Glacier National Park Road Trip: Day 1

Trip Date:  July 12 2017

Left for Glacier National Park for my big summer vacation.  The first few days would be spent with family in a cabin and then after they left I did a quick overnight in the middle of the park.  This post is about Day 1 of the 1000 mile drive from Boulder Colorado to GNP in northeastern Montana. My basic route up and down is outlined below.  The only major difference was that I went through Yellowstone on the way back.  ​

From Laramie I decided to take the scenic detour through the Snowy Range in southern Wyoming.  On the way I stopped in Centennial (pictured below) to send a post card to K.  

Looking between Medicine Bow Peak and Browns Peak

I cut up to Rawlins and took 287 to Grand Tetons/Yellowstone.  From here the route was familiar--I passed through the same country as my earlier trip in March to the Grand Tetons.  I had promised myself I would make fewer stops for pictures this time since the trip was twice as long but I couldn't resist.  

Just after the Beaver Rim turnout.

~20-30 miles SE of Dubois. The colors in these hills as well as the Badlands adjacent to Dubois were some of my favorite parts of the this leg of the trip.

I reached Togwotee Pass near Grand Teton National Park around 830 pm.  

I worked my way to down to Jackson and then over into Idaho.  It was getting late and I saw a tantalizing sign for a state park which hopefully had a campground.  After driving a while down a gravel road and fox jumped out from tall grass on the edge of the road.  I kept driving for a while thinking he would jump back into the grass but he just kept running along the road.  I could tell he was terrified so I stopped for a few minutes to let him get ahead.  When I got closer I realized he was still running up the road.  He continued to pace me for a while and at some point he shot off on a side road.  I turned a corner thinking he was gone and then he appeared again (turns out it was only a short maintenance road or something).  He stayed ahead of me for 3-4 miles.  I began to worry I was going to run the poor guy to literally to death so I tried speeding up like crazy to get past him.  I was counting on him getting scared and jumping back into the grass but I couldn't be sure he wouldn't jump directly in front of my car.  Luckily he aimed for the grass and I didn't see him again that night.  Upon reaching the "state park" I realized it was actually only a ~35 mile bike path and I was only driving to an access point.  I parked in the gravel parking lot and pitched my tent behind some tall grass.