Plan SB's Elite Vision Quest Through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho

[SkinnyBenny]

Little 10 y/o Emo stayed in that lodge.  I'd get up early every morning to grab the paper and see which MLB teams won and lost and the pitching match ups for the day.   Good times. 

No bears or woofs?

Not yet.

[Bloodfart]

Bad ass pics Skin Ben.  So jealous.

[wELLsculptedbrows]

Great pics, SkinnyBenny.

We totally just missed each other, heading in opposite directions.

Stayed one night in Old Faithful Inn. It was awesome, but be aware that the walls are very thin and there are no bathrooms in most rooms of the old section. But the bathroom right down the hall was nothing but immaculate marble.

Firehole?

Correct. Just downstream of Biscuit Basin. It was really, really, really cool to fish around geysers and bison, but I got skunked. Further down stream the next night, I fished the biggest combination caddis/mayfly hatch I've ever seen. I let the excitement get to me though and forgot how to fish/cast, missed a number of strikes and lined way more fish than I care to admit.

Any arborkats know what kinda trees they were?

Lodgepole pine.

[SkinnyBenny]

MONTANA.

Holy crap. Guys. Montana.

Montana.

Definitely my favorite state that I visited, which is tough because each one was incredibly elite. But Montana is easily a top 4 state in the country behind Kansas and then some order of Alaska/Hawaii. I left Wyoming to camp in West Yellowstone, MT. and ended up spending, I think, four days in Montana? Maybe 5? It was so fantastic.

I started by driving in the very SW part of Montana through Gallatin National Forest. Gallatin is just incredibly underrated and is definitely one of the coolest drives you can make in the lower 48. Blared "Sprawl II" and looked at the mountains beyond mountains and I think I creamed my jeans. Canadian friend I know put up this video. Doesn't really do it justice but whatever.



LOOK AT THIS FARM. LOOK AT IT. LOOK HOW GREEN.




Stopped in Bozeman to explore for a few hours. Seems like a pretty cool town. Home of Montana State and former home of The Jonathan Beasley. The town is probably about as big as Laramie, maybe a little bigger. 30,000 or so, I'd guess, plus students. I mainly checked out the university and will post stadium photos in the stadium thread, but I wanted to post this picture of Fat Tim Riggins in here. And some other Bozeman pics.










Left Bozeman and headed toward Butte, which is on the way up to Polson (Flathead Lake) where I was eventually to stay the night. The scenery near Butte is different from Bozeman but super increds elite, also. I want this farm too.





Big old thanks to whichever gE'r told me to go to Flathead Lake near Polson, MT., by the way. It was so absolutely elite. I stayed in Big Arm State Park about 16 miles away from Polson. Place was deserted and I got to set up camp 5 feet from the lake. Fell asleep to lapping waves. Was  .









Next morning at Flathead:



I considered staying a second day at Flathead because it was so peaceful and elite. Decided instead to stick to the plan and go on up to Glacier National Park to maximize my time there. Drove along the entire east shore (?) of Flathead Lake and it was gorge the whole way. Then from that point to the SW entrance of GNP it was nothing but mountains and advertisements for huckleberries. Huckleberry stuff was srsly everywhere. Huck yeah.

Arrived at GNP late afternoon and spent a bunch of time 'splorin before setting up my camp at Big Arm Campground on Lake McDonald. Here are some pictures from the western portion of GNP.










Whoa. "That's way bigger than a normal-sized car." Now, for GNP prairie dogs.















Lake McDonald through the trees.


Guys. Look.


The western part of GNP was amazing. Going-To-The-Sun Road was closed for construction in, like, the middle five miles. I got to drive almost the length of it from each side except for the middle five miles or so. So, in order to get from the west side to the east side I had to go all the way around the bottom of the park and enter from the east side. Here are some pictures from that drive. There are MAAAAD rolling hills (again, v. beautiful Flint Hills'y, but this time with enormo mountains in the background). And I saw a herd of wild horses. I mean what in the world. Kay. Pictures.


Misty Mountain Hop.













That drive had a collection of mountains near Black Feet (Blackfoot? Blackfeet?) Reservation that were super cool. I called it the pincushion forest in my head.








Drove into Many Glacier on the east side of GNP. It was so good. The water was such a great color. Hiked about a mile up a mountain to Apikuni Falls and had an increds view of Many Glacier. Rainbows and stuff. Pictures from the hike:




























oh eff help me i can't stop posting pictures.




Next day I went 8 miles south in GNP to St. Mary Lake. It was my last day in GNP.

Hey there little buddy!




I didn't even know scenery like this existed within the lower 48.












I was sad to leave.





The last night of my Montana trip was spent in Missoula at the Auntie Mae's Satellite Campus for Fattyfest NW. I detailed that in the goEMAW encounters thread so I won't be redundant here but let's just say it was life-changing and I am a better person for having pak'd with Porky Morgan. Missoula is super cool. Downtown is very very elite and there's a big ol' butte (or mountain?) overlooking their stadium. Again much of that will be in the other stadium threads but here are some pictures from atop said butte.

This is what Worden's Deli considers to be a "half" sandwich. Some other guy's glasses next to sandwich for scale.







Montana, man.

[ew2x4]

That's awesome sb. Montana is amazing. Glad you got to go.

[Brock Landers]

Outstanding work Skin Ben. I think I cried a little.

[ben ji]

 

[Emo EMAW]

SB, it's pictures like what you posted that really prevent me from spending money to travel abroad for vacation.  I worry that there is so much to see in my own country and I might die before I ever see everything I would have liked to see.  You're right, Montana is amazing.  Those "rolling hills" you mentioned is my favorite habitat type in Montana.  It's properly called "intermountain grassland."  There is such a diversity of scenery, wildlife, raw nature and agriculture, and people. 

Fantastic pictures BTW, what kind of camera were you using?  The coyote up close was very good, and the scenery, my God. 

Another question, when you were on your VQ, alone, did you find yourself longing for company?  I used to go fishing to Colorado by myself when I was in college, sometimes for a week.  Found myself getting lonely.  I wanted to share these experiences with someone.  No homo.  I bet it was awesome to meet up with PM. 

[puniraptor]

Ten Thumbs. This is probably the best vacation ever taken by any one man.

[SEK_EMAW]

Great pics SB.   Makes me want to head west, right now.

[SkinnyBenny]

Intermountain grassland

Those are some great Q's, EmoEMAW. I'll have some A's for you when I have a break later.

Also don't forget there are still Idaho pics to come! And Red Rocks pics!

[asava]

honestly the most impressive picture was of the sandwich.

[SkinnyBenny]

honestly the most impressive picture was of the sandwich.

It was absurd. Asava have you updated the bachelor parties thread? (Haven't checked it recently.)

[asava]

honestly the most impressive picture was of the sandwich.

It was absurd. Asava have you updated the bachelor parties thread? (Haven't checked it recently.)

NO. Will do. And that wasn't a slight on the rest of the pictures (bc they are incredible), it was more of a comment on how amazing that sandwich looked. Jealous of your trip, bro.

[8manpick]

That was beautiful man. I've spent a lot of time all over Colorado, but now I know I need to head north too. Thanks.

[WillieWatanabe]

spent the last half hour in this thread. Great job so far SB. so jelly.

[SkinnyBenny]

IDAHO.

Came into Idaho near the northern part, almost up in the panhandle. Didn't get to Coeur d' Alene this trip because I wanted to save it for when I inevitably make this trip again with Future Mrs. SB. There were extreme, winding roads all the way through Clearwater National Forest, because it goes right along the banks of the Lochsa River the whole way. The winding roads got kind of old after a while because it took so damn long to go ten miles, but the scenery was beyond elite. Definitely wish I could've spent more time in Idaho. I only ended up being there for two days because I had already spent so much time in Montana, and Idaho was at the tail end of my trip. I definitely was starting to be ready to get back to civilization, though, so two days in Idaho was cool with me.

These were all over. I guess it's the much nicer Idaho version of Don't Mess With Texas. Idahoids. You are so kind-hearted. 


Lochsa River.


Hiked through the forest as someone here suggested. Went about two miles in and even got to ford a river! One funny thing: in doing my research, apparently there are signs posted along this hike that said, "Warning: you may encounter nude hikers past this point." I didn't actually see any n00d d00ds wearing only packs, but it's a funny mental image.






Set up camp my first night in Idaho about halfway through the forest at a very large campground that for some reason happened to be almost completely deserted. May have gotten drunk by myself next to the fire and then played guitar naked under the stars.




The next morning I woke up (still in the pretty northern panhandle-y part of Idaho) and begun my long drive for the day. Places to hit were the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, ID. (Go Vandalkats), Martin Stadium in Pullman, WA. 8 miles west of Moscow, and then down to Boise for the night. Boise is pretty far southwest in Idaho, so the drive from WSU down to Boise was long and winding. There are definitely two Idahos. The upper foresty part and then the lower half, which is very hilly/small mountainy and tan colored and straight out of Napoleon Dynamite. A lot of times you'd be driving up this slow, barely noticeable incline for a long time, then you'd come around a curve and have an incredible view of a valley. (For whoever had been to Lewiston, you know what I'm talking about.)

Here are examples. Happened at least three times on the drive.











Here's the only wildlife I saw in Idaho. I missed a highway switch and ended up in some weird small town where I saw this Bed & Breakfast. Look at that port-a-potty. You leave your car around back in the "Barking Lot."





These gas stations were all over Idaho. Weird name.





Boise State's The Setting:






Oh and thanks to Porky Morgan for the elite Jerry Johnson Hot Springs tip. I met two of the weirdest humans on the planet there. The 55 year-old hippy d00d's whole life consists of camping all up and down the hot springs of the United States, spending about two weeks at each before moving on. He's tooootally going to write a book exposing the flaws of our capitalist system called Apes of Math, ("you know, like that book Grapes of Wrath"). The girl told me that she grew up in a yurt, she's drank exclusively river water her entire life,  and then she offered me mescaline. The three of us were nude together steaming in the springs for over an hour.

[yoga-like_abana]

sounds like a good time sb 

[SkinnyBenny]

It was. Future Mrs. SB flew into Denver about 10 pm, and Boise (where I spent my last night) is a solid 12 or 13-hour drive from Denver. So really the last day of my Vision Quest was spent driving, hauling balls through southern Idaho, a little bit of Utah, alllll the way back across southern Wyoming, and then down through Cheyenne for another hour and a half or so to the Denver airport.

Mini-album:

RED ROCKS.

Went to Red Rocks to see Guster and Ben Folds Five. That is by far the premiere music venue in the country. Well, I haven't been to The Gorge in George, Washington, which is the only one I could think of that might compare. But Red Rocks is beyond elite. Just increds.

[HerrSonntag]

Great post SB, i'm going to be dusting off alot of your trail (in reverse) here in mid August, to help a bro move back from Portland and i wondered if you had any thoughts on my proposed route, or any must dos?

[SkinnyBenny]

Great post SB, i'm going to be dusting off alot of your trail (in reverse) here in mid August, to help a bro move back from Portland and i wondered if you had any thoughts on my proposed route, or any must dos?

Oh man Herr Sontag, that'll be a great drive. Although, are you driving a U-Haul? The windy mountain roads might be annoying and gas will be insane with all that stuff in a truck (make your bro pay), but other than that it will be fantastic. It's hard for me to say for sure without seeing the actual cities, but the route you've proposed looks like it'll put you through a lot of the similar territory that I went through. It looks like you might not go north enough in Montana to go to Glacier National Park. Is that right? If you have a day or two of wiggle room at all, it absolutely behooves you to go there if you've never been. So absolutely elite, as you've seen from these pictures. Are you guys camping, or doing hotels, or...?

[eastcat]

Great post SB, i'm going to be dusting off alot of your trail (in reverse) here in mid August, to help a bro move back from Portland and i wondered if you had any thoughts on my proposed route, or any must dos?

Why is he moving back from Portland? I know it's tough finding a job there.

[HerrSonntag]

Enrolling in law school at the school down river, had been working for Dell building clean rooms for the past few years.  I believe hes probably getting a UHaul, not certain, I hadn't thought about camping out, but that might be a good option, at the least i can bring my ten with me so we'll have that option.

Don't know if I'll make it to Glacier NP, i don't know if we could fit it in the trip without adding another day to the drive

Plan now is leaving Portland Thursday morning, heading through the Palouse region and staying somewhere between Spokane and Missoula, Friday driving to Yellowstone, Saturday to Fort Collins, New Belgium Tour in the morning then the last leg back to KS on Sunday

Heres the route in a little more searchable form

[mocat]

MONTANA.

Big old thanks to whichever gE'r told me to go to Flathead Lake near Polson, MT., by the way. It was so absolutely elite. I stayed in Big Arm State Park about 16 miles away from Polson. Place was deserted and I got to set up camp 5 feet from the lake. Fell asleep to lapping waves. Was  .

 

Glad you enjoyed yourself, SkinBen. I was in Polson 3 times this year. Did you notice the weird alcohol laws they have in MT?
Liquor stores do not sell beer. You have to buy beer at a gas station.

Also, great recaps. I enjoyed the Sprawl II part. There is a part on the road from Missoula up to Polson where you come around a turn and first really see the mountains. My first time in MT I was listening to Sparks (by Coldplay) on the highway by myself and it was kind of overwhelming. Montana is a gem. 

[Emo EMAW]

Great post SB, i'm going to be dusting off alot of your trail (in reverse) here in mid August, to help a bro move back from Portland and i wondered if you had any thoughts on my proposed route, or any must dos?

Agree with SB, if you're in a Uhaul or large/slow truck, take the southern ID route down to Salt Lake and then over.