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Fifty Miles of Dust and Dreams
We’re on a schedule — a dangerous word for people who live in a van, but there it is. The goal: beat the snow. We had to make it through Wyoming, over the Rockies, visit my son (and dog) in Colorado, and reach New Mexico before the first white stuff...
Life on the edge
Our route into Wyoming dropped us onto the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, a ribbon of asphalt that twists through red-rock country and climbs to Dead Indian Hill — all sweeping cliffs and wild switchbacks. The kind of drive that makes you forget you’re technically on a highway. Somewhere up there,...
The creek that said Nope
Leaving our perch on Morrell Mountain, we wound our way down to the nearest stretch of asphalt — a re-entry lane to civilization. First stop was Helena, Montana, where we only lingered long enough to grab groceries and fuel before hitting the open road again. It had been months since...
Morrell Mountain
Back in the land of the free — or free-ish, if we’re being honest. The border crossing into Montana was uneventful in the best way: no line, no fuss, just a quick chat with the U.S. agent about what the heck we’d been doing for the past six weeks. A...
Final days in Canada
That cursed gate with the skulls forced us into a full retreat. We retraced our tire tracks all the way back to Yoho National Park, onto the main highway, down into Golden, and then south again — basically driving parallel to the dirt road we should’ve been on. A hundred...
Well, plans change
By the time we rolled out of the backcountry and into the bright lights (okay, dim glow) of Golden, we’d already made a call: skip Glacier National Park. With our Canadian time running short, we decided to focus on heading south instead of fighting crowds for a parking space and...
Because the short way is boring
Our next big goal was Glacier and Yoho National Parks, sitting at the far north end of the valley we’d been zigzagging through. Technically, we could’ve made it there in less than a day. But what’s the fun in that? Straight highways are for people in a hurry — and...
Ghost Airport to Hot Springs
With “Nomad Liberation Day” (aka Labor Day) behind us, it was time to get moving again. First stop: the basics. Groceries, laundry, showers — the trifecta of chores that remind us we’re still tethered to civilization. Kerri had bookmarked a couple of overnight options nearby, but neither of us loved...
Cody, Oliver, and Mary
Backtracking isn’t our favorite thing, but sometimes you’ve got to eat your pride to snag something you missed. In this case: ghost towns. We retraced a stretch of highway between New Denver and Kaslo to take a gravel road that promised Sandon and Cody — both old mining towns with...