The overgrown community of JACKSON is tucked in at the end of Jackson Hole , ten miles from Teton park's southern gate. Hunched around a tree-shaded square, marked by an arch of tangled elk antlers at each corner, the Old West-style boardwalks of downtown front designer boutiques, craft shops and over thirty galleries. Every summer evening, except Sundays, an amateurish shoot-out is staged in the town square (6.30pm). In winter, time is better spent visiting the National Elk Refuge on the north edge of town, where you can take a horse-drawn sleigh ride among a 10,000-strong herd of elk (late Dec to late March daily 10am-4pm; $12 for adults and $8 for kids); rides leave from the National Museum of Wildlife Art, and a combined museum-and-sleigh-ride ticket is good value at $15 adults/$11 kids.

Jackson is home base for two of Wyoming's best ski areas: Snow King (tel 733-5200 or 1-800/522-5464, ) is Jackson's family-friendly hill, also lit for night-skiing, while Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (tel 733-2292 or 1-888/333-7766, ) is a massive mountain with a huge vertical drop and terrain best suited to upper intermediate-to-extreme downhillers. Summer visitors can enjoy chairlift rides (up 7751ft Snow King Mountain from Snow King Avenue, six blocks from the town square (daily 9am-6pm; $7), and come down by hiking, cycling or taking the thrilling 2500ft Alpine Slide ($6 a turn), a summer toboggan run. Out at Teton Village , home of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (tel 307/733-2292), aerial trams swoosh their way 10,536ft to the top of Rendezvous Mountain where there's a spectacular panorama of the valley and mountain ranges (daily: June-Aug 9am-7pm; May & Sept 9am-5pm; $16).