Other experiences of note en route to Glacier include a fly fishing lesson and subsequent fishing attempts (a slippery slope, see separate post), a hot springs, an evening out in Bozeman, and a State Park.

The hot springs was unfortunately not one of those natural middle of nowhere rock pools, this was a resort busy on a holiday weekend with families and divebombing kids – still, the hot water did the trick and we left feeling refreshed.

Bozeman was a convenient place to break the journey and who knew, they had a Walmart. As I may have mentioned before, camping at Walmart provides an otherwise accessible option for staying in town. You might have to hunker down with a few other campers, trucks, and weirdos, but beggars can’t be choosers. For us, it meant an easy walk to a nearby brewery, trendy kambucha hangout, distillery, and wood-fired pizza restaurant.

The challenge came the next day when Darren, all pumped up with his new fly fishing enthusiasm, suggested I find somewhere along the way to Glacier National Park where he could fish and I could run. Believe me, google has not yet mastered this art. (Hey Siri, where can you fish and run en route from point A to point B?) Neither have I to be honest, but between us, we got lucky.

On the map, I spotted a confluence of rivers at Three Forks in Montana, which surely looked hopeful for fishing. Turned out to be Missouri Headwaters State Park (Missouri? I don’t know too much about US geography but I know it’s a way from here). Apparently, Lewis and Clark, a pair of American explorers had beaten us here, way back in American history. They led the first expedition west by following the Missouri River to here in 1805. I guess they managed to find it without google too.

Fishing and running done, tick.

Oh and certainly worthy of note on the road… our first Basecamp in the wild. We saw it in the distance, squinting as the light reflected off the silver… is it a horse trailer, is it an airstream? By the time we realized it was truly our kin, lights flashing erratically, some random waving…. it was gone.

Antelope Island State Park is renowned for having free-roaming bison. Eagerly scanning the surrounds on early morning spotting duty, I proclaimed ‘BISON!’ and pointed in the direction of the beach. Darren peered and raised a skeptical eyebrow. I zoomed in with the camera to confirm. Damn. Just a bison shaped rock.

Still, we did see plenty of bison wandering around.

We also got a decent hike in to Dooley’s Knob (who names these places!), with views out over the far-reaching opaque waters of Salt Lake in one direction and back down to the Basecamp in the other. And all this before breakfast.

Whilst the aim was to get some driving miles in to move us towards our more northern destinations, you have to break the journey somewhere. A brief stop in Idaho Falls allowed me to squeeze a little run in. Oh and a brief Idaho Falls brewery visit. The beer itself was un-memorable, but they had a rather nice sunny patio.

Darren had rather excelled himself with an overnight camping spot overlooking Henry’s Lake. After 300 miles and 6 hours on the road, not to mention a bit of a hairy drive the last few miles to the boondocking spot (we don’t need to go into that again, something along the lines of navigational challenges similar to yesterday), we were ready for a beer!

The wind was chilly but the evening light mellow, and not another soul around. I bagged myself prime position in the BC galley, taking in the million dollar views as I rustled up a chili con carne.

Part of the camping experience is enjoying the great outdoors. It’s sometimes difficult to remind yourselves of that when it’s so cozy inside the BC, and you have the panoramic windows to appreciate the view.

After dark, the earlier wind had dropped, and we stepped outdoors to check out the stars. I have neither the camera technology nor the patience to capture it, but the expansive night sky was awash with a multitude of stars. The brighter ones morphed into the more recognizable constellations, with a supporting cast of tiny pinpricks of light, negligible in isolation but together forming the backdrop to the Milky Way. Puts you in your place.

I like to think of this as Chapter 1. As in Day 1. Technically, Darren set off from home with the Basecamp 3 days before me, so we could start there. But as I wasn’t present, it’s kinda difficult for me to write about. Should that part ever be written (over to you Darren), it can be The Prologue.

This being the Friday of Labor Day weekend, the traffic was heavy around Salt Lake City as Darren picked me up from the airport. He thrust his phone at me, on which he’d already set the destination as the campsite he’d left the Basecamp at on nearby Antelope Island. Along came the first navigational challenge (some might say common sense challenge). There were a few choice comments from Darren that we seemed to be going on an odd route, to which I agreed, but I zoomed in on the phone map – looked reasonable to me. The roads got quieter as we reached a near deserted industrial estate and I had to agree it was unusually quiet for a bank holiday. It was about this point, we were told to head down a narrow dirt road, actually more of a track.

I got ‘a look’ from Darren. A look that said without even speaking ‘I made it a thousand miles on my own without getting lost. And now this’. Darren grabbed the phone and soon realized it was directing us not only on 4 wheel drive roads but also onto a causeway that didn’t exist. I breathed a sigh of relief that at least we weren’t towing the BC. Could be worse! Apparently, there’s only one causeway that leads to Antelope State Park and it’s all the way north. We were heading south. I’m not sure where Google Maps was getting its information from but it was totally fake news.

Suffice to say, we arrived at our camping spot a tad later than expected, but nevertheless, I was so happy to see the BC, and enthusiastically excited at being on holiday. What a cool spot!

An open site with a view over an expanse of grassland down to the Salt Lake (10x saltier than the sea). Mouth watering aromas of chicken on the bbq. Beer in hand. A warm evening, with an amazing sunset. And over two weeks still left to go on our trip 🙂