Glad to be Alive

A Bison In LaMar Valley in Yellowstone National Park

Snow on the Beartooth Highway

A River Cutting Through the Snow


The Deep Snow Beside Our Truck & Trailer

The Tight Corners Through the Tunnel of Snow and the Beginnings of Wet Road

Wednesday, June 15

We enjoyed the trees, birds, and lilacs in our park-like campground as we packed up. It was a short drive to Bozeman, Montana, which was another beautiful college town (Montana State University). We took a wrong turn and ended up driving around a lot of the town and liked it better the more we saw of it. Actually, a lady gave us directions and Bob didn't believe her and she ended up being right.

We stopped in Livingston, a little farther southeast, for gas and there we were on Highway 89, just 58 miles from the northwest entrance to Yellowstone National Park. We looked at a map and saw that there was a loop we could do down 89, across the northern border of the park and back up the Beartooth Highway (that had been closed because of snow when we were there two years ago) to Billings, Montana and back on to 90 east. The whole loop was just over 200 miles and would be beautiful and we were ahead of schedule and so close and the next thing we knew, away we went. We called Ron and Thelma as we knew they'd encourage us, and they did.

We drove by more ranches with green fields, pines and bigger hills with more and more rock.

A word about ranchers: As romantic as these beautiful ranches looked, we saw dusty cowboys out mending fences in the wild winds and we pictured the work in the winter with blowing snow and sub zero temperatures and it all looked like a lot of work. Also, we saw many modern ranchers on the range driving cattle on 4 wheelers instead of traditional horses. Maybe I don't want to be a cowboy when I grow up.

The Yellowstone River ran along he road and was just raging. We stopped to take pictures and saw some white water rafters fly by. It looked pretty scary, but they were screaming with laughter or blind fear.

We stopped in Gardiner and got ice cream and coffee before we drove into the park. We asked a ranger if the Beartooth Highway was open and it was. We were good to go.

We wound through beautiful country to Mammoth Hotsprings. When we were there before, elk were walking around right in town. We didn't see any elk this time. We saw many deer, rapids, falls, and bison. We drove into LeMar Valley and at one stop, met a couple from San Diego who came here every June. They had high powered field glasses on stands. They let us watch a huge grizzly that was half way up in the hills from the valley. It was very cool and they were so nice to share with us.

Then at the other end of the valley, a whole group of people had gathered and were watching another, smaller grizzly. They too were all freely sharing their glasses. One young man even offered to adjust the height of his stand for me. They were a fun group.

We left the valley and began to climb. We went through Cooke City where we had stayed two years ago and on to where the highway split into Chief Joseph and Beartooth. We were thrilled that the Beartooth was opened and up we went and up and up. We stopped to take pictures, having no idea just how high we would get as we went from one switch back to another with increasing snow. We climbed to an elevation of 10,947 feet which was higher than we have ever been and, we were pulling a trailer! We couldn't believe the snow on the side of the road. At first, we laughed and I jumped out to show how high the snow was. Then we stopped and both got out and posed with Ben and let him romp about with his nose digging in the snow. And then, we were above the tree line and the snow was higher than our trailer and the wind was wild. It was hard to stand up in it if we tried to get out for a picture. Chunks of ice and snow hit our car and blew across the road. As we hit the barren summit, the road had slush covered patches. We are talking about steep switchbacks with narrow blind curves that have a 20 mph speed limit on good roads, with a shear cliff drop off on the side. I could not look over the edge. We got quiet, no longer laughing and at one point went into a slide. We both held our breath and I know the meaning of "time stood still." Thank God, and I mean, thank God,that Bob is a confident, experienced driver. What if he had been like the young couple we met driving a big rented motor home from Florida with no winter driving experience?! Anyway, he knew not to hit his breaks, and he steered through it and we hit traction again. We crawled down that mountain until we were out of the snow. What an experience! It was all so beautiful and we are of thankful heart that we are here to tell the story.

We got down the mountain and into the pines and had a lovely drive into Red Lodge where we stayed at a KOA. We set up with winter coats on and weren't sure if the shivering was from the cold or our wild experience. Bed never felt so good.