Back in 2013 Bill and I made a trip out west and hoped to drive the Beartooth Highway. The day we planned to take it they had closed it due to snow - in mid September. So we hoped to be able to take it on this trip even though it would add a few hours to our drive between Grand Teton and Bozeman. We woke up early and were on the road right about 7:30. Bill and I swapped places for the morning. I drove and Bill navigated. I always say Bill doesn't really get a break because he's mentally driving when I am driving. I now know the same goes for navigating... I found it very difficult to give up the control of that function! As we were driving in Yellowstone we kept seeing signs about a road closure. We saw it multiple times and it had us concerned. Eventually we realized that this was going to make our already long route even LONGER because we had to take an alternate route. We debated bailing out and just going to Bozeman but decided to hang tough and go for it. We did have a nice drive thru the park, seeing various animals including Bison, a wolf, a fox, and even a horse drawn wagon!
Besides the animals and their resulting animal jam on the highway we also saw lots of fly fisherman. I even saw one guy in a full wetsuit WITH a snorkel. The stream did not look that deep... so who knows.
Finally we found our way to the Beartooth Highway.
There is one shop on the whole highway called the Top of the World. The sign was next to the pit toilet next to the shop.
We also saw our first open carry here. Even though we have open carry in Virginia, we rarely see it.
Just a reminder...
The views would have been just amazing but the smoke from the fires was very heavy. This was the best I could get - and the wind was so strong up there that I was afraid I'd blow over the edge! Here the temp dropped to 60 degrees (before wind chill)! When we got to the end of the highway it was 85.
As we moved into Montana, Bill deserved a round of applause for his steady nerves while driving some really tough highway moments!
All in all it took us 11 hours to get to Bozeman. Taco Bell was next door to the hotel and for the first time in maybe 12 years, we called that dinner!
We close another great day happy but tired. Tomorrow we will begin our Glacier adventure and will have no internet for some time. I'll post again when I can. Till then we'll just work hard at making more wonderful memories (and I'll try to take notes so I don't forget anything!)
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