The Road of Peaks and Valleys - Yellowstone to Post Falls, Idaho

Montana is referred to as the Treasure State. This is due to its rich mineral resources. I would call it the treasure state because of its beautiful natural resources. The azure blue sky, the emerald green trees, the golden and ruby canyons.
Highway 287 and the I90 meanders along the river, up steep hills into wide pastoral valleys. Montana is also called Big Sky country. Today it is big and it is BLUE.
We didn't know what we would see on today's drive, but we knew there would be surprises.
In Yellowstone park we saw remains of the devastation caused by the forest fire of 1988. Today we saw where the flames had traveled into Montana.
The Yellowstone fires of 1988 formed the largest wildfire in the recorded history of the U.S.'s Yellowstone National Park. Starting as many smaller individual fires, the flames spread quickly out of control with increasing winds and drought and combined into one large conflagration, which burned for several months. The fires almost destroyed two major visitor destinations and, on September 8, 1988, the entire park was closed to all non-emergency personnel for the first time in its history. Only the arrival of cool and moist weather in the late autumn brought the fires to an end. A total of 793,880 acres, or 36 percent of the park was affected by the wildfires.
Hwy 287 just out from West Yellowstone follows along the Madison River. By the number of fishermen in and on the water we can see that this is a fisherman's paradise. We rounded the bend in the road and were surprised to see a lake filled not with people, but with standing, dead trees. Across the lake was a mountain with the front half sliced away. It looked very similar to the Frank Slide we had seen in Alberta. We learned that on August 17,1959 the Yellowstone earthquake, also known as the Hebgen Lake earthquake, occurred. The earthquake was registered at magnitude 7.3 – 7.5 on the Richter scale. The quake caused a huge landslide that caused over 28 fatalities and left $11 million in damage.
We then came across the Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park. These are a series of caves and caverns that fall between the 2 routes that Lewis, traveling the high ground & Clark, traveling the river way were mapping. (They actually missed the caves entirely). The river winds through Montana for many miles and has been called many names. Now it is referred to as Clark Fork.
We learned that the Interstate, I90, was the original Indian Trail.
Lunch today was in Ennis, Montana, a fly fishing mecca.We decided to deviate from our Subway Safari (we had bought our lunch in West Yellowstone and it was in our cooler waiting for us), but we were lured by the call of the bison cheese burger advertised outside a cowboy-style cafe, and also by the local pottery displayed in the window. This was one of the tastiest meals we have had on the road. With the burger came the choice of 2 sides - which is a common offering here - regular fries, waffle fries, or sweet potato fries, baked beans, cottage cheese or cole slaw. Ed selected the waffle fries, baked beans and a diet coke. I opted for the sweet potato fries, cole slaw and unsweetened iced tea (my usual). The pottery was locally made in Butte and half price. I couldn't resist buying a Montana sky-blue bowl for $10. (Bowls are like cardigan sweaters, I don't think you can have too many)
We still had over 500km to go until we reached Post Falls, Idaho. But the drive through Montana was relaxed and easy. We went at a good pace, but we followed the 10 + 1 rule and got to visit the Rest Stops along the way. In Montana there are two types of rest stops - the ones provided by the state and the Service Centres, which in Montana are referred to as a Travel Plaza. The State rest stops range from the 5 star variety complete with individual rooms per patron, to rest stops that look like they have been designed by the Federal Bureau of Corrections. You feel like you have just been incarcerated for a felony when you close the door. The Travel Plazas are not just gas stations. They are pleasure palaces - fast food, shower and laundry facilities, groceries and a casino. Just what that weary traveler needs.
The rest station we stopped to have our dinner (the Subway fare we hadn't eaten at lunch) turned out to be home to a small colony of ground squirrels. There were between 10 - 20 critters running around the open field, going down one hole and popping out of another. It looked like the game you play at the PNE.
We arrived at Post Falls, Idaho just after 9pm. We had chosen Post Falls because it was pretty much at the limit of what we wanted to drive and also because I had read that it had an Factory Outlet mall. We checked into the motel and walked over to Zips drive-in for an ice cream. Walking back I looked down the street and was surprised to see that we had selected a hotel around the corner from the mall. We walked over so I could do some recognisance for the next days shopping only to find about 4 stores, out of nearly 100, that remained open. The gal at the hotel front desk told us that the building had been sold and the tenants could not afford the rent increase.
Today another marathon completed, tomorrow we have decided to give ourselves a break. We are going to do a short 350km drive to Winthrop, Washington, with a stop at the Grand Coulee Dam. In 1996, we borowed an RV and took the girls on a road trip to Osoyoos, the Grand Coule Dam, Winthrop, and the Factory Outlet mall. We really enjoyed visiting Winthrop on that trip and Ed has not seen a dam yet on this trip, and not so surprising, I cannot resist a trip to the Factory Outlet mall.