Beartooth All America Road


Our next destination is Glacier National Park but as per usual on this adventure we got slightly sidetracked.  Glacier is Northwest of Yellowstone, so we went East.  Makes sense does it not?  Well maybe not until you hear our reasoning.  Back before we got to Grand Teton National Park, we were told of this must drive route out of Yellowstone.  What a beauty!

The morning began with our usual entrance through the West Gate of Yellowstone.  Instead of going to the Old Faithful area, we headed for the Northeast Gate.  Yellowstone proved today that it is far more than just about Geysers, even more than we had already realized.  Between Canyon Village and Tower Junction (both in Yellowstone), we were treated to some mountain driving once again.  The road was narrow, and I mean narrow.  Lots of fun! 

From Tower Junction to the Northeast Gate we traveled through the high elevation Lamar Valley.  If you want to view wildlife this is the area of Yellowstone to visit.  We had read that the 2010 population of Buffalo in Yellowstone was estimated to be about 3000.  Today we must have saw them all.  For about 20 km of the drive we saw herd after herd.  I had heard that you would have to be an ‘idiot’ not to see a Buffalo in Yellowstone…I concur.  And just to make this area even more special, we saw lots of Bighorn Sheep with little ones.  If that was not special enough, we got to see a Grizzly Bear before leaving the park.

Then the fun really began.  The Beartooth All America Road was the best yet…that is saying a lot considering all the other roads we have driven on this adventure.   As we left Cooke City, we gradually climbed from 7600 feet to just under 11,000 feet at Beartooth Pass.  This highway closes by mid November and does not reopen again until the end of May.  This is July 16 and we were driving through areas where you could see where it had been blown to get it open.  Pretty neat to see!  As an added bonus, we were able to look ‘down’ at some Mountain Goats.

The route down to Red Lodge was even more ‘hair raising’.  We dropped 5700 feet in 8 miles.  We have not driven a road with so many switchbacks.  At one point our GPS was showing us 5 different levels of the road.  To make matters even more interesting, we did this descent in a thunderstorm.  Halfway down the raindrops turned to snowflakes…this is July 16…crazy…but quite the experience!

We are staying in the Big Timber KOA.  Big Timber is part way between Billings and Butte Montana.  We are Northeast of where we started the day.

Distance Traveled = 422 km.  Wildlife Sightings = Chipping Sparrow, Black-capped Chickadee, American Crow, Common Raven, Sandhill Crane, Great-blue Heron, Buffalo, Pronghorns, Big-horned Sheep, Grizzly Bear, Mountain Goats, Otter.


Big guy having a drink!


Tower Falls area of Yellowstone 


Bighorn Sheep with young ones


One of many Buffalo herds


Switchbacks coming up the Beartooth Pass


Just how crazy are Tour Cyclists???


Snowblower at the ready!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Family Connection to Plantation/Slave Ownership???

Image
Wednesday June 5, 2019 We were off to visit a sugar cane plantation today and made an interesting discovery…more later. We visited the Destrehan Plantation, a large plantation along the Mississippi River.   We joined a guided tour of the original plantation house built between 1787 and 1790 by only 8 men.   Our tour was with a bus tour…no we were not on the bus tour…we just had to endure the presence of a large group of people…and you know how much I like crowds…not!!!   The plantation has a long and storied history.   It began as an indigo plantation and by 1800 switched to the more profitable sugar cane.   It was large…one mile wide and stretching 8 miles from the banks of the Mississippi River.   By the beginning of the Civil War, it had 200 slaves. It continued growing sugar cane until the early 1920’s when it was sold to a Mexican Oil Refinery.   It then became their headquarters and was abandoned in the late 1950’s and sat vacant for ov...
Read more

Back in Canada

Image
It was strange to pack up the tent trailer for the last time in a campground.  Mixed emotions actually.  We have returned across the border.  It was an uneventful day as we crossed the rest of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan. The blog will go quiet for a few days until we get home.  Check back in a few days for a wrap up of our adventure. Distance Traveled = 198 km.  Wildlife Sightings = Chipping Sparrow, Robin, Osprey, Turkey Vulture, Bald Eagle, Sandhill Crane, Crow, Raven, Chipmunk, Deer. Sue put these up again...first night and last!
Read more

A Boat Ride

Image
We took a 30 mile boat excursion today out into Lake Superior.   It could not have been better weather.   The sun shone, the wind was light, and the swales were only small ones, which we suspect is rare when venturing out into Lake Superior. This area, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, is made up of sandstone cliffs that can only be viewed from the water.   The name, ‘Pictured Rocks’, comes from the streaks of mineral stain that decorate the faces of the cliffs.   These streaks are caused by groundwater leaking out of the cracks.   The dripping water contains iron, manganese, limonite, and copper as well as many other minerals.   They are something else.   I hope that our pictures can tell the tale. It is time to move on from here.   Tomorrow we will return to Canada.   We have been on the road since May 12.   We have experienced so many things on this adventure that in many ways it will be a sad day to pack up the ‘little ten...
Read more