The Almost a Half Century Road Trip

In June my husband and I embarked on a 10 day road trip. My husband was turning 50 in July and his perfect way to celebrate was a road trip.  Being a gal that absolutely loves flying and often gets motion sick in the car, my initial response was less than excited.  However, as it got closer to leaving we had a few planned stops that I really wanted to see, like Bozeman MT and Jackson WY.  We planned hotels in these places, and the rest if the trip would be unscheduled and go where the jeep took us!
For the road trip we downloaded several audible books.  As an avid reader with little time to read this was downright amazing!

Because my husband is a true gentleman, and even though this was his birthday trip he wanted to ensure I was comfortable and had a good time.  We decided the first day we wouldn't drive more than 6 hours.  We camped the first night along the St. Joe river  (thanks to our nephew for that tip).  Truly beautiful, it did rain but the drive along the St Joe was absolutely breathtaking.

Next few nights, after a quick stop in Missoula we spent falling in love with Bozeman.  Rick's family is from Bozeman and his great-great grandfather started Bozeman Brewing before prohibition.  His family also owned the Lehrkind Mansion so we walked all over visiting all the sights.
I would highly recommend the hotel we stayed at call The Lark. The staff was the friendliest I have ever encounter, location is walking distance to everything in town, and the newly remodeled rooms were great!

Then onto Yellowstone, we entered through the North.  Camped in Yellowstone at Canyon Campground.  Here's the thing about Yellowstone, it's worth seeing, just also not lingering there long.  We were there the first week of June, technically before the busy time....if there is such a thing.  I didn't love the campground.  It was OK for proximity to get up and get a head start on the day and sights which was essential (early am's and evening were less crowded), but you felt like they crammed as many people as possible into the campground.  We had a good laugh as the temps while we were there dropped to 25 degrees.  That evening we ate cheese and smoked salmon on a plate in the jeep while watching a movie on the Ipad, because it was too cold to be outside.  Sleeping in the jeep was fine, I packed appropriately to stay warm, just couldn't hang out outside comfortably!

 This was our inside the jeep date night!  Thank goodness for pre-downloading Netflix movies!

These are some of the highlights.  Like I said it is worth seeing.  I took a ton of photos, but I don't believe any can truly to do the beauty justice.  We also saw bison and a grizzly cub, would love to be there at a time to see the wolves.

Part 2...The Tetons, Jackson and the Bitterroots will be the next post!