What a Difference a Day Makes--Recrossing the Beartooth Pass and the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway

We left Red Lodge, Montana, early Saturday morning (Sept. 11) and headed back over the Beartooth Mountains. The sky was as blue as could be, no sign of the snowstorm the night before.

We stopped a few miles outside of town to snap some photos of the river. (Not sure which river it was, but am sure it's a tributary of the Yellowstone River. It was on the right-hand side of the road--US 212--southwest of town.)

The road ahead looked promising. See what I said about a blue sky?

Check out the rock slide catcher. (I'm sure that's not what it's called, but it gets the idea across.)

Here's the closeup. It's made of steel. Looks like chainmail, reinforced with a layer of steel rings.

While driving over the mountain passes in the snowstorm was exciting and beautiful, these were the views we expected when we put this route on our itinerary.

Lakes dot the countryside, between the mountain peaks.

The ice and snow were melting in the warm sun, but it looks like it got worse overnight, judging by how much was left.

Don't look down. There were lots of places without guardrails where I, for one, would have appreciated them. The poles on the side of the road are to help snow plows find the road when it's covered in snow. (The other side has similar poles, as seen in the photo above.)

I'm not sure what this is for. It's not a ski lift. Any ideas?

Not too long before the Bear's Tooth, we came across this feller buried up to his waist in snow. Looks like there was some fun had on the mountain last night (or early this morning).

What a cutie.

Remember the photo at Bear's Tooth last night (where the couple were taking a photo)? Well, here's what the Bear's Tooth looks like (this one, at least--I guess there may be others that count as bear's teeth, too).

This time, we stopped at the pulloff at West Summit--and the wind blew my door shut with such force, I'd have broken my legs if I hadn't caught it before it hit them.

See how the wind is blowing my pants and hair? It was hard to stand upright.

We descend around sharp curves.

Here comes a snow plow. As you enter the scenic highway, there are signs informing you that snowplows do not plow after about 4 p.m.and before 8 a.m. Sometime in September, the road/pass will close for the season.

The mountains seemed to go on forever. Around every mountain, we'd see the range stretching from one side of the horizon to the other.

Check out the long and winding road.

Now this is a serious-looking snow plow. Check out those claws! (It was parked at a turnout, though, because the snow wasn't deep enough for this kind of power.)

As we neared the turnoff for the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway, we stopped to capture this photo of a pretty meadow with Yellowstone in the background.

Another high peak off to the west, but soon we'd be turning east toward the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming.

Yet another of the great scenic highways of America's West. This is northeast of Yellowstone, taking us to the Bighorn Mountains.

We were too early for large displays of golden aspens (that will come in the next few weeks), but I noticed that the seedlings and saplings turned golden early, so stopped for a bit of fall color.

We came upon the highest bridge in Wyoming--the Sunlight Bridge (click here to see what it looks like when you aren't standing on it)--and stopped to take some photos. I'm not sure what other activities they were prohibiting with this sign.

Looking down (with the girders of the bridge showing for perspective) onto Sunlight Creek.

Here was the view of Sunlight Creek from the other side of the bridge.

At a pulloff high up one of the peaks, we stopped and I found this sculpture depicting the Nez Perce. Chief Joseph's band of non-treaty Nez Perce fought in Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho to avoid being put on a reservation. Of course, they lost the war ultimately, and in northern Montana, Chief Joseph uttered his famous words: "...I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever." Then he surrendered his people to a reservation in Idaho. 

Here's a photo taken at this turnout. Below (right side) is the road we had just traveled to get to this lookout.

Further down the mountain, as the terrain began to level out, we saw this butte in the distance. We later discovered it was two different buttes, not one as they appeared here.

These red rocks were interesting. We could see snowcapped mountains off in the distance. These may have been the Bighorn Mountains.

Here you can see the two separate buttes.

We drove through a lot of open range areas where cows and horses roamed free, but someone did some serious fencing along this road (northern Wyoming, before getting back into Montana, I believe).

These ranches looked more like the desert to me. Not much rainfall here.

We crossed into Montana and outside Belfry there was a beautiful valley with farmland.

We got a kick out of the school sign.

On a much more somber note, before leaving Montana for the last time, I wanted to photograph one of the white crosses placed by the American Legion of Montana to indicate where roadside fatalities had occurred. For reference, here's the sign I took a photo of as we were entering Montana on the Beartooth Scenic Byway Friday night.

I had noticed the uniform markers from a week earlier when we first entered Montana. This marker was placed not far from the Wyoming border north of Frannie (Wyo.), as we left Montana for the last time (on this trip, at least). A loved one had place on it an autumn wreath.

Here's a parting shot taken in Montana, with the promise of the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming to come, where I would FINALLY get my moose.

Beartooth Pass in a Snow Squall

On Friday, Sept. 10, after leaving Yellowstone, we headed for Red Lodge, Montana, where we had a room reservation. When we made the reservation, the plan was to drive over the beautiful Absaroka-Beartooth mountain passes on the Beartooth Scenic Highway in Wyoming and Montana. All day long, we had seen snow squalls up in the high mountains--and the roadbed at the highest point in this pass was at nearly 11,000 feet. (The snow line tended to be about 9,000 feet.)

As we exited Yellowstone at the northeast exit, we saw a sign saying the Beartooth Scenic Highway was open. So, we decided to go for it. A dark rain cloud blanketed the northeast Yellowstone area in darkness. And the rain was falling as snow up ahead, where we were headed.

We still hadn't stopped sightseeing, though, capturing these mule deer crossing the road. (Taken through the rainy windshield.)

The roadway continued to be wet (not icy) as snow began to accumulate on the ground.

As we climbed higher in elevation, we were enveloped by the snow squall. (That's the guard rail and post in the lower part of the photo. We didn't stop to too often to take photos! For the first time in the trip, on this leg of the journey, my husband Ray took up the camera and shot this and many of the other photos taken as we crossed the Beartooth Mountains pass.)

The the road was still clear.

We captured this beautiful vista from a side window.

Here's a shot showing the switchback roads lying ahead of us. Looks like a little slush accumulating at the roadside.

And the snow, snow, snow, came down, down, down.

Near the Bear's Tooth marker turnout we saw a couple pulled over to take a photo. As you can see by the snow drifting across the road, the winds were really high. We were nearing the West Summit, where the winds seemed to be strongest. Ray snapped this photo.

I was driving, so I asked for the camera and pulled up alongside them to snap this photo. The man asked if we wanted him to move out of the way. I laughed and said, we can't see the Bear's Tooth--these two people WERE the photo I wanted.

The sun tried to break through the heavy clouds, without much success.

Ray snapped this shot of the snow blowing across the pass. I was getting a little nervous about driving through the drifting snow! But was more afraid of pulling over and getting stuck up there.

The actual pass was rather harrowing and the camera was put aside so we both could focus on the driving. (Ray was my moral support.) Then, shortly after crossing over the West Summit, we looked out and the snow was no longer falling and blowing. Look at those canyons!

Then, like night and day, not long after we crossed the pass, we reached the eastern side of the mountains, where the skies were blue, the roads dry, and you'd think it was a different day altogether. In the upper-left side of the photo, notice the little stretch of road. Then the longer stretch below. We did lots of winding our way around mountainsides.

We stopped at the Rock Creek Vista Point (elevation 9,190 feet) to switch drivers. Unlike similar elevations in Yellowstone and west of the Beartooth Mountains, there was no snow here either.

But it was very cold and blustery! Looking back to the west, we could see what we'd just been through.

From here, we drove on to Red Lodge, Montana. While I didn't take any photos, it was a neat little town, with lots of artsy types. Much bigger than I thought, too. I expected it to be a small tourist town. For dinner, we went to the Carbon County Steakhouse for a real treat--Ray had some of the best salmon he's ever had and I had a rack of ribs. Possibly the best meal we had on the trip (and we had a lot of good meals!).

Next up, a return over the Beartooth Pass in sunshine and on to the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming.