Also, you can access the pictures through the link from day 3 (I think) on my kodak account. Yesterday's pictures are called Chief Joseph, the day before is Lewis and Clark. Hope that helps!
Off to Yellowstone - in the snow!
:D
Caroline
October 4, 2007
Red Lodge is a quaint little town on the outskirts of
As we savored our delicious meal, we overheard a couple talking about
I butted into the conversation about the overpass and they started telling us what their plans were for the next few days. Joy and Terry, the couple we met, were in from
Red Lodge is very cute, so we wandered in and out of the shops before we headed from town. Joy and Terry kept hanging around and we ran into them at every turn. We figure we’ll probably see them hanging around
We finally hit the road after filling our tank (there’s not exactly gas stations along the way, so that would’ve been bad had we forgotten to do so) and ran immediately into construction. Now, they don’t do construction like they do in
The road held towering mountains along the way that were obscured from view. The puffs of clouds hovered as we sped past, yet towards them. They never seemed to go away, following us like this nasty weather pattern. One mountain reminded me of the Prudential rock, littered with salt and pepper along the top as accent. The dark blues and purples were majestic as we drove; the meadows housing a few sporadic trees as embellishment.
We saw the sign for
There is a dullness to this landscape that I’m sure isn’t really there. Everything is muted to an unfair level as we trolley through. Rain, and now snow, has been following us and plaguing our pictures, but to be honest, what we are capturing is just as beautiful. While I’d certainly love to see something other than gray (and I wouldn’t mind WARM) there is a pull to this landscape. It seems lonely; it’s almost sad to see the matted world of color that is ready to shine through being forced to sit idly by and let the weather have all the fun. Even the big sky around the bend from the red plateau has a haze around it that stops the view.
So we needed a little laughter; something to brighten our day, since the sun has turned her back on us. Up and around the bend we go, only to be stopped by lounging cows in the road. Remember, I mentioned the law about hitting someone’s cow? This is how it happens. This is an open range through this whole freaking highway and the cattle could care less if you are inconvenienced. I swear, one was looking at us like DeNiro in Taxi Driver, almost taking a step forward as we dared to pass. I can honestly say that I’ve never seen anything like it before.
We crawled through the area, unwilling to shell out cash for an injury to a steer and got to the next leg of the highway up to Dead Indian Pass. This was one of the things that Terry told us to make sure we stopped to see. From this vantage point, you can see the complexity of the mountain highway as it twists and turns its way through the countryside. Rock formations and greenery are abundant as the tourists stop to click their one shot and move along. I, however, was not only able to spend some time freezing my ass off at the top of this mountain while it snowed, but was assaulted by a chipmunk that had no fear. Many a person must have given this little guy some grub as he was right in my face as I bent to take a picture. He was very cute.
On our way through the scenic views we found gorges (that were gorgeous) and streams, bright orange trees that framed the mountains and mystic mountains veiled in the thick white vapor. The end of the scenic highway approached and we did actually hit a small portion of the Bear Tooth, stopping to see the magnificent mountains we’d been chasing with an army of erect pine in front of it.
The day was getting on, and the light was fading, so my pictures were not as clear as I’d hoped, but we could tell we were up pretty high when we hiked back up about 100 feet and we were both huffing for air. It was really breath-taking; I mean literally! I was glad when Kathy made the comment about the thin air and not pointing out how incredibly out of shape I am.
More construction hit us in
The drive started as mostly forest (Gallatin on one side and Shoshone in the other state) and then we officially hit
Then we spied some deer trotting along, and the buck actually posed for Kathy. She took the picture, then he left! It was awesome – truly a model in the deer world. More bison grazing along the way stopped us again, and more deer. It just became second nature this time, especially when the herds and herds of Bison are in the distance. It’s beautiful to see them in a natural habitat, but there is a tameness about them as they have gotten used to people all this time. It’s like we’re not even there; they just go about their business and ignore us.
We hit an area called the
The car took us to our final destination through Mammoth Hot Springs where downtown was hoppin – with elk! They take over the town – literally! If you wanted to mail something at the post office, you’d have to make a strategic path through elk dung all the way. The bull elk was stunning; he had at least 18 points on his rack, and a herd of probably fifteen plus females. He bugled for his gals, telling them whatever he needed to with that eerie guttural tone and we decided to be on our way, not wanting to mess with him.
Passing through the Roosevelt Arch as we exited