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Idaho makes television appearance in new episode of 'Yellowstone'

Did you catch the piece of Idaho in this week's "Yellowstone" episode? Here's how the Gem State scene came together.

BOISE, Idaho — If you caught Sunday's episode of the television series "Yellowstone" on the Paramount Network, you may have noticed a piece of Idaho in one of the scenes. 

The show is about a ranching family in Montana, the Duttons, fighting back against the modern world encroaching on their lifestyle. 

In the latest episode, the Yellowstone ranch hands were making their way from Montana to Texas. During their journey, there is around seven seconds of the branded Yellowstone truck and trailer driving near Craters of the Moon in Idaho.

The scene was shot last summer, according to JR Grotjohn, a permits coordinator for the Idaho Transportation Department. 

Grotjohn was on scene when it was filmed. ITD shared some photos on Facebook from that day on Tuesday night. 

"The crater shoot involved a Yellowstone branded pick up and involved filming that from the air with the helicopter," Grotjohn said. "So, it's kind of B-roll footage."

They were able to film the scene without having to close Highway 20-26, Grotjohn said. 

"They came and did what we refer to as a 'rolling roadblock' where they have a unit like a mile ahead and a unit like a mile behind," Grotjohn said. "They drive down the road one to three miles and then pull off into a turnout and repeat the sequence until they get the shot right." 

He said the crew was in the area for about four hours and filmed for about two. Grotjohn estimated it took four attempts to get the perfect shot. 

None of the stars were in the Gem State for the shoot and the trailer was empty, according to Grotjohn. 

He did add that a few of the extras looked similar to show characters Rip and Kaycee Dutton. 

"I say, I don't watch the show, but you got to be living under a rock if you didn't know at least a little bit about it," Grotjohn said. "One of the gentlemen looked a lot like Kasey Dutton. He looked very, very similar. And then they had another gentleman there – he was definitely a Rip (Wheeler) type costume build – beard, that kind of thing."

Grotjohn hasn't seen Yellowstone, but the occasion intrigued him to start it. 

"It's different than my normal day-to-day," Grotjohn said. "I do a lot of work with utility companies and developers, and I like my job. I get a lot of satisfaction from it. But being able to see kind of what happens behind filming of a TV show or, you know, something like that, is a one-off for me. So, yeah, it was a lot of fun."

Grotjohn said occasionally they collect fees from certain work like field inspections and other tasks. Usually that's somewhere around $50 or less.

But this request from the Yellowstone crew fell under an "others" category. He added it was a small impact, where ITD didn't spend a whole lot of time to make the request happen and did not collect a fee from the crew. 

"It wasn't about generating revenue," Grotjohn said. 

ITD has one staff member on scene, which was Grotjohn. He estimated spending a total of five hours of his time to make this happen between planning and being on scene the day of. 

For fans of the show Yellowstone, keep an eye out! 🎬This past summer, we worked with the Yellowstone team as they filmed...

Posted by Idaho Transportation Department on Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Idaho fans called out the route the ranch hands took

A few Idaho fans noticed the same thing about the Montana-to-Texas route the ranch hands took. 

"Definitely not the route to take from Montana to Texas," Dee Evans wrote on ITD's Facebook post. 

"Yes!!! Noticed Craters!!! But why would they have driven from 'The Yellowstone' through the craters to get to Texas though?" Reshell Renee Schneider wrote on the post. 

To get from Montana to Texas, taking Highway 15 would make more since than traveling on Highway 20-26. 

So, you could say the Yellowstone ranch hands went the long way, or the wrong way, but Idaho still made its way on the television screen. 

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