The plan was to crash last night in Idaho Falls and spend the whole day today driving up to Glacier National Park. But we got through Grand Teton pretty quickly yesterday, so we drove another 200 miles and crashed here in Butte, Montana, about 240 miles from Glacier.
So we’ll get to take it easy today and run a few errands. We’re aiming to get to a hotel tonight before 7, in time to see Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
Leaving West Yellowstone yesterday, we had clear weather, but we again hit snow as we drove through the southern end of Yellowstone. As we got through Grand Teton, it started to turn to rain and eventually cleared up in patches, but was still on and off.
Seeing these parks by car hasn’t been ideal, but with a busy schedule and poor weather, we haven’t had much of a choice. There were a few trails we could’ve tried towards the end, but most of the good ones looked like they were on the north end, where the weather had still been rough.
Leaving Grand Teton and getting to Idaho Falls to get on I-15 wound us through about 90 miles of scenic mountainous backcountry, through Wyoming and eastern Idaho on a two-lane road. Though there was some static, we did listen to ESPN Radio in the car, trying to catch some coverage of the Belmont.
Once we hit the interstate, it was eerie how long and straight the highway was; with nothing for miles and miles, we could see the rain clouds we were about to hit — 25 miles away.
Today will be another quiet day, but restful, since we’ll only be on the road for about four hours. It’s good to be a little ahead of schedule, so that we aren’t exhausted by the time we hit Canada. Still fiddling around with exactly how our next couple of days will go — between Calgary, Banff and Vancouver — but for sure, we will do Glacier tomorrow.
No matter what, we have to be in Seattle on Saturday for our first game in almost two weeks.
The Phallic Road Trip 