Day 3 - To Yellowstone. The Long Way

After having breakfast and packing up, I headed out of the park. Craters of the Moon National Monument wasn't too far away so I figured I'd head up there. One catch. I was running low on gas. After passing through two intersections with silos that my map claimed were cities, I figured I'd have to turn back towards the interstate or risk running the car dry in the middle of nowhere. So, scratch the idea of seeing the old lava plain. Oh well. Maybe I'll get back when doing tests for some rovers in grad school.....

After filling up, I made my way along the interstate to Idaho Falls where I wanted to check in with the ranger station to check on campsites for the night. I did that and they convinced me to buy some bear repellent. It's ridiculously expensive! $50 for a can. It's just a bunch of pressurized capcacin. Anyway, I also had lunch there at an all day breakfast place which was serving sourdough pancakes. They were great! A little chewy, which was different, but had a great tangy flavour to them. I'll have to figure out how to make them.

Heading out of Idaho Falls, I took I-15 N and drove for about 70 miles until I hit a sign saying that I'm entering Montana. Montana? Wait! Montana?!? I'm not supposed to get to Montana without seeing a sign for Yellowstone. Where the hell am I? After pulling off the road and consulting my map, I realized that I was supposed to take Highway 20 out of Idaho Falls and I want to be almost exactly east of where I am now. So, is there a way to get there because unfortunately, there's a mountain range in the way? The map says there's one obvious road, but upon closer inspection, I realize it's supposed to be dirt road for 3o miles. No way! There's another road listed on the map that it says is paved and means I don't need to go all the way back to Idaho Falls. So, I take that. Heading off into no man's land where all I can see is fenced in scrub, I drove along towards Yellowstone. Of course, about halfway along this road, there's a sign saying rough road ahead for the next 15 miles. Guh?!? It's not just rough, it's dirt. Crap, my low riding, brand new, pretty car is going to get beat up. Oh well. After seeing a nice cloud of dust behind me for a while, I finally got to paved road again and made my way to highway 20 and a campground in the national forest just outside yellowstone. After setting up camp and making another one pot meal for dinner, I hit the sack so I could get up early and get a site inside Yellowstone.




*Disclaimer* This post was written over a month after the trip, I figured it just makes sense to put a different post for each day