Road Trip: Day 15

In preparation for the next few days in Yellowstone National Park, today’s drive to Bozeman was a short one. After sleeping-in I grabbed a quick breakfast at Subway (gotta love $5 footlongs) and headed out on the road.

View Larger Map

I had planned on getting to the outskirts of Great Falls before refueling, but I waited just a bit too long and drove out of town without stopping. After a few miles, and doing some quick math, I made a U-turn on the freeway and headed back into town to find a gas station. Running the numbers, I would have made it, but I’m glad I stopped… not having to think about fuel allowed for a much more enjoyable drive.

With a full tank of petrol I made my way to the Lewis & Clark National Forest.

The road meandered through the countryside following a creek, and with the 70mph speed limits, it was a total blast! I know I’ve been saying it a lot lately, but the higher speed limits really do make a difference… you can really get into a rhythm going from turn-to-turn.

After leaving the park I headed back into the plains and onto some wide-open roads. There were several long, straight, flat, sections of road just begging for me to drive fast. I did my best to behave myself, but I just couldn’t resist. Unfortunately there was a bit of a cross-wind that kept me from going all-out, but I was able to match my previous best.

The last section of road for the day was a real roller coaster… moving up and down over the hills. I’m sure if I went a little faster in a few places I could have caught some air! I was having a great time until I turned a corner to find a house driving down the middle of the road. Yeah, a house! From that point I dialed it back a notch or two (the slower truck ahead of me helped) for the remainder of the drive into Bozeman.

Tomorrow morning I head into Yellowstone, so I stopped and picked-up some supplies in the case I need to “rough-it” for a few days. The weather forecast looks good and hopefully I’ll be able to spend the next three days without having to worry about rain/snow. While I have ideas for places to see I’m feeling “lost” without a minute-by-minute plan… Yellowstone is such a big place, I know with even three days I’m going to barely scratch the surface.