Great Western Trail

[RedRunner87]

Great Western Trail: Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana

Night 1/Day1/Night 2

The Great Western Trail goes from the border of Mexico in Arizona to the border of Canada in Montana. We decided to meet just East of Salina, UT and head North from there. Our overall goal was to hit the Canadian border and hit Grand Teton, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.

All packed up and ready to head our first camping spot. No off-roading today. Just meeting my friend in outside of Salina.

Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr

Camp Night 1
IMG_9409 by Red Runner, on Flickr

The Official Start of the Trail: Day 1/Night 2

IMG_9410 by Red Runner, on Flickr
IMG_9411 by Red Runner, on Flickr

 

[RedRunner87]

Officially hit the Great Western Trail
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[RedRunner87]

IMG_9421 by Red Runner, on Flickr
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Well this trail is closed! We had to find out way around this trail. Looks like there may have been fire where this trail went to.

Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr

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Camp Night 2
IMG_9426 by Red Runner, on Flickr
IMG_9427 by Red Runner, on Flickr

 

[RedRunner87]

Great Western Trail Day 2/Night 3

Still in Utah! We definitely are not progressing as fast as we want to. We covering approximately 200 miles a day at this point, but we didn't expect to spend two days in Utah.

The Start!

IMG_9429 by Red Runner, on Flickr
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IMG_9431 by Red Runner, on Flickr
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Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr

Well that's not good!
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...another locked gate!
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Camp!

IMG_9432 by Red Runner, on Flickr

 

[RedRunner87]

Great Western Trail Day 3/Night 4

Finally we get out of Utah and into Idaho! We ventured out a little longer than we anticipated because of some mechanical issues. But we made it to camp in the forest of Idaho

...and we are off!

IMG_9433 by Red Runner, on Flickr
IMG_9434 by Red Runner, on Flickr

Ruby lurking in the brush!
IMG_9435 by Red Runner, on Flickr

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Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
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Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr

At some point my buddies Tacoma picked up a wood screw in his Passenger Rear tire. We were debating swapping it or patching it. We learned real quick on the trail on how to patch a tire. Took us two attempts on the trail to get it to hold, then we patched it a third time at camp and finally held air without leaking.

Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr

 

[RedRunner87]

Made it to camp in Idaho!

IMG_9438 by Red Runner, on Flickr
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[RedRunner87]

Great Western Trail Day 4/Night 5

We get to our first National Park! The Great Western Trail skirts around Yellowstone but does require you to go through Grand Teton NP. We decided to go through the park, then back track a little bit and camp in the forest outside of the park.

Time to hit the road again!

IMG_9441 by Red Runner, on Flickr
IMG_9442 by Red Runner, on Flickr

Well this is a random traffic jam!

Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr

Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr

Made it to Grand Teton. The views were terrible because of the smoke in the air sadly
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Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr

Camp!

 

[RedRunner87]

Great Western Trail Day 5/Night 6

Glad we got some rain overnight, it cleared up the skies a little bit. We were able to get some good views of the Grand Teton. We had to go back through Grand Teton and began our trek towards West Yellowstone.

Grand Views...of the Grand Teton

IMG_9444 by Red Runner, on Flickr
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...ok we are finally off

Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
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[RedRunner87]

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Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
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Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr

Since we had to had back to Colorado on Friday, we decided to backtrack to West Yellowstone and then explore Yellowstone NP on Thursday. It was already a 12 hour drive from Yellowstone so we didn't want to venture any further.

IMG_9450 by Red Runner, on Flickr

 

[RedRunner87]

Great Western Trail Day 6/Night 7

We decided to not continue on with the Great Western Trail because of the drive back to Colorado the following day. We spend the day exploring Yellowstone NP instead.

Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
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Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
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[RedRunner87]

Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr

 

[RedRunner87]

Great Western Trail Day 7

This was our go-home-day. We left West Yellowstone at 2am and had a 12 hour drive back to Colorado Springs. It rained all night and was pretty mucky in the morning packing up. We got some cool sites while driving through the mountains to Eastern Wyoming

Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr

Ruby got a little dirty on this trip

Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr
Untitled by Red Runner, on Flickr

 

[RedRunner87]

Meet up day

 

[RedRunner87]

Day 1/Night 2

 

[RedRunner87]

Day 2/Night 3

 

[RedRunner87]

Day 3/Night 4

 

[RedRunner87]

Day 4/Night 5

 

[RedRunner87]

Day 5/Night 6

 

[RedRunner87]

GoPro footage because when I transferred the files the dates got messed up

 

[4Funner]

Looks like this was an awesome trip! I'm pretty jealous of the number of trails and vast open space throughout the Rockies. The majority of BLM and open space in California is down in the desert...