USA Road Trip 2015
We have been road tripping in the US (...again), starting from Las Vegas we headed straight out on the road towards Glacier National Park & then onto Yellowstone National Park - driving through Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah & Nevada finishing back in Las Vegas.
We had lots of early starts and late finishes so we didn't post a daily blog instead we made some notes to try and remind us of what we did each day. You can certainly tell which days we made the best notes on when you read through our trip report! The good news is our cameras time and date photos so at least we know when we took the photos even if we don’t remember exactly where we were!
This was a memorable trip for all the right reasons, we had some gorgeous weather almost throughout. The only blip being during our three days in Yellowstone National Park where we had the whole trips worth of rain.
While Yellowstone’s weather disappointed, Glacier’s surpassed any of our previous visits – we could actually see the views from the Going to the Sun road! Our visit couldn’t have been any more perfect and our hike to Grinnell Glacier is now one of my most favourite days, ever!
We had some great luck with our bear encounters managing seven days in a row with multiple bear sightings in Glacier & Yellowstone National Parks. No new species sighted but we saw plenty of our favourite cuties including marmots & pikas. Mountain goats had seemed to hear we were passing through and we were fortunate to have some of our closest viewings of them in Glacier & on Mount Evans. And we won’t soon forget our close encounter of a moose kind in Glacier!
It was not only a lucky trip for wildlife & weather, we also had some fantastic luck during all but one of our casino adventures… the ‘one’ resulted in a rather expensive ‘free’ t-shirt!
Once again we were able to use our mobile phone’s ‘feel at home’ contract. Its coverage was excellent, the only area where data wasn’t accessible was during our drive from the Tetons to Fort Collins. I was amazed and really pleased to find we could even get 3G coverage in Mammoth Hot Springs and a few other spots from within Yellowstone! Great news for our upcoming winter trip.
Either I’ve become braver or Alan isn’t picking ‘challenging’ roads, because I don’t remember being particularly frightened on any of our unpaved road adventures. The shelf road turned out to be a road I enjoyed travelling along even encouraging Alan to stop so I could run up ahead and take some photos.
You can access the trip report through the links below the map & below the map you will find a comments box.
Snow Canyon
Ruby Lake NWR
Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park
Yellowstone NP
Sinks Canyon SP
Rocky Mountain NP
Cripple Creek
Maroon Lake
Arches NP
Las Vegas
Comments
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Hi Liz and Alan,
What road are you travelling north on, are you going all the way via 93?
And after Glacier, are you heading in to Yellowstone via Virginia City Montana (287) then West Yellowstone, or through the Mammoth Hot Springs.
Did you win at the casino in Mesquite?
Have a great trip, very jealous, Robert -
Hello Liz & Alan - wishing you a fun and wildlife filled trip. Hope you have a winning visit to Ely. We're looking forward to reading all about your adventure when your done. Mark
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Hi Rob,
Alan says our route is as follows... we are leaving the 93 today and taking State back roads until we get to Idaho and pick it up again when we head to Missoula. We are heading to Boise first to stay
the night with friends hence the less direct route.
After Glacier we are heading to Bozeman (research visit for our winter Yellowstone visit) and then going into Yellowstone via Beartooth Highway (a bit of a detour, but you know how Alan likes to make
drives longer than they need to be!) During our visit to Yellowstone we are staying in Gardiner.
We had a great nights play on the casino! We had some nice wins between $100 & $200 as well as the 'big win' above. We were up by over $1,000 at one stage. Finally ended our stay with a free
dinner & breakfast, a few gifts for using a players card (picnic blanket, thermos mugs & a bottle of JD!) and $800 of the casino's money.
Hopefully our good luck will continue and we will see lots of wildlife & win big in Vegas at the end of our trip! -
Hi Mark
Great to hear from you :) We didn't visit any Casinos in Ely, we were too tired! We had also planned to go out star gazing at Great Basin but failed on that one too, we were asleep before it got
dark! -
Hi Liz & Alan,
(a bit of a detour, but you know how Alan likes to make drives longer than they need to be!) funny that, my wife says the same thing about me, and she says if there's a dirt back road on the eastern
side of Australia, or anyplace in the world we've been to, we've probably driven on it. I'm very jealous about the Bear Tooth Highway through Yellowstone, always wanted to drive that road.
Need to start putting your woollies on soon. We went through this area in September, got stuck in Yellowstone for over half a day due to heavy snowfalls, finally got out in a convoy to Cody.
Looking forward to the next pics, cheers Rob -
Hi Rob,
Yes, you boys and your dirt roads! Alan had to jet wash Smokey last evening to get all the dust of him after our drive along County Road 3!
Not sure if Alan mentioned on TA that I bought a GoPro, I plan to do a bit of recording during the trip (when I can be motivated to set it up) so I'll add the Beartooth to my list. Fingers crossed
the mild weather will continue until after we've driven it. We've done it once in good weather and part done it in snow (I made Alan turn around & go back).
Need to quickly say (and I'll probably add something to the text in the page intro above) the majority of the pictures I'm posting are from my phone, the blog will contain our 'real' photos from the
trip! I'm trying to keep the amount of time I have to spend editing & posting to a minimum.
Cheers Liz -
Photo "Day 4 - Rough Hills Wildlife Study Area - Rough Road!" even I wouldn't put Sue through this road condition.
Rob -
Lol! We had to open and shut a gate to access the single track road and (to be honest) I was quite happy to see the road was in such a poor condition! I looked road the bend and said "no, that's not
going to happen!" Fortunately there was a convenient slightly wider section of track just before the hill so we could turn around :) -
Great spot Logan Pass, well the Going to the Sun Road is a dream as well.
Alan, did you pee either side of the divide?
Great shots, Sue said she's getting itchy feet looking at the shots.
Liz, did I tell you we got connection on your FB.
Cheers
Rob -
Hi Rob - it was great to finally see the Going to the sun road in all its glory on a clear day!
On the peeing question I'll have to ask him when he wakes up!
He's been having a "I can't be bothered with TA" moment since being back in wifi territory! I think he is a little over tired by the early mornings, long hikes and all the driving (I keep offering to
drive but he says these are all roads 'he' wants to drive!)
Is Sue able to see my FB posts? I think I have it set up so only friends can see them... If I have it right you can only see the details when 'friends'. I think she will have to send a friend request
first, I have just checked and I don't have one waiting. But please don't worry if Sue would rather not connect this way.
We're doing the Beartooth highway today, so let loose the green eyed monster, lol. -
OK, it's official I have the DT's, waiting for the, "so how was the Beartooth Highway" and 1 photo, torture people, absolute torture.
10 bear sightings, really, you're not seeing the same couple of bears over and over again?
Cheers
Rob -
Sorry for the wait Rob, we were up before dawn and back at sunset each day so I was too tired to fight with the wifi. We do have more photos & I GoPro recorded the drive, but you'll have to wait
even longer for the full trip report, lol.
We saw 7 different bears in Yellowstone - we saw the same mother & her 2 cubs on two days. So that makes 10 bear sightings.
We've seen a lot of rain in Yellowstone, we're now looking forward to warmer & drier weather as we head south. -
Loving the photos, they bring back many memories and confirmation of why we love the drive down the Rockies.
Rob -
Thanks Rob, we have many more to share once we get home. It's been a great trip with drives loaded with awesome scenic views. Not sure if I'll get time to share much more now, Alan has every day
before Vegas filled with driving, lol.
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