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On the Beartooth Highway

I think it was TV person Charles Kuralt who is usually given credit for calling attention to the Beartooth Highway in one of his CBS travel programs: “the most beautiful drive in America.” Lots of others before and since Mr Kuralt drove his RV to the top of the world have probably thought and said the same thing since the highway was completed in 1936. Hmm, it must have been a result of an earlier “stimulus package,” perhaps one that worked about as little as the one we have been saddled with recently.

On the Beartooth Highway

If any person takes the drive from Red Lodge to Cooke City he doesn’t have to be a celebrity to be impressed. Our grandsons wondered along with us on this trip into Yellowstone Park last summer.

Chipmunks on the Beartooth Highway

Alpine Lakes in Beartooth Mountains

We have not been here for some years. Whatever the problem was in 2005 or so it apparently has been fixed. If it hadn’t I’m sure Cooke City and Red Lodge would have dried up and blown away by now.

That is grandson Zac Mazzuca above hanging on to the railing because of the wind.

The little creatures, see right, are fearless at this altitude, in contrast to us big folk. We get a little short-winded up here, and the hands tend to grip the wheel a little more firmly than usual.

The highest point in both Wyoming and Montana on this highway is very close to 11,000 ft! This tends to make the air a little thin.

In addition to mountains, more than you can count, there are some beautiful lakes as well. See above left. It is difficult to describe the beautiful blue-green color of these alpine lakes. Though it is only 64 miles from Red Lodge to Cooke City, the curves and switchbacks and scenery mean that it takes at least a couple of hours to get there. And of course you must add an hour or so to get from Billings to Red Lodge if you take the short and not-so-scenic route on Hwy 212. Perhaps better is the route through Absarokee, past Roscoe etc which takes at least a couple of hours.