How to Drive Nineteen Hours through Montana in December? (Bozeman: hotel, home)

[Mcortona]

I'm a non-driver, and a friend and I are driving from Omaha, Nebraska to Bozeman, Montana to ice climb December 11-15. It's 14 hours before stops and we need to get in Friday evening to check in. Then on Sunday, after the competition, we had planned to drive six hours up to Glacier National Park to camp out overnight, then drive the 19 hours back (not counting stops!) Monday morning. If we left at five in the morning Monday and stopped for a total of three hours, we wouldn't get back until three AM Tuesday night.

What do you think? Is this crazy? He's 22.

[Malloric]

Crazy.

I've done Seattle to Los Angeles, about 16 hours, in one day. But I didn't do that after five days of ice hiking. Just drive back towards Nebraska and camp somewhere along the way. It's not like you're going to see anything at Glacier National Park if oyu're just driving up sleeping until 5 a.m. and heading straight back. It's just nearly doubling your driving time for no reason.

[NARFALICIOUS]

Sounds like....





ROAD TRIP!!!

Why was I not invited ??!

[Billy_J]

Originally Posted by Mcortona

...What do you think? Is this crazy? He's 22.

Being young is a BIG help for these types of adventures.

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by Mcortona

...driving from Omaha, Nebraska to Bozeman, Montana
It's 14 hours before stops and we need to get in Friday evening to check in.

Call that 6PM... which means you start 16 hours earlier... aka 2AM

In the middle of a warm summer with 14 hours of daylight...
that is still bordering on the insane.

Fly to Bozeman.
Rent a car or arrange rides with the group.

[Sabinerose]

Why are you going all the way to Glacier from Bozo just to camp for one night? That sounds like a ton of added travel time / gas / sleeplessness...

I am also assuming your travel times aren't taking into account road conditions and weather? You may find that your 14 hours will become 20 or more if you get stuck in some bad travel weather.

[GarageLogic]

Try it if you want, but just don't be stupid. I've done some 15-16 hour straight-through drives. But not recently. And not without REALLY struggling to stay safe and awake.

[MTSilvertip]

You want to camp in Montana in December? You do realize that last night it was -7 degrees in some places a lot lower than the elevations around Glacier.

Unless you are a hard core winter survivialist with the proper equipment and experience, my advice after living in Montana all my life and actually camping in those conditions is....DON'T DO IT!!!!
Get a hotel room instead.

I realize you are planning on Ice Climbing, so you are not completely unaware of the dangers, but it isn't a good idea anyway. Temperatures in that area can and have fallen below -40. That's a bit nippy for enjoying your camp.

Glacier is mostly closed at this time of year, including the campgrounds. We do get snow here and roads like the Going to the Sun have several FEET of snow on them. You won't see much of the park except from the parking lot, and most of the animals go to lower elevations or hibernate for the winter. Not the best time to visit the park.

You will see more game and all the snow you want cheaper and easier if you stay in Bozeman and take a drive down to West Yellowstone.

At least you can ski at Big Sky there.

Just my 2 cents.

[BrendanSWM]

Five Hour Energy.


Do not forget to account for the time change if there is one.

Drive faster. 19 hours is a long time to drive. At 115 MPH you will reduce your travel time significantly.

Spend an extra day and enjoy the glacier more. It is worth it. You are not going to do anything more worthwhile by racing back home early.

[sunsprit]

This would be an adventurous trip plan in good weather months ...

At this time of the year, it's crazy to plan such a tight schedule and so many miles in such a short time.

Inclement road conditions are likely throughout much of your trip, although you may get lucky and not have serious problems. But to plan on having no weather related road slow-downs or closures for the outbound and inbound trips is not very prudent planning.

I've camped in these types of winter conditions for many years, and it's a project all unto itself to be comfortable for a couple of days. To do this on an extended basis requires some serious gear of a base campsite if you're going to support other activities for those days. Consider that the public camping sites that may find accessible for your stay will not have any open facilities; ie, even if you can access a campsite, you'll find the bathrooms (even vault toilets) shut down for the winter season and you'll not have access to showers, etc.

Unless you've got lots of practice on slip-seating cross country drives, you'll be facing serious fatigue based driving safety issues. Not a wise plan, even for an invincible youngster ....