Road Trip to Redmond, WA from Bloomington, IN – Day Notes

May 3rd

Approximate Distance : 514 miles
Destination : West Des Moines, IA
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Started early in the morning (around 11.30am :) ) from Bloomington. GPS wanted me to go through Indianapolis, but I wanted to follow what GMaps suggested me to go through IN-46 and IN-43.

Passed through the other Bloomington in Illinois. Passed through Illinois and entered Iowa. Iowa had well maintained rest areas with wireless internet.

May 4th

Approximate Distance : 614 miles
Destination : Rapid City, SD
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This was the most hectic day for everyone. Whole drive through South Dakota was scary, secluded. No fast foods for 150 miles. Rest areas and gas stations were far away. We could see miles far away through the road, without a single vehicle.

But the good thing was for the first time, the speed limit was 75mph.

May 5th

Approximate Distance : 539 miles
Destination : Livingston, MT
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Early morning went to see Mount Rushmore. Since it was noon by then, we had to give up the idea of visiting Crazy horse monument.

This time GPS suggested to take US-212 from Spearfish, SD as it is more direct route than I-90 towards Hardin, MT. Total distance through US-212 was 248 miles, but I saw only one gas station for the whole distance. It was very secluded and if something happened to us, we could have been waiting hours for some one to come. Even though this route saved about 1.5 hrs, I don’t recommend any one to take it, if you are not sure about the vehicle.

May 6th

Approximate Distance : 146 miles
Destination : West Yellowstone, MT
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Drove towards Yellowstone park, through Gardiner, MT. It was raining and also was cold. Visited Norris, Canyon village areas and Madison. Unfortunately most of the time it was only me driving in that direction to most of these places. Because of my past experience with deer crossings, I was scared to drive fast also.

Even though we never encountered bears and wolves on the road, park rangers warned about those animals as those creatures are coming out of hibernation and were really hungry and dangerous.

May 7th

Approximate Distance : 152 miles
Destination : Bozeman, MT
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Drove to old faithful area and watched the beauty of it. Also had the chance to see many geysers and springs around that area. On our way to grand geyser, we saw a wolf chasing a herd of bisons and a calf. But it gave up the chase and came towards us, scaring all the people near us. Fortunately nothing happened.

When we were coming back, a snow storm came in and the rangers had to close the road out of old faithful temporarily.

May 8th

Approximate Distance : 477 miles
Destination : Spokane, WA
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This was a very interesting drive, through MT, ID and WA. I was a fan of Need for speed for a long time, but never had a real chance to experience it. But between St Regis and Henderson, MT I really got the chance to do that sort of driving. US roads are excellent in making turns so that they will make sure one can take the bends at the posted speed + 10mph without any problem. But this area had many bends within very short distance making it very very interesting NFS like drive.

Even in Idaho it was beautiful when we went through Rocky mountains. I-90 through Idaho was very beautiful than any other places we drove so far. But the speed limit was dropped to 60mph in lots of places.

Since we reached Spokane early, we had the chance of visiting river front park and to take the skyride to see Spokane falls.

May 9th

Approximate Distance : 281 miles
Destination : Redmond, WA
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Being the last leg of the journey, I was sort of happy.

Most of the parts of I-90, through Washington, till Snoqualmie pass, was just like in Montana or South Dakota. No gas stations or fast foods places, but there were lots of vehicle on the road.

Snoqualmie pass was very beautiful with all the snowy mountains and lakes.

Photos of the Yellowstone park visit and road trip can be found in my facebook profile.

Next challenge is drive back to Bloomington, IN after my internship.