Grand Targhee is in Alta, Wyoming, just on the other side of the Teton mountains from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We had heard such great things about Grand Targhee from virtually everyone that has been there, we had to try it out this year. This is another area that we had to buy lift tickets for, so we just were going for the day. Again, I purchased ahead of time and got our tickets for $67 compared to the window rate of $85.
The resort does have some lodging up at its base, but it is much more expensive than staying in one of the smaller towns on the Idaho side. We stayed in Tetonia, ID, which is about 16 miles from the base of the ski area. Our desk clerk gave us a great recommendation for dinner that night in Driggs, ID. It was a place called the Royal Wolf. Will had the Hog Wings. They are tasty pork ribs that are cut to resemble a wing. My whiskey chicken was a winner as well.
We woke to 8 inches of new snow on the hill, so we knew we’d need to get an early start. We made it there and were ready to go before the lifts even opened, a record for us. We caught a ride up their main Dreamcatcher lift and got some advice from a couple of locals about which runs to try. Well, the further up we went on the lift, the denser the fog became. We got off the lift and really couldn’t see anything. The first run we came across was called Wild Willie, so of course we decided to give that one a go. After I managed to fall within 5 feet of starting the run, we were able to make our way slowly feeling our way down. The snow was great, but the visibility was awful. So, back into the lodge to regroup and see if there was another area we could ski and have some visibility. Headed back out to the Sacagawea lift. Visibility was much better over there, so, we ended up lapping that for the rest of the day. We later learned that Grand Targhee is referred to as Grand Foggy by many. This resort gets over 500 inches of snow on average every year. So, if you can catch it on a sunny day, it would be a great place to ski.
Had a great second breakfast at the Branding Iron in the ski lodge. See what happens when you start early, you break before they even start serving lunch. They do lunch and dinner as well. If it’s anything like their breakfast, I would highly recommend stopping in for a bite. It was then time for us to hit the road. Overnight stop in Rock Springs, WY and another nice dinner at Bitter Creek Brewing. Will really enjoyed their light beer called Boar’ Head. Back on the road the next day headed for Keystone, CO, our next skiing destination.
We actually rented a condo in the Keystone Resort Area. It was a fairly reasonable rate and again it’s really nice to have that extra space every once in a while.
I had been to Keystone years ago. So, long ago in fact that Keystone did not allow snowboarders. They were one of the later holdouts on the snowboarder ban, but times have changed. They have great terrain parks and tons of features with a half pipe. It’s also a great family ski area. My daughter went to ski school here at age 4 and did really well with her 3 days of lessons from her Keystone instructors.
We were so happy to be back in sunny skies. Was really a beautiful day of skiing. We hopped on the shuttle that leaves every 20 minutes from our condo and it brought us right to the resort. We had already gotten our lift tickets in advance through the mail, so we were good to go straight to the lift. We had gotten a three day EPIC pass. This allowed us to ski Keystone and A-Basin (Arapahoe Basin). It also provided us a with bonus day at Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, or Vail.
We had a good day of skiing at Keystone. Too bad it had been a few days since Keystone had gotten any fresh snow and longer than that for any significant snow accumulation.
The next day we went to check out A-Basin. This area unlike Keystone is not a good family resort. It has a reputation for being more of a party area with some tailgating going on in the parking lot. Parking is right at the base of the lifts and is free with the exception of the Admin parking lot. So, this does make it easy for skiers to bring their own food for lunch.
We made our way onto the back side of the mountain, but the snow wasn’t very good on that side at all. So, we came back and found some nice runs with really decent snow, again considering that they hadn’t had any fresh stuff in quite some time. The views from A-Basin are incredible. I enjoyed the skiing there. Will however, did not. He felt that it was too exposed as much of the ski area is up above the tree line. And yes, the wind did really pick up in the afternoon, so being snowblasted was not fun. We decided to cut our day a little short and avoid getting blown off the ridge.
For our last day we decided to check out Vail. The window rate for a lift ticket at Vail is $189. Yes, you read that right $189. And yes, there’s a lot of hype surrounding Vail, but after skiing there I understand. It really is a nice area, although still not sure it’s worth the price. We walked into one of the ski lodges and they had people stationed there handing out tissues for our runny noses. Yes, only at Vail. The ski village has everything shops, restaurants, lodging, and an ice rink. We had a great day there and hope to go back again one day.
Parking at Vail is $30/day, however, we managed to find free parking. I know free and Vail are usually not used in the same sentence, but there is free parking. The free parking is limited and you’ll need to go on the city’s website to see which lots are available that day. The city runs a free shuttle bus that stops near the parking spots and takes you to the ski village.
Once at the ski village we headed toward the Eagle Bahn gondola. You can get your lift ticket, locker rental and restrooms right near the gondola entrance. Just to save you from wandering all over the place like I felt we were. Got one run in before the start of our mountain tour. We decided that the mountain tour would be a great way to see as much of the mountain as possible in the one day that we had. There were 7 of us on our tour, plus our guide New York Mike. It was all we could do to keep up with Mike. He showed us the mountain and somehow managed to get us to all 4 peaks and give us a feel for each area and how to get back and forth. Mike also highlighted our trail map so we’d have a good idea of what we skied (even with that, I seriously doubt I could recreate our route). Time for lunch, we ended up enjoying lunch with 3 of the people from the tour. Our little group of 5 decided to ski the rest of the afternoon together. Cindy, Dean and Angel made it for a great afternoon of skiing in spite of the lack of snow.