The first leg of our trip is to take us to northern Washington to visit family for a couple of days. We didn’t plan on doing or seeing much on the way up except one stop in Wallace, Idaho. So our first day was mainly a driving day. We had a couple of choices for getting to northern Washington, but Sue wanted to visit Wallace and we love the scenery driving through Montana, so decided to go that route, which took us up I-15 in Utah, Idaho, and then to I-90 just west of Butte, Montana (a great place to go visit and spend some more time in one day in the future), and finally to Missoula, Montana where we stayed the night.
The drive through Idaho is interesting, but not quite as scenic as when you get into Montana. I love the green hills and pine forests with the meandering streams as we wind through much of the western half of Montana. At one rest area, I was out taking pictures, and Sue asked why I was taking pictures of a rest area! I was just taking pictures of the beautiful pine forests that were all around.
If you are on I-15, around Idaho Falls, and need a place to stretch your legs, stop at the rest area just south of Idaho Falls. It sits in the middle of a a big lava flow and there are trails through the volcanic rock from the rest area on both sides of the freeway. You’ll enjoy the stroll and there are markers to explain some of the interesting features of volcanic rock.
We stayed at the Wingate by Wyndham hotel near the airport in Missoula, and ate at the Cracker Barrel. The room was nice and clean, bed was fine, and we enjoyed our stay there. They had a free breakfast, consisting of the normal breakfast fare, such as fruit, bagels, toast, cereal, yogurt, juice, and waffles. Nothing exciting, but not too bad. If you have kids, they have a very nice water park inside the hotel, with waterfalls and a couple of waterslides. The Cracker Barrel was typical–it’s been a place we’ve gone to eat for years. Pretty good food, reasonable price, and it’s always fun to browse through the gift shop on the way in and out.
We had a good night’s rest and were ready for our next day.
