Sun, Oct 17, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010 at 10:28PM Sunday, October 17, 2010
We were up a little earlier than usual this morning, grabbed a hot coffee when we checked out, and hit the road… supposedly for West Yellowstone. Well we did end up in West Yellowstone about dark anyway. We were going to take the most direct route but that didn’t last long. After several stops for short walks and a good breakfast in the small town of Fairfield, ID we began to get antsy looking for a route (obviously not a direct route) that we had never taken. Because Idaho is a very rugged state with lots of mountain ranges there are not a lot of roads that cross the state from west to east. But we found an interesting looking road that ran from Ketchum/Sun Valley thru the mountains and out to Hwy 93 which we could take back down to Arco, ID.
This lovely detour took care of the morning and part of the afternoon. We had a good cheeseburger in Pickle’s Place in Arco. The name was unusual but there were a lot of cars there at 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon so we stopped and it was well worth it. Friendly folks and good food!
After leaving Arco we found another diversion that would actually be a little bit shorter route but would require us to take about a 25 to 30 mile drive on a dirt road. Since we had been in a few showers earlier we were tentative but at the last minute decided the weather looked cooperative and decided to take our chances knowing that if the road was questionable we would just have to return and find other plans for the night.
It was indeed a good graded gravel road and the late afternoon light was unbelievable. At least until we heard our tire pressure monitor go off. We stopped and checked and could not tell which tire was going down so continued about five more miles and found a good place to pull off next to a large set of corrals. By then we could tell it was the left rear. We were just about 40 miles from West Yellowstone so the wonderful warm temperatures of the high desert had given way to more mountainous temperatures in the low forties. Luckily it was not windy and in about fifteen minutes we were on our way again.
It is always a little unnerving to be driving on a gravel road with no spare tire but we didn’t really have a choice. There was less dirt road ahead of us than behind and many more services and motels if we had more problems. We made it to West Yellowstone just about dark with no further problems and have already found a tire shop to get the spare fixed in the morning. Since we had a hearty breakfast and late lunch we are going to bypass supper and are settling in with just a cup of coffee.
We were surprised to find so much fall color remaining. The entire day was just one beautiful view after another with a little color thrown in along the way.
We are well tonight and hope you all are too. After our tire repair tomorrow we will head into Yellowstone for the day.
Peace, Hope & Love,
Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger
Reader Comments (1)
The photos are just beautiful. Gray, gold, and blue sky. Sharon and I have been enjoying the trip. I took particular notice of the photo of the Z.C.M.I sign. Do you know what it represents? It is an abbreviation for Zion Cooperative Mercantile Institution founded by Brigham Young and was the first department store with everything under one roof. On our trips to SLC as a young boy, I used to go to ZCMI. I understand it has evolved into a large Dillard's type department store. On another note, those dogs are never going to be happy back in Mississippi after sniffing all those mountain smells. You all seem to be on the roads "least traveled" I see no other cars in the photos or you are being very careful not to shoot them. Your photo for the Halloween Carvinal is just beautiful - a prize winner.
Have a safe trip. Sharon says HI, Charlie