Wildfires Lead to Major Reroute

After spending a few days in Pocatello, Idaho to visit our friends Cami, Mike, and Beth, we decided to change our original route to our next stop, Colville, Washington. Why? Wildfires. This composite map shows our original route in magenta and our newly planned route in green overlaid on the Regional Wildfire Map provided by FireWeatherAvalanche.org.

Pocatello is marked #1 along the green route. The black flag icon to the east along the green route is where we spent the past 15 weeks -- Grant Village, in Yellowstone National Park.


While there are wildfires along both routes, there seem to be fewer and less intense fires along the southern option. We'll miss some great stops, like Norris Hot Springs and Garden of 1,000 Buddhas. We'll also miss what's normally a gorgeous scenic route. Unfortunately, the smoke from hundreds of fires is blanketing the whole region in a grey haze and making it difficult to breathe. 

On the plus side, we'll get to visit our nephew Quincy, who's stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, just a few hours away from Pocatello, marked #2 along the green route. We haven't done much research for what to see or where to stay along the way, but several apps make that easy.

As I've mentioned before, we use RoadTrippers, which offers entertainment, lodging, and touring suggestions along a given route. AllStays.com and FreeCampSites.net list places where RVers can stay for free.

We may decide to just push trough to Colville, a 9-hour drive from Mountain Home. A logical stop would be the halfway point near the Oregon-Washington border, which you can see in the map as a sharp turn north along the green route. Many towns cluster around the Colombia River, so I'm sure we'll have loads of options, if we choose to explore.