Beartooth Highway

On Friday, most of our day was spent driving to our KOA Kampground in West Yellowstone, MT. Our route took us out of South Dakota, to Wyoming, to Montana, back into Wyoming, back into Montana, back into Wyoming again, and finally ending in Montana. Thus, we saw many state signs. While not necessarily the most direct route, it was definitely the coolest.

In Wyoming, the landscape was still somewhat barren and flat, but it didn't take long before we were driving through large hills the size of the Appalachians. Main attractions along the route included horse ranches, small oil fields, and refineries (which smelled awful!). Before we entered Montana we got our first view of the Rockies in the distance. We came over one of the large hills and there the were standing like huge giants in the distance, some with bits of snow still on top. We were disappointed when I-90 turned to detour around the mountains.

Crossing over into Montana, things were much the same. Until Beartooth Highway. In preparing our itinerary for the trip, I had checked the Scenic Byways website for any possible scenic routes and one that was heavily suggested was Beartooth Highway. This turned out to be well worth it. I'm not going to try to spend much time describing it because it will be better to just look at the pictures (once I get them uploaded), but I will say a few things. The Volvo reached 11,000 ft on this drive. (For comparison, Mt. Washington, the highest peak in the northeast, has an altitude of 6,288 ft.) We spent a lot of time driving on switchbacks up the mountain side and getting out of the car to snap pictures and admire the view. One of the vistas had a lot of chipmunks that were as brave as the squirrels on PSU campus. One of the chipmunks was almost 3 times the size of a normal chipmunk and particularly brave; more proof that tourists must feed them a LOT. There was one point that we walked a good distance from the car to look at a deer downhill, and we walked briskly to get back to the Volvo. When we got back in the car we realized we were out of breath from that little bit of exertion. Then we remembered the atmosphere is a lot thinner at 11,000 ft. The temperature was down to 50 degrees F at 4:00 PM. There were also bits of snow/ice on these peaks within walking distance. Tyler says I should be calling them "glaciers" but I continue to call it snow.

The end of Beartooth Highway brings you to Cooke City, MT. A very, very small town nestled in the mountains just outside the northeastern entrance to Yellowstone. We ate dinner at a restaurant in this area, and it was surprisingly good, despite being in the middle of nowhere. We entered Yellowstone. It was after 7:00 PM at this point, and they say dusk is a good time to see wildlife. Not long after entering the gates we saw a bison all by itself. This was followed by an elk. Further along was a herd of bison in the distance. Then a pronghorn. Suddenly we were looking ahead at the road and saw an animal running across directly in front of a van that was coming towards us. It didn't take long to realize it was a bear! As we sped up to see the bear, we saw the telltale golden fur of a grizzly. The grizzly slowed as it reached the top of a hill on our side of the road and we watched as it lumbered slowly on. The rest of the trip through Yellowstone was uneventful as the sun set.

We reached the KOA at about 10:00 PM and it was really cold. Most of Yellowstone and the surrounding area is above 6500 ft, so it gets pretty chilly at night. We quickly set up the tent and went to bed. While it was freezing outside, we stayed warm in the sleeping bags. The only thing that was cold for me was my nose, which felt like it was going to fall off. I made Tyler walk me to the bathrooms at 4:30 AM because I was afraid of running into a bear, and when he was checking the weather the next day he informed me that it got down to 40 degrees F that night and the coldest point was at 4:30 AM. :-)