-- From Denver to Seattle, then Canada
The road tracklog
from Denver to Canadian Border
from 2011/04/25 to 2011/05/04
Easter Monday, April 25, is not a public holiday in the USA. The WiFi Internet connection at the KOA in Strasburg did not enable me to update my website, the band-width had been limited! Moreover an accident on I25 North diverted me towards Longmont where I stopped at a McDo at the end of the morning to lunch and dispatch the new pages of my website towards the LWS provider. Finally I crossed the border between Colorado and Wyoming at the end of the day to stop at Exit 7, before Cheyenne, where there was a workshop to make the servicing of my truck and to install the Koni shock absorbers the next morning. I bivouacked on the spot.
However thus I was at the entry of the RE workshop as of eight am, my truck having been prepared beforehand. The mechanic was very qualified with celerity. I left him around 1:30 pm after the resequencing my truck. After Cheyenne on Interstate 80 the landscape of Wyoming appeared in all its splendor, still covered with snow between 2200 and 2500 meters high. I80 curved in broad volutes of rolling hills. Wyoming is a State of breeding, that is seen and smells. I stopped about 5:40 pm on a ground towards the historic site of Fort Steele closed in this season.
RE workshop
Cheyenne, exit 7
26/04/2011
Wyoming landscape
En route, I80
26/04/2011
en route, I80
26/04/2011
The following day was still a driving day in the mountains with greens pastures. I made a lunch stop in Lander at McDo to consult my mailbox. After Dubois the landscape became more arid. I stationed at the edge of the road hoping not to be to challenge by the police, the USA are the kingdom of the denouncement. Wild camping is prohibited, for safety reasons, but of whom? At McDo I saw a man with a gum at his belt.
Landscape, Blue mountains
En route, Hwy 287
27/04/2011
en route, Hwy 287
27/04/2011
Bar
Dubois
27/04/2011
Grand Teton National Park
The night was liable, no traffic, no police. I left towards 8:00 am to the assault of Yellowstone NP, but I was stopped in my move at Flagg Range. The Hwy 287 towards the South Entrance of the park was closed.
en route to Yellowstone NP
Hwy 287
28/04/2011
Landscape
Hwy 287
28/04/2011
No way to Yellowstone NP
Hwy 287
28/04/2011
Information taken the Western Entrance would be open, vast detour by Jackson, then Idaho. The road curved in the very fertile Teton Valley. Finally Hwy 20 ends at West Yellowstone where the entrance was indeed open with only one campground in this season, Mammoth Spring Campground.
Landscape
Ashton, Hwy 20
28/04/2011
Ashton
Hwy 20
28/04/2011
On the way towards the campground I met “Smart-Bison” which opened the road!
Bison Futé
is an Amerindian puppet of the ministry for the equipment who gives
information on the traffic conditions in France.
I established my bivouac around 5:30 pm after driving 500km in dramatic landscapes.
En route to Mammoth Spring
Yellowstone NP
28/04/2011
It snowed during the night making the roads slipping finally those which were open because the winter season finishes only at the end of May. Indeed a number of roads are closed for traffic and trails are inaccessible. Two attractions are visible Old Faithful Geyser with a height between 100 and 180ft, and Lower Terraces of limestone. Bisons are omnipresent on the roads. Close to the Terraces I observed a rabbit with big ears. The day was cold with scattered falls of snow.
Yellowstone NP
29/04/2011
Bison (Buffalo)
Yellowstone NP
29/04/2011
Lower Geyser Basin
Yellowstone NP
29/04/2011
Old Faithful Geyser
Yellowstone NP
29/04/2011
Lower Terraces Area
Yellowstone NP
29/04/2011
Rabbit!
Yellowstone NP
29/04/2011
Montana
During the night snow had still fallen but more abundantly. I was to drive to Missoulla, Montana, before heading full north towards the border of Canada. The driving conditions were appalling and dangerous with trucks which went at the maximum authorized speed, 65Mph -105Kmh-. This speed is impossible for my truck electronically limited by MAN at 85Kmh. I thus constantly was overtaken and sprinkled with sticky mud of molten snow mixed with salt & sand. At Missoulla I decided not to go up directly to Canada but to Seattle where the climatic conditions are better then to join Canada in Vancouver BC. Hwy I90 went down in the Clark Fork valley to join Idaho. Montana was still covered with snow, landscape appeared me being of medium mountains and pastures. I bivouacked in Haugan Exit 16 between two depilated houses.
Montana
Hwy I90
30/04/2011
Montana
Hwy I90
30/04/2011
May 1st was still a long driving day which started as of dawn with the rise of a pass to enter Idaho by changing time zone -Pacific Time Zone- On the move I drove along a lake named -Lake Cœur d'Alene with a eponym city. This name was given to an Indian tribe by French trappers of the era of French Louisiana. The north of Idaho like the part already saw to go to Yellowstone NP is dedicated to farming.
Idaho
Hwy I90
01/05/2011
Idaho
Hwy I90
01/05/2011
Then I entered the State of Washington with a superb view on the Cascade Range before arriving on the tangle of Seattle Hwy to bivouac at KOA where unfortunately Internet WiFi connection did not allow the update of my site, the FTP was blocked. Once again I was disappointed of these very expensive campground.
Washington
Hwy I90
01/05/2011
Washington
Hwy I90
01/05/2011
Seattle
Monday May 02 I prepared the trip in Canada and I looked for making my truck washed, there was no station sufficiently high for it. While driving in the district I discovered the MAN logo on a building, I stopped. It was MAN Marine, I spoke with someone to buy spare parts, filters, diesel and oil. He phoned a company on the port, RDI Marine, which had the parts according to MAN references. I placed an order for a batch to make four services. I was to receive the parts the next day as from 4 p.m. Thus it will be not necessary to look for buying compatible filters made by Mann-Hummel present in the USA, to see practical information.
MAN
Seattle
03/05/2011
The following day was a day of visit of Seattle, but once again I was betrayed by Lonely Planet. In the majority of big American cities museums are closed on Mondays. Alas here they are also closed on Tuesdays… I will not see Seattle Art Museum and the others. I surveyed the streets of the center town in the search of a good picture. Curiously there is practically nobody in the streets, population works in offices or factories of the suburb industrial complex. I started with the very famous Pike Place Market where seafood is offered to the sight of tourists. Then it was a view on Smith Tower, icon of the city, built in 1914. Other vestiges of the past are visible here or there. As in any big American city sky-scrapes tare on the center of the city. I had lunch in a Kampuchean restaurant of the Chinese district. To go from the KAO Campground to down town I took a bus #150, be careful it is a one arm bandit, it does not return the change. It goes in the city center through a tunnel which it divides with a streetcar. The first loop of the three months in the USA ended where it had started under a timid sun after a rainy day.
Pike Place Market
Seattle
03/05/2011
Mural painting
Seattle
03/05/2011
Smith Tower
Seattle
03/05/2011
Relics
Seattle
03/05/2011
Art Deco
Seattle
03/05/2011
Skyline
Seattle
03/05/2011
Border crossing
USA-Canada
Look at the border crossing
