You pull away from downtown Jackson as the valley is still cool and the Teton Range glares into the clear air—an honest, uncompromising wall of granite that seems to push the sky back. The van follows the Snake River as it carves a course past beaver ponds and sagebrush; your guide drops a nearly silent anchor at a bend where a herd of elk grazes and the mountains fold into the water like a mirror. This is a day designed to move slowly enough to notice details—slick river stones, the musk of moose, the historic lines of weather-worn barns—and fast enough to cover the park’s dramatic highlights.