This is the story of my Grand Tetons Ride. And I’ll tell you know, it was one of the BEST, most profound experiences of my life.
As part of Team Globetrotting, I’ve realised that sometimes you don’t know you need to escape.
Or maybe you do, but you don’t quite know why.
Until you get away – FAR away – from your own life.
Somehow, half a world from home, where it was just us, our horses and a team of mules alone in the wild…. my soul caught up with me.
I’d heard about it from so many guests, but now it was happening to me: The Globetrotting Effect.
Read on for the full story.
The day before my Grand Tetons Ride began, me and Steve (my fellow GT guide, and Kate’s husband) arrived in Jackson Hole, the famous gateway to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.
So I’m a country girl at heart, but I know a town with vibes, and Jackson Hole definitely has the vibes. There’s the glitz and gloss of a thriving resort town, but it still feels like the Wild West. When we arrived at our hotel, there was a street market happening out the front with food trucks, a live DJ pumping out back of a Chevy truck, and a whole lot of very happy people! These vibes continued through the evening as our beautiful globetrotters arrived ready to hit the trails!
One of our gorgeous guides, Ally] picked us up bright and early the next day, and opening her car door, all I could say was ‘Welcome to ‘merica!’ Check out the top right photo above and you’ll know what I mean. As we left civilisation behind, the landscape transformed: towering, ancient lodgepole pines and shimmering aspen groves greeted me, their leaves sparkling in the crisp mountain air. After a quick orientation we set out for the trailhead, where our huge team of guides, cooks, support crew, horses and pack mules were waiting. It was only then that I realised what a massive undertaking this back country trip really was, and how lucky we were to be part of it!
Both the horses and the mules were big-boned and strong, with some heavy horse bloodlines clearly in the mix, along with a nice dash of Quarter Horse. They all looked like very trustworthy, level-headed, stoic types, especially those mules with their dark, soulful eyes. I was matched with a very pretty red roan mare called Daffy. Yes, Daffy, you can come home with me any day!
The first ride was gentle and easy, and I was constantly on the lookout for wildlife between the grey trunks of the pine trees. We all felt super comfortable with our horses by the time Base Camp #1 came into view beside a pretty little creek in the afternoon.
The campfire chat that night made me feel strangely at home out there in the wild. The guides were charismatic, fun and humorous, and had some very gnarly stories. I’ll let them share them with you when you book your spot, as stories told on GT rides, stay on GT rides! It was clear to me that this way of life was in their blood and when absent from it even briefly, they said they literally crave the energy and sanctuary of the mountains. I was beginning to understand why.
The next day was one of the best days of my life.
Truly. It’s in my top three.
For no particular reason, but from sunrise to sunset, there was nothing but the good stuff. Phenomenal people, horses, and scenery that just kept getting and better. Constant belly laughs and banter between saddles. Sunshine. Remoteness. Technical and challenging riding. All mixed together with a good dose of adrenaline, snacks from the saddle pack, a swig or two of whiskey, a shit-tonne of gratitude and a serious amount of perspective.
But for those who want the details…
The whole morning was spent getting higher and higher over those meandering hills – and as we climbed, the view just kept getting better and better. We dismounted for lunch overlooking Pinnacle Peak, which was extraordinary enough already, but then we rode up on the peak! The horses were in single file, deftly navigating lots of acute switchbacks and some loose rocks. It was technical and at times challenging, but the horses never put a foot wrong.
When we came up over that peak, we could finally see the view we’d been scrambling for all day, and everyone’s jaw just dropped:
Cliffs on one side of us, and endless sky and mountains on the other.
360 degree views over country we couldn’t see at all before. I was actually gasping (and not from the 9,500 meters above sea level altitude!).
It was a HUGE sense of achievement. The literal pinnacle of the ride!
That’s the climb up on the left. Photos do NOT do those views justice!
When everyone had caught their breath and re-anchored their jaws, we made our way down, down, down, until we reached a beautiful meadow backing onto the mountains, where we set up camp.
The vibes that night were incredible! Everyone was still on such a high – we couldn’t believe we’d actually just experienced something so magnificent. That we were IN a place so magnificent. I felt so overwhelmingly grateful for the chance to have this most incredible, powerful day that I gave Steven a massive ‘thank you’ hug.
Later, I found the horses grazing in the setting sun. The whole scene was so perfect it didn’t seem real. I sat down in the meadow beside them and felt my life changing before my suddenly tear-soaked eyes. It’s hard to explain, but I felt a force as strong as that which made the mountains themselves… a deep rumble in my soul, a knowing that I’d never be the same.
On day three, we woke with the sun and had a cooked brekky and swapped stories of the sounds of the wild throughout the night. Sorry to disappoint: no bear stories to share! We spotted some elk deer in the distance while getting our cup of joe into us, though.
Mounting up again, we rode right down to the bottom of the canyon. That rocky switchback descent was so fun, I wanted to go back and do it all again! By afternoon we were arriving into Base Camp #2, with the mountains towering over us as rode. At camp we met our charismatic chef, Bear, who we all promptly fell in love with. It helped that he cooked a mean campfire dinner and had all the stories! The support crew had had some fun there, too, carving mock ‘bear scratch marks’ into the side of the canvas on the drop-pit toilet tent! Which didn’t rattle any of us at all……
There was a waterhole right by our camp and several globetrotters jumped in to wash off the dust and dirt accumulated from three days in the saddle… but hearing their squeals as they slid into ice-cold water, I opted for the warm camp shower that Bear had prepared!
Now that we’d reached Base Camp #2, we didn’t need to move camp for two days, so rather than riding point-to-point, the following morning we took a loop to beautiful Turquoise Lake, where we fly fished for hours. There were sooo many trout – Steve caught over 30 fish! The sun was out and the alpine air was fresh and fragrant. I kept thinking, “I wonder what the rest of the world is doing” – there was no-one else in existence up there, just us and the horses, and the tranquillity was spellbinding.
On the ride home, we climbed higher up to a cliff where we could see the Grand Tetons in the distance, their jagged peaks hazy but fierce against the clear sky. (Check out the photo – bottom right.) We then headed back to camp for a super fun night fuelled by crazy cocktails concocted off-the-cuff from the liquor and random juices we’d squeezed into our packing allowance! Whiskey and Mountain Dew anyone?
The next morning, the air was so crisp you could cut it with a knife. There had been frost overnight (luckily our tents and bedding kept us nice and warm!) but it only made the smell of the coffee pot and sizzling bacon and eggs even more enticing. Up there at Base Camp #2, it was Cowboy Coffee – they just throw the beans in with the boiling water, so it goes without saying that the bottom of the cup is pretty gritty!
The guides offered us a choice of a few different loop rides that day. Of course, we chose the longest and ‘hairiest’ one! The prospect of 8 hours in the saddle was no match for our wanderlust – the more we saw, the more we wanted to see. Dustin, the lead guide, did warn us that if we were going up to 7 Mile Flat, we ‘had to be ready’. ‘It’s the hairiest day, and there’s this rock scramble that always gives me the tingles.’ What Dustin described sounded like 100 metres along a narrow rocky cliff edge with the horses scrambling across one at a time, but yet none of us backed down… cue internal angst for the next four hours as I prepared to see my life flashing before my eyes!
So we set off, and it wasn’t too long before we were weaving our way up an extremely steep hillside, with not much ground on the other side of the horses. The scenery was stunning, mind you, and we knew it would be worth it when we got to 7 Mile Flat. There was a bit of a hairy moment before morning tea where my mare Daffy scrambled, and I thought, ‘hmmm, this hairy bit coming up could be interesting.’ Going by the quiet tension in the air, I wasn’t alone.
Jason, a Kiwi guest with a larrikin’s sense of humour, leaned over and asked during our morning tea stop, ‘How are the nerves going?’
‘Yeah, not bad,’ I managed.
Then Dustin piped up: ‘Well, we’ve done the hairy bit, how’d y’all go?’
‘Wait, what?!‘ I just about dropped my tea.
‘Yeah, that was it!’ Dustin said. Then the penny dropped: that rock section just before morning tea, that was no longer than my couch, where Daffy had three out of four legs solidly NOT scrambling, had been “the hairy bit!!”
Suddenly, Jason cracked up laughing: ‘Oh Aimee, you should see the relief wash over your face!’
Okay, okay, I probably looked like I’d just got the best news of my life, but in that moment, it was! !The scramble had been so easy compared to what we’d all been psyching ourselves up for. I wondered if Dustin had played it up just to savour this moment!
Between our collective relief and the mind-boggling, otherworldly landscape (and possibly a bit of delirium from the slightly lower oxygen at 11,000ft above sea level!), once we finally summited 7 Mile Flat, we were on top of the world. It’s all in the name: seven uninterrupted miles of perfectly flat rock, way up there in the sky, tumbling away at the edges to reveal the endless expanse of wilderness stretching out in every direction, as far as the eye could see. It felt like we were on top of the planet! The gratitude to our horses was just immense and the sheer elation of being somewhere so awe-inspiring – so magnificent – made us feel SO alive!
That evening, I finally surrendered and jumped in the waterhole by camp. Yes, I SCREAMED, or squealed, rather, and Mark and Donna laughed as leapt back out faster than you can say ‘iceberg’! It was SO COLD!!
I thought I’d done it, but quickly realised I hadn’t even washed myself and had to do it again! I psyched myself up, put my Big Girl Pants on and jumped back in with a bar of soap. I certainly won’t forget it!
The day’s surprises didn’t stop there: after dinner, Bear appeared with a cake (yes, in the middle of the wilderness!) pierced with glowing matchstick candles, cueing a round of ‘Happy Birthday’ to celebrate my looming significant birthday in the woods with the people I now considered my Wyoming family. Yes, it’s one of my favourite birthday memories ever.
On the last day, Bear came with us as we rode reluctantly out of camp and back to civilisation. I really didn’t want to leave our little bubble and re-integrate into society! It was a peaceful ride as we reflected on the absolutely incredible experiences we’d had together.
We put the horses and mules back into their paddock for a well-earned rest, then Steve and I drove with Bear in his old-school pickup truck back to our hotel in Jackson Hole (I can highly recommend The Virginian hotel), getting more amazing ‘Wild West’ stories from him on the way.
The first thing Steve and I did when we got back was head to the bar for a beer. Still wearing layers of dirt and sunburn, we met the Kiwis there and had the best beer I have ever tasted – oh how sweet after the week in the mountains! Okay, I had two.
Limbered up, jolly and showered, we went to the rodeo and had a blast. I tried to win ‘most obnoxious person in the crowd’ (yes, they actually award that prize at the Jackson Rodeo!) and managed to get callouts on the speakers for our globetrotters! Then we headed for kick-ons at the famous Cowboy Bar, along with the rest of the happy-go-lucky rodeo crowd.
The next day, the ride was over. But I could still feel it inside of me. This ride had taken me to the edge of myself, and as I flew home, I knew I’d left part of my soul in Wyoming. I’d just experienced firsthand the transformative power of globetrotting.
It’s impossible to describe what this trip did for me. My smile was a mile wide. My sides split with laughter constantly. My jaw hit the ground on the regular. The tingles never left my skin. My love for my Globetrotting family had strengthened and grown, just as we had. I cried from the sheer beauty of the entire experience. I thanked my beautiful red roan mare Daffy profusely. I bowed down to the majesty of that wild, wild place where the mountains kiss the sky.
But even after all that, I have to warn you: you can NOT imagine what it’s going to be like, and if you try, believe me, it’s nothing like what you think! It’s phenomenally better. In every way.
I feel like we don’t even need to “sell” this ride. The right people will be called to it. And to you, I say this:
If you hear the call of the wild,
If you want to ride on top of the world,
If you’re not afraid to get down and dirty,
And if you want to feel ALIVE –
Grab this ride by the horns, cowgirl!
