Rockies and Great Plains roadtrip, 2015 part 1: Salt Lake City to Yellowstone

Saturday, July 25, 2015.

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)

Weather report: sunny in Salt Lake City for my plane to land, sunny for the drive, low of 36 in Yellowstone.

Rockies and Great Plains road trip, 2015 (intro)

Back in 2011, I was going to be laid off in mid-year and so I put together a cross-country road trip that would hit 10 of the 11 states that I still had not visited (Alaska was not feasible on this trip). My final plan was that I was going to drive over 4300 miles from Houston to Salt Lake City, UT (new state #1), and then hit in order Idaho (#2), Oregon (#3), Montana (#4), Wyoming (#5), North Dakota (#6), South Dakota (#7), Minnesota (#8), Iowa (#9), and Nebraska (#10) before driving south back to Houston. That would have taken me over 4300 miles and at least a good 3 weeks of leisurely driving and stopping wherever I wanted to (but no deadlines).