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Published: September 26th 2006
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After all the rain of yesterday we awoke to a beautiful blue sky! We spent the night in another camping cabin, bringing in from the truck only the bare essentials needed to cook dinner and sleep the night—so in the morning, we had to wash dishes and clean up before we could pack the truck! Which was a good thing as it meant that we delayed getting started just long enough…
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Starting Destination: Red Lodge, Montana
Ending Destination: West Yellowstone, Montana
Ending Destination GPS: N: 44° 39.348’ W: 111° 06.390’ Elev: 6704’
Miles Driven: 254.7
Snow, again?
Yes, it had snowed last night in the higher elevations, which of course we should have expected seeing as it was raining so hard when we arrived! We started the day, blissfully unaware of the impending future and thinking that we were so lucky that it was nice and sunny! We meandered through town, commenting on the vitality of the main street and the number of motorcycle shops given the size of the town (an indication that there was windy road in the area), considering whether we should stop and by some vegetables at the farmer’s market, and reading the information sign at the side of the road to learn all about a geologic feature that is a good source of fossils… About the time we were taking off up the highway to start the “Beartooth Adventure” we saw two snow plows preceding us up the road, then we noticed the sign with the yellow flashing lights indicating that the Beartooth Highway was closed in 12 miles—upon consulting the map, 12 miles was nowhere near the end of the highway! So we followed the snow plows up to the locked gates… Carl consulted with the drivers and found out several important facts: (1) They would only plough to the Montana/Wyoming state line, (2) they had no information about the condition of the road on the “other side” and (3) depending upon what they found, they would be back in 60 - 90 minutes… So, we decided to wait and see… Maria fired up the computer and worked on a blog entry, Carl spent some time walking around and reading the maps and other tourist information that we had collected… We were not even deterred by 2 cyclists who came down the road about 20 minutes after the snow ploughs went up—they were locals and expressed surprise that the ploughs were even going up to clear the road… The prediction, the road wouldn’t be open today, perhaps not even for the rest of the season!
The Beartooth All American Road or into the teeth or the Bear and Back!
To our surprise, down came the snow ploughs nearly an hour after they went up. After consulting with the drivers we decided that we would go on up and take our chances. So off we went—into the teeth of the Bear, or more accurately to negotiate the many switchbacks that wound their way up the mountainside. With all the snow, it was very beautiful, the clouds kept swirling in-and-out and the sun provided unexpected highlights. The road was actually in very good shape (yes, we engineers notice these things!); it had been practically destroyed in 2005 due to a huge slide, but had been almost totally re-done in time to reopen for the 2006 season. The new rock-fall barriers were particularly impressive.
On our way up the road, we kept noticing these vehicles that we hadn’t seen pass us and go up the road—so as we got closer to the top we kept our fingers crossed hoping that the road would be open—no such luck! We had forgotten that we had stopped for a “heat and material balance” break, and in the process missed them!!
The view at the top was incredible, white swirling snow, blue skies and practically no signs of life—unless you count the locked gate preventing us from following the road into Wyoming!! Such is life, it had been an incredible trip up and now we got to enjoy it a second time on the way down. Although, we did wonder about the posted speed limit: 70 miles per hour!!
Traveling around the mountain…
Back down the mountain we took off on a small road (highway 308) heading in the direction of Cody… We stopped along the way to check out “Ghost Town Number 2,” however, this time it was adjacent to the highway, looked newer (corrugated iron and concrete blocks were quite prevalent) and had a more tragic ending—there had been a cave in at the coal mine associated with the town and 74 people died. We were particularly struck by the quote written by 2 of the miners as they waited for death “Walter & Johnny. Goodbye wives and daughters. We died and easy death Love from us both Be good.” Our next stop was Cody Wyoming, home of the Buffalo Bill Cody family of museums… Unfortunately, we didn’t get there ‘till just after 4pm and the museums closed at 5pm. We walked in and wandered around the museum store before going to the local Sierra Trading Post Outlet Store—to date; we have both been very good in the shopping department and we continued this trend by limiting ourselves to replacing cold weather gear that was currently on the way to Australia in a container!! By this time we were feeling a time crunch—the East entrance to Yellowstone is only open between 8am and 8pm… so we needed to get there by then. We made only a few stops along the way—to briefly check out the Buffalo Bill Dam (where we noticed that while you couldn’t drive up to the dam or take large personal items into the visitor’s center you could take photo’s!!), and to take some photo’s of some interesting rock formations.
Yellowstone at last!
Well… we made it, into the park under the wire! Well, actually, we had about 40 minutes to spare, but we had to travel clear across the park to get to West Yellowstone where we had reserved another cabin for a few nights. Sometimes everything is in the timing… About sunset we reached Yellowstone Lake in the middle of the park and witnessed an absolutely fabulous sunset. We hope you enjoy the photo as much as we did being there!..
Carl’s Travel Trivia
Yesterday’s Answer: 2006
Today’s Question: What is Kansas’ only National Park and who was responsible for it becoming a National Park?
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Paul Cox
non-member comment
Ks Nat'l Park
Tall grass National Park at Strong City, a bunch of outsiders.