Yellowstone, WY >>> Billings, MT >>> Moses Lake, WA
DRIVING, DRIVING, and more DRIVING
Hello, all! After our relaxing stint in the Grand Tetons, it was time to hit the road again. Two looonnnnng days of driving (and not much else). Our first destination was Yellowstone. Since we hadn’t camped out in that park, we also hadn’t taken much time to explore it. Ally is all about the major tourist attractions, so naturally we went to see Old Faithful.
It was so weird to see crowds of people gathering around to watch a large hole in the ground. I felt like we were in line for an event at Disney or something. Ally and I walked around the park and snacked a little while waiting for the next “show”. I would have been disappointed if we came all this way and didn’t see it. It was…interesting. I don’t really know how to describe the feelings that come with watching water shoot out of the earth. It is pretty phenomenal that it stays on such a predictable schedule.
The rest of the park was beautiful (and huge). I especially liked seeing all the hot springs, some day I’ll find the ones that you can actually go in.
We spent much more time here than planned…gee, that sounds familiar. We were almost out of the park when we came across this giant hill. Actually, for the sake of my pride, we’ll call it a mountain.
Ally isn’t usually too impulsive, but to my surprise she pulled over and decided that we were going to run to the top of this “mountain”. Half way up I think we both realized it was a bad idea. The view from the top was pretty impressive, but our descent was less than graceful. Someone may or may not have ended up with cactus needles in their tush. At least our scars will be a friendly reminder of this wonderful adventure.
We made it to Montana relatively unscathed. I couldn’t remember the last time I ate something that wasn’t a hot dog or Subway. We stumbled across the adorable, Montana Brewing Co. and had a delicious meal (yum, fish tacos) before crashing at the Kelly Inn. I love camping, but it was nice to spend the night in a real bed, in a warm building.
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Our drive from Billings to Washington was originally planned to be a little over seven hours. After realizing that every place to stay in Spokane was booked (or well out of our price range) we decided to extend the trip to Moses Lake. I don’t know anything about this area except that it had a hotel with a vacancy and we could make it there the same night.
Before we left Montana, we stopped at the Pictograph Cave State Park. I think we both assumed (incorrectly) that there would be multiple caves to explore and trails to follow. Sadly, there was only one that you could see markings in. It was still nice to walk around a bit before settling into the car for the day. We’ve been spoiled with sunny weather and picturesque surroundings every day, it’s easy to make the best out of each situation.
There’s not much to say about the rest of our trip. Hundreds of miles on I-90W. Winding roads through the mountains. Soundtracks from our favourite musicals to keep us going. We did stop for dinner at The Depot, in Missoula. I really dropped the ball on food/restaurant photos this time (sorry!). I had fish tacos. Again. If they’re on the menu, there’s a 90% chance that I’m going to eat them #meghanfacts … anyway…
Our day pretty much looked like this:
and this:
Thanks for reading, I promise some more excitement in the next one!
Fin.
Pancake Tour of North America 