Vacation Journal
Monday, August 28, 2006
Beartooth
On Monday we decided to make a quick dash out the Northeast Entrance of the park and drive Beartooth Highway, one of the most scenic mountain roads we know. We drove the whole thing in 2004 and really enjoyed it. In the spring of 2005, several portions of the highway got washed away during the spring snowmelt and the road was closed for over six months. In 2005, we could drive up the Wyoming (south) side of the road to the top of the mountain, but we couldn't drive down the Montana side into Red Lodge, Montana. This year the whole road is open again.
The smoke from the forest fires had gone away, so we had some good views. You get up to almost 11,000 feet twice while crossing. The road on the Wyoming side is a more gentle climb, but it has more curves. The Montana side goes down a very steep mountain using switchbacks with two or three miles of steep grades between the individual switchback curves. We found several locations on the Montana side where the repairs had been made. I've sent some pictures.
We saw lots of Marmots. We saw a couple Northern Harriers hovering motionless over the terrain in the strong winds. We saw an American Pipit. We saw several birds we didn't identify. We saw snow. We saw great mountain views in all directions. It would be easy to be convinced that the mountains go on forever in all directions. We stopped at a location with great views and had a picnic lunch.
As we were passing through the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone on the way out of the park, we got a great view of a Bald Eagle flying low parallel to the road. We also saw hundreds of Bison and lots of Pronghorns. We also got to see a family of Sandhill Cranes (two adults and a colt) - our first this year. We saw four Osprey in the vicinity of the Lamar Valley Osprey nest - one on the nest and three flying.
On the way back through the Lamar Valley we had to pick our way through a Bison herd crossing the road at a leisurely pace. They seemed rather indifferent to cars as if they might just shove them out of the way if they wanted to. I thought one bull had decided he didn't like us as he ran onto the road just barely in front of us, but it turned out he was interested in the female on the other side of the road who also crossed in front of us. The bull followed her back over to his side of the road.
We did stop for a short while in Red Lodge, Montana on the other side of the mountains. Charolette visited a quilt store, and I bought a cup of coffee. Our cell phones worked in Red Lodge. This is the first time since last Wednesday that we've had cellular service.
The Wyoming side of the mountain is Open Range. Apparently many tourists don't know what this means, so the signs read: "Open Range Expect Cows on Road". Then on the other hand, the cows aren't all that smart either. I sent a picture of one of the cattle guards.
Our drive, with very few side trips, was 255 miles, during which the vehicle was moving for 7 hours and 15 minutes according to my GPS system. The Beartooth Highway itself is about 60 miles each way. We're thinking about driving it one more time before we leave next week.
An update on license plates - we found New Hampshire - only four states to go.
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