The Beartooth Scenic Highway

View along the way

Before we left Montana we wanted to drive the Beartooth Scenic Highway between Cooke City, MT and Red Lodge, MT.  An amazing piece of road construction.  It climbs to an elevation of slightly less than 11,000 feet which makes the highway the highest in elevation in both Wyoming (10,947 feet) and Montana (10,350 feet). 

Evidently it is one of the top scenic highways that motorcyclists MUST drive once in their lifetime…lots and lots of bikes traveling through in less than ideal conditions.  The weather looked threatening all day, but the rain held off until we entered Red Lodge.  The car was in desperate need of a bath although we would have preferred a bright blue sky day for this drive.  It wasn’t the best conditions, but it wasn’t a wasted day spent driving over this magnificent highway.

Road's a bit curvy...note speed is not 70 MPH

Our roadside picnic spot

Cooper had fun during our lunch stop. Amongst the huge boulders hid a group of picas that chirped and came out onto the rocks to torment him.  He came extraordinary close to getting one of the little buggers.  It came running right up to within a couple of feet from Cooper.  The pica dove for the rocks in the nick of time. 

Pica and his lunch

Pica

Rock Creek

We did take a 'road less travelled' called "Main Fork Rock Creek"...along the sides of this forest service road was set a series of camp sites.  Amazingly most sites were filled despite the less than ideal weather conditions.  A pretty desolate area that the Rock Creek ran along the side of the road.  We finally reached an area deemed 'too rough'...then watched a car get himself stuck in one of the ruts.  Thankfully we were not that car.

Once we reached I-90 and were heading back to Bozeman the rain came down…too bad the car didn’t get clean in the process.   Heading into our campsite it appeared that we dodged the rain once again. Tomorrow we’re heading out since the next 10 days are calling for increasing chances of thunderstorms.  No one enjoys wet dog smell, especially in a tent. 


Rainy return

Is appears that the we will be heading to Oregon…weather East of I-15 isn’t looking so good for the next 7 to 10 days so Wyoming, Colorado and Utah are on hold.