Beartooth Scenic Byway

 

I am writing this on September 29. We are in the Black Hills of South Dakota. As usual, I am a bit behind on my blog. In this entry, I will write about the events of a week ago. Much has happened since then and I will write about that in the coming days. In the interest in keeping my family and friends up to date, I need to let you know our plans. Last night we got a message from our daughter, Shannon. She and her Husband were headed to the hospital because she was having contractions and the doctor wanted to check her out. She is not due for three weeks. We were all concerned that the baby was going to be born last night. As it turned out, she was sent home and we will wait a bit longer. The problem is that we are about 1000 miles from Missouri. Kim was ready to hitch up first thing this morning and get to Missouri in about 3 days. After talking to Shannon this morning we have decided to do a very abbreviated tour of the Black Hills and The Badlands NP today and then head for Missouri tomorrow. That all could change at any minute if the little baby decides to make an early appearance.

OK, back to our regularly scheduled programming…

On September 22, we were camped at Cooney Reservoir State Park in central Montana. It was a decent park and we had a nice site on the lake. Here is a shot of our site and the lake:

The sunset was pretty nice. See those mountains in the distance? Well, I will tell you all about them…

The only real problem with this park is the dirt road you have to take to get in there. It was dusty and wash boarded. I told an employee of the park when we arrived about my concerns about the road and she said they have been trying to get the county to grade the road. We were awoken the next morning by a grader working out side of our rig.

The road was much improved after he got done.

Rarely in life do you have the ability to get a second chance at a missed opportunity. Back in May, we visited Yellowstone National Park. We made a drive up through the Lamar Valley and through an area east of the park. We thought we had driven over what people were calling Beartooth pass. After reading the account and seeing the pictures posted by our friend Darrell in his blog, we knew we had missed it. We went south on the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway. I have heard from a number of people how impressive this drive is.

Now, on our trip back to the east, I noticed that we were going to pass fairly close to this road. We could approach it from the north and drive back to the point on the other side where we had turned off back in May. I was very excited to right this wrong. We were blessed with a beautiful sunny day.

We left Cooney SP and headed up through Red Lodge, Montana. It is a very cool little town with a very busy Main Street. It is also a home to a couple of ski areas.

After we drove out of Red Lodge the scenery got awesome very quickly. I got this shot as a title shot for the day:

We headed up into a beautiful valley. The valley is full of large rocks and other formations. It is breathtaking.

The other really cool thing about this day is the Quaking Aspens were turning and near peak. As you can tell by my title photo on the blog, We love Aspens. The contrast with the green and the rocks is awesome.

We stopped at a campground at the foot of the first major uphill. It was one of the most beautiful campgrounds I have ever seen, but it was already closed for the winter. That seemed strange because of the beautiful weather on this day.

Then we headed up the mountain. It climbed and climbed with some serious switchbacks.

The view across the valley just kept getting better.

Here is a shot of the road we were driving on:

We came to a scenic overlook and we thought we were near the top. Boy, was I wrong. The overlook was out on a point and you had views off of both sides.

We continued the drive and continued to gain elevation. I took about 50 pictures, so I won’t publish all of them, but here are a few of my favorites:

The views were simply indescribable. This area is one of the most scenic I have ever seen. If you have been on the “Going to the Sun” Road in Glacier NP. Think just as beautiful, but much larger. It certainly helped that we had such an awesome weather day. We made the summit at nearly 11,000 feet and went down the other side where the Aspens were in full majesty.

This is my favorite shot of the day. This is Pilot and Index mountains.

The grandeur of the place can not be described. I spent the day in awe and must have said “WOW!” 1000 times. This stuff never gets old to Kim and I.

We were so happy that we got a second chance at Beartooth Highway. We loved it!

Now it was time to move on. We had a plan, but you never know how that plan was going to work out. Our next campsite was along the Bighorn river on the Crow Indian Reservation. I hope that our reception to Crow country is more friendly than the one that Lewis and a small detachment of the Corp of Discovery had. You will have to come back to see how that experience turned out.

An Awesome Sunset

 

On September 19th, we said our good byes to some new friends and then just hung out in the campground as new people took the place of the people that were leaving. It was now the weekend, so we had families again with children, but most of them were from the surrounding area of Montana. I find it interesting how the type of people change by time of year and day of week. We miss watching children playing and having fun in the great outdoors like we do all summer. It restores you faith in todays youth. Kids still love to put down the technology and get outside and find something new to experience, just like the generations did before them.

This was a normal Saturday night until Kim came in the trailer and said, “ Get your camera, you have to see this!”. I went outside and just stood there looking up. I have seen many sunsets in our travels, but this was one of the best ever. We could only think of one other that was close. That one was in Eufaula, Alabama back a few weeks before I retired.

This one was special because the entire sky was fully involved. The clouds all around the sky were reflecting the light of the setting sun.

This was the point where the sun sent down.

These were the clouds all around us reflecting the light.

And then as quickly as it came, it was gone. It was cool to look around the campground and see most of the people there outside of their rigs, looking up and taking pictures. It was truly magnificent.

The next day was Sunday and we decided to head into Three Forks, Montana to go to church. We arrived at the time on the web site only to find that we were an hour early. We took the short drive out to the Headwaters of the Missouri State Park. This is a great place to sit and ponder how the Corp of Discovery felt when they got to this point and was not sure which way to go. This is the place the Gallatin, Jefferson and Madison Rivers join to form the Mighty Missouri River.

Notice the Gallatin mountain range in the background.

We don’t take selfies often, but we did on this beautiful morning as we were sending a video message to a special person that we keep in our daily prayers.

After church and the grocery store, we were driving back to the campground and took a shot of this bridge out in a field. This is clearly the bridge to nowhere.

We drove past the campground and up the canyon to get another look at the rock formations a few miles up from our campground. We had seen them on the way in, but had not been back that way. We are also not leaving that way.

I really like this one:

This hole in the rock is man made. They were quarrying something along this ridge.

We had a great time staying at Lewis and Clark Caverns SP. It is a beautiful place and there is a great deal more to do than we did. If we had stayed longer, we would have gone for a float on the Jefferson river.

We spent the rest of Sunday getting ready for our next move. I was looking at the map and noticed something that became a quest. It is not often in your life that you have the opportunity to capture a missed opportunity. This was one of those times for us. I will show you what I am talking about in my next entry. Get ready for some images of some of the most majestic scenery we have seen on this trip. It was truly jaw dropping.

My Brother Bob’s, now famous quote: “ You know that you are living life correctly when you take the time to appreciate sunsets.”

An Awesome Sunset

 

On September 19th, we said our good byes to some new friends and then just hung out in the campground as new people took the place of the people that were leaving. It was now the weekend, so we had families again with children, but most of them were from the surrounding area of Montana. I find it interesting how the type of people change by time of year and day of week. We miss watching children playing and having fun in the great outdoors like we do all summer. It restores you faith in todays youth. Kids still love to put down the technology and get outside and find something new to experience, just like the generations did before them.

This was a normal Saturday night until Kim came in the trailer and said, “ Get your camera, you have to see this!”. I went outside and just stood there looking up. I have seen many sunsets in our travels, but this was one of the best ever. We could only think of one other that was close. That one was in Eufaula, Alabama back a few weeks before I retired.

This one was special because the entire sky was fully involved. The clouds all around the sky were reflecting the light of the setting sun.

This was the point where the sun sent down.

These were the clouds all around us reflecting the light.

And then as quickly as it came, it was gone. It was cool to look around the campground and see most of the people there outside of their rigs, looking up and taking pictures. It was truly magnificent.

The next day was Sunday and we decided to head into Three Forks, Montana to go to church. We arrived at the time on the web site only to find that we were an hour early. We took the short drive out to the Headwaters of the Missouri State Park. This is a great place to sit and ponder how the Corp of Discovery felt when they got to this point and was not sure which way to go. This is the place the Gallatin, Jefferson and Madison Rivers join to form the Mighty Missouri River.

Notice the Gallatin mountain range in the background.

We don’t take selfies often, but we did on this beautiful morning as we were sending a video message to a special person that we keep in our daily prayers.

After church and the grocery store, we were driving back to the campground and took a shot of this bridge out in a field. This is clearly the bridge to nowhere.

We drove past the campground and up the canyon to get another look at the rock formations a few miles up from our campground. We had seen them on the way in, but had not been back that way. We are also not leaving that way.

I really like this one:

This hole in the rock is man made. They were quarrying something along this ridge.

We had a great time staying at Lewis and Clark Caverns SP. It is a beautiful place and there is a great deal more to do than we did. If we had stayed longer, we would have gone for a float on the Jefferson river.

We spent the rest of Sunday getting ready for our next move. I was looking at the map and noticed something that became a quest. It is not often in your life that you have the opportunity to capture a missed opportunity. This was one of those times for us. I will show you what I am talking about in my next entry. Get ready for some images of some of the most majestic scenery we have seen on this trip. It was truly jaw dropping.

My Brother Bob’s, now famous quote: “ You know that you are living life correctly when you take the time to appreciate sunsets.”

An Awesome Sunset

 

On September 19th, we said our good byes to some new friends and then just hung out in the campground as new people took the place of the people that were leaving. It was now the weekend, so we had families again with children, but most of them were from the surrounding area of Montana. I find it interesting how the type of people change by time of year and day of week. We miss watching children playing and having fun in the great outdoors like we do all summer. It restores you faith in todays youth. Kids still love to put down the technology and get outside and find something new to experience, just like the generations did before them.

This was a normal Saturday night until Kim came in the trailer and said, “ Get your camera, you have to see this!”. I went outside and just stood there looking up. I have seen many sunsets in our travels, but this was one of the best ever. We could only think of one other that was close. That one was in Eufaula, Alabama back a few weeks before I retired.

This one was special because the entire sky was fully involved. The clouds all around the sky were reflecting the light of the setting sun.

This was the point where the sun sent down.

These were the clouds all around us reflecting the light.

And then as quickly as it came, it was gone. It was cool to look around the campground and see most of the people there outside of their rigs, looking up and taking pictures. It was truly magnificent.

The next day was Sunday and we decided to head into Three Forks, Montana to go to church. We arrived at the time on the web site only to find that we were an hour early. We took the short drive out to the Headwaters of the Missouri State Park. This is a great place to sit and ponder how the Corp of Discovery felt when they got to this point and was not sure which way to go. This is the place the Gallatin, Jefferson and Madison Rivers join to form the Mighty Missouri River.

Notice the Gallatin mountain range in the background.

We don’t take selfies often, but we did on this beautiful morning as we were sending a video message to a special person that we keep in our daily prayers.

After church and the grocery store, we were driving back to the campground and took a shot of this bridge out in a field. This is clearly the bridge to nowhere.

We drove past the campground and up the canyon to get another look at the rock formations a few miles up from our campground. We had seen them on the way in, but had not been back that way. We are also not leaving that way.

I really like this one:

This hole in the rock is man made. They were quarrying something along this ridge.

We had a great time staying at Lewis and Clark Caverns SP. It is a beautiful place and there is a great deal more to do than we did. If we had stayed longer, we would have gone for a float on the Jefferson river.

We spent the rest of Sunday getting ready for our next move. I was looking at the map and noticed something that became a quest. It is not often in your life that you have the opportunity to capture a missed opportunity. This was one of those times for us. I will show you what I am talking about in my next entry. Get ready for some images of some of the most majestic scenery we have seen on this trip. It was truly jaw dropping.

My Brother Bob’s, now famous quote: “ You know that you are living life correctly when you take the time to appreciate sunsets.”