Day 1 was highlighted by a severe thunderstorm outside of Clarendon, TX. 60 mph wind gusts and quarter inch hail. Luckily I just caught the southern edge and only had to deal with the wind and rain. The Cherokee handled beautifully even in the 60 mph side wind gusts.
Day 2 was through the OK panhandle and most of Colorado. Had dinner with my aunt and uncle in Loveland, CO then went to the campground. Uneventful day overall.
Day 3 was through Wyoming up to Hardin, MT. Another uneventful day with some amazing scenery.
Here is my campsite in Colorado on the morning of day 3:
And stopped in Wyoming. The Bighorn Mountains are in the background.
Day 4 was spent driving through Red Lodge, MT and over the Beartooth Highway into Yellowstone. I would consider this one of the must drives in the US. The Pass tops out at just over 11K feet:
The rest of the pics from day 4 are here:
http://www.hudsonhawk.net/beartooth/index.html
Day 5 and 6 were spent in Yellowstone. I loved the park and the scenery is amazing. But the tourists are worse than Disney World. In the 2 days I was able to see everything in the park that I wanted to see. To get this particular picture I had to climb up to a ridge overlooking the Middle Geyser Basin.
The rest of the Yellowstone pictures can be found here.
http://www.hudsonhawk.net/yellowstone/index.html
It was on day 6 that the stomach problems started and I decided to head for home instead of continuing on my trip. 3 more days of driving and I decided to stay in hotels instead of campgrounds just in case the issue got worse.
On day 7, I ran into another severe storm in Wyoming. The Jeep handled the weather without any issues.
Days 8 and 9 were uneventful and brought me back home.
Total distance driven was 3103.1 miles:
- which took me 3 days and 2000 miles of hard towing. Some vacations just don't work out! ( I retired 17 months later)
