Calgary will get a partial eclipse around 11am, but the path of totality is so close, I'm going on a roadie. I'll be going full nerd and taking my daughter on a science trip. I have pretty much decided on the following route...
Leave Saturday morning and drive to St Mary MT and drive the Going-to-the-Sun Road
Drive to Yellowstone and see Old Faithful and also Artist Point
Drive to Idaho Falls to watch the eclipse (almost 2 minutes of totality, 2.5 hours of eclipse)
Check out Craters of the Moon National Monument to complete the sun/moon geekery
Back to Calgary.
It's roughly 30 hours of driving, and I'll take 4-5 days to do it. I could take more time if anyone has any awesome ideas that are along that path (or close). Lets hear them if you do.
Also, am I crazy for ordering eclipse watching sunglasses from Amazon? I assume they're coming from China. Something tells me that last question is where most of the replies are going to come from.
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Calgary will get a partial eclipse around 11am, but the path of totality is so close, I'm going on a roadie. I'll be going full nerd and taking my daughter on a science trip. I have pretty much decided on the following route...
Leave Saturday morning and drive to St Mary MT and drive the Going-to-the-Sun Road
Drive to Yellowstone and see Old Faithful and also Artist Point
Drive to Idaho Falls to watch the eclipse (almost 2 minutes of totality, 2.5 hours of eclipse)
Check out Craters of the Moon National Monument to complete the sun/moon geekery
Back to Calgary.
It's roughly 30 hours of driving, and I'll take 4-5 days to do it. I could take more time if anyone has any awesome ideas that are along that path (or close). Lets hear them if you do.
Also, am I crazy for ordering eclipse watching sunglasses from Amazon? I assume they're coming from China. Something tells me that last question is where most of the replies are going to come from.
Awesome drive, I've done all of that. There's a ton out there on Yellowstone, you probably know a lot about Glacier Park.
Craters of the Moon is awesome. Did that a few years ago with the family. We camped near Sun Valley/Ketchum, Idaho. Hot as balls during the day but still got to single digits at night. Lots of cool stuff to check out in Craters, Hemingway's gravesite is in Ketchum, lots of hikes, etc. PM me, I'll see if I can find my info pamphlet on the area. Very cool.
See you there (Idaho Falls), hopefully not jammed up on the highway somewhere!! Aside from a stop in Yellowstone, I don't have any other sightseeing booked beyond what you mentioned.
I'm sure your eclipse glasses from Amazon will be fine. At least I hope so, because that's where mine will be coming from.
Craters of the Moon is awesome. Bring lots of lights for exploring the lava tubes, and maybe some knee pads. Hike to the top of one of the cones for a sunrise or sunset. My favourite memory of the place was watching the Perseid meteor shower, you will be about a week late for it unfortunately. Watching those come down while in the park was as close as I'll ever get to being on another planet. As a 15 year old it was really cool. But if you are somewhere else with a big dark sky August 11, 12 look up!
I thought about going down to Wyoming to see this, but then I went looking for a place to stay and even crappy little motels were asking for over $1000 US a night. That dampened my excitement quite a bit.
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Its just off the interstate between Butte and Bozeman, also if you are to to West Yellowstone would be on the way. I would recommend two days at Yellowstone, one day for each loop.
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Yeah, I think Yellowstone itself, just to see all of the main touristy geological features like the geysers and springs, took us about a 5 days. It's all boardwalk accessible too, so that's kind of a bonus.
Lots of cool wildlife around there too with the bison, wolves, bears, etc.
I think you should order a pairs of German welding goggles for maximum coolness while watching the eclipse.
I thought about going down to Wyoming to see this, but then I went looking for a place to stay and even crappy little motels were asking for over $1000 US a night. That dampened my excitement quite a bit.
Yeah, I looked at campgrounds (full) and hotels/motels (full and/or expensive as fudge), so the pickup truck and tent trailer are out of the question. I've decided to sell my jetta and buy a kidnapper van and convert it into a camper. My bro in law is going to sell me his 16 seater van that will have enough space to keep one row of seating for my daughter and my gf daughter, plus 8 glorious feet of remaining space for the parental bed. I'll build kid sized bunks on either side above the adult bed on the floor, and my dog can sleep on the bench.
Gonna be camping in walmart parking lots or just wherever I see fit to pull over and sleep. All we really need are some folding chairs, a camping bbq, a folding table, a cooler, the little porta potty for the kids, and maybe a headrest tablet for the kids to watch movies while we drive through the less interesting terrain.
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CP meetup in Idaho Falls? I'll be there too! We booked the Best Western there two years ago.
We booked late (September) and the closest we could find was about 50 miles down the road in Pocatello...so we'll be driving up at least as far as Idaho Falls early on the 21st. You find the viewing site when you get there, and we'll have the CP/avgeek meetup.
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We have debated going, but if the cost of hotels is crazy, that might discourage us, though if we can stay close enough to drive in in the morning, that should work.
Staying in Portland might not be affected by "event" hotel pricing.
Solar Eclipse Aug 21 2017
