The store, not the wide open space
I recently took a trip to Teton National Park and Jackson Hole in Wyoming. It had been 10 years since I had last been there, on a ski trip with an ex-boyfriend and two other couples. I was so looking forward to seeing the Old West town that I had enjoyed but was sad at how much it had changed.
The trip through Teton National Park was as exciting as before. If you have never been there, you have to at some point in your life. The view of the Tetons is unveleivable. The drive through the Park is like stepping back into another time. You see elk and moose and other animals here and there as you are driving. The lakes are beautiful, the hiking is great and the pace of life is slow and relaxing - other than the Jackson Hole Airport being located right in the Park, which annoys me.
I was looking forward to staying in Jackson Hole for a few days, soaking up the Old West feel of the town, visiting the bars I had spent some drunken evenings in during that ski trip (the Cowboy Bar and The Silver Dollar), and watching the mock gunfights they stage in the center square every hour. I was horrified to see in the backdrop of this mock gunfight, a Gap store. On the far corner was a Coldwater Creek Outlet store. On another block was a "Ripley's Beleive it or Not" museum. Now what in the hell is a Ripley's museum doing in the heart of Jackson Hole, across from the antler arches????????????
I am all for having a Gap and a Coldwater Creek store in my local mall, and incidently, Coldwater Creek is one of my favorite stores to shop in and order from, but this just ruins the look and feel of the once quaint and historical Jackson Hole square.
A little further down the road from the main square there is now a Walmart. I realize that people need their Walmart fixes ( I am a Target shopper) but again, do we need to ruin the look and feel of the town so that sleazy Walmart can come to town? I won't even get on this subject of Walmart trying to bully itself into any town it wants, as I just moved back from Denver to Seattle and there were lawsuits flying all over the place about two stores going up in Denver.
In talking to some of the people that work in Jackson Hole, they tell me that no one that works or owns shops in town can afford to actually live there. Many of them have built homes 40 minutes away on the Idaho side in Teton Valley. So many people have built large mansions in the Wilson area, such as Dick Cheney, etc. that the price of land for anyone to built there is astronomical. Even the small rundown shacks that you used to be able to rent during Ski Season are so outrageous that you would have to rob a bank to stay there for a week on a ski trip.
I don't know how many of you have had a chance to visit Jackson Hole and the surrounding areas, but my adivce would be to stay outside the town, visit the Park, go to Teton Village resort and have a drink at the Mangy Moose (my favorite bar in the area) and head up to Yellowstone Park as a sicd trip. I would hate to see how much more "retailized" Jackson will be in aother 10 years, should I ever choose to visit again. Sigh..................
CLOSE THE GAP!!!!!!!
Thanks for listening to my whining....... 
Varoom (Melissa)