Global Wandering

This part of Idaho is a land of rolling farm fields, sage, sand dunes, pine and aspen covered slopes and the jutted peaks of the Tetons. Mighty streams like the Henry’s Fork, the Teton, Fall, and Warm Rivers tumble through this varied terrain. Much of the area is national and state owned forests. Camping spots are abundant. There is no need to own recreational property here, yet LaPriel and I can’t seem to shake the desire to buy some land to call our own.

You see, our valley has been discovered. The building and speculation that used to stay on the Wyoming side of the Tetons in Jackson Hole is spilling over to Idaho. There are 72 subdivisions under development in Idaho’s Teton County alone. The county’s land use planning is a disaster. Comparatively speaking, property is still affordable, yet it is no longer cheap and the prices are climbing. We’ve told ourselves it’s stupid to buy land. It’s just one more thing to worry about. We don’t want or need it for investment purposes, because investing is my profession and there are far easier and less risky ways to make money. I have tried to analyze what it is I seek when I contemplate owning acreage along a creek, or overlooking the Tetons, or along the edge of a forest. I can experience all that nature without paying a dime.

It comes down to permanence and intimacy. If I buy my own land perhaps the rest of the valley will be gobbled up in a patchwork of subdivisions but my acreage will remain untouched by development. The goal would not be to subdivide for profit, but to conserve the land for native grasses, flowers and trees. The Teton Regional Land Trust has led the conservation efforts in these parts.

But it isn’t just permanence I seek. I can find permanence in the national forest. I crave intimacy. I want to return year after year to the same spot and marvel at newly formed lupine buds, study how the moss has crept another half inch along a rock’s northern face, and see the countless ways light plays against an aspen’s shimmering leaves. Intimacy and permanence. Perhaps they are quixotic ideas money can’t buy. Still, LaPriel and I had fun looking the past few days. We drove over a hundred miles up canyons, around mountains, and through streams. We added new scratches to our Subaru's side panels and came across a young hawk by the roadside that hadn’t yet learned to fear man. All and all a wonderful weekend.