around town. These nest-like structures were outside of the Center for the Arts.

In addition to the art, there was something very Wyoming-esque to the buildings around town. 

My initial impressions were good. Despite the gloom, I though the drive along the Snake River was gorgeous. The waterfall across the way was hot springs runoff. 

This was our view of the mountains on Sunday – we chose this hike at Lake Jackson's Hermitage Point in hopes for mountain views and limited snow, but both hopes were unfulfilled. 

We did a second hike to Hidden Falls. Despite the cold and snow there were plenty of folks out on this popular trail.

We saw plenty of beaver lodges, a small herd of elk, and lots of interesting birds. Thankfully we didn't see any grizzlies, even though the rangers and signs reminded us we were in bear country.

It was cold, especially for mid-October. It was below freezing all day and I was wearing 3+ layers everywhere. 

Work Shop was so adorable! I can't wait to furnish my future house with overly-priced handcrafted art like this. 

Although Jackson Hold Ski Resort is about 25 minutes outside of town, there is a small ski area that is just a few blocks from the main downtown streets. 

Although Hand Fire Pizza is fully converted into a restaurant, there are still aspects of the former theater flair. 

Finally on the drive out, we had clear views of the Teton Range. This photo is from the Wedding Tree – a popular spot for small weddings thanks to these views. 

None of my photos capture how spectacular these mountains are! I'd love to come back and backpack here in the summer. 

I'll close this off with my pleasure at finding so much rabbit-themed art in one of the local galleries. 

Van Life: Public Lands

I'm starting to hone in on some of the qualifications that my just right town will have. It wasn't on my original list of mandates, but I'm realizing how important it is for us to be near to public lands: state parks, national parks, national forest, BLM land, Bureau of Reclamation-managed spaces...basically anything that's covered under the America the Beautiful Pass. Surely we're appreciating those areas now more than ever (we've definitely paid off our annual $80 pass this year) since we often park for the day or overnight in some sort of government-managed land, but I'm also realizing the fact that they exist at all is exceptionally cool.

Not only are public lands typically really beautiful natural landscapes, but they provide so much benefit. For humans, you can stay on BLM and national forest land for 14 days hassle-free, and more heavily trafficked areas often have toilets and dump stations available for free. Many of these same areas are protected for wildlife conservation or for resource management. Others preserve natural and cultural history. Whenever I begin to panic about human's impact on the environment, I'm calmed by the knowledge that there are at least some spaces that are being protected from excessive human-caused change. 

On our 3-week backpacking trip (during which we went through the Inyo National Forest, Kings Canyon National Park, Sequoia National Park, John Muir Wilderness, Ansel Adam Wilderness, and Yosemite National Park), virtually every foreigner we talked to marveled at the vast American West. Although Europe and South Africa (and other parts of the world) have national parks and protected lands, wilderness is hard to come by. Even as you move east across the USA, wilderness becomes more and more rare. And it makes sense – by the time conservation became a national and global discussion point, a lot of places were already too densely populated to have much untarnished land left. 

This isn't to say that we are going to disregard anything east of the Continental Divide – there are many eastern towns that I am very excited to assess – but I do want to be more mindful of their proximities to public use spaces. I do not ultimately need to be walking distance to a vast national park network, but having nearby state parks, county parks, national forests, etc. may be more heavily weighted on my pros lists from here on out. 

It's the onset of autumn, but I have been thinking a lot lately about what is my go-to cozy place. The stereotype is to be snuggled up on a comfy chair on a wrap-around porch with a hot mug of coffee and a beautiful view. I don't regularly drink coffee and I'm not gung-ho for porches, but looking outside and seeing an impossibly high mountain and thinking to myself, "give me a few hours and I could climb to the top of that" is especially cozy for me. I don't think that fantasy can be true without public lands; my ideal location will have beautiful vistas that are accessible to me, not privately owned nor will ever be privately owned or developed. 

Thanks for reading my little half-rant. If you can, support our public lands by buying a park pass, donating to your state park system, or volunteering with a trail maintenance team. Enjoy these photos of various public lands we've visited with Vanjie thus far (in no particular order, and by no means comprehensive):

Arches National Park, UT

Rae Lakes, Kings Canyon National Park, CA

Devil's Postpile National Monument, CA

Thousand Islands Lake, Ansel Adams Wilderness, CA

Clouds Rest, Yosemite National Park, CA

BLM land adjacent to the Mojave Desert, CA

Bear Canyon Reservoir Wildlife Area, NM

White Sands National Park, NM

Bandelier National Monument, NM

Rio Grande Gorge, NM

Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, MI

Prehistoric Tracks National Monument, NM

Zion National Park, UT

Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

Zebra Slot Canyon, Escalante National Monument, UT

Capitol Reef National Park, UT

Dead Horse State Park, UT

Canyonlands National Park, UT

Antelope Island State Park, UT

Rock City Park, KS

Gateway Arch National Park, MO

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, MI

Tahquamenon Falls State Park, MI

Keweenaw National Historic Park, MI

Cave Point County Park, WI

Devil's Lake State Park, WI

South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND

North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND

Mount Rushmore, SD

Wind Cave National Park, SD

Badlands National Park, SD

Effigy Mounds National Monument, IA

Crabtree Meadows, Inyo National Forest, CA

Taos, NM

Taos was not on my original list. It rates poorly for crime, employment, cost of living, housing availability, and schools. It's also quite far from a "major" airport (3 hours; Albuquerque, NM) and 1.5 hours to a "major" city, if you can call Santa Fe even a city. Maybe it's just nostalgia, but, it was the first place we've visited where I got a whisper of the "this is it" feeling I'm hoping to have when we find my just right.

On a whim, we detoured through Taos on our way between Las Cruces, NM and Gunnison, CO. Based on recommendations from friends, we spent the day near the Taos Junction Bridge and the evening at Black Rock Hot Springs. Based on my childhood memories, we ate breakfast at Michael's Kitchen and had a good laugh at the waitress' comment that "now's the time to rob a bank" (there were over a dozen sheriff office and police officers having a Thursday morning meal). We worked from Kit Carson Memorial Park and after work I went to the Taos Museum, Taos Food Co-Op, Reneux Consignment, and Made in New Mexico (family, expect some NM-based Christmas gifts this year). 

What was most inspiring about Taos was the nearby Earthship community. Cameron and I often dream about our hypothetical future commune and have had the term "Earthship" floating in the back of our minds. Seeing these beautiful and artistic "self-sufficient off-grid buildings that work in harmony with natural phenomena" (from the Earthship Biotecture pamphlet) helped solidify this dream. Not only does Taos offer a physical manifestation of my dream lifestyle, there are huge plots of land (dozens of acres) available at a reasonable price. It's still not cheap – to buy the 65-acre plot of land that's currently being advertised would prevent us from also immediately buying/building a house, but we could just continue to live out in the van until we could save up again.  

The Good

• It's well positioned between my parents and my sister, which is the main reason we stopped by for this impromptu visit. 
• It's a small town with a vibrant culture. "Taos is Art" is posted on the street-side flag banners, and the town lived it! As a nice pairing, there are lots of restaurants, including my childhood favorites: Michael's Kitchen and Taos Pizza Out Back. 
• The fact that those two restaurants are still around seems like a good sigh. The town survived the pandemic (I didn't notice any closed-up storefronts) and was self-sufficient enough to last without regular tourism funding. 
• Connecting to the last two points, there seems to be the right amount of tourism: enough to bring in funding and maintain high-end options, but not so overrun that it's not too expensive to live and it hasn't lost it's individual flair. Within two blocks of the main downtown there were Laundromats, cannabis shops, and a feed store; for those who don't want to depend on the co-op, there's a Smith's; and there are large agricultural plots across the street from next-to-downtown residential neighborhoods. 
• Housing prices span a wide range, and large desirable plots of land are available and affordable. 
• The climate is pleasant year-round and Taos Ski Valley is a world-class high-elevation resort. 
• It's a good location for commune living, and it would be nice to have "the world's largest self-sufficient residential development" nearby to learn from (or perhaps join). 

The Bad

• Taos is remote and not easy to get to. The regional airport only flys to four cities (in TX and CA) and it would be a shame to have to make a big hoopla every time we want to visit our Washington-based family. 
• While a population of almost-6,000 felt comfortable, it may feel too small given that there's nothing else nearby. I've gotten rather comfortable with living in or near a city. Maybe after living in an off-grid community, the less-than-6,000-people population of Taos would feel like a bigger town.

The Verdict

Yes! Taos may have jumped to the number one spot to-date (on my list; Cameron claims he's still leaving the top slot open). My childhood memories may be foggy, but I remember loving Taos in the winter, our fall visit has been beautiful, and from what I can research online, spring and summer are also quite pleasant. 

Did I like Taos so much that I bought a local artist's rendition of the Rio Grande Gorge in the hopes that I will someday hang it inside my future home along said gorge? Maybe. 

The Earthships are amazing – they are largely built out of recycled materials and are fully self-sufficient.

 

Glass bottles and tires are standard building materials. The irregular materials make them exceedingly unique and beautiful. 

Solar, wind, and water are all collected for energy and other household needs (like heating and cooling).

Based on their website, you can pay for an expert to build one for you, or you can buy the blueprints and build it yourself. If we get serious about this plan (and I think we might), we likely will attend some of their classes before setting out to build our own Earthship-inspired home. 

Taos is surrounded by interesting landscapes. We spent a day alongside the Rio Grande Gorge. Being from Las Cruces, I'm used to almost nonexistent mucky brown water being labeled as "the Rio Grande," but up here the river was full, blue, and beautiful. 

On the opposite side of the Gorge are the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which house Taos Ski Valley and Wheeler Peak, New Mexico's highest point (13,167').

Although largely shrub brush, there is a fair amount of vegetation diversity housed between the rocky cliffs and mountains. 

I really enjoyed breakfast at Michael's Kitchen, and I loved people watching. The older man at the front of this picture appeared to have brought his own McDonald's coffee and sugar-free syrup. He's clearly a regular, since the wait staff seemed to all know him personally, and he was quite chummy with the police officers who were sitting nearby. 

Parks, playgrounds, and recycled materials all bode well in my book. 

We were not the only van dwellers hunkered down at Kit Carson Memorial Park that day. I'm not sure how to interpret that, but I hope it means that Taos is welcoming to a diverse crowd. 

"Taos is Art" was boasted around town, and was reinforced by lots of galleries, museums, and odd-ball seemingly independent displays like this one.  

I spent a few hours in the Taos Museum, which highlighted the work of two artists. 

The main museum's interior preserved the layout and woodwork of Nicolai Fechin. It was gorgeously done, and expanded my wish list for my dream house interior. 

I liked that  downtown Taos was not just one main street. There seemed to be many alleys and plazas, some of them walking only, that housed the many one-of-a-kind shops and restaurants.  

If I had to label one area as the primary downtown hub, it would be Taos Plaza. It somehow managed to feel simultaneously lively and quaint. And being New Mexico, of course there were chilies hanging up as decoration. 

Another part of Taos' charm was the intermingling of business, residential, and agricultural spaces.