Four months and 20k miles in a Tacoma

What's it cost edit: Earlier this year - Louisville - San Diego - Louisville, 30 days, 5300 miles. Traveled many of the roads and visited many of the places that "Hartford -OP" references in his post. Fuel, meals, "budget motels" and misc averaged $150.00 per day. (had a few days, stayed with friends, so no motel) 2015 Tacoma Sport, 4.0, 4X4, averaged 20 mpg.

 

So so far it's currently June 11th and almost two months since I left ME. Probably around 11k miles. Aside from needing a new thermostat the truck has been going great. Most of the trip if I keep my speeds around 55-65 mph and don't encounter to many mountains I can average 20mpg or better. Throw in some wheeling and the western mountains and it drops to 15-17mpg.

Truck has handled the added weight pretty well for a four banger. On all but the steepest passes I have been able to maintain about 55mph in third. The steepest stuff I encountered in colorado had me going back to second gear due to tight corners, improper planning on my gear selection, or just down right too steep for the truck to do run in a gear higher than two. I can't complain though. It's just a 4cyl and with all the extra weight I had in it I feel it did just fine.

After adding the extra leaf to the dakar packs I was happy with the way they handled the weight. No longer on the bumps with a full tank. Still have taco lean from back to front. Someday I will have adjustable coilovers in the front and maybe that will help. No complaints about how it's been handling the back country. May not be the best suspension set up, but it works.

I hit Yellowstone NP on the evening of June 12th. Watched old faithful after sunset and slept in the truck in the visitor center at old faithful. That's pretty much how I spent all my nights in the park. In total I spent seven days in the park, but about eleven in the area. We'll get to those other four days shortly.

This isn't old faithful and forget which geyser it is.


Never did get Old Faithful erupting at sunset.

 

There was one day I decided to drive to the town of West Yellowstone in Montana. Had lunch at a pizza joint there in town. As I was backing out of my spot Something went funny in the steering. Stopped and got out to look. Driver side front tire was at funny angle so I checked it out. The rear bolt that attaches the lower ball joint to the LCA had disappeared. So I turned the wheel back straight and it lined everything. Pulled back into my spot and parked the truck for four days while I waited for the new bolt and a couple spares. If it hadn't happened on a friday I might have gotten the parts sooner.

Wandered all around town the next couple days searching for the missing bolt just in case it had fallen out in town. Stayed at the Ho Hum motel while I waited. It's run by a nice old lady that keeps way too many cats in the office. The bed was clean and the motel was livable. Most importantly it was about 100 dollars cheaper a day than anywhere else in town. Got the new parts in, went down to the restaurant and installed them. Ate at the pizza place again as a thank you for allowing my truck to take up one of their spots for four days. Then went back to the park.


Saw some large herds of buffalo/bison in the northeast part of the park but the pictures didn't come out very well. Too far away.






I'm not usually one for flowers, but the variety and numbers were pretty amazing. The view helped too.

Some little ones playing around.



Part of mammoth hot springs in the evening.

 

Be safe out there...and keep the pics and info coming..

 

Hartford, you got back in August and just decided to post this awesome, once-in-a-lifetime trip? Boy, can you keep a good secret!

 

great pics!!! I missed wyo bad.. used to live out there 25 yrs ago.. last time visited was 2012 to see my bro in Evanston.. planning to go out this spring...

 

There was one day I decided to drive to the town of West Yellowstone in Montana. Had lunch at a pizza joint there in town. As I was backing out of my spot Something went funny in the steering. Stopped and got out to look. Driver side front tire was at funny angle so I checked it out. The rear bolt that attaches the lower ball joint to the LCA had disappeared. So I turned the wheel back straight and it lined everything. Pulled back into my spot and parked the truck for four days while I waited for the new bolt and a couple spares. If it hadn't happened on a friday I might have gotten the parts sooner.

Wandered all around town the next couple days searching for the missing bolt just in case it had fallen out in town. Stayed at the Ho Hum motel while I waited. It's run by a nice old lady that keeps way too many cats in the office. The bed was clean and the motel was livable. Most importantly it was about 100 dollars cheaper a day than anywhere else in town. Got the new parts in, went down to the restaurant and installed them. Ate at the pizza place again as a thank you for allowing my truck to take up one of their spots for four days. Then went back to the park.


Saw some large herds of buffalo/bison in the northeast part of the park but the pictures didn't come out very well. Too far away.






I'm not usually one for flowers, but the variety and numbers were pretty amazing. The view helped too.

Some little ones playing around.



Sunset at mammoth hot springs.

 

I knew it was going to take a while and I can be pretty lazy. So far it's looking like it will take the better part of two night shifts here at work.

 

Love the GC photos.

 

My wife is from Montana. One of my favorite states.

I'm envious of your trip.

Not a Tacoma question but if you had to to it again, what would you change?

 

miss the country out west.. used to live in Evanston wyo.. my bro still lives out there

 

So I had to go out and actually work for an hour and lost a whole post. So here's the remake. My last day in Yellowstone I decided to head out the northeast corner of the park and take 212 to the bear tooth pass. I've hear about it and had wanted to check it out. So these next couple of pictures are from the montana side of the pass and definitely don't do the country justice.




When I was going to be travelling the next day I would always plan my trip out the night before. Be in the back of the truck with my lantern, road atlas and state gazetteers. I'd use the road atlas to look for general areas and then use the delorme atlas and gazetteers to plan a detailed route. So after getting to the top of the bear tooth I headed back to YNP to get back on planned route.

These next pictures are WY before getting back into the park.





These next couple are at mammoth hot springs in the park. I took a bunch of pictures and walked all around it, but photobucket is getting full and I still have a lot to get to.




If I wind up getting more storage on photobucket I might upload some more pictures from the whole trip at the end of this thread.

 

I would have divided the bed in half the long way. Had the cooler box nearer the tailgate instead of up near the cab, and still had my welding stuff in the cubby near the cab. It worked okay but could have been easier. The one full length half of the bed would have had gas cans and oils near the cab end with tools closer to the tailgate and cooking supplies at the tailgate. I don't know if it would work better, but I think it would be worth a try.

33's and regear. Not because I needed them but because it's going to happen anyway, and with the right regear it would have been a little better in the mountains.

 

I might have missed it but what type of cooler box did you go with?

When we were first married we drove from the Deep South up through NM, Colorado, Wyoming, then to Montana. Completed the loop by coming through Milwaukee, Chicago then home.

We tent camped the entire way (only way we afford it).

We were in. Chevy Impala with 350 V-8 so not great gas mileage.

Wish I could do it again in my Tacoma. Well, maybe not the sleeping on the ground part but it sure was fun.

 

When I finally left YNP I headed west back into Montana to West Yellowstone and then north up 191 and then 287 north towards Cameron Montana. These next roads took me through the Beaver Head Deer Lodge National forest and the Gravelly Range of mountains. Turned off 287 at the gold butte trail FR 209, and then took FR 237 Standard CR RD. FR 237 took me to FR 1012 Cotton Wood Creek Rd. Took FR 1012 to FR 100. FR 100 takes you 357. Turned west off 357 on the sweetwater rd and took that to Dillon MT.

Left Dillon on 222 to 278 west. 278 to the Bannack bench RD. Bannack Bench Rd to 324 east. 324 east to FR 527 or the medicine lodge rd. Medicine Lodge rd is also the old Bannack rd and goes down into Idaho over the Bannack Pass.

These pictures are from MT before reaching the Bannack Rd into Idaho.



These next pictures are from the Old Bannack rd into Idaho. It started getting dark and drove for a while. Probably should have gone to bed so I could see the country in the daylight.





Got up in the morning and drove down through Idaho and some of the prettiest valley country I have seen.




Now I don't have my Idaho atlas and gazetteer with so I'm just going off the general map I have which won't have half the roads I took in this state. I covered more back country in Idaho than any other state. I crossed it east to west six times. From the Old Bannack Rd I made my way down to route 22 and then down to 28 where I headed north. I peaked the Lemhi Mountains that night after entering Idaho. I met some four wheelers coming down the trail and they told me there was two much snow at the top to cross. They didn't count on this dumbass. After six hours of steady shoveling through what started out as wet heavy snow that then turned to harder frozen snow, and one hell of a sunset I was able to go to bed at 11pm on top of the mountain. My body was tired and I earned some blisters on my hands deep enough to peel a month later.







Took this one in the morning. Last thing I wanted to do that night was take a picture after I finished.

 

Wow! Finally I see someone with a head as hard as mine! I salute you!

 

I built my own cooler. Forget the dimensions but it will hold two weeks worth of cold foods for two. It has a wood frame and at least two inches of a foam/rubber pipe insulation, rubartex, all the way around. I got a sterilite plastic container that fit perfect, which is good because I built the compartment before finding the liner, and put hole in one end big enough for a fitting I found. I ruffed up the area around the hole and used a tire patch kit with to make a rubber washer. Put the small end of the fitting through the hole after applying generous amounts of rubber cement. Screwed down the wash to the back of the fitting so it was clamping the rubber washer to the container.

The fitting had a nipple that threaded a 1/4" compresion fitting to and ran 1/4 tubing down through the insulation in the floor out of the frame for the box and back to one of the drain holes in truck bed. Zip tied it to the frame and just let it drain. Didn't want to have to pull the box to let the water out so I jerry rigged this drain. Still have the whole setup in the truck and it doesn't leak yet.

Ill try and get some pictures as I know my description is confusing. Got all the parts at my local hardware store. Took an afternoon to to do.

Never slept on the ground except in Moab and the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Had platform in the back that all my equipment was under. Slept on the platform. Got so I was more comfortable sleeping in the truck than anywhere else.

 

The grand canyon is beautiful, was there at the first part of august and it was awesome!!!!!

 

If I would have seen this at work last night, nothing would have gotten done...instead, I found it tonight, and instead of flipping my sleep back to regular schedule I'm still up reading this.

Really awesome, excited about more pictures and stories! It's making me daydream about a smaller version of this trip!

 

Well looks like I had to get more storage on the bucket. In the morning I made my way down western slope of the Lemhi Mountains to another beautiful valley. I took the four wheeler trail down by mistake. If it had been up hill I wouldn't have been able to make it. Too tight switchbacks and just gnarly terrain. I was actually worried I screwed my self because i didn't know if it was going to come out on the road I wanted. It did after I squeaked between two big trees that only gave me about four inches on either side. No pictures of the truck on the trail as I wasn't stopping for that.

Top of the Lemhi's.

In case you couldn't tell these are the mountains the sun was setting behind in the last post. And it should be the lost river range.

Bottom middle of this picture you can see some of the trail I took down.

Pretty much at the bottom here. Almost into the valley between the Lemhi's and the Lost River's.

Once I hit the north south road in the valley I went north to Ellis ID.


Definitely in the valley now.


Once I hit Ellis I went southwest on 93 to 75, 75 to 21 into the sawtooth mountins. Didn't take many pictures but there are some excellent views on 21. After 21 stops its little northwest jog and heads south I left the pavement again. Headed out towards warm lake, but continued north Yellow Pine, Big Creek, Warren , Burgdorf and then into Riggins ID. That was a long trip on the trip on the dirt. All easy, but long. Some of it is pretty remote with single lane roads winding up and down canyon and mountain walls. Met a mail lady out there as she was doing her rounds. Said I was almost out, she was fifty miles in. In the winter the people that stay out there get supplies dropped in by plane as the roads on the canyons can't be maintained.






I spent the night Somewhere after Big Creek. Took a bath in the morning in a river with water fresh from the snow melt. Anybody seen the Seinfeld episode about shrinkage? Only picture I have from this point to Riggins is this Chukar Partridge. I had a long way to go and didn't feel like taking any. So I just looked at the country, and it is beautiful.