Aug 14– Beartooth Pass

What a drive! It was so incredibly beautiful! We started out from Cody, WY on SR 120 then met up with SR 212 which encompasses the Beartooth Pass. After driving the “loop” we both decided that the WY side was much more scenic than the MT side, but all in all it was a beautiful drive. Unfortunately the day of our drive it was overcast and cold! Really cold! There were several bikers (motorcycles, not bicycles) up there and all we could think was “MMMM, that looks like fun! NOT!!’ It was so cold, I can’t even imagine how they made it. Most were bundled up and had scarves over their faces but many weren’t. Brrrrr!
The loop took us about 5 hours to drive. We made several photo stops and once for gas at “The Top of the World”, a small store, gas station and campground just a few miles from the pass. Surrounded by mountains, small mountain lakes, huge boulders... it was a beautiful setting. Hopefully some of the pics will do it justice. If you ever get a chance to go – DO IT! Just don’t take an RV on the road – it is really narrow, very winding and two way traffic. There were a few RVs on the road but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Aug 13 – On the Way to Cody, WY

Sorry its been so long... family stuff... and sporadic high-speed connections. Not fun working on a 28.8 dial-up! I'll continue the trip and then do some catch up on the personal side.

We headed south out of Garryowen on I-90 and then took SR 14 west toward Greybull, WY. What a scenic road. Lots and lots of switchbacks and steep grades but beautiful vistas always awaited around the next bend. About halfway through I convinced Bryan it would be great to swing by the Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark which is located off of Alternate 14 (SR 14A). We took the detour and again found ourselves on a pretty steep and winding road. The turn off for Medicine Wheel was a bit of a surprise – a one and a half lane dirt road winding up a steep mountainside – of course we were in the truck/camper towing the Jeep so that always makes is ‘easy’. We made it up, just to find out that from the parking lot for MWNHL you had to walk another 1.5 miles. Any other time we would have done it but we wanted to get to Cody at a decent hour and we had Bear with us – it was too hot to leave him in the truck for any length of time so we’ll just have to come back. I would love to visit this ancient spiritual place. It is believed that the Medicine Wheel was constructed between 1200 & 1700 AD. It is approximately 245 feet in circumference with a central cairn and 28 spokes that radiate out from the center to the outer rim. The Medicine Wheel is quite an enigma – no one really knows why it was built or how it was used and legends and stories abound on its uses.

View from Medicine Wheel's Parking lot

The road down from MWNHL had a 10% grade and several switchbacks, dropping 3600 ft in 10 miles! To say Bryan was nervous would be an understatement. Bear didn’t like it either – not sure if it was the altitude or the switchbacks or the combination but he was a nervous wreck too. He was about to crawl from the back into my lap down to the floorboard by the time we got down.

Due to the detour to MWNHL we bypassed Greybull, and headed over to Lovell. We crossed the southern end of Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. Once we got down out of the mountains the land leveled off with more mountains in front of us. We followed SR 14A through Lovell and then to Powell, WY where we took several photos of water towers and city signs. LOL
We made it to Cody and found space at the Ponderosa RV Park located pretty much in downtown Cody. This was an OK park, very clean but VERY crowded! After this trip we are certainly not enamored with private parks; preferring the relative quiet of the state & national forest campgrounds… However, this park was very convenient as a base to explore Cody and to start our Beartooth Pass loop.