This one is a little bittersweet as this is the last post for part 1 of our adventures. Saying goodbye to the mountains is always difficult, but I’ll get to that.
From Rifle, pretty much our errand day and making sure my car wouldn’t die on me like my other one did 2 summers ago, we headed to Salt Lake. I somehow managed to take a different route than I have driving through Utah for what feels like the hundredth time (it’s been like 4 times). We got to Salt Lake, found our hotel, and managed to get one of my grad school assignments done while we waited for Ryan.
The rest of Tuesday was spent with Ryan-catching up, getting dinner, and hanging with Rolo. I have absolutely 0 pictures of my time in Salt Lake–I have some from my time out there 2 years somewhere on my Facebook if you’re curious.
Wednesday we headed north to Missoula, Montana, taking the very scenic route. We ended up crossing the Idaho-Montana border at the top of some mountain and I know I’ve said this before about other states, but Montana is my favorite.
We got to our campsite–this one had tons of bunnies that just chilled. Rolo was okay with them until another dog walked by and then we got tough guy Rolo.
Thursday we woke up early and headed to the National Bison Range because in case you didn’t know, besides elephants, bison are my favorite. It was truly the best way to start my day. Rolo could not have cared less about the bison–some herding dog he is.
From there we headed to Glacier National Park. Once again, this quickly became my favorite park (sorry Utah). As we headed further east through the park, the rain started to come down. If you saw on Facebook, that explains all the fog, but it was still the best day.
We made it as far as Billings, Montana that day before I pulled off to sleep. I opted not to revisit Grand Teton and Yellowstone as Rolo had been the best trooper for this trip.
Yesterday we woke up early, posted the Montana pictures, and hit the rode. We got into Glenview around 7am today–22 hours in the car–a quick 2-3 nap around 1am. Somehow I’m still awake and it’s only noon.
If there’s anything I’ve learned these past few weeks it’s just cemented the fact that it’s okay to not have plans. 90% of the time I had no idea where I was going the next day and that was okay. I didn’t need to keep to a schedule and if I didn’t get my tent set-up til 8pm, that’s okay because the sun didn’t set til close to 10.
In the meantime, going back to a schedule for a bit until part 2 of our adventures kicks off in August after grad school & Kusch’s wedding wrap-up.
Part 2 will be featuring the East Coast where we’ll meet up Mandy again and down to New Orleans.
Kelsey & Rolo's Big Adventure 