Beartooth
Pass, Wyoming/Montana:
Today we started early:
5:40 a.m. We wanted to spot animals in Lamar Valley. As we drove north from
Fishing Bridge, fog swirled delicately up from the Yellowstone River, making
eerie patterns above the water. The first animals we spotted were elk in the
trees next to the river.
For once, we did not
spot bison blocking the road in Hayden Valley! Our pleasant drive continued as
the sun started to come up. Another herd of elk was past the Tower Falls area.
When we turned east at
Tower toward Lamar Valley, we started seeing bison and pronghorns. About eight
miles from the junction, cars were stopped in both directions, lining the
roadsides. People were out of their cars with spotting scopes, cameras with
telephoto lenses, and others just staring at the hillside.
We stopped. It was a
brisk morning and we had our binoculars. I scanned the hillsides, valley, trees
and ridges for about five minutes but didn’t see anything.
Fantastic sunrise to start the day. |
You can see some of the cars in the rearview mirror. |
Finally, I asked a
group of people what they were looking at. The ones I talked to said there was
a bison carcass up over the ridge and about an hour ago four wolves had been spotted
in the valley. Apparently, two packs of wolves were fighting over the carcass. No
one had seen a wolf since then, but we could hear them howling. We tried in
vain to see a wolf, but didn’t and finally gave up after about 10-15 minutes of
searching.
Off we went to Trout
Lake for another hike the ranger at Fishing Bridge recommended to us. Just as
we reached the Trout Lake Trailhead parking lot, numerous bison blocked the
road in both directions. We sat there for quite a while. Two of the cars ahead
of us were backing up! Since no cars were moving in either direction, a
motorcyclist came charging up from the other way, revved his engines to a
throaty roar, and those bison scattered off the road. We waved thanks to him
for breaking the car/bison stalemate.
Parked our car at the
trailhead only to see a lone bull bison coming down the trail. We waited for
him to walk past the truck before hiking. The Trout Lake Trail is 1.2 miles
roundtrip. The first 0.3 miles climbs 150’ to the lake. Once at the top, we had
a delightful walk around the still lake with mountains reflected in its surface.
Otters live in the lake, but we did not see any.
Steep uphill to start hike. |
Trout Lake |
From
Trout Lake, Beartooth Scenic Highway to Red Lodge, Montana, and back was our
itinerary for the day. Such beautiful scenery it is…mountain ranges upon
mountain ranges, grassy meadows, Lake Creek Falls, Index and Pilot peaks,
Beartooth Lake and other alpine lakes surrounded by rocks/big boulders, Rock
Creek Vista Point Scenic View at 9,190’ elevation.
Lake Creek Falls |
Beartooth Lake and Beartooth Butte |
Summit--almost 11,000'! |
The road below us. |
The road below. |
Walk out to viewpoint. |
Beautiful alpine lakes. |
At
Red Lodge, Montana we had lunch on the patio at Box Car Drive-in overlooking
Rock Creek. Nothing fancy, diner fare—I had cod fish & chips (potato chips)
with side salad and Bob had a grilled turkey and Swiss sandwich (made with
actual turkey slices, not thin-sliced deli meat). We both enjoyed our lunch
choices. After lunch we headed back over the Beartooth Scenic Highway and we
saw it all again from the other direction.
One
thing I would like to mention, there is no room for error when driving this
narrow, two-lane highway. In some places there is no shoulder and no guard rail
with drop-offs that are truly scary. Make sure to drive within the lines and
within the speed limit!
Now
that I think of it, most roads in Yellowstone are
like this: Dunraven Pass, Lewis River Canyon north of the south entrance, the canyon south of Mammoth, and
the area around Tower Falls.
After
returning to the 5er to feed the kitties, we headed out to Mary’s Point for
cell phone coverage. Bob ran and I was able to get online with his Smartphone.
I took some time to catch up on reading some blogs. I made it as far as July
27.
We
were able to reach Jim and Peri, friends we made while at the RV-Dreams.com
spring rally in Kerrville, Texas, to confirm plans to meet in Mammoth Monday
morning. We will hike the Beaver Ponds Trail and Wraith Falls Trail. We’ll have
a full report tomorrow.
It has been quite smoky here from fires in Idaho. |
When
we returned to our 5er this evening, we had new neighbors behind us with a 40’
motorhome with three huge slide outs. It took up so much room we could barely
park our pick-up truck in its designated space. We had to get creative. I had
to get out and Bob shoe-horned the truck into the tight space we had left. This
RV park has no pull-throughs and is not made for huge rigs. We do the best we can
with what we have.
We
have four more days in Yellowstone. One full day is set aside for hiking in the
Old Faithful area. We plan to do Fairy Falls/Spray and Imperial Geysers (5.25
miles roundtrip), Mystic Falls (2.5 mi. roundtrip), and Lone Star Geyser (4.8
mi. roundtrip). Part of another day is set aside for Canyon North Rim hikes.
Sometime we’ve got to do laundry as all of our hiking socks and hiking clothes
are dirty.
Must
get some sleep. I’ll talk to you more tomorrow.
Travel
Bug out.
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ReplyDeleteWe saw a number of duallys, semi trucks, dump trucks...the road itself is a standard road width, however, there's not much shoulder past the outside white line in most of the park. As long as you know exactly how much room your dually takes and take it easy, you should be okay. It's the other people you have to watch out for!
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