Day 27

Yellowstone drive, day 2

Today was another day of driving in order to get to Yellowstone. When we woke up it was hot, the sun was shining right in the tent—nature’s alarm clock. We packed up the stuff and hit the road by 9:30.

Lowell is the last town on US 12 until Montana, about 80 miles away. This is the only road through the Bitterroot Mountain Range that’s nearby, and the traffic proves that. To add to that, practically the entire stretch was under construction.

Out here, they do road construction a little differently. When they close a lane and let traffic through while the oncoming traffic waits, they don’t just do this a mile at a time like they do out east. They do this for miles and miles, causing a long, long waits. It can be frustrating and all you can do is turn the car off and wait. The road was nice. The entire trip out of Idaho and into Montana was through the Nez Perce and Bitterroot National Forests, up and down and around these 7,000-foot mountains. Driving through the 5,235-foot Lolo Pass brought us into Montana and the Mountain Time Zone, so we lost an hour. Hate it when that happens.

We got into Missoula around two in the afternoon and ate at a Subway there. We needed to make some time now, because we were going at a slow pace all morning—we were stuck behind trucks when we weren’t waiting for construction. Missoula was a nice town but we just wanted to find I-90.

Montana seems like a dry place. It was a hot day, and if you’re not in the mountains it’s hot and hazy. We traveled on I-90 through Goldcreek, Deer Lodge, Opportunity, and Anaconda. The Clark Fork River was in sight the entire way and the Lolo, Deerlodge, Beaverhead, and Helena National Forests were not far either. We pulled off in Butte, MT and went to a grocery store. Next point of interest was the headwaters of the Missouri River. We were just below the mouth of this great river in St. Louis and now we are at its beginning.

We continued on I-90 until just short of Bozeman, where we turned south on MT 85 which connected us to US 191 south. The last time we were on US 191 we were in southeast Utah. It was about 90 miles to the town of West Yellowstone. The only town between was Big Sky, Montana, a town which shares its name with the state motto.

This road took us into the mountains once again, into the Gallatin National Forest, and along the Gallatin River. We arrived in West Yellowstone where there were many people walking around. We drove up to the entrance gate of the park to learn that all the campgrounds were full (surprise). So we went to the Chamber of Commerce to find out where we could camp for the night. It was almost 8 p.m. and clouds had moved in, I hope it doesn’t rain while we’re in Yellowstone tomorrow.

We ended up going back up US 191, about eight miles to US 287 (the last time we were on US 287 was in Texas) which leads to the Hebgen and Earthquake Lakes. This was all still in the Gallatin National Forest, so it was National Forest campgrounds. There were about a half dozen campgrounds clustered around these lakes. They were close to the road but we weren’t really in a position to be picky tonight with darkness near and the possibility of rain shower. Finally finished off the hot dogs tonight.