5184 Cubic Feet of Occasional Joy: 67 Mile Drive, A Bucket List Item Worth Your Time

His eyes aren't even on the road!

"You can't and shouldn't do it in an RV!" This is a myth. If you want to complete a visit to Yellowstone National Park with a bang rather than a whimper, take the Northeast Entrance to Red Lodge on scenic highway 212.

This particular 67 mile section of highway has been on my radar for several years and I recruited my friend, John Hilfiker to actually drive the RV through it. I sat in the co-pilot seat, which in many RVs appears to be a little to the right of the front right tire. In other words, this seat often gives you the illusion you are a little farther to the right than reality.

Connie has emotional scar tissue from 2006 when I took her on Route 66 on a little 28 mile to Oatman, Arizona from Kingman. The drive is straight as an arrow and flat as a pancake for 20 miles, but those last 8 miles included a few switchbacks and hairpin curves that caused a rookie RV driver white knuckles and high blood pressure and at least one passenger to vacate the dreaded co-pilot seat. There was only one car on the side of the mountain and it looked like it had been there a while.

We made the journey through Oatman just fine and only had minor technical difficulties. (The air conditioning quit working in the Mojave Desert while it was about 120 degrees.) It was an educational process.

With that backdrop you can get a feel for the cryptic communication between John and me. The conversation discussed how beautiful the drive through this exit was and how shocking only a few RVs were entering through it (mostly rentals). As a side bar, it was interesting that there were no RVs in our rear view mirror.

Charles Kuralt called this highway "the number one scenic highway in the United States."

This particular road didn't start as innocent as the Road to Oatman. This one from the get go gives you an idea it is more than a Sunday afternoon drive. The elevation in Cooke City, our launch pad, was about 7,500 feet and the peak at the pass is about 11,000 feet. The population drops dramatically as you begin your ascent. There are few signs of people, particularly if you choose to take this road in the late afternoon.

We chose 5pm as our starting time. I am fairly sure we rose 2,000 or so feet before Connie figured out where we were. Once she took interest in the location of the RV, the rest of our passengers did too. Up until that point, they just assumed we were in an ordinary afternoon drive to a campsite. Little did they know this would be a top 5 RV experience out of thousands of miles on the road.

Caleb was put off by John's aggressive driving.

Little did I know what type of experience it would be even knowing our destination. Nearly 17 miles into the journey there is an exit opportunity onto Chief Joseph Highway which leads you into Cody, WY. About 8 miles past that split there is a dirt road that takes you to an old fire tower that gives you one of the most beautiful views of the area. Ever the nature enthusiast, John thought we should take the road to the Clay Butte Fire Tower to add to the experience. Bureaucrats who stick signs in the ground disagreed with him and put a sign suggesting otherwise. We ventured a quarter of mile up the one lane road before John agreed with the stodgy sign people and we returned to the "safer" road. At the turnoff, we decided to take a picture of the sign for a souvenir.

It was at this point where the adventure really began. As we started out of the RV, the door would not open. So I jumped to the rescue to help the kids get the door open. There would be no "getting the door open." The latch had broke and had us locked in tighter than an Alcatraz prisoner. Caleb and Kacie climbed out the window to try to use the key from the outside, but to no avail. John jumped to the rescue with a MacGyver knife, screw driver and tongs. In a short amount of time, he had the door disassembled the latch removed and the door open. All of the passengers were free. The photo was snapped, the rig was in gear and our adventure was now in overdrive!

The switchbacks and hairpins were a bit uneventful compared to the possibility of being locked in an RV, but they were interesting all the same. John maneuvered the RV like a NASCAR driver around an oval.

We stopped a couple of times for photo opps along the way including one to watch the sunset across the mountain tops. At that particular stop, John worried Connie that he was entirely too close to the edge. I think John was touched for her concern for him, but I don't think he understood that her concern was that if he fell over the edge, the backup driver would have to get the rig down the mountain. I don't know if was the closeness to the edge, his back to the edge or the sound of his feet slipping in the pee gravel that caused Connie's concern. But John made the most of the moment and spent as much time as he possibly could on the outside of the guard rail focusing his iPad camera on the Tyner family safely positioned inside the guardrail. Rather that zooming his camera or adjusting the view via the iPad, he simply moved farther away from us to better frame his picture and excite Connie.

We finally made it to the MacDaddy of views, the Rock Creek Vista. It was one of the most amazing views I have ever seen in my life. It was breathtaking and a relaxing place to enjoy God's creation.

John put the RV in 1st and let the transmission brake our way down the pass. We descended the mountain into the night and drove safely to the Red Lodge KOA. The drive was a treat and the journey was a hit to everyone!