Thirty Years Later: Sharing Jackson Hole with My Kids

When people ask why we named Noah's middle name Jackson, this is the story.

Well...part of it anyway.

My family started going to Triangle X Ranch in Jackson Hole back in 1990. I was twelve years old, and I wasn't exactly excited about spending part of my summer at a dude ranch in Wyoming. Horses weren't really my thing, I didn't know anyone, and I couldn't imagine it becoming a place I'd look forward to every year.

Boy was I wrong.

We went back the next summer. Then the summer after that. Before long, it had become part of our growing up. We spent nearly thirty years making that same trip, usually during the exact same week in June, then moving to August and eventually the fall off season. Somewhere along the way the ranch stopped feeling like a vacation, but more of a reset for my soul. I looooooved it and I needed it each year.

It's where I learned to ride horses.

The Filer’s - 1990

It's where I met one of my best friends, Sarah. We wrote letters back and forth every year after the ranch, and years later I stood beside her as her maid of honor.

It's where I met another friend, Kate, who just happened to be back at the ranch with her own family the same week we were this year.

It’s also where Kelly proposed to me at Jenny Lake, which is part of the reason we ended up choosing Jackson as Noah’s middle name. Not long after that, we had to take a long pause from the ranch- COVID happened. Noah was born. Seven years went by a lot faster than I expected. We had to wait until Noah was six.

One of the things that makes Triangle X Ranch so special is the horseback riding, and kids have to be six years old before they can ride with the program. I didn't want him sitting on the sidelines while everyone else headed out on horseback. I wanted him to experience the ranch the way I always had.

This year he finally turned six, and all the pieces came together. We managed to get a reservation during the same week we'd always gone growing up, my parents were able to come, my brother, sister, nephew, husband, stepdaughter Taylor, and Noah could all make it, and just like that we were packing sweatshirts for Wyoming in the middle of June.

Driving into the ranch felt oddly familiar. Some things had changed, of course, but not the things that mattered. The Tetons were exactly where they were supposed to be. The horses were grazing in the fields. The lodge looked the same. Within about five minutes it felt like we'd never left.

The biggest difference was that this time I wasn't arriving as the kid, but instead watching my own kids take it all in.

Taylor was probably the person I was most curious about because she had just turned thirteen, almost the same age I was the first time I came, and she really wasn't convinced this trip was going to be all that fun since a week with no internet, no friends from home, and horses every day wasn't exactly her dream vacation. (sound familiar?) I didn't push too hard and just kept telling her she'd be fine, and by the second day she barely had time for us because she had found a great group of kids in the teen program, loved her horse Abe, and spent most of the week doing exactly what teenagers should be doing: laughing with friends, riding horses, and making memories that had absolutely nothing to do with the adults. By the time we were packing to leave, she was already asking if we'd ever go back, which made me laugh because I remembered feeling almost exactly the same way.

Noah had a completely different approach since, at six years old, he wasn't worried about whether he'd know anyone and just wanted to ride horses. His first horse was Friday, and later in the week he switched to Wizard, and every afternoon he'd come back with almost no information to share, as if trotting, loping, and going "super fast" was just a casual mention. Of course I’m thinking, "Wait...my six-year-old is loping across Wyoming on a horse?" To him it was no big deal, but to me it was pretty incredible.

Looking back, I don't think my favorite memories from the week were the big adventures but rather the little moments I wasn't expecting, like watching Noah and Clark spend an hour building a dam in the little stream without a single adult telling them what to do, looking across the ranch and realizing Taylor was having so much fun hanging with the teens, and sitting on the porch after dinner while everyone slowly wandered back from different rides and swapped stories about their day. Those are the moments that stayed with me.

People usually assume the horseback riding is my favorite part of Triangle X Ranch, and while it is amazing, if someone asked me what makes the ranch different from every other family vacation we've taken, I wouldn't start with the horses but with the freedom. The kids ride with their age groups during the day while the adults head out on their own rides or simply sit on the porch with a cup of coffee (or adult beverage of choice) and stare at the mountains for a while, and although everyone comes back together for meals, in between there's this independence that feels surprisingly rare now. Nobody is looking for Wi-Fi or asking for a screen, and the kids disappear after breakfast and somehow always reappear at dinner with dirty boots, stories to tell, and a few more friends than they had the day before.

I found myself smiling when Noah and Clark wandered down to the creek because that's exactly where my brother, sister, and I used to spend hours building little dams out of rocks, climbing over logs, and getting completely soaked, and every generation of kids at the ranch seems to discover that creek on their own as if it's some kind of rite of passage. The same thing happened with the old wagons scattered around the property, which we climbed all over as kids, and thirty-some years later Noah and Clark somehow found them without anyone pointing them out, which made me think that maybe kids haven't changed all that much after all and maybe they just need the chance to be kids.

A Few Places We Always Make Time For

One of the things I love about Jackson Hole is that we don't really feel the need to fill every minute with activities. Some vacations end with a checklist of everything you managed to squeeze into a week. This has never been one of those trips.

The ranch is really the destination, but there are a handful of places we've visited over and over through the years that have become part of the tradition, and this trip wouldn't have felt complete without them.

The first was the tram to the top of Rendezvous Mountain. We happened to be there over Father's Day, so we spent the morning riding to the top and eating waffles from Corbet's Cabin. I know the waffles have become a bit of a Jackson Hole institution at this point, but they're worth the hype. Sitting outside with a hot waffle, a cup of hot chocolate, and that view stretching out in front of you is a pretty great way to start the day, especially when you're sharing it with your family.

Another place we've never skipped is Pearl Street Bagels in Wilson. It's not fancy, and that's probably part of why I like it so much. We'd grab breakfast or lunch, find a spot by the water, and ease into the day before heading off to whatever adventure was next. Those quieter moments always seem to stick with me just as much as the bigger outings.

Then there's Jackson Lake Lodge.

If you've ever been, you already know the view from the back of the lodge is incredible, but for me it will probably always be associated with ice cream. Growing up, we made a point to stop there at least once every trip, so naturally we continued the tradition with Noah and Taylor. It's funny how something as simple as an ice cream cone can instantly transport you back twenty or thirty years.

We also made our way back to Jenny Lake.

That stop probably meant more to me than anyone else in the car, and that's okay.

Kelly proposed there years ago, and since that's part of the reason Noah's middle name is Jackson, it felt right to bring him back to that spot. He'll probably remember throwing rocks into the water more than anything we told him that day, but someday, when he's older, I hope he'll appreciate why we wanted to take him there.

Taylor stayed behind at the ranch with her friends, and I think that made me just as happy. She had settled into ranch life so completely that the idea of leaving for a few hours didn't even appeal to her anymore. That's exactly how I remember feeling as a teenager.

One thing that's impossible to plan for, but always makes a trip to Grand Teton National Park exciting, is the wildlife.

This year we saw elk, bald eagles, and one very patient herd of bison that decided to cross the road directly in front of us. Everyone stopped their cars, rolled down their windows, and just watched. Nobody seemed to be in a hurry, and I think that's one of the things I appreciate most about being out there. The mountains have a way of slowing you down whether you intended them to or not.

Why We Keep Talking About Triangle X Ranch

People have asked me over the years what makes Triangle X Ranch different from other dude ranches, and I don't have a comparison because this is the only one I've ever known. What I do know is that it somehow manages to appeal to every generation at the same time, which isn't easy to do.

The kids are off riding horses, making friends, and coming back dirty and tired in the best possible way. The teenagers have enough independence that they don't feel like they're on vacation with their parents every second of the day. The adults get to ride if they want to, relax if they don't, and somehow everyone ends up together again at breakfast and dinner with plenty of stories to tell.

Meals are served family style, so conversations naturally happen. By the end of the week, you're recognizing people around the ranch, waving to families you didn't know seven days earlier, and realizing that complete strangers have started to feel familiar.

I think that's part of why my parents kept taking us back every year.

And now I understand why.

As parents, we spend so much energy trying to create memorable experiences for our kids that it's easy to assume they have to be bigger, busier, or more elaborate than they really need to be. This week reminded me that sometimes the best days are the ones where nobody is rushing anywhere. The kids ride horses, they play in the creek, they learn card games from older kids, they show up to the square dance not knowing what they're're doing, and by the end of the night they're dancing anyway.

There's something refreshing about watching kids entertain themselves instead of waiting to be entertained.

The Best Surprise of the Week

I expected to love watching Noah and Taylor experience the ranch for the first time.

I didn't expect seeing old friends to affect me the way it did.

Sarah and I met during my very first summer at the ranch in 1990. We lived in different states, so after every trip we'd spend the next year writing letters until we saw each other again. Eventually those letters turned into emails and texts, then adult lives, careers, weddings, and families. She drove down from Montana during our trip, and getting to spend time together again, this time with our kids running around nearby, felt pretty special.

Me & Sarah - 1990

Then there was Kate.

We hadn't coordinated our trips or planned to meet there. Her family just happened to be at the ranch the same week we were, which felt like one of those happy coincidences that probably only happens in a place you've been returning to for decades.

When I look back on this trip years from now, I know I'll remember the mountains and the horses, but I have a feeling those unexpected reunions will be right there alongside them.

Kate, Sarah and I - 1991

Heading Home

As we packed for the airport at the end of the week, I realized I'd spent months wondering whether the ranch would still feel the same after seven years away.

That turned out to be the wrong question.

Of course it wasn't the same.

Thirty years ago I was the kid counting down the days until the next ride. This time I was watching my own kids head off every morning, wondering what they'd done that day and laughing when Noah casually mentioned they'd been loping again, as though that was something every six-year-old did before lunch.

The ranch didn't need to feel exactly like it did when I was twelve because that's not why we went back.

We went back so Noah could finally ride.

So Taylor could have her own experience instead of hearing stories about mine.

So my parents could watch another generation fall in love with a place they'd introduced to us years ago.

Maybe Noah and Taylor will go back someday. Maybe they won't. That part doesn't really matter.

What matters is that they'll always have their own memories of Jackson Hole. They'll remember Friday, Wizard, and Abe. They'll remember waffles on top of the mountain, ice cream at Jackson Lake Lodge, bison crossing the road, and afternoons that somehow disappeared while they were playing outside.

For me, that's enough.

I'm grateful I got to share a place that meant so much to my childhood with the people I love most.

And now, whether they realize it yet or not, Jackson Hole has become part of their story too.