Impromtu Trip Up the Beartooth Highway

Beartooth Lake - Ice Starting to Break Up (June '23)

After a much needed shower at Canyon Campground on Sunday afternoon, I decided to do an audible and head up to the NE Entrance. The weather was nice and it was early enough that I felt comfortable making the trip up the Beartooth Highway and back to my campsite before dark.

I had also been up to Cooke City earlier this trip, so I wasn't expecting to spend much time driving through these little gateway communities.  Cooke City does has a nice little museum in their visitor center which is worth a visit, especially if you are in need of a public restroom!  Several years ago, my cell phone died and they were gracious enough to allow me to use their phone to call David to let him know I was alright.

Check out this little fox kit, seen behind an old condemned building in Cooke City.  I've been told there is a den in that area, where there have been as many as eight kits seen playing with their momma. During my 30 minutes watching, I only saw this little one.  But I have since seen photos from others later in June of the entire family, so I know they are doing well.

Also in Cooke City and worth a stop is the Cooke City Store, a National Register of Historic Places dating back to 1886.  While still a fully operational local market, a walk through feels like a living museum with items dating back to the early 20th century!

My Sunday afternoon trip up the Beartooth Highway was abruptly interrupted, however, when I noticed a small gathering of people in a pullout just as you head north out of town.  OMG . . . it was a grizzly bear with two yearling cubs!

The sow kept an occasional eye on the growing crowd as car doors opened and closed.  We didn't really seem to be much of a bother to her, although one of her cubs was continually getting up on its hind legs to get a better look around.  After spending nearly an hour watching them . . . I knew I needed to get going if I wanted to make it to the Beartooth Pass and back to camp by dark!

The drive was beautiful.  With the recent rains, many of the roadside waterfalls were rushing.  Here's the one video I was able to safely get from the shoulder of the road.

Keeping a close watch on the time, I was able to make it up to the Beartooth Pass before having to turn around and head back south to Yellowstone. Driving the switchbacks was beautiful . . . and seeing the deep snow pack along the road was a marvel when you consider all that goes into digging out the road for public traffic by Memorial Day each year.

It was around 7:30p when I turned around.  As I approached Cooke City, I noted that the grizzly mom + cubs were still foraging around in the same area where I had seen them hours earlier.  I guess the coming and going of bystanders didn't affect them much.  That made me happy!

Dining While in Yellowstone

In preparing for 10-12 days on the road, and eating out of a cooler and box of dry goods, it's a challenge to know what you're going to feel like eating on any given day while also assuring food doesn't spoil or go to waste.  I've done this trip enough times that I have a pretty good idea of how to approach packing.  This photo is of my "bacon & eggs" breakfast while heading over the "new" Gardiner Road from Mammoth.  I didn't want to get into town hungry because my will power to avoid my favorite little local bakery might not be good enough to keep me away.

I also owe a HUGE thank you to David for preparing homemade goodies like these to supplement the boxed goods I take with me.  But as good as I plan on being once away from home, I almost always have a day or two, where I crave a nice sit down meal or good steak.  And this trip was no different.
On my Sunday in Yellowstone, I was missing our weekend pancakes tradition.  By the time I got to my "go to place" in West Yellowstone, they were already to their lunch menu so I had to find an alternative.  Fortunate for me, the Running Bear Pancake House served breakfast all day . . . but also closed at 2p.  When I got there, they had a short wait that went fast.  I thoroughly enjoyed my pancake and ham.  I had enough leftover ham to enjoy it with cheese on crackers the next morning!

But my dining highlight in Yellowstone was the Cowboy Cookout offered by park concessionaire Xanterra.  At approximately $75pp (inclusive of tax & tip) the "all you care to eat" western buffet is an entertaining evening in the great outdoors.  Guests (roughly 150 total) are taken to the cowboy cookout camp either on horseback or by horse drawn wagons.  The ride is roughly 45-60 minutes depending on your chosen mode of transportation.

The wagon ride have a driver plus a guide, who help to pass the time with stories about the area and wildlife.  We were lucky to see pronghorn, bison and a decent sized black bear on our ride out to camp.

Once at camp, guests are encouraged to find a picnic table and get comfy.  The mosquitoes were around, but not too bad.  Beverages included ice tea or lemonade, with a tub of soft drinks on ice for dinner. 

Steaks were grilled on open flame, with all of the cookout accompaniments you'd expect.  After folks had a first trip through the buffet line, those still hungry were invited back for another steak while they lasted.

For me the steak, potato salad, baked beans, cornbread and apple cobbler was more than enough!  I was very happy with my meal and the company at my picnic table.  Traveling solo, I have to be open and friendly enough to be comfortable making new friends.  At my table was a family from Dayton.  Wearing my Midwest Region US Youth Soccer jacket was an immediate conversation starter since their son was a U14 player from Ohio South Soccer.  They were a fun family to dine with and share stories about our time so far in the park.

After dinner, there was singing and storytelling around the campfire as the other ranch hands cleaned up camp for departure.  It was a delightful evening, which ended when we got back to the Roosevelt Corral around 8:15p.

Four Wonderful Days in Yellowstone

 

So I thought I'd start off this post with where I left off last time . . . with Raspberry & Jam in Yellowstone National Park.  This is a video taken early one morning, when I was one of the very first to spot them high up on a hillside foraging in the dirt.  I was fortunate to have a front row seat (several hundred yards away) to take a number of photographs and videos of the pair.  It was especially rewarding knowing that in all likelihood, Momma Raspberry would soon be kicking her cub away as this was the start of their fourth spring together. 

You see, most grizzly moms keep their cubs with them for two years, emancipating them at the start of the third.  But this particular bear has been known to keep hers a bit longer.  She also kept her last singleton cub Snow until the start of her fourth year.  It is always a delight to see bears in the wild, but the bears of Yellowstone (and Grand Teton) are seemingly special.  I think for me it is because they remain wild and yet are accessible to the public through the park roads.  The bear known as #399 down in the Tetons has made raising her cubs along the road a true attraction in that park.  There are pluses and minuses, but all in all it appears the bears remain wild and yet also tolerate humans in their habitat.

And while I generally enjoy photographing the grizzly bears, black bears are more often seen along the roads in Yellowstone, so I was able to spend a lot of time with them on this trip.  These are a couple of the solo bears I saw during my time in the park.  Again, they were pretty far away from the road, but clearly visible and in areas where you could safely pull off into a turnout or on the shoulder.

Sometimes however, they are right alongside the road, and you have to snap a photo quickly while stuck in the bear jam with all of the other people wanting to catch a glimpse.  This trio were often seen around Tower Fall between the store and Calcite Springs Overlook, where I did get to watch them for nearly an hour as the cubs played and then napped.  There were way too many people to try to take photos, so I simply enjoyed their presence living their lives as bears.

Enjoying the sight of wildlife just doing their thing is one of the greatest joys of being in Yellowstone, and most other US National Parks!  I used to get really hung up on the "photo I didn't get" for whatever reason . . . bad positioning, poor lighting, user error with my equipment.  I have since realized the real treasure is just sharing space and having the opportunity to watch them going about their lives.  Two such occurrences . . . missing getting a photo of the mountain lion that crossed several cars in front of me up on the Blacktail Plateau and the badger scampering across the road and stopping right in front of me near the Gardner River Bridge heading towards Mammoth.  By the time I got my camera ready to snap a photo, a big RV drove by and spooked the badger into the sagebrush.   Both of these animals are illusive and seemingly like ghosts in the park.  While I have yet to see another big cat in the park, I had some local intel that would have me viewing a badger den for over an hour one morning!

While not the greatest photo, I'm pretty happy that I was able to zoom in enough to capture this pair roughly 50 yards out from the parking lot at Slough Creek.  At times the cubs (yes badger young are also called cubs) looking like little rolly polly fur balls as they played with their mom.  The oooohs and aaaaaws could be heard from the group of 20-25 people watching them.  This was one of the most unexpected sightings on this entire trip!

Imagine my delight when a couple of hours later I got to see this badger along with its coyote pal known in the park as "Limpy" running across a ridge in Lamar Valley!  There are ongoing studies of the symbiotic relationship between badgers and coyotes, and I had heard stories and seen videos of this pair, but I never expected to have a chance to see them going about their daily business.

Limpy is well known in the Lamar Valley area due to the distinct limp suspected to be from being hit by a vehicle. In this photo you can see the noticeable atrophy of its right rear leg.

Truly I was in the right place at the right time, and able to safely snap a couple of photos while sitting in the back-up of traffic as people enjoyed the chance encounter with the pair.

I suppose this wouldn't be a good blog post about Yellowstone if I didn't include at least a photo or video (or two) of the iconic bison known to be here dating back to the Native Americans who depended on them for their very survival.  Bison have flourished in Yellowstone, so much so that they have had to cull the herds in recent years.

Here are a couple of videos I took of bison in the park.

One of the best reasons to visit Yellowstone (or any area known for wildlife) in the early summer, is for the opportunity to see the young.  This year's young bison and bears did not disappoint!

Last summer I set a goal to walk the Midway Geyser Basin boardwalk and see the world famous Grand Prismatic Spring.  I was happy to finally feel healthy enough to make the one-mile walk into an area known for the strong smells from the thermal features.  And here's the photographic proof!  On this particular morning, it was breezy and a bit foggy at the entrance to the walkway.  A tour bus has just pulled in before me so it was good that I arrived early.  By the time I had walked the boardwalk and taken my photos, there were long lines in either direction to enter the parking lot for this area.  This was the first time I realized that the summer crowds in the park were significantly higher than what I experienced last year after the floods of June 13th all but destroyed the summer tourism season.

Moving On - Yellowstone National Park!

From Summer 2022

I've commented many times before that there are no strangers, only friends I have yet to meet. This is me with "Deb from Billings" . . . someone I met ironically in Yellowstone back in July 2012 while watching a black bear early one morning.  She along with her grandson and I, were the only people pulled over enjoying the bear as it nimbly walked the fallen trees along a dry creek bed.

Later that summer I had posted about my experiences on Trip Advisor (T/A) and that's when Deb & I reconnected.  We've been friends ever since and when out timing in Yellowstone has worked out we've gotten together.  The photo to the right was actually taken last summer while I was living/working in the park.

I share this as the backdrop to my camping experience in the Custer Gallatin National Forest south of Red Lodge.  Having friends who can provide reliable advice, greatly enhances the travel experience.  I consider Deb an expert on all things related to the Yellowstone and she is gracious enough to want to help others maximize their experiences.  She also volunteers as a "Destination Expert" for Yellowstone National Park on T/A.

I am thankful for her friendship and experience.  Her suggestion of the Parkside Campground was spot on for this trip and I'm grateful for her help whenever I have questions or seek advice.

This is a short video clip I took of what it is like "car camping" in my SUV.  As you can see, there's not a lot of room . . . but enough to sleep comfortably.  On this particular night, we had rain throughout the night.  For those of us who enjoy the sound of rain hitting a tin roof, such a night is like soothing music.  I slept soundly until what should have been sunrise, only we were socked in with dense fog and there was no sky or sun to be seen.

I had been planning and looking forward to driving into Yellowstone via the NE Entrance at Silver Gate via the Beartooth Highway.  Having only done that route a couple of times, I wanted to see what it looked like just a week after the road had been cleared of the winter snow. 

Unfortunately after driving about ten miles, I knew the pass would possibly be iced up and unsafe to continue.  So I turned around and headed back into Red Lodge to reassess my plan.

I decided to visit the local historical society's museum in town.  The Carbon County Historical Society has a wonderful collection that tells the story of this region.  I was especially happy to learn more about the Smith Mine Disaster, since the night before heading to Bear Creek Saloon & Steakhouse, I had seen the ghost town where the mine operated until that fateful morning in April 1943.

The Smith Mine Disaster is a humbling reminder of the dangers of mining, something we should never forget. The entire lower level of the museum is dedicated to telling the story of coal & hard rock mining in this region thanks to the financial and technical support received from the Stillwater Mining Co, who operates in this area.

 

There are several exhibits that help to tell the story of what life in the early days was like.  From the homesteaders who arrived in the 1800's, to the creation of the first US National Park, the collection at this museum is exceptional and well worth the $5 admission fee!

I was very happy that due to the morning weather, I was able to spend time here.  Unfortunately, the weather forecast wasn't getting any better so I ended up heading to Belfy for an alternate route to Yellowstone via Cody, WY and the East Entrance.

The drive through Cody was uneventful and had me arriving to the East Entrance around 2:30p.  I got checked into my campsite in the Bridge Bay Campground and immediately headed over to Fishing Bridge Campground for a paid shower.  Note that some of the campgrounds in Yellowstone have showers and are included in your campsite fee, while others like Bridge Bay don't.  The $5.25 paid for a shower was well worth it, especially since the savings at the campgrounds without showers are more than the price to pay for one elsewhere in the park.

For my time in Yellowstone, I had booked two nights here at Bridge Bay and then two nights up at Canyon Campground.  This would give me great access to all of the parts of the park I was planning to explore . . . especially the home territory of the grizzly bears known as Raspberry (momma) and Jam (her soon to be emancipated 3 year old "cub").

Raspberry & Jam - June 2023