Western States 2012 - Day 17

June 22, 2012 - Friday

“On the road again –
-I just can’t wait to get on the road again…
-Seein’ things that I may never see again…
--------on the road again” – Willy Nelson

Today was another travel day with about 265 miles to go to our next destination – West Yellowstone, Montana. We both had to agree that this was probably the prettiest drive of our trip so far. The route took us straight north through northern Utah into southeastern Idaho. The further north we went the more water we saw and the greener things got including the mountain sides. Idaho is such a pretty state.

Looking southward from the KOA in Bringham City one can see the Great Salt Lake about six miles away. Irrigation fields are in the foreground and a stretch of I-15 is in the distance.

We traveled through Pocatello to Idaho Falls on I-15. Near Inkom, Idaho we encountered fields of volcanic rock from a lava flow of thousands of years ago. Oddly, we drove parallel to a cliff of lava rock for nearly two miles. This was an unusual sight to a pair of Kentuckians.

A cliff of lava rock runs parallel to I-15 on the northern side of the right of way in Idaho.

We turned onto US-20 in Idaho Falls. The highway parallels the Snake River as it winds it’s way through the city. The river is very picturesque compare to the rivers and banks in the Midwest. For a good portion of the trip, we traveled with the snow-capped Grand Tetons on the horizon to the east as we crossed from Idaho into Montana. Once again, we were back among stately pines as we drove through Targhee National Forest. At one point off to the distance, we saw the smoke of a wild fire burning. Byron heard a report that there were about 44 wildfires fires burning around the west at the moment.

Railroad tracks and a cattle ranch give way to the view of the Grand Tetons along US Highway 20 north of Idaho Falls.

We arrived in West Yellowstone in the middle of the afternoon with Rustic RV Campground becoming our home for the next few days. There are lots of RV parks around, but most are very small and stuck in amongst houses. There is a KOA further out of town. The Grizzly Bear RV park seems to be the newest, and looks to be very nice, but a bit more than we wanted to pay. We also noticed that at the IMAX Theater it appears that they are developing an RV park but, at present, it looks like a parking lot with new trees dotting the landscape. Rustic is run by a retired couple and they are only workers here. They also don’t accept credit cards – cash or check. There are only about a 18 pull-through sited and each one has a concrete patio and evergreen trees providing shade.

After getting set up we made a quick trip a few blocks away to the town’s only grocery store. After getting our few items we called it a day—tomorrow YELLOWSTONE!!!!!