The ridgeline above South Bowl drops into Teton Canyon. For a small band of bighorn sheep, it is a corridor they use all year. The herd numbered about 71 after the winter of 2022-23 and has since recovered to about 80, Teton Valley News reported in a story updated Oct. 28. That herd is now the main question left in a review that has run for years and drew 302 formal objections.
On Monday, Oct. 26, the Forest Service finished its last administrative review of Grand Targhee Resort's expansion into South Bowl and Mono Trees. The review did not reject the project. It approved most of the analysis, set most of the objections aside, and sent back a short list of fixes. The fight that remains is narrower than the one Alta and Teton Valley have watched since the 2018 master development plan. Most of it is now about one herd of sheep and one federal document that hasn't been written yet.
The Review Mostly Said Yes
Kristin Bail, acting regional forester for the Intermountain Region, sent two letters to the objectors. According to the Jackson Hole News&Guide, one gave 12 instructions to Caribou-Targhee Forest Supervisor Kim Pierson. The other answered individual objections in detail. Pierson can sign a final decision only after those instructions are addressed.
The objectors came from across the valley. They included conservation groups, the county commissions of both Teton County, Idaho, and Teton County, Wyoming, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the city of Driggs, many individuals, and the resort itself. Bail's ruling sorted their concerns into two groups.
| Found adequate in the review | Sent back for more work |
|---|---|
| Purpose and need for the project | Whether bighorn viability was judged at the herd scale or the planning-unit scale, plus mitigation |
| Viewshed impacts and socioeconomics | How the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes' comments were considered |
| Range of alternatives | Treating the forest plan amendment as its own decision |
| Grizzly bears and Canada lynx | Continued watershed protections on aquatic influence zones |
| Water quality and supply, climate change, traffic | An air quality analysis that relied mostly on Wyoming data |
| Effects on the Jedediah Smith Wilderness | Naming the environmentally preferable alternative and explaining why it wasn't chosen |
The review also said housing costs and lift-ticket prices largely fall outside Forest Service jurisdiction. Bail further asked Pierson to describe the decision as consistent with Executive Order 14313, which directed expanded recreational access on public lands, and not as supported by it.
The objectors read the result the same way. "The things that need to be completed are technical in nature and not necessarily insurmountable," Cindy Riegel, a former Teton County, Idaho, commissioner and an objector, told the News&Guide.
Eighty Sheep Carry the Argument
The sheep were the largest concern in Bail's letter. The review describes the Teton Range herd as small, isolated and genetically unique, with South Bowl as part of its year-round range. Bail found the analysis inconsistent. The biological evaluation described possible harm to the herd's viability, then concluded the project would not cause a loss of population viability, without saying which population it meant.
The scale matters because about 80 animals make up the entire herd, while across a broad planning unit they are a small share.
The draft decision already shrank South Bowl from a proposed 600 acres to 235. It moved the boundary uphill, away from a mineral lick the sheep use at the Apostle Cliffs. It also requires the resort to rope off the area and work with a Forest Service biologist on backcountry access points. Wildlife managers say that may not be enough. Ali Courtemanch, a big game specialist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, said at the September resolution meeting that backcountry skiers already push sheep out of the areas they use. In her view, a resort would be a different order of impact:
"Expanding a ski resort into this area, introducing chairlifts, avy control, snowmaking — that level of impact is very much above and beyond the backcountry skiing impact that is already going on. We anticipate they will just abandon that area completely."
Owner and general manager Geordie Gillett told Teton Valley News that if South Bowl is that important to the sheep, "then it should be shut to everybody, backcountry people included." Gillett also said he understands why people oppose growth and change, calling it "one of the most understandable human emotions there is."
Groups focused on the herd don't expect the instructions to remove South Bowl from the plan. "It seems like they're leaning into mitigation rather than taking away the South Bowl part of the expansion," Katie Cheesbrough, executive director of the Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation, told the News&Guide. Meghan Riley, wildlife program manager at the Wyoming Outdoor Council, cited Game and Fish's comments that no adequate mitigation is available.
The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes raised the herd as well. Bail found that concerns in the Tribes' February 2024 letter, covering reserved treaty rights under the Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868 and traditional ecological knowledge, had not been clearly addressed. The final decision must document how those comments were considered. "We have the potential to permanently displace a wintering [bighorn sheep] herd there," Chad Colter, a representative of the Tribes, said at the resolution meeting.
The Timing Depends on Fish and Wildlife
The sheep instructions are the Forest Service's own work to finish. A second requirement depends on another agency. The forest concluded the project is likely to adversely affect whitebark pine and wolverine, both listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. About 452 whitebark pines would be removed, well above the 125-tree limit allowed without formal consultation. The forest requested consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on July 17.
Before Pierson can sign, three things have to happen:
- The forest addresses Bail's 12 instructions.
- The Fish and Wildlife Service issues its final biological opinion.
- The Forest Service receives and accepts that opinion.
The two local papers report the timing differently. Caribou-Targhee spokesperson Jared Fisher told the News&Guide the forest expects to release a final decision by the end of the year, pending the biological opinion. In a statement to Teton Valley News, Fisher wrote that "no final decision will be made until all required clarifications and direction have been fully assessed and incorporated," and gave no date. Both statements depend on the same thing. A year-end decision is possible only if the biological opinion arrives in time, and neither paper reported when that will be. The project record and documents are posted on the Caribou-Targhee project page.
What a Signature Would Authorize
Under the draft decision, the special-use permit boundary would expand into South Bowl and Mono Trees, a total of 694 acres, under a modified version of the 2018 plan. It would also authorize lift upgrades, new terrain and glading, more snowmaking, summer recreation facilities and guest services, including a restaurant on top of Fred's Mountain. Some objections focused on that summit restaurant because it would sit in a dark-sky area. Others raised cost-sharing and the infrastructure load on Idaho, since the resort can only be reached through Teton County, Idaho.
Mono Trees raises different questions. The final environmental impact statement says glading there would remove about 40% of the trees and "may contribute to forest health objectives regarding mountain pine beetle resilience." Part of the area overlaps a Forest Service fuels reduction project that has already been approved. The draft also requires the resort to keep whitebark pine "when practicable" while clearing. Gillett pointed to how fast pine beetles are spreading in the area. He said removing dead and dying trees has benefits "beyond just skiing."
This Winter, the Mountain Looks the Same
Even a signature at year-end would not change the 2026-27 season. Grand Targhee plans to open Nov. 20, 2026, and close April 18, 2027, depending on snow and weather. The lift lineup is the same six: Huckleberry, Shoshone, Dreamcatcher, Blackfoot, Sacajawea and Colter. South Bowl stays outside the permit boundary this season, and Mono Trees is unchanged.
A few things are new for the season ahead:
- Passes. The adult 26/27 season pass is $2,009 in the current price tier, which runs Oct. 1, 2026, through March 15, 2027. Every pass now includes Pass Protection and one free media card. School faculty and Fire/EMS employees get 15% off.
- Friends and family. Adult, senior, young-adult and adaptive passes include five friends-and-family tickets at 20% off. Returning 25/26 passholders can keep using their current card.
- Day tickets. Single-day tickets bought online run $125 to $180 depending on the date, $10 less than the walk-up price.
- Getting up Ski Hill Road. The resort lists only two public park-and-rides for its Teton Valley shuttle: the Driggs Transit Center and the 5th Street Skate Park. It warns that cars left without authorization on several private properties may be ticketed or towed.
The 26/27 season is scheduled to open Nov. 20 on the same six lifts. The South Bowl decision will come separately, once the Fish and Wildlife Service's biological opinion is in and the forest has worked through Bail's instructions.
If you own in Alta or near the Ski Hill Road corridor and want to talk through what the expansion decision could mean for your property over the long term, JH Property Group follows the process as closely as we follow the market on both sides of the Tetons. Start Your Jackson Hole Search, or just reach out to talk over the west slope.
