Monday, May 14, 2001, 7:35 a.m. - Mile 2853.5 - Logan, UT
After a good breakfast made by my son, I say goodbye to him, his wife, and their son, get gas on the way out of town and head up the canyon on Highway 89. It's another beautiful day. The sky is clear, the temperature is slightly cool, and it's springtime. I also notice that once again I'm heading east into the sun. This is a great road through the canyon.
8:30 a.m. - Mile 2895.5 - Junction at Garden City, UT
Driving through the farms along Bear Lake on Highway 89, I see a skunk cross the road ahead of me. I don't want to hit one of those!
Mile 2926.2 - Junction in Montpelier, ID - Turn left on Highway 89
You get some different kinds of traffic in Idaho.Mile 2926.5 - Right on 89
Mile 2945.8 - Wyoming border
I didn't spend much time in Idaho, but I've been there often enough, having relatives that live there and children that have attended college there. Besides, I'll cross into Idaho again before entering Canada in a couple of days. I missed a picture of a deer in the road because the disk drive in my digital camera has hundreds of pictures on it and it takes a while to figure out where everything is when you first turn it on. I switch to my 32 MB Flashcard so that I can take quicker shots next time.
10:23 a.m. - Mile 3008.6 - Right on 89
10:44 a.m. - Mile 3032.1 - Left at Junction
11:00 a.m. - Mile 3043.7 - Jackson Wyoming
I take a picture of the car by the elk horn doorways, or whatever they are, then continue on. Jackson is a tourist town and not the type of place where I want to spend much time on this trip. On the way out of town I stop for lunch, then I'm off for the Grand Tetons.11:40 a.m. - Mile 3059.8 - Grand Teton National Park entrance
This is one of the few national parks where you can see most of the good stuff from your car. The Grand Tetons are some of the most rugged and beautiful mountains I've seen anywhere and I always enjoy a chance to see them again. I don't spend very much time there.
I stop at Moran dam on Jackson Lake to remember where I started two different canoe trips down the Snake River when I was an Explorer Scout.1:15 p.m. - Mile 3110.1 - Yellowstone National Park
Right after I enter Yellowstone, it starts raining hard enough that I have to put the top up for the first time on this trip. Sixteen miles later the rain stops and I put the top back down. I was just driving through forest anyway, so I didn't miss much with the top up.
It's still cold in Yellowstone. One of the lakes was still frozen.
2:10 p.m. - Mile 3148.2 - Old Faithful
I stop for about an hour at Old Faithful to send off postcards, watch the guyser, and rest. I'm told that the next eruption should be in 20 minutes, so I go buy something to drink and come out just as the eruption is finishing. You have to remember that the next scheduled eruption is only an estimate. It can actually happen either sooner or later than expected.
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It's quite windy, so I go inside Old Faithful Lodge to write the postcards. There is a real post office here, so I buy some more postcard stamps and mail a bunch of postcards.If you drive very far in Yellowstone, you'll cross the continental divide a few times.
3:15 p.m. - Mile 3148.2 - Heading north
I drive on to Madison, Norris, and Mammoth Hot Springs. There is a herd of elk out in one of the fields. If you're not real good at spotting animals while driving, you can just wait until you come to a group of other cars stopped along the road looking at them.I pass a herd of Bison off in the distance and stop for a few pictures. About a mile up the road there are more of them right in the road. In fact, I'm concerned that I'm too close and one might bump into the car or something. I get some great closeup pictures.
I'm sorry that I rush through Yellowstone so quickly. This National Park merits more time than any of the others that I visit on this trip. You really should spend about a week here to properly see everything.
4:35 p.m. - Mile 3206.1 - Out the north entrance
There's less to see at the very north end of Yellowstone. I get gas at Gardiner, then head off through Montana. I notice right away that Montana has straighter roads and higher speed limits than the other western states.
5:25 p.m. - Mile 3261.0 - I-90 East towards Billings
It's my goal to avoid freeways as much as possible, but this 8-mile section is unavoidable.Mile 3268.6 - 89 North to White Sulfer Springs
I've been warned of the wind in Montana, and there is a lot of it. Driving at high speed on two-lane roads with a lot of wind requires much more concentration than without the wind.Most of Highway 89 seems to be in a big valley between mountain ranges. Some of the roads are as straight as in the desert, but there are farms and cattle along most of them. The crosswinds make it harder to go straight without constant corrections.
Trucks have sort of worn grooves in the road and the wide tires of the S2000 want to change direction more when riding up the sides of one. The is the only type of road surface that I've encountered so far that seems to upset the handling of the S2000 in any way, and it is minor. When passing, lane changes are trickier, especially with big trucks that affect the wind gusts. Crossing into the oncoming lane and coming back is a little like a boat crossing a wake. It's harder to make really smooth passes on this road.
The section of road leading into White Sulfer Springs was one of the few sections of Highway 89 that I didn't like. Just when I thought the road couldn't get worse, I ran into road construction and ended up driving on a dirt road for about six miles. This dirt road might actually be fun at high speed, if I weren't worried about rock damage to my car.
6:30 p.m. - Mile 3336.2 - White Sulfer Springs
I stop at this town with the strange name for dinner. It seems to be populated only with farmers and truck drivers. It seems like everyone smokes. I kind of miss the California restaurants where smoking is not permitted.7:00 p.m. - Head out towards Great Falls
At mile 3390.4, it starts raining again and I have to put the top back up. I try driving in the rain with the top down, and it's okay if the rain is light, but once there is very much rain, the wipers push the water to the side, it jumps across to the side window about half way up, then goes up the window on the way back and drips over the top onto the inside of the door and my left shoulder. This happens more on the left side than the right, because the wipers push the water to the left.Mile 3411.7 - Junction - turn left to Great Falls
8:23 p.m. - Mile 3432.0 - Great Falls Montana
I pull into town, go most of the way through, and find a motel for the night.
I figured out the trip mileage and have been getting 28 and 29 mph at altitude. Highway 89 has been a great road with the exception of the 80 miles or so heading north to WHite Sulfer Springs. I like the higher speed limits in Montana. Obviously the state is so big that they had to design the roads to get you from one side to the other as efficiently as possible.
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Copyright (c), 2001 by Scott R. Nelson
Page last updated July 9, 2001
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