County seeks $30,000 state grant to groom Cache Creek, Game Creek ski trails

The Teton County Board of Commissioners is set to vote Monday on a resolution authorizing Parks Superintendent Andy Erskine to apply for a $30,000 grant from the Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources' Recreational Trails Program. The money would help fund grooming on existing non-motorized winter trails used for walking, skiing, snowshoeing and fat biking. Staff's suggested motion asks the board to approve the resolution and name Erskine as the county's authorized representative on the application. The department leans on JH Nordic Alliance and Jackson Hole Mountain Resort to coordinate grooming and gathers public feedback each spring on service levels.

This is the same Recreational Trails Program the county has tapped for years. In 2022, commissioners approved a grooming contract and resolution for a $26,000 grant, up from the $25,000-a-year rate set under a 2017 contract, with the county matching $87,287 that year. That contract's grooming areas ran from Cache Creek and Game Creek drainages through Stilson Park, R Park, Emily Stevens Park, the Wilson Centennial Pathway and the Snake River levee's east bank, with crews required to keep trails 10 to 24 feet wide and free of berms. The state grant has crept up by $4,000 over four years, a fraction of what the county now shoulders each winter to keep those trails skiable.