A letter from a local
The mountains here do not negotiate.
There's no foothills warning shot with the Tetons — they just stand straight up out of the sage like a dare. Nineteen years and I still slow the truck down on the way to the post office. The Village is 15 minutes away and skis like nowhere on earth; when the tram bumps over the last tower your stomach drops on schedule, every time.
Summer might be better. The Snake braids through the valley full of cutthroat, Grand Teton National Park is functionally the backyard, and you can be on a granite ridge by lunch. Moose in the willows on your morning run. You stop telling people after a while because it sounds made up.
Real talk: housing is a campaign, not a transaction. But the community that forms around these mountains is worth the fight: people come for the range and stay for decades.
Visit in late September when the aspens go gold and the crowds go home. That's the valley that'll get you.
— Walt