Alpine Mountain Days

Alpine Mountain Days fills the middle of Alpine, Wyoming, for three days each June. The Donn Wooden Civic Center stands in the center of town on U.S. Highway 89, and most of the booths go up in Marge Grover Memorial Park beside it. The Town of Alpine counts more than 60 arts, crafts, merchandise, and food vendors. SVI-NEWS gave a count of over 75 for the 2025 festival. A DJ plays all day. A limited number of booths go inside the civic center, and a table at its main entrance gives out general information and sells raffle tickets. In 2025, SVI-NEWS reported, admission was free and “all are welcome.”

The town sits at the southern end of the Snake River Canyon, where the Snake enters Palisades Reservoir and the Salt and the Greys come in nearby. It is also called Alpine Junction, because U.S. 26 and 89 run together down the canyon from Jackson and part ways here. The town’s festival guidelines put June days at 70 to 85 degrees and evenings in the 40s and 50s. They also warn that wind and storms can come up. No stakes are allowed in the park, so the tents are held down with concrete blocks and sandbags. The 2027 festival is set for Friday, June 25, through Sunday, June 27.

Pancakes, raptors, and chili at the Gazebo

The 2026 festival, the 36th, ran Friday through Sunday, June 26–28. It opened at noon Friday with a ceremony by the Alpine American Legion Post. Native American activities ran all three days. The mountain men set up with the Great Western Antler Rendezvous, where, the guidelines note, they “are now located.” In 2021 they had been part of a Pioneer Village with Native American dancers.

On Saturday the Bank of Alpine sponsored a free pancake breakfast from 8 to 10, and on Sunday the Mountain West Farm Bureau served breakfast from 8 to 9. Birds of prey were shown at 1:30 and again at 3:30 on Saturday. In 2021 that program came from the Teton Raptor Center and was held at the Gazebo. At 2 o’clock a Horse Warriors presentation took place in the Bank of Jackson Hole parking lot. Children had pony rides and bounce houses. Anyone could help make the year’s banner, which is then hung on the wall of the civic center. SVI-NEWS also listed presentations by Native Americans and by the Star Valley Circus, and a caption in the paper names bluegrass music.

At 4:30 Saturday the chili cook-off came to the Gazebo. It is Carla Stone’s Chili Cook-Off, sponsored in 2025 by the Rotary Club of Star Valley. That year guests tasted the entries at $5 each and voted for a favorite. Carson Hasher gave the Saturday evening concert at 7 in 2026. In 2025 he and Ellie Mae played the evening concerts, both country acts by SVI-NEWS’s account.

Sunday closed at 3 with the raffle drawings and closing ceremonies. The 2025 prizes were a three-burner Blackstone grill from Top of the Rockies and Jenkins Lumber, a scenic river trip for four from Dave Hansen Whitewater Rafting, a paddleboarding outing from First Bank of Wyoming, and a Ruger American Rifle Generation II. Winners did not need to be present.

Earlier programs had other sideshows. In 2021 events spread onto the lawn of the Three Rivers Motel. That year there was a cornhole tournament at the American Legion Ball Field, a horseshoe tournament at the pits beside it, and a dunk tank.

Two founders in a town of two hundred

Jan Rollins and Marge Grover founded the festival in 1990. Alpine had been incorporated in 1988, and the 1990 census counted 200 people there. The 2020 census counted 1,220. In 2026 Melody Leseberg, the Town’s Public Works Administrator, wrote to SVI Media that from the first event the founders “envisioned a festival that would bring together residents, visitors, local businesses, artisans, entertainers, and volunteers.” She said it began as a “small community gathering” and grew into one of the “largest and most anticipated weekend festivals in the area.”

Accounts differ on how long the founders led it. The town’s 2026 guidelines and Leseberg both call them co-chairs for 36 years. The town’s festival page says more than three decades. The town’s parks page gives Marge Grover’s term as co-founder and co-chairman as 1990 to 2005.

A wooden sign beside the civic center

The parks page also tells how the park got its name. On Friday, June 15, 2007, at the kick-off of Mountain Days, many citizens and public officials gathered beside the civic center. Donn Wooden, a long-time citizen and past mayor of Alpine, unveiled a wooden sign dedicating the park to the memory of Marge Grover. The civic center carries his name, and the park beside it carries hers.