Day 4 – Billings, Montana to Spokane, Washington (866 km)

Today was a driving day – lots of kilometers to cover, even though we ended a little further ahead than where we had planned to last night. Today we focused on driving, and therefore didn’t make any stops to see anything special, unlike yesterday. traps. we did however some some amazing sights, and it was a very exciting drive.

We pulled out of Billings this morning, heading west yet again, following a river for a hundred of miles deep into the heart of Montana. Mountains sheltered us on either side and as the drive progressed the mountains got bigger, and closer.


Just after lunch, we finally made our first climb of the day through the “Highland Mountains” just east of Butte.

While not the most dramatic mountains we’d see all day this was the largest climb, taking us to 6,000 feet to get over a wall-like line of mountains with obviously no easy way around. (Unfortunately, we were part of a long line of cars stuck behind a massive transport, through some single-lane construction for most of the climb)

The mountains really increased in size and frequency as we drove further west, taking us into magnificent valleys so deep and lined with trees that they must only see a few hours of direct sunlight each day. The road through the Bitteroot Mountains, just east of the Idaho border, was one of the most exciting drives I’ve ever driven.

The road switched back and forth sharply for nearly 70 miles, hugging to the walls of various mountains as we followed the Clark Fork River, which the highway crossed at least a dozen times. We were passed on a couple of occasions by some nice, fast cars and I couldn’t help but think how wild a ride it could be in a fast car, rather than a lumbering truck.

The twist and turns took their toll on Vone, who unfortunately suffered through motion sickness to the point of vomiting later in the evening. Once we had stopped for the night, she said that it felt like we were still moving – much like we’d been at sea. Then again, we have driven nearly 4000 kilometers in four days.

We arrived at our final destination at 5:30 (benefiting once again by another time zone change!) and pulled into spot D5 at the Spokane KOA with plenty of sunlight left. Lilo, always happy to be out of the truck at the end of the day, was ecstatic to crawl around on the grass, and even tried to help set the tent up.

We BBQ’ed fat and juicy ballpark franks on the new Coleman grill, then curled up under a blanket and watched a movie on the laptop. A beautiful night under the stars with my girls!