Day 4.  426 miles with spectacular scenery at the beginning and at the end.  In the middle is Butte, Montana, but you won't see any Butte here.

What you will see, however, is the Big Hole National Battlefield.  The standoff between the U.S. army and the Nez Percé  nation.  If you look closely in the lower right hand corner of the fourth picture you'll see Nez Percé  tipis.

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Cool Beaver dam.  MIT alums would be proud of this one.

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From here I headed south on highway 93 in Idaho, hoping to make it to Sun Valley by nightfall.  I didn't stop to take any pictures, despite the area's beauty, just because I was trying to make as many miles as possible in effort to make my goal.  Things were going well until I popped up over a rise and this came into view...

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...then I saw this place, and I knew I just HAD to spend the night there.  It was as good as Gardiner, in some respects, even better.  I stayed in the cabin right behind my car in the fourth picture.  This is Lower Stanley, Idaho.

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This was the view from right behind the cabin.

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I ate a very tasty prime rib at the restaurant just down the street, and when I asked the proprietor why people insisted on eating out on the deck despite the fact that it was probably 45 degrees, his response was a stunned, "Have you SEEN the view?"  I have, and he was right.