on the road: The Beartooth and Chief Joseph Scenic Byways

There are no words to describe the thrill (or terror, depending on your point of view) of these roads, particularly the Beartooth! We made the mistake of reading about it in one of our books, which described it as “...sharp switchbacks above a void of several thousand feet will give even fearless drivers pause.” We decided that it was better that I drive, as I would probably be whimpering the whole time and drive Jim batty.

Of course, this didn't really make Jim feel
very calm and relaxed.

The road climbs up and up and continues up around many, many switchbacks until you think you must be at the top but, no, it just keeps on going. There were guardrails in many places, which helped, but the drop offs would take your breath away.

How the heck do they build these roads?

I peeked at the scenery a few times.

Whee!

Gulp!

When you do finally make it to the top, everyone you meet looks like they’ve just seen a ghost-all so happy to be alive (except for the motorcyclists, who find this just heaps of fun).

Loved talking to a lot of these people-many were
veterans about our age.

At the top, the road crosses timberline and climbs up to the Beartooth Plateau where views open up and the tundra fills the senses with views of tiny wildflowers, snow drifts and treeless expanse.

We made it! There was an overlook and
we thought we were on top, but not for
a little while.

And, what are we supposed to do, if we see a rock slide?

How they keep the rocks from sliding into us

Where the rocks have slid before

A look back at where we came from

The tundra

The very top

And bicyclists-can you believe?

Just beautiful, starting to come down the other side

At least it's pretty flat up here

And the snow is pink, apparently the result of micro-organisms
(algae) dying because of the short season.

The Chief Joseph Highway is just beautiful and lots less terrifying.

From the top, going down towards Cody

There are so many lakes up here and lots of
good fishing, we hear.

We stopped at this lake for a picnic and a
breather. We had a glass of wine to celebrate
surviving. And Boo never knew how scared
I had been! What a trooper-Jim, too!

Beautiful wildflowers on this side

The road was beautiful but much wider and
very gentle in descending.

The back side of Beartooth Mountain

The Chief Joseph Pass

This is where Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce (1,000 strong) tried to escape from The US Cavalry who were trying to force them onto reservations. They were trying to make it into Canada but were stopped only 30 miles from the border and surrendered. They were forced onto reservations in Oklahoma and Washington, despite promises to allow them back onto their native land. This trip again reminds us how unforgiving, tragic and unstoppable the western migration was for the Native Americans and how much the United States dishonored itself in the process.

We couldn’t believe we had cell phone coverage up here, but we did. We called and emailed the kids and found that Erin’s cat, Renzo, had not returned from one of his outings. We are so sad and find it hard not to be there for Erin and Todd. We lit a candle and picked some sage for Renzo and felt that he had died a valiant death, the way he lived his life. He was a warrior and we all adored him.

Tears for Renzo

We camped on a fire road off the Chief Joseph and had a lovely night watching the super moon in the distance and taking a walk along the road towards the open range ahead.