Road Trip to CA Day 8 - Beartooth and Chief Joseph Highways

Day 8 was the epic trip to Yellowstone. Mike and I planned to take Beartooth Highway, a 68-mile road that peaks at almost 11,000ft and has hundreds of turns and switchbacks. We left Red Lodge, MT in hopes that the avalanche on Beartooth Highway had been cleared...

The beginning of Beartooth isn't bad at all...

It gets interesting very quickly

After a few switchbacks, we decided to stop for some photos:

A bit higher, there was this lookout....180 degree view, the lookout is straight ahead about 200 yards:

The path to the lookout was covered in rocks and snow, so Mike and I hiked along the edge of the railing: 

 And a 180 degree view from the lookout:

A view from higher up of that lookout:

We figured there'd be snow ahead with plows this huge, but we were still hopeful the avalanche had been cleared:

Aaaaannnddd now we see why those plows were so huge:

Apparently marshmallows expand a bit when you're at 9,000ft (these became the key snack for the rest of our trip):

Guess they couldn't plow the avalanche:

At this point Mike and I had to turn back around and find another entrance into Yellowstone. We surveyed the map and made our decision based on "average number of turns per mile of road." Main highways were obviously out of the question since they'd have a very low average. Hairpin turns counted 2x more than normal turns, so we settled on Dead Indian Hill Road (wtf?) and Chief Joseph Highway as it was the best alternative to the avalanche covered Beartooth Highway.

Yes, this road should do nicely:

Without question:

This is basically how we looked anytime we were out of the car. iPhone in hand, SLR around our neck:

Next up, Yellowstone. 

Road Trip to CA Day 7

After leaving Devil's Tower, Mike and I continued Westward through side roads in Wyoming and into Montana.

Wyoming highway 14:

At the summet, the view changed a bit...this was at about 10,000ft, heat blasting, seat heaters maxed out:

And boy were those snow banks high!

On the other side of that 10,000ft blizzard of a road:

Of course we had to pick yet another dirt road:

Just outside of Red Lodge, MT:

We found out there was an avalanche on Beartooth Highway, so we decided to just spend the night in Red Lodge, and hope the road was cleared in the morning. We asked the locals what there is to do 'round these parts, and they suggested the local saloon for some pig racing. Apparently it took them 10 years to get pig racing legalized. All the proceeds go towards scholarships, so Mike and I pitched in and made a few wagers. On our way to the Saloon (yes, the town was so small, there was only one saloon), we passed by an old mining camp which had one of the worst explosions in MT's history:

Road Trip to CA Days 5 and 6

Finally updating this thing....

So after that restful horrible night, Mike and I somehow squeezed the gear back into the car, compared photos from the day before, and rushed off to see the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, and Devil's Tower all in one day.

So you're driving along and everything is just really flat like this:


And then suddenly the badlands appear.....they obviously look like they were carved by water, but they're a higher elevation than the rest of the area (and have no mountain connected to them)...so wild:



After driving through the badlands we hit up Mt. Rushmore, and hiked up a bank that we'll just say is off the beaten path:

We decided to take the scenic way to Devil's Tower...little did we know that 40 minutes down the road, it'd turn into dirt for 30 miles.
This first one is a 360 degree view of the open cow pasture:

Getting closer to Devil's Tower, and then it finally came into sight:

We had a better(ish) night of camping at the base of Devil's Tower. Next up: trekking through more back roads to spend two days at Yellowstone.