The Elusive Jackalope - our last big adventure in Wyoming

The Jackelope.....

I had heard of it and couldn't remember where or why, but we FOUND him!!

From Wikipedia:

"The jackalope is a mythical animal of North American folklore (a so-called "fearsome critter") described as a jackrabbit with antelope horns or deer antlers and sometimes a pheasant's tail (and often hind legs)."

"During days of the Old West, when cowboys gathered by the campfires singing at night, jackalopes could often be heard mimicking their voices. he Jackalope was first encountered by John Colter, one of the first white men to enter what would one day be the State of Wyoming. In 2005, the House of the Wyoming state legislature passed a bill to declare the jackalope the "official mythological creature" of Wyoming, by a vote of 45-12 and referred it to the state Senate, where the bill was indefinitely postponed on March 2, 2005."

"Tiny the Jackalope" was a recurring character in a series of sketches on the American TV show America's Funniest People (1990-1994), where he would play pranks on people."  - And that is where I think I first heard about Jackalopes. 

Well - we found the Jackalope! That would be why it pays to research and plan before going on an adventure. I was planning our long road trip from Cody back to Jackson and we wanted to avoid going back into Yellowstone, so we took the scenic route and it about doubled our time, but was so worth it!!  When using tripadvisor.com you can search hotels or restaurants, but you can also search attractions in certain areas. Well, I was looking for attractions in some of the towns that we would be driving through and I found...The Giant Jackalope Exxon Country Store. It is ranked #3 of 3 attractions in Dubois, Wyoming. :)  Yep, Don really wanted to stop there!! Upon further research, we discovered that this location was also listed in Roadsideamerica.com as a must stop in Wyoming. Too funny!!! So we couldn't pass it up!

Yep...gift shop inside and lots of advertising!

in the back room - they have the World's Largest Jackalope

and he was friendly enough to let us ride him :)

another "fake" Jackalope outside for tourist purposes :)

  We had done it, we had found the elusive Jackalope and Don and the girls were happy! So now, we headed into Dubois (another cute little western town) and went to The Cowboy Cafe for lunch.

3 more hours to Jackson and lots of beautiful countryside before we finally said hello to the Tetons again.

major highway and nothing visible for miles

actually seen before Dubois  - more neat land formations

It still amazes me that in our busy, big country - there are areas that are undeveloped for miles! It was a beautiful drive - and I think I appreciated it more because it wasn't National Park protected land. This beautiful countryside is "just there."  I am so used to suburban life and the people, buildings, and congestion.

So, we finally got to Teton Village around 4:00 and everyone was still happy and ready for our last night in our "home." We love Jackson and the girls were ready to be back among the living. They couldn't wait to do more shopping and wander with people, congestion and buildings. :) 5 days exploring small town Wyoming was enough for them.

We had dinner and did our final shopping and then our final night of animal hunting and we found the BEST Bison of them all!!

He was a bit hard to capture!

So our 10 nights in the Wild West was coming to a close - it was awesome (in the literal sense and figurative)! This is Don's equivalent of my Disney World, so I know we will be back -

Goodbye Wyoming!

Stay tuned for the start of school and what lays ahead with the end of summer! Our next big adventure will be Columbus Day Weekend as the 3 girls are Broadway Bound with Rina!!