Thus is the description the late Charles Kuralt gave to the Beartooth Highway (BT), a 68 mile long road connecting Red Lodge and Cooke City, MT which opened in
June 1936 – I cannot imagine building this road back then or even now for that
fact. But before we even got on the BT,
we traveled the 46 mile long Chief Joseph Scenic Hwy (CJ) from just north of Cody, WY to where it hits the BT about 15 miles east of
Cooke City, MT – both the BT and CJ are closed in the winter requiring the road
through the NE Yellowstone entrance to be maintained to prevent Cooke City from
being cut off in the winter.
While
the BT is the more famous of the two, the CJ is no slouch when it comes to
awesome scenery - pasture, mountains, wetlands - and tight curves. Rather
than add a lot of words here, I’ll just post photos and you can click on above the
links if you want more info or photos Unfortunately our views and shots were affected by a smoky haze from western wildfires.
The BT is an engineering masterpiece as it switches back it;s way up and down the mountain - it's like Lombard St. in San Francisco with more distance between the curves.
As we ascended to Beartooth Pass, I was continually amazed at the abundance of lakes the amount of water in them and small streams that seemed to be on top of the mountains.
As we ascended to Beartooth Pass, I was continually amazed at the abundance of lakes the amount of water in them and small streams that seemed to be on top of the mountains.
Then we finally saw the source of the water - snow that was still melting.
We continued to wind our way through the switch-back curves toward the summit and it's spectacular views.
I would love to have made this drive on a very clear day. We have been on four very scenic western American drives: this one, the Going-To-The-Sun-Road in Glacier NP, the road (US-34) up the east side of RMNP, and the Million Dollar Hwy (US-550) in south central CO. The views in all but the last one were negatively impacted by the smoky haze from wildfires burning somewhere in the West and often hundreds of miles away. I guess we need to make these trips in the late spring/ early summer if we want to see them at their clear best.
We continued to wind our way through the switch-back curves toward the summit and it's spectacular views.
I would love to have made this drive on a very clear day. We have been on four very scenic western American drives: this one, the Going-To-The-Sun-Road in Glacier NP, the road (US-34) up the east side of RMNP, and the Million Dollar Hwy (US-550) in south central CO. The views in all but the last one were negatively impacted by the smoky haze from wildfires burning somewhere in the West and often hundreds of miles away. I guess we need to make these trips in the late spring/ early summer if we want to see them at their clear best.
Photos
can be enlarged by clicking on them.
Have
a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.
Larry
8/6/15 event date
8/6/15 event date
What an amazing drive and the scenery just awesome, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteTruly magnificent scenery there Larry. What an incredible drive I see you even encountered some Indians out there :)
ReplyDeleteSam
We did this drive a few years back. Thanks for the pictures. I can recall each place where you stopped for the pics. A wonderful drive!
ReplyDeleteHad a more than tough enough time with the road through Rocky Mountain NP...................
ReplyDeleteLarry, great photos and yes, you captured that beautiful country. We have friends who live in Montana and made that trip several years ago_would do it again in a minute. You're getting closer. :)
ReplyDeleteThat is just staggeringly gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteLarry, Despite the smoke, you captured some very nice photos! We were lucky when we drove the Beartooth Highway. It was in August but it wasn't much of a fire season and the only place we really encountered much smoke was in one valley in SW Montana. I've now added the Chief Joseph Scenic Hwy. to my to do trip list! Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
ReplyDeleteLarry... P.S. First Class postage is up to 49 cents now... Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
ReplyDeleteFantastic beautiful rugged country.... but I wouldn't want my car to break down and have to walk to the nearest garage!
ReplyDeleteWow Larry - I could hear the soundtrack from Dances With Wolves in the background as I scanned through your amazing photos. Thanks for sharing this drive - it is one to remember!
ReplyDeleteGreat views and I'm sure the pics don't do it justice to seeing it in person. I'm guessing the mobile phone signal there in that vast open "foreverness" is about the same as it was when they built the road back then, ha ha.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! We've been lucky this year. Not much haze here - YET!
ReplyDeleteWe drove the BT on motorcycles a few years ago. Beautiful.
ReplyDelete