Retirement Road Trip 2011: Day 10, Sunday 9/4

310 miles, still camped at Osen's Campground Livingston, MT

Frost on the grass for the second morning in a row!  Road trip again, but just Zoey and me this time.  My real goal was to travel the Beartooth Highway.  But to get there, I had to go through the northern section of Yellowstone National Park.  Kathy and I had visited the park way back in 1978 and had seen Old Faithful and Yellowstone Falls.  I had no desire to fight the anticipated traffic to see them again.

The trip would be a lengthy, circular drive.  From Livingston, I would take RT. 89 south and into Yellowstone National Park.  At Mammoth Hot Springs I would head east across the northern portion of the Park and exit at the Northeast Entrance.  At that point, the road is called the Beartooth Highway, and I would continue east on it to Red Lodge, MT.  Red Lodge is the official end of the Beartooth, and I would pick up RT. 78 north to Columbus, where I would jump on I-90 west to finish up the circle back in Livingston.  The plan turned out to be flawless and the circle drive totaled 310 miles and 10 hours.

As you go south on RT. 89 out of Livingston, you pass through what is called Paradise Valley.  The Yellowstone River runs the length of the valley and there are towering mountains on each side.  For about 50 miles this valley supports a variety of farming activities, especially cattle grazing and irrigated alfalfa.

There was a line at the Park entrance.  As expected, the Park was really crowded.  The weather was beautiful and everyone wanted to get one last trip in over Labor Day Weekend before the "end" of summer.  I did stop briefly at Mammoth Hot Springs.  These rock formations are caused by the bubbling of hot spring water the precipitate out minerals that are deposited over time.

From Mammoth Hot Springs I headed east across the Park.  A high point of this part of the trip was the Lamar Valley.  I used to show my students a video from National Geographic about the reintroduction of wolves to the Lamar Valley.  The Lamar is absolutely beautiful and is home to wide community of predator and prey animals.  Today I only saw herds of buffalo.  But the Lamar also supports herds of Elk and a variety of predators such as the wolf and the grizzly bear.

I also saw evidence of the 1998 forest fires that stormed through the Park.  I used to teach a unit on forest fires and showed my students a PBS video about the fires.  It was really interesting to find examples of those fires from 23 years ago and to see the natural progression of re-growth.

As I exited the Park, the Beartooth Highway begins.  The late CBS news correspondent Charles Kuralt called this the most beautiful highway he had ever driven.  The actual road is RT. 212 and winds some 64 miles from Cooke City at Yellowstone Park's Northeast Entrance to Red Lodge, Montana.  The drive normally takes about 3 hours, depending on how many times you stop to take pictures, which is almost every turnout.  The traffic was quite heavy today because of the Labor Day Weekend.  The Beartooth passes through three National Forests and over an 11,000 foot pass.  There are switchbacks galore.  Most of the road is in very good shape.  There was construction on a three mile stretch where they were rebuilding the road.  The towns at either end, Cooke City and Red Lodge, were packed with tourists.

Before traveling this road, my most favorite road in America was a tie between the Going to the Sun road in Glacier National Park and the Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park.  The Beartooth Highway may have them beat.  A camera can not do justice to the views.  I really want to travel this road again, but drive east to west the next time.

After getting to Red Lodge, it was a quick (in Montana terms) 2 hour drive back to the camper in Livingston.

Take care.......