Beartooth Pass and Yellowstone National Park

After the Wednesday morning slack in Red Lodge, MT we had some time to get over to Oakley, UT, where Ace was up on Thursday evening.  The drive between the two is about 9 hours, but since we had a little more than a day to get there we decided to take the scenic route to Oakley.  Whitey Ford took us along Beartooth Highway up into the mountains and over Beartooth Pass.  

The scenery was absolutely breathtaking and there was so much snow left on the mountaintop.  I haven’t traveled much and it doesn’t snow too often in South Texas, so seeing this much snow was pretty cool!

Ace is a little afraid of heights, but he made the drive up to approx. 10,000 ft like a champion!  He skillfully maneuvered our rig around 20mph curves and up and down steep grade stretches of curvy roadway.  We stopped several times while trucking up the mountain to explore and play in the snow.  We found a ski slope that was still in operation and came across a few people skiing.   He thought he was going to blast me with a snow ball, but didn’t realize I have cat-like reflexes and blocked his attempt.  We crossed the Wyoming/Montana border while on top of the mountain and headed back down towards Montana.  We stopped in Cooke City, MT for a quick lunch at the Beartooth Café.  Their menu had Buffalo Burgers, so it just seemed fitting that we both give them a try. 

After lunch we headed into Yellowstone National Park.  Ace had been through when he was younger and his dad was on the rodeo road, but he didn’t remember too much of it.   We coordinated our route through the park to ensure that we would see Old Faithful.

We started the route by seeing Bison, Elk, and Pronghorn.

The landscape was breathtaking and the scenery was always changing.  From green forest, to rivers and lakes, to plains and meadows, we were in awe of the nature.  Ace had such an itch to fish in the streams and rivers we were traveling alongside.  Finally, we decided to stop and put our feet in the water.

To our surprise, the water was warm and felt amazing, but we didn’t see many fish.  I found two dandelions and we both made wishes and blew them into the universe. 

The closer we got to Old Faithful, we saw many areas where steam was rising from the ground.  We stopped to view some small geysers, mud pots, and pools.

It was crazy to see the ground boiling from volcanic potential energy beneath our feet.  We made it to Old Faithful about 5 minutes after she had just gone off.  It would be over an hour before it occurred again and we just couldn’t hang around for too much longer.  Guess we will have to pay Old Faithful a visit next summer!

Any road trip we are on Ace always gives me a hard time when he sees something out in a field or along the highway and I miss it.  The whole time we drove through Yellowstone, I had my eye out for one animal:  a black bear.  As we were exiting Yellowstone, we were talking about all of our sites from the afternoon.  Throughout the park, I noticed charred tree stumps and kept thinking it was a bear, but as we got closer I realized it was a product of a forest fire.  On the road out of the park, I noticed another charred tree stump fully erect.  I blinked my eyes and noticed it get on all four limbs.  I probably scared Ace with how excited I was to see it.  Somehow we managed to get the truck and horse trailer turned around on a narrow road and made it back to the area that I saw him.  Ace saw the bear for a split second and we decided we needed picture proof.   We parked the rig and got out to try to sneak a picture of this huge creature, but he was already gone. 

Seeing that beast of a creature made one of my dandelion wishes come true.  Here’s to having my fingers crossed that all of our other wishes come true in this lifetime!

Click HERE to view a gallery from our day trip!