Day 12: Jackson Hole, the Tetons, and Lots of Hot Air
Yesterday, we had driven in to Jackson Hole from an evening in Cody and a day in Thermopolis. We got in pretty early and performed one of the important missions that we commonly have completed in most of our favorite cities that we have repeatedly visited; the hunt for the morning croissants. Our tradition began about 15 years ago when we visited our first morning bakery together in Key West, and we have continued our tradition ever since; cheese and ham croissants with a side of chocolate croissants on the side. But this was dinner not breakfast.
In the evening of day 11, we made our calls to the hot air balloon company to tell them we were in town for day 12, but we now needed a light dinner. That is when we walked downtown Jackson hole to find The Bunnery, A small restaurant that also had a bakery that would fit our morning mission traditional goals. We tried to eat pretty light this evening so I ordered a Philly Cheese Steak and Dogen ordered a hamburger. The food we ordered was just “ok”, but like the Cabernet I had at Mammoth Hot Springs a few nights before this stout beer, called Zonker Stout was just what my taste buds called for. The company for the evening and the beer made the night great. One of my favorite nights of the trip… it is quite a coincidence, that most of my favorite evenings have the high altitude giggles as part of them. Great times…
We headed back to our room hopeful for the next morning, if everything went through ok part of the hot air crew from the Wyoming Balloon Company would be picking us up at the hotel at 6:00 AM.
Lots of Hot Air…
On day 12 we got the call that we the hot air crew would be picking us up at 6:00 AM. After the pick up and a short ride to puck up other ballooners(?), we headed out to the air field, which was a flat spot of ground at a ranch just outside of Jackson.
It was a cool morning, our host and soon to be pilot was Andy, an ex-lawyer of Jackson Hole and owner of the Wyoming Balloon Company, described a little background on the company, where and why we would sign wavers, and where we could stand while we watched the ground crew unload the three balloons that would be flying that morning.
Slowly from a small white trailer materialized the gondola’s and packed balloons of three hot air balloons. The young ground crew slowly pulled the the parts of the balloons out, then the neat part started to happen.
And then she was up…
As I mentioned before, I wasn’t quite sure at this time if I was afraid of heights or is I was just afraid of falling. At this time I suspected that there was a difference.
On the roads of the Beartooth Scenic Byway, the turns would sometimes come real closed to an unrailed edge. Looking down had the sheer edge would certainly raise some fear in me. it was better when I took the wheel to drive us back to Yellowstone from our Beartooth adventure, but I would have to say that even with me doing the driving it only helped a little.
So I had to think to myself… if I am really that scared, I could just grip some of Dogen’s soft bits and hang on for dear life. The ride should only last about an hour, I could certainly live through it, and I have certainly lived through worse. Once I caught this understanding I really didn’t worry about any of it, except for a split second while the basket lifted from the ground.
And then we were off…
And it was really gentle… all of it.
Our pilot, Andy, had certainly done this before. First, he did some “contouring”, which is flying the balloon basket only about a foot or so above the ground. It was a neat feeling. An I was not scared.
Next as we contoured the land with the balloon, Andy ran us toward a tall cotton wood, and almost instantly the balloon gently shot into the air, we missed the tree by feet. Andy was quite good.
At certain points in the flight we rose at 800 feet per second, but it really did feel gentle. Also during the flight we rose to about level to the Tetons, or about twelve thousand feet above sea level, or over this landscape up about five or six thousand feet above the ground.
Nope… definitely not afraid of heights… see the other two balloons in the photo below?
The Tetons…
This was one of our favorite things… smiles… (do I keep saying that?)
The Tetons were gorgeous… the morning was gorgeous… and when we got down back on to land I really did feel speechless and peaceful, and that was before the champagne.
Highly recommended.
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