We are now in Red Lodge, MT. The entrance to Beartooth Scenic Highway and Chief Joseph Scenic Highway. This town has single campground, Mom and Pop type, our favorite. We checked in, left payment open until we decide how long we are going to stay. The weather forecast isn't the greatest.
Since today is clear we decided to take an hours rest and then head to the Beartooth. We sure didn't know what we were getting into. We climbed, via may switchbacks, from 6500' to 11000'. Sometimes we had to turn the car around to be able to get the door open to get out due to high winds. This is a wonderful drive, not to be missed, put it on your bucket list if you are out this way. We felt we could touch the clouds and sky.
The Beartooth Scenic Byway:
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| A few switchbacks, drove this road 3 times!!! |
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| The Beartooth |
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| Wonderful Valleys |
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| Well above the tree line |
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| A glacier lake |
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| We were surprised by the number of lakes and glaciers |
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We were following a motor home down the Beartooth. There are signs at the beginning saying no large motor homes or trucks but he ignored that. He was afraid of the road, it is narrow and twisty kept to the center and would almost come to a stop if anything came toward him. He rode his brakes. Finally he let us pass, I guess he made it down but when we passed him we weren't even at the switchback portion of the road. Hope he learned his lesson.
The next day we drove the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, not as spectacular as the Beartooth, not as high, but still a challenge.
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| In the middle of all the granite, a sandstone hill appeared |
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| At one of the turnouts was this sculpture of Chief Joseph |
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| Our Road |
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| Glaciers all over |
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| Open range, lots of cattle wandering around |
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| The steer wins!! |
We have had 2 days of rain so we will be moving on soon. An added incentive is new snow on the peaks, time to move a little more south. The challenge is which way to go. We can't take the motorhome over the Beartooth so our only option is to head north, go across Montana to get past Yellowstone and then head south. We don't like repeating roads but we don't have much choice since campgrounds are closing down.
I did some checking on places to stop and our first night from here will be an Alpaca Farm. We joined an organization called Harvest Hosts and they provide free overnight camping at wineries, museums, farms, restaurants and golf courses. There are no hookups but with the motor home that is not a problem. Looking forward to this stop.
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