TL;DR version: fly into Salt Lake City, rent a car, quick tour of the LDS Temple, drive north into Idaho, detour to see Craters of the Moon, drive up to West Yellowstone for the night.
Today's theme songs:
- "Rocky Mountain Way" (Joe Walsh)
- "Your Own Private Idaho" (B-52's)
Arrived in SLC around 10am, picked up my rental car. I had booked through Fox, after a lot of research figuring out where I wanted to start, go through, and end. Originally I wanted to fly to Chicago out of South Dakota, but the rental prices were expensive. I found that Fox had a deal - I typically only use them in Southern California - of picking up in Salt Lake City and dropping off in Denver that was relatively cheap, about $350 less than any other option, plus it made my air fare a lot cheaper. So that meant I had to drive 6 hours south to Denver from my last stop.
I figured that since downtown Salt Lake City and the Temple were so close to the airport, I should have a look around before heading north.
The Temple is an amazing looking building from the outside, physically imposing but not overwhelming. I spent about an hour or so on the grounds outside, looking at literally a couple dozen wedding parties having their pictures taken with the temple as the backdrop. Wasn't sure if that was because it was a Saturday, or summer, or if that's just how it is there. I went into the Visitor's Center because I wasn't allowed inside of the temple itself, they told me that only LDS members were allowed in. Oh well.
Didn't want to stay TOO long, it was lunchtime (I got to stop at In-N-Out! But Whataburger is still better.) and I needed to get on the road in order to be able to see stuff in the daytime. In late July, at least the sun is up late.
From Salt Lake, I had to choose between two options to get to my hotel in West Yellowstone, just across the western border of Idaho from the park itself.
- Route A - the western route, take I-15 north into Idaho to Idaho Falls, then get on US 20 North/East up to West Yellowstone. That route I calculated using Google Maps to be 3:24 and 440 miles.
- Option A1 would have me detour at Blackfoot, past Pocatello, and take US 26 South/West to Craters of the Moon National Park, adding 143 miles and 2:38 of driving. At the end is a 7-mile loop road that takes about an hour (with stops for pictures). Apparently this was so moon-like that during the 1960s the Apollo astronauts supposedly did some training there.
- Route B - the eastern route, take I-80 east out of SLC into Wyoming, and then take US 89 through Jackson Hole into Grand Teton National Park, coming into Yellowstone from the south, and then driving through the southwest corner of the park to get to West Yellowstone.
I ended up going Route A1, rationalizing that I'd see lots of mountains elsewhere in the trip, but Craters of the Moon is unique enough to warrant a stop (even if it's out of the way). Here's my GPS map.
Getting out of SLC into Idaho turned flat and boring pretty quickly. I stopped for a picture at the rest stop and felt like I was living in my own private Idaho. I left around 12:30 and didn't hit the border til after 3pm.
Heading up US 26 towards Craters, I was hoping for something more from Atomic City, population 29, but it's just one bar and one store. I would have stopped for a beer but I didn't want to take the chance that an overeager cop would want to stop me after leaving the bar. Passed through at 5:20pm.
From Atomic City, it was nearly another hour to get to the Craters park. The visitor's center closed at 6, which meant that there was nobody to collect the $7 admission fees to go in (I paid on the honor system, the National Park System is worth paying for). At the center where I stopped to take some pictures, I noticed that there were a bunch of motorcycle riders being tourists as well, and then I realized I had noticed them a lot in the area. I talked to them and found out that this was the week before the big bike rally at Sturgis SD, and a lot of bikers take that time to tour around the mountains. Sturgis is just a few miles from Deadwood, where I plan to be on Wednesday (the rally starts Friday).
Craters of the Moon National Park is basically a giant lava field, and lava does some weird stuff when it comes out. The loop takes you around various different types of lava flows, from various ages, and points out some interesting structures. It did take about an hour to do the loop, including photo stops and trips up and down the hills. Fascinating place, even though it was way out of the way it was worth it for the stop.
Then I had to basically backtrack my route to get back on to I-15 at Idaho Falls. Stopped for gas and dinner in Idaho Falls just before 9 - it was still light out. I asked at the gas station for some recommendations for some good food in town that wasn't a chain (for all I knew, they'd consider Applebees to be the best place). I got a recommendation but it turned out to be for a restaurant that was closing at 9pm, so I asked a few people coming out where they would suggest that was in the direction I was going. They recommended Mitchell's Home-Style Cooking, and I figured that sounded definitely like not a chain. Had an open face roast beef sandwich (which I caught a lot of shit for when I posted the picture - that's brown gravy, not chocolate pudding or motor oil) and an apple pie.
West Yellowstone is about 2 hours north of Idaho Falls (the green pin at top right).
It's about 45 miles west of the main lodge meeting places inside Yellowstone, but (a) there are a lot more rooms there, (b) they're cheaper, and (c) they're available. Staying there adds to the travel time but it's best if you're on a budget, as the on-site hotels can be pricey. I found a good room for a good price at the Madison Hotel, no complaints and I'd stay there again. Because I was checking in so late, I had to call from Idaho Falls and arrange with them to leave me a key and I'd settle the bill and check in in the morning.
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