Jackson Hole in Summer: The Season the Skiers Miss

Jackson Hole is famous for the wrong season. The skiing is genuinely world-class — steep, deep, honest — but the summer is the better trip, and the people who have done both increasingly say so.

From late June to mid-September the valley runs on a different clock. The Snake River fills with drift boats at first light, the Teton trails are walkable without a crowd until you want one, and the evenings are long and cool enough for a fire. Grand Teton National Park sits at the town''s edge and Yellowstone an hour beyond it, which makes the valley the most civilised base for the two parks that exists.

The houses change character with the season. The ski lodges become summer lodges — the boot room becomes a rod room, the hot tub a stargazing seat — and the rates, while still peak, sit well below the festive winter weeks. A house that asks for a festive fortune in late December is merely expensive in July.

The two things to arrange early: the river — the best fly-fishing guides book out months ahead — and the national-park entries, which now run on timed reservations in high summer. Everything else in a Jackson Hole summer rewards spontaneity: the rodeo on a Wednesday, the farmers'' market on a Saturday, and a table on the square that no January visitor would believe.

Go in the first half of July for the wildflowers, or the first half of September for the elk and the turning aspens. The skiers will never know.