Travel from Columbia Falls to West Yellowstone

July 4^th was a travel day. We had a final breakfast at our great VRBO house in Columbia Falls, did all the tasks on the check-out list, loaded up, and headed south to West Yellowstone.

This route took us to Bigfork at the north end of Flathead Lake, then east and south again through the small community of Condon where the road was lined with spectators in their lawn chairs for their 4^th of July parade. I think they probably closed the road for the parade no more than 5 minutes after we passed by. When we reached the larger town of Seeley Lake, they were lined up for an even bigger 4^th of July parade. We had a bathroom stop and saw the staging area for the parade all ready to go as we passed. If we hadn’t had so far to go, we’d have stayed for the parade.

There’s nothing like a small-town parade where people from miles around come together to celebrate. And it wasn’t the last one we spotted either. One small community we drove through looked like a ghost town until we realized everyone was at the parade and celebration in the community we’d just passed through!

From Seeley Lake, we kept following the back roads until we finally reached I-90. It was past lunchtime, so we found a diner in Deer Lodge, just off the interstate, for a down-home meal. We were glad to find something besides McDonald’s open on July 4^th! It had started raining while we were eating, and it lasted until we drove to the other side of Butte about 35 minutes away. About 30 minutes after that we were back off the interstate and driving south again. Another 45 minutes later, we stopped in the small town of Ennis for another break.

Although we had been on the lookout for wild animals on our way, we only saw one, lone pronghorn near the road and a few deer. Again, we admired the diverse geology of Montana with plains in one direction and mountains in another.  

An hour later, after cutting through the Northeast tip of Idaho, we arrived at our West Yellowstone, Montana, VRBO home for the next 5 nights.

We thought about driving the 5 miles to West Yellowstone for their Independence Day parade at 6pm and fireworks later, but after all day in the car, none of us wanted to get back in it! We had plenty to eat that we’d bought at Costco, so had a relaxing meal and our nightly card game. We did hear a few fireworks going off nearby later in the evening – it didn’t get dark until around 10pm although that was at least 45 minutes earlier than we experienced in Columbia Falls. It makes it hard to know when it’s bedtime!

West Yellowstone VRBO

Our VRBO was as expected – almost brand new, with 2 King bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, laundry room, nice kitchen and table conducive for eating and playing cards, comfortable recliners and sofa in the living room – but what we didn’t expect was that the two bedrooms shared a wall with a barn door between them and the occupants of one had to pass through the other to get in and out! Awkward! Who thought that was a good idea?

Paula and I had both looked at the description and pictures before we booked it and neither of us spotted this situation. I checked the listing, and it was obvious in one of the pictures and also mentioned in the description, but I think they must have updated it after other complaints and after we booked.  It’s a good thing this wasn’t our first trip together, we laughed about it and made it work, but really?!

Tomorrow, we begin our exploration of America’s first National Park created in 1872, the grand-daddy of them all, Yellowstone.