Flying to Jackson Hole
Since before we started building the airplane, it was a dream to fly to Jackson Hole. My parents have a house there, I’ve been there many times to visit, and it was the site of my first “small” airplane ride, in a Piper Chieftain, back in 1993. During a couple previous visits years ago, I’d rented a Cessna 172 to fly around there to check out the amazing scenery, but I’ve always wanted to actually fly there from Seattle. Compared to driving, it’s a 4 hour flight instead of a 14 hour drive, and flying on an airline would require changing planes in Denver, which means a longer trip than just flying ourselves, so there’s actual utility in flying ourselves, too.
We decided to take a week-long vacation around Labor Day. Due to a birthday party Sunday afternoon, we couldn’t leave until later Sunday, which probably wouldn’t leave us enough time to fly all the way to Jackson comfortably, but we wanted to get at least over the Cascade Mountains to avoid being stuck under one of those marine layer low overcasts the next morning. As such, we left around 2:30 Sunday afternoon.
Crossing the mountains and flying across eastern Washington was uneventful. As we approached Baker City, Oregon, we saw some weather ahead.
Fortunately, this was isolated and a slight deviation to the south gave us just a few rain sprinkles. After crossing the Blue Mountains and getting into Idaho, things were clear the rest of the way. We decided to stop in Caldwell, Idaho (near Boise) to get some gas and figure out the plan the rest of the way.
We figured we would have just enough time to get to Jackson Hole before it started getting dark, but since it was our first trip there, we decided not to push it and just stop for the night. Unfortunately, I didn’t do the best job planning for the overnight stop. We tied the plane down and ended up having to walk a little over two miles to a hotel (a nice Best Western with free WiFi and breakfast). Kelly was a good sport about it.
The next morning we had a quick breakfast and went back to the airport, eager to get going.
Leaving Caldwell, we headed east, staying a little south to maximize our time over hospitable terrain. For the most part, this puts us near I-84 and the Snake River.
After about an hour, we could tell we were getting close–the Tetons are hard to miss.
Here’s a video of the landing:
After getting tied down, we were ready for a relaxing week.
All pictures from the trip are here.
