Let's Keep Our Trails Beautiful Together!
Friends of the Bridger-Teton helps maintain and support more than 2,000 miles of trails on the fifth-largest national forest in the U.S. With 3.4 million acres of breathtaking landscapes, the Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF) offers endless adventures.
Recreate Responsibly
While you enjoy all that BTNF has to offer, please recreate responsibly. Your actions help preserve this important resource for future generations.
Join Us in Our Mission
The U.S. Forest Service alone can’t keep up with all of the maintenance and work the BTNF’s trail network requires. We need everyone to pitch in and partner with us to preserve the forest’s stunning landscapes and resources. Whether it’s through donations, volunteering, or spreading the word—every bit helps.
Support Our Trails Today
The Bridger-Teton National Forest is a special place. A donation to Friends of the Bridger-Teton helps us continue to keep it that for future generations.
Learn more at btfriends.org.
Let’s do this together!
Tag us on Instagram!
Use hashtag #bffofthebtnf
@bridgertetonfriends
It's time for another Spotlight On! And this time it's the Gros Ventre Slide.
The morning of June 23, 1925, the north face of Sheep Mountain in the Jackson District of the BTNF, had shown ominous signs of instability. At 4 p.m. that afternoon, 50 million cubic yards of the mountain fell off and rushed towards the valley floor.
It was one of the largest, fastest-moving landslides in the world: It all happened in about three minutes. At the time, Wyoming state surveyor W.O. Owen estimated that the builders of the Panama Canal could have gotten their jobs done in 54 minutes had they been able to move earth at the speed with which this landslide moved.
Guil Huff, a rancher in the area was riding his horse along the Gros Ventre River at the time of the slide. He reported that he and the horse escaped flying rocks and debris by a mere 20 feet, but 17 acres of his ranch were buried. “It reminded me of a flood of water and only the good horse upon which I was mounted prevented me from being buried. The whole thing was over in about a minute and a half,” Huff said at the time. Meanwhile, Guil’s wife, Violet, was in their house sewing. She reported seeing a portion of the moving slide through a west-facing window, but said she thought nothing of it.
The debris ran 300 feet up the opposite slope, damming the Gros Ventre River. The morning after the slide, the Huffs’ house was 18” deep with water. By June 29, it was floating in the newly formed lake. (A Forest Service ranger station in the area was lost to the new lake on July 3.) Today this lake is known as Lower Slide Lake.
To get to the site, head north on U.S. 189 from Jackson. At the Gros Ventre Junction, take the first exit from the traffic circle towards Kelly, which you’ll pass after about 8 miles. North of Kelly, turn right onto Gros Ventre River Road. Travel on the Gros Ventre River Road for approximately 5 miles.
This FREE event is now less than one month away.
Hope to see you there.
#bridgertetonfriends #jhchamber @wildlifeartjh @jhchamber
Check out our 2025 Impact Report. Link in bio.
#bridgertetonfriends #bridgertetonnationalforest #fbt2025impactreport #publiclands
Julie Gonzalez, a member of Camina Conmigo's advisory board, is a Best Friend of the BTNF because it's where her life unfolds—foraging for mushrooms, hiking with her husband and dog, and hunting and trail running. Read more in this week's Jackson Hole Daily.
And yes, her dog has a mohawk. "We were trying to figure out how to keep him cool in between grooming appointments. The woes of having a doodle," she says.
#bffofthebtnf #caminaconmigojh @caminaconmigojh #responsiblerecreation #bridgertetonnationalforest #bridgertetonfriends @visitjacksonhole bridgertetonavalanchecenter jacksonhole @coombsoutdoors doodlesofinstagram
In 2025, the BTNF suppressed 94% of fires during initial attack, keeping them as small as possible. Forest staff and volunteers (including FBT Ambassadors!) successfully extinguished 128 abandoned campfires, ensuring they did not become escaped fires. There were four notable wildfires on the BTNF that were larger and longer duration events: Horse Fire, Burnt Creek Fire, Willow Creek Fire, and Dollar Lake Fire. The fire suppression strategy for all of these fires was full suppression and each met objectives of keeping the fire from burning onto private and/or other jurisdictional lands.
Out of 130 non-fire employees, 105 of them—or 81%—have red cards on the Bridger-Teton. Many of those that do not have red cards still found other ways to assist, like purchasing needed supplies and equipment, supporting the BTNF's interagency fire cache, maintaining roads to access fires safely, or assisting with livestock management.
In addition to putting fires out, Bridger-Teton staff treated 10,000 acres of forested lands to reduce hazardous fuels on the landscape.
Photos USFS.
#1 Dollar Lake Fire
#2 Bridger-Teton Fire staff implement Star Valley Front prescribed burns
Read more about what BTNF staff accomplished in 2025 in the Year in Review link in our bio.
#bridgertetonnationalforest #dollarlakefire #wyomingwildlands
It's time for another Spotlight On! And this time it's the Gros Ventre Slide.
The morning of June 23, 1925, the north face of Sheep Mountain in the Jackson District of the BTNF, had shown ominous signs of instability. At 4 p.m. that afternoon, 50 million cubic yards of the mountain fell off and rushed towards the valley floor.
It was one of the largest, fastest-moving landslides in the world: It all happened in about three minutes. At the time, Wyoming state surveyor W.O. Owen estimated that the builders of the Panama Canal could have gotten their jobs done in 54 minutes had they been able to move earth at the speed with which this landslide moved.
Guil Huff, a rancher in the area was riding his horse along the Gros Ventre River at the time of the slide. He reported that he and the horse escaped flying rocks and debris by a mere 20 feet, but 17 acres of his ranch were buried. “It reminded me of a flood of water and only the good horse upon which I was mounted prevented me from being buried. The whole thing was over in about a minute and a half,” Huff said at the time. Meanwhile, Guil’s wife, Violet, was in their house sewing. She reported seeing a portion of the moving slide through a west-facing window, but said she thought nothing of it.
The debris ran 300 feet up the opposite slope, damming the Gros Ventre River. The morning after the slide, the Huffs’ house was 18” deep with water. By June 29, it was floating in the newly formed lake. (A Forest Service ranger station in the area was lost to the new lake on July 3.) Today this lake is known as Lower Slide Lake.
To get to the site, head north on U.S. 189 from Jackson. At the Gros Ventre Junction, take the first exit from the traffic circle towards Kelly, which you’ll pass after about 8 miles. North of Kelly, turn right onto Gros Ventre River Road. Travel on the Gros Ventre River Road for approximately 5 miles.
This FREE event is now less than one month away.
Hope to see you there.
#bridgertetonfriends #jhchamber @wildlifeartjh @jhchamber
Check out our 2025 Impact Report. Link in bio.
#bridgertetonfriends #bridgertetonnationalforest #fbt2025impactreport #publiclands
Julie Gonzalez, a member of Camina Conmigo's advisory board, is a Best Friend of the BTNF because it's where her life unfolds—foraging for mushrooms, hiking with her husband and dog, and hunting and trail running. Read more in this week's Jackson Hole Daily.
And yes, her dog has a mohawk. "We were trying to figure out how to keep him cool in between grooming appointments. The woes of having a doodle," she says.
#bffofthebtnf #caminaconmigojh @caminaconmigojh #responsiblerecreation #bridgertetonnationalforest #bridgertetonfriends @visitjacksonhole bridgertetonavalanchecenter jacksonhole @coombsoutdoors doodlesofinstagram
In 2025, the BTNF suppressed 94% of fires during initial attack, keeping them as small as possible. Forest staff and volunteers (including FBT Ambassadors!) successfully extinguished 128 abandoned campfires, ensuring they did not become escaped fires. There were four notable wildfires on the BTNF that were larger and longer duration events: Horse Fire, Burnt Creek Fire, Willow Creek Fire, and Dollar Lake Fire. The fire suppression strategy for all of these fires was full suppression and each met objectives of keeping the fire from burning onto private and/or other jurisdictional lands.
Out of 130 non-fire employees, 105 of them—or 81%—have red cards on the Bridger-Teton. Many of those that do not have red cards still found other ways to assist, like purchasing needed supplies and equipment, supporting the BTNF's interagency fire cache, maintaining roads to access fires safely, or assisting with livestock management.
In addition to putting fires out, Bridger-Teton staff treated 10,000 acres of forested lands to reduce hazardous fuels on the landscape.
Photos USFS.
#1 Dollar Lake Fire
#2 Bridger-Teton Fire staff implement Star Valley Front prescribed burns
Read more about what BTNF staff accomplished in 2025 in the Year in Review link in our bio.
#bridgertetonnationalforest #dollarlakefire #wyomingwildlands