Please slow down

porcupine crossing road - Grand Teton National Park wildlife

For the last several years, I have spent the early summer driving back and forth between my adopted hometown of Bozeman, Montana and my original hometown of Moose, Wyoming. I relish the opportunity to spend three to four weeks of the summer guiding rafts along the Snake River, and renewing my relationship with Jackson Hole…

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Where Are the Bodies?

Deadman's Bar Boat Launch - Barker Ewing Float Trips

In 1887, Wyoming Territory held its first murder trial on the heels of a triple homicide. The story of these gruesome murders and the subsequent trial are well known to Snake River boatmen. It’s how Deadman’s Bar – the spot where we launch our Barker-Ewing Scenic Float Trips – got its name. All you have…

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When Interpretation Goes South

Barker-Ewing Scenic Float Trips Guide

When Interpretation Goes South Over the years I have witnessed and participated in the famous Western propensity to spin yarns about almost any subject. “Where is the hole?” is our version of the age old Snipe hunt. And though tourists may expect some measure of abuse at the hands of “the locals,” I’m keenly aware…

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Wapiti Wilderness

Mardy & Olaus Murie - Jackson Hole history

I grew up in Jackson Hole in the shadow of the Tetons, and spent vast stretches of my childhood wandering the wapiti wilderness. I waded through Ditch Creek, explored the caves and crags on Blacktail Butte, and rode my little horse for miles across sagebrush flats. Lucky for me, my neighborhood north of town was…

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Soft Gold on the Snake

Beaver on Snake River bank - photo taken on a Barker Ewing Grand Teton Scenic Float Trip

Jackson Hole was the center of the Fur Trade for a short period in the 1820s and 1830s due to the abundance of beaver. This squat brown mammal (once decreed a fish by the Bishop of Quebec, to fit dietary law) was once abundant throughout North America. Fur trappers venturing west to collect beaver pelts…

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It’s tick season!

a woodtick -Jackson Hole wildlife

It’s tick season! This time of year, we welcome visitors from all around the country to beautiful Jackson Hole. And for those of you from the East Coast, the thought of “tick season” might be truly scary. The good news: our Barker-Ewing scenic raft trips don’t travel through tick habitat, so we’re extremely unlikely to…

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