Jackson Hole
— — a valley the mountains close around.
Not only on a wall.
“A long flat valley in northwest Wyoming, sixty miles top to bottom, with the Tetons running like a wall down its western edge. The Snake River cuts the floor. In autumn the cottonwoods go yellow and the elk come down from the high country to winter on the refuge below the town. The cold here is the kind that doesn't move.
Jackson Hole, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Jackson Hole is a glacial valley in northwest Wyoming, about 48 miles long and up to 13 miles wide, framed by the Teton Range to the west and the Gros Ventre Mountains to the east. The town of Jackson sits at the southern end at roughly 6,237 feet. Most of the valley floor is protected as Grand Teton National Park, with the southern entrance to Yellowstone an hour north. The Snake River runs the full length, and the National Elk Refuge winters one of the largest elk herds in North America.
The valley sits at altitude. The town floor is near 6,237 feet, with surrounding peaks rising past 13,000, and the air carries that height in every season. Winter lows in Jackson regularly drop below zero Fahrenheit, with the cold settling on the valley floor in long inversions. Summer mornings open clear and cool before afternoon storms build off the Tetons. The thinness makes the light hard and the distances feel longer than they read on the map.
Each season turns the valley over. Winter closes the road through Yellowstone and brings thousands of elk down to the National Elk Refuge, where horse-drawn sleighs run through the herd from December into April. May and June green the sagebrush flats. Late September yellows the cottonwoods along the Snake and brings the bull elk down rutting. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort at Teton Village opens its tram around Thanksgiving, with a 4,139-foot vertical drop, among the longest in the country.