Never a Wrong Turn (Ever): Bear Tooth Highway

Mike has gone to California to visit family and left me with the dog, and two of his three sisters. All four of us are not the type to sit around and pine over Mike's absence so we planned an adventure. We drove from Emmigrant, Montana across Northern Yellowstone to the Beartooth Highway. It goes from Cooke City to Redlodge, Montana. It was described by Charles Kuralt as America's most beautiful road and the top of the road is at 10,974 feet. (The hightest road in Washington, Hart Pass, goes up to 8000 plus.) Going through Yellowstone and over Beartooth pass were both slow going. We left at 10:30 a.m. and didn't return home until 9 p.m. It was a long and wonderful day.

First, driving through Yellowstone, we learned again that bison are BIG and whatever they want, they get. We were driving through a valley that had a large herd of bison off in the distance. They were quite impressive, and I was thrilled to see so many of them in a natural habitat. And then . . . . all traffic stopped as about fifteen bison nonchalantly walked down the road beside us. There were not even ten feet away when they passed. We watched them pass, without reacting to all of these humans staring in disbelief. Amazing. Then, a little farther down the road, one bison was walking the center line and he wasn't moving! Maybe he needed to prove that he was not inebriated and could walk a straight line. Laura, a seasoned Montana resident, tried to herd him off the road with the car but he wasn't having any of it. We passed and he walked the line. It is never dull in Yellowstone!

See - he is right on the line!

We saw antelope too!

After reaching Cooke City, the road begins climbing and climbing. It goes up many switchbacks that I would have thought only appropriate for foot trails, past the tree line and up into the rocks. So many rocks that I could understand how the Rocky Mountains were named, even if I don't think it is a very creative name. I was amazed by trees growing in the rocks with no visible dirt to nourish them. How do they do it?

We stopped at the top where we could see Beartooth Mountain, in a meadow that screamed for Julie Andrews to sing "The hills are alive with the sound of music, la la la". I tried twirling around and singing it, and some nearby motorcyclists agreed with me that it was the perfect place for the song, but it just isn't the same without Julie!

Beartooth mountain is in the middle. Does it look like a bear tooth?

Julie Andrews belongs on this meadow!

Bernie tried to stand in for Julie but it didn't work.

So the three of us tried to - to no avail, she can't be replaced!

We arrived at Redlodge around 4 p.m. Later than we had planned, so we ate dinner at an outdoor restaurant. As we ate we noticed that several souped up or restored old cars were driving the main drag or parked on the street. We enjoyed comparing the reactions of men to the cars and the reactions of woman. Quite a difference in reactions. When we were ready to leave, we decided to drive north to I-90 rather than return the same route that we had come. We drove on a swirly road, up and down through hills in beautiful farmland. We went through a sleepy town, Absaroke, Mt. that looked like it had been preserved from the fifties. It was another right turn on an unplanned path.