ON THE MOVE

Nice dinner with Larry and Linda a coupe nights before our departure.

So we are on the move towards the south with some delays along the way.  We left Sagle on Saturday, September 1st.  Yup! right at the beginning of the Labor Day weekend.  WHAT WAS I THINKING?  After a very "hairy" experience with a blocked freeway on ramp and a forced reroute through narrow streets in Coeur d' Alene we finally made it onto I-90 eastbound.  Next came multiple road construction zones, one with about a 4 - 5 mile back up while all the holiday traffic squeezed into one lane.  Like I said, "What was I thinking"?  Anyway we eventually got through the constructions zones and over Lookout Pass and worked our way to the town of Wye, MT just west of Missoula where we parked for the night Saturday.  The next day, Sunday, we had a very pleasant and trouble free drive to Dillon, MT where we are currently located.  The map below shows our route over the last two days.

As you can see from the map below there are basically two possible routes to West Yellowstone from here that are practical for a big motor home.  We can either continue on south on I-15 and cut over a little north of Idaho Falls and then north again OR we can go north out of Dillon and go east and then south.  The latter route is all two lane road and so today we decided to just drive part of it in the jeep and see how good the road is.  I had heard about a grade outside of Virginia City that was pretty steep.  It is.  According to a local trucker we talked to in the grocery store parking lot it is a 7% grade and 10 miles long.  That is a long slow grind in ar big rig and when you get to the top you have to go back down the other side.  

So on the map above you can see Virginia City about half way on the upper route.  That is a very old historic gold mining town with old store fronts and a Railroad Museum. 

The steep grade started there and the pictures below were taken after we had crested the top of the pass about 10 miles later and were looking down at the highway as it descends back into the valley.  That is as far was we went before turning around today.  I presume that rest of the road is fine.  I just wanted to check out the pass.

So we are now back in Dillon and I am debating with myself whether to take the longer, safer, route to the south or save about 70 miles and 45 minutes to an hour of driving time and go back through Virginia City.  I guess I will make up my mind in the morning. 

Unlike last year we are enjoying clear blue skies here with no smoke.  This is beautiful country this time of the year but I would not want to do a winter here.

We will be in West Yellowstone for five days and Arlyene's sister Sandy and her husband Ken will be there three of those days on their way to Bozeman.  We will have fun exploring together for a couple of days.  Then we will be off for a long drive to Heber City, UT for a couple of days and then back to Las Vegas with a stop in Beaver, UT.

So that's it for now.  Hope we get some interesting pictures to share from Yellowstone.