2004

CLT-SLC

Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming

We flew from Charlotte, NC into Salt Lake City. After shopping for some supplies and gear (like a grate for cooking over fires), we took off in the rental car (a little red Hyundai Accent) via Interstate 15N. Driving through the southern Idaho desert, we came across signs for a place called City of Rocks, a US National Reserve. This was where we stayed the night. We were able to look out at the scenery right at the entrance to the reserve. The place was an amazing collection of jagged rocks, massive boulders and huge cliff faces. The reserve is popular with rock climbers, but as we passed through the camping area, we realized that we were the only people there. Watching the sun set on the cliff in front of our tent was by far the best part of the night. Oh, yeah - camping was free!

After leaving City of Rocks, we drove through a few small towns like Pocatello and Arco, site of the Idaho National Laboratory. Stopped at Craters of the Moon National Monument an

d Preserve, an expanse of lava rocks stretching through about 400 sq miles. Did some hiking, went through a small underground cavern created by flowing lava, then took off for Harriman

State Park, where we stayed the night. Hiked through the forest and arrived at some pretty incredible water falls.

The next day, we drove into Montana and went to the town of Butte. We hadn't really heard much about Butte, and probably for a good reason...there was nothing there. Butte was an old

mining town and it was clear just driving through that its heyday was long past - so that is what we did...passed through and continued on to Bozeman, where we set up camp...in a hotel. Brad was in need of a shower. After walking around the downtown area for a while, we drove outside the city a bit and went for a pretty strenuous hike up a large mountain and ate a lunch we had packed at the lake at the top of the mountain. Ate dinner at some chain restaurant where we were served by a nice (but Republican) college student.

Off to Yellowstone National Park! We spent two nights camping outside of Yellowstone.

Driving through the park is an experience - we saw sulfur pits, hot springs, forest (including parts of the park damaged by fire), lakes, rivers, waterfall all in the course of a day's worth of driving in the park. Animals: elk, deer, eagle, fox, lots of buffalo...and of course, Old Faithful. Leaving the park, we drove

south through Grand Teton National Park. The mountain range was pretty incredible - Grand Teton Mountain reaches more than 13,000 feet into the sky and the entire Teton range is more than 40 miles in length.

That afternoon, we were driving through the desolation that is the state of Wyoming and in the process of discussing where to camp, Brad must have been a bit distracted and sped past a state trooper. Needless to say, there isn't too much for those guys to do, so he had some extra time to pull us over. After issuing Brad a citation, we inquired about a good camping spot for the night and pulled out a map. With shaking hands (seriously), the trooper pointed to a place on the map not far away that was on a lake. He said it was a pretty cool place. We left him to gather his nerves and calm himself, and headed to Bear Lake. Once we arrived, we were glad we followed his advice. Camping right on the lake - which was a body of crystal clear water. If it wasn't for the temperature and the mountains around us, it would be easy to imagine that the water was actually in the Caribbean. We had a great time.

The next day we drove the rest of the way to Salt Lake City and had lunch at a brewpub and lounged in a park downtown for a while before heading to the airport and real life back in Charlotte.