The Beartooth Highway

the most beautiful drive in America ~ Charles Kuralt

It's been on Randy's "to-do" list for a long time... driving The Beartooth Highway.

When he told our neighbor, who grew up in Red Lodge, Montana that it was in our trip plans to drive our 27 foot long trailor over the scenic pass, he looked at Randy and said... "haha, HAHAHA, haha.....haha...ha ha...... oh, your serious arent' you?" When he saw that Randy was indeed serious, he offered some kind advise... "make sure your trailor breaks are working and buy a good life insurance policy.

Up to this point, I had been looking forward to the adventure but as the day approached I began having second thoughts, and third and fourth... What were we thinking!?

So, Sunday afternoon we headed out from the family reunion and headed south. We stopped at Cooney Reservoir where we spent Sunday night. The picture below shows us eating breakfast the next morning at the little campground. You can see the Absaroka or the Beartooth Mountains beyond us in the picture (not sure which)...

We got on the road soon after breakfast. It was a beautiful drive toward the mountains. When we started heading up the pass, it reminded us a lot of Going to the Sun in Glacier. It was a slow, narrow, switchback road up the mountain...
Here is the relaxed, confident driver at the wheel. You can see the high mountain meadows beyond him out the window. We were getting quite high by this point...
The Beartooth Highway is the section of Highway 212 between Red Lodge, Montana and Cooke City, Montana. It traces a series of steep zigzags and switchbacks, along the border to the 10,947 ft high Beartooth Pass. The approximate elevation rise is from 5,200 ft to 8,000 ft in 12 miles in the most daring landscapes.*

Here we are stopped for a little break at almost 10,000 feet elevation!
To many beautiful views!
Higher, higher and higher! Here we stopped at almost 11,000 feet to eat our lunch. Sure glad for that trailer behind us. No restaurants up here...
Headed down the other side. It's easy to see that we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for some pretty high powered snow blowing machines...
In the center of the picture below you can see "the bear tooth"...
Heralded as one of the most scenic drives in the United States, the Beartooth Highway, a National Scenic Byways All-American Road, features breathtaking views of the Absaroka and Beartooth Mountains, and open high alpine plateaus dotted with countless glacial lakes, forested valleys, waterfalls and wildlife. **

There were SO MANY beautiful things along the way-NO WAY to capture them all on camera. It is a MUST SEE for all of you who READ THIS BLOG! ;)

A shot of Colter going over "Colter Pass"...

Here we are finally coming into Cooke City...

Here in Cooke City, we stopped to take a break. We saw our first buffalo of the trip here roaming through town. No good pictures of that. Randy took the kids out for a look around while Lita and I rested. I have to admit, I had a bit of a headache... maybe from my unfounded worry and tension of the day, or the lack of sleep the night before, or both... I don't know. But the nap was awesome and I was ready to go again!
Would I recommend taking a trailer over the Beartooth? My honest answer is that I WOULD NEVER DO IT MYSELF...but, that's not saying much since I refuse to parallel park my car, even if it's the very last parking space left.

Randy drove it fine and was totally at ease with it. That's what I have him around for right? But seriously, I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who isn't used to driving in the mountains. Driving the highway in a car would be no problem though, so... I highly recommend it!!!

Back on the road again, we headed toward Gardiner, Montana to get settled in for the night. We did laundry, ate supper and crawled in bed.

To be continued,
Alison

*this information comes from wikipedia
**this information comes from beartoothhighway.com