One way Jen and I like to use up our summer vacation is to simply load up the car with bikes and hit the road seeking out great mountain biking destinations. We did this in 2009 visiting Crested Butte, Telluride and Durango, and in 2008 visiting Grand Junction, Park City and Steamboat Springs. This year we decided to do it again, and head North, visiting Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.

Our first destination was Jackson, Wyoming. And our first ride was right out of town from the place we stayed at. No need to get in a car first. Gotta love that! The ride we were doing circumnavigates Snow King Mountain and a couple of other peaks south of Snow King. Basically the ride goes up along Cache Creek, and then down again along Game Creek. To the locals the ride is known as Cache to Game.

With the trail running along creeks for most of the way, and knowing that this past winter season dumped loads of snow on the mountains, we expected to see lots of flowers, but even still, we were taken by the magnitude of flowers, from the minute we hit the first piece of single track. At one point while we were stopped, Jen counted no less than 10 different kind of wild flowers.

The descent down Game Creek trail was absolutely fantastic with flowers up to and above the handlebars. Think Telluride’s 401 trail. The flowers were so tall, and the trail so twisty, that you couldn’t see more than 30 ft or so of the trail ahead of you. An absolute blast to descend down. And as it almost always goes with descents like these: We didn’t take a single picture the whole way down!

Back in Jackson after our first ride of the day, we enjoyed a well deserved lunch. A few storm cells were building up right as we had placed our lunch order, so we started tracking them as they moved through the Jackson area and over the Tetons. One storm cell passed right over Jackson, and the downpour forced us to eat lunch inside, but the storm cleared out as quick as it had shown up. So as soon as we finished up lunch, we headed out for our second planned ride of the day: Shadow Mountain.

Shadow Mountain sits just east of the Tetons and the great views of the Tetons definitely helped sweeten the climb up to the high point of the ride. From the top of Shadow Mountain you bomb down an absolutely sweet single track trail with chunky rock sections, smooth berms and yet again tons of wild flowers. Definitely a shuttle-worth downhill. In fact a lot of the riding we did on this vacation can be set up for shuttles, but as we only had one car, we rode everything, both up and down. Maybe next time up there we’ll make sure to bring some friends, and at least a couple of vehicles.

For our second day of riding in Jackson, we had 2 big rides planned. Each one big enough to have been a full day ride in themselves, but since the rides are right next to each other, and the fact that we were trying to cram as much riding in as possible, we opted to try for both on the same day. Both rides start out with a climb up the old Teton Pass Road.

For our first ride, the Black Canyon ride, you ride all the way up to Teton Pass, and from here, continue climbing on the the south side of the pass till you get to the high point. From there it is all downhill back to the starting point!

It was great seeing this area in the summer time. I have previously only been back country skiing here. It is clearly the same area, with the same recognizable features and mountain tops, yet so different when not blanket in show.

The climb up the old Teton Pass road is persistent, gradual, and very doable all the way to the pass. The single track going up and south from here is a bit steeper, but still very enjoyable, and once again surrounded by wild flowers.

The Black Canyon descent is one not too miss. The style of it is much like the previous day’s descent on Game Creek, just longer and steeper. Once again, reminiscent of Telluride’s 401 descent, this one too has gobs of flowers, obscuring the trail beyond the next turn, slapping your hands and knees as you make your way down. It even had a few creek crossings towards the bottom to keep you cool.

Having climbed (and descended) more than 2500 feet on our first ride of the day, it was time for some lunch before heading out again for another 2500 ft or so of climbing. Luckily, Noras Fish Creek Inn in Wilson is just the right place for some good tasting grub.

After lunch it was time to climb the old Teton Pass road once again. This time not quite all the way to the pass, but only to the Phillips connector trail. From here, though, the trail does continue to climb, now towards Phillips Pass. And once again, we were surrounded by wild flowers the whole way up.

The Phillips Canyon descent is yet another one not too miss. Somehow we had managed to choose our rides in such an order that the descents were progressively steeper, rockier and more fun than the previous one! And once again, we didn’t stop for pictures or anything else, except for one tricky creek crossing and a downed tree. Damn that descent was fun. I want to do it again!

There was one ride off the Teton Pass that we did not do. Partly because we didn’t fit it into our schedule, but mostly because we didn’t have enough vehicles to shuttle it. Its a downhill bike only trail, on U.S. Forest Land. How rare is that!

The trail is built and maintained by Teton Freedom Riders and got started using a grant given to the U.S. Forest Service. From what we saw of the trail – we crossed it several times – it is as good if not better than downhill trails you find at downhill resorts. Below is a picture of Jen riding by one feature called Jimmy’s Mom. Its a nice ramp up to a rock, with a gap to a bigger rock, from which you have to huck to a mostly flat landing. Definitely a challenging feature and a good example of what you find on this trail.

For our third day in Jackson, we got up early. It was my birthday and I wanted to maximize it and get the most out of it! Well, that, and I also wanted to grab a photo of the Grand bathed in the early morning light.

We got out to the Grand and found a good spot for shooting with about 10 or 15 minutes to spare before the sun rose over the mountains to the east, and when it did – the light did not disappoint. There were some clouds obscuring the light onto the Grand itself, but it was not that bad. And photo taking aside, sunrise time is always magical. Thanks for getting up early with me sweetie!

After a yummy breakfast back in Jackson, we headed out to the Teton Village for some lift served riding. We had climbed plenty the past days, so it seemed only reasonable to mix it up with some downhill action at Jackson Hole. Jackson Hole is just recently getting into downhill biking, but judging by the trails they have already built, and the large crew and machinery working on building new trails there, it already is and most definitely will be a downhill destination to be reckoned with. The dirt composition on the Jackson Hole side of the Tetons is perfect for shaping downhill features, and this one run called “True Grit” features some of the biggest tabletops, lips, and jumps in general, that I have ever seen at any resort. The elevation difference at the Jackson Hole runs is not high, though, but the fun factor is!

The rest of my birthday was spent relaxing, getting a massage and later a nice dinner at a great restaurant in Jackson. Thanks for everything Sweetie!

The following day unfortunately didn’t go quite as originally planned in that we didn’t get to ride our bikes. Jen had to address an emergency at work, and she ended up working almost the entire day out of the Teton County Library. While Jen was working I decided go visit Yellowstone National Park where I was lucky enough to see not only Old Faithful erupt, but also the Grand Geyser, while I was there.

Our stay in Jackson was great, but it was time to move on. Not far, for this first move, though. We were only going over to the other side of the pass in order to spend a day at Grand Targhee. Since we did bring the big bikes it made sense to also hit the downhill runs here. Grand Targhee offers quite a bit more elevation drop for each run – about 1400 ft if I remember correctly, and a very different kind of riding than Jackson Hole. While Jackson Hole has the perfect dirt for shaping jumps and berms, Grand Targhee is mostly a big mess of loose rocks of all sizes, which make for nice rocky chunky riding. Just like we like it! That said, the lower sections of the runs at Grand Targhee does hold enough dirt to put on yet again an absolutely amazing display of wild flowers.

After Grand Targhee it was time to make a more substantial move. This time heading to Bozeman, Montana via Idaho. We had originally tentatively planned for some downhill action in Big Sky, but since we lost a day of riding due to Jen’s work emergency, we decided to skip Big Sky and instead spend the rest of the vacation riding our XC/AM (whatever you want to call them) bikes.

Our first ride in Montana was the Curly Lake Highline ride in Tobacco Root Mountains. Trail guides and blog posts describing this ride contain words as follows: “One of the best mountain bike rides you will ever do, anywhere”, “Best XC trail I have ever ridden, and also the hardest”, and “…hands-down my favorite ride so far…ever. So do it.”.

With words like that, our expectations were super high, but they were all met!

The ride starts out with a climb on a gravel road, which after a while turns into an ATV kind of double track, and then finally into pure and good single track, at which point the climb starts in earnest. The single track winds it way up the mountain side, and goes through a couple of very nice meadows with once again a magnitude of different kind of wild flowers. After circumnavigating Curly Lake the trail gets a bit steeper and the trail switchback its way up and above tree line, and in doing so revealing amazing views of the Tobacco Root Range.

Apparently, the tundra fields up here are closed for mountain goat kidding until July 16, but we didn’t see any mountain goats. So, we just took in the views for a while, enjoying our picture perfect blue bird day, and started to look forward to cashing in on all the vertical we had deposited in the downhill bank. And what a downhill it was. Almost 5000 ft of continues ear to ear grin inducing descending over 10 miles. The first section through exposed gravel and scree fields, then a small climb up a couple of switchbacks followed by super fast descending through a forested area, and finally having crossed Rock Creek, a screaming descent down Rock Creek Trail which was an absolute blast. For the Colorado peeps: Think North Sheep Mountain and Button Rock Trail. Just longer!

Our second ride in the Bozeman area was the Garnet Mountain ride, and it was touted as “one of the best descents around for experienced bikers”. And it was!

As all of our other rides, the Garnet Mountain ride starts with a big climb, first on a gravel road, then a 4WD road, which at one point turned into a hike-a-bike. But hey, its not mountain biking, unless you are hiking (right Dave? ). Once at the top, all the elevation gain (about 2500 ft) is dropped over just 3 miles of descending on one of the fastest descents I have ever done. Half way down the descent I turned to Jen and told her to drop a little water on her rotor. She was flabbergasted when she saw the water disappear in a cloud of steam the moment it hit the rotor. If somebody doubts the benefits of disc brakes, take them on this ride!

For our final ride in Montana, we decided on the Little Wapiti Creek ride. The description for this trail starts out by saying “If there is an afterlife for mountain bikes, it will include singletrack downhills like this over and over and free beer at the end every time”. Now, that kind of trail is one you can’t pass up on! Plus it seemed appropriate to finish up with such a descent. If there was a theme to our riding on this vacation it was great descents. Well, that, and wild flowers! Anyway, with great descents of course come also climbing, and without counting our downhill action at Jackson Hole and Grand Targhee, we climbed almost 20.000 ft on our little biking vacation. Not too shabby.

The little Wapiti Creek descent did indeed live up to the expectations. Some of the tightest single track I have ever ridden, through flower field after flower field, with just enough creek crossings and rocky sections to make sure you aren’t daydreaming.

What an end to an absolutely spectacular vacation. I can highly recommend the mountain biking in both the Jackson and Bozeman/Big Sky areas. We will surely be back (bringing shuttle vehicles)!