Today we depart our stay at Fireside Buffalo Valley campground and begin our journey north to Glacier National Park. As this is about a 9 hour drive (about 500 miles), we decided to split the travel into 2 separate days, which ended up being a blessing with a surprise detour into lovely Missoula, MT.
The Route
Coming out of Grand Teton, we had 2 choices for routes, the first option was to go south to Jackson, and take route 26 over to I15 in Idaho falls and take that up towards Butte. That route would have been about 339 miles, and just over 5 hours.
The other route option was to continue taking 287 north out of Grand Teton through Yellowstone up to I90. This route at only about 250 miles, was also just over 5 hours. Since we did not visit Yellowstone National Park on this trip, and it would be the same amount of drive time, we figured we should at least drive through, so we opted for this route. The only downside to this route, was gas stops. While there are plenty of gas stations in West Yellowstone, none of them looked like they would be easy to get our 36ft motorhome + Jeep in and out of.
Day 1 – Fireside Buffalo Valley to Butte KOA Journey
We had the RV packed up and hit the road around 9:30 in the morning and made our way to Yellowstone. We encountered very little traffic on our northbound trek and made smooth progress up until we got close to Old Faithful, around there we started to encounter a lot more traffic. From Old Faithful until the West Entrance road the parked looked to be very busy.
Overall the drive through Yellowstone was beautiful and worth the extra time. Once we got out of Yellowstone it was a bit more on the boring side through the valley. The exception to this was right outside of Yellowstone when we went around Hebgen lake. This was a beautiful mountain reservoir, and may be worth a stop of its own some day. Just past Hebgen lake was Earthquake Lake, which was formed during the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake when a rockslide dammed the Madison river forming a new additional lake.
We continued on our journey north and stopped for gas and lunch in the town of Ennis. This was a happening little town with a lot of bars and restaurants along its main drag, along with a lot of campgrounds and RV parks.
Fuel Stop
We stopped at the Rocky Mountain Supply/Cenex gas station on the north side of town. They have what looks to be a brand new island of diesel only pumps put in with lots of room and long RV parking spaces. While a ways outside of the West Yellowstone entrance, this was by far the best gas stop for a large motorhome.
Miles: 173
Fuel Purchased: 46 gallons
Price: $3.49/gallon – no Open Roads discount here
Average MPG: 8.9 – while Yellowstone was hilly, the slower speeds + the flat plains of the valley gave us great MPG.
We continued on after the gas stop making our way up towards I90 in Cardwell. I90 was smooth sailing until we reached Homestake Pass, a mere 6 miles from our destination in Butte. Homestake Pass is the highest point on interstate 90, and is one of the many times we crossed the continental divide on this trip.
On the way up the peak, a mere 6,300ft of elevation, the motorhome started sputtering and threw the first and only check engine light we have ever had.
To help monitor additional temperatures and gauges beyond what is on the dash we use a BlueFire bluetooth OBD scanner. This allows us to get additional details from the coach such as transmission temps, boost pressures, and other helpful information. It also allows us to see engine codes. In this situation, the bus was reporting code 102-18 – Engine Intake Manifold #1 Pressure. Data Below Normal Operating Range – Moderate.
Since we were only 6 miles from our destination, and it was ‘Check Engine’ and not ‘Stop Engine’, we decided to safely come down the pass and continue on to get to our overnight stop and troubleshoot from there.
Destination
We arrived at the Butte KOA Journey just after 3pm without any additional issues.
Once we got settled, I did some research into the error code and did not find much helpful information. It looked like it could be anything from the air filter ($) to the turbo ($$$$).I checked the filter and confirmed that it was not obstructed, so we prepared for the worst and checked with Freightliner for the nearest service center.
The closest certified shop to us was I-State Truck Center in Missoula. While not originally on our travel destinations, we made plans to head to Missoula first thing in the morning.
We then headed out to Wal-Mart, Petco, and CVS to stock up on provisions and things that we had forgotten to bring with us.
After unloading all our provisions, we went on a quest for dinner, settling on Casagranda’s Steakhouse.
This was a cool stop in an old warehouse in the Butte historic district (fun fact, Butte has one of the largest historic districts in the USA!). There was a 20 minute wait, so we popped into the bar for a drink before dinner. Unfortunately service was a bit slow and it took us almost 40 minutes to get our table.
Casagranda’s meals are all 4 course meals served with a soup, salad, entree, and ice cream. The soup of the day was Grilled Cheese, which was basically a cheesy tomato soup, it was delicious. We both ordered the Ribeye, the steak was Ok. Cat’s was over cooked, and we both found it to be a bit tough. For desert, rocky road ice cream, not my favorite, but hey – you put ice cream in front of me, I’m gonna eat it. But all-in-all 4 course steak dinner for $40 a piece, not too bad.
After dinner we headed right back to the RV, hooked up the Jeep and got ready for an early departure.
Trip Totals
Total Miles Today: 246.5
Fuel Used: 29.3 gal
Day Average MPG: 8.4
Check Engine Lights: 1
Trip Total Miles: 711.5