I’m sitting here writing this about 9:00 local time and it is pouring down rain.  Rain has been all around us and it finally cruised over our way.  The title of today’s entry is not highway numbers that describe our route.  It is the temperature change we experienced when we went from our cabin to Red Lodge and on up the Beartooth Highway to the summit then back down to the Chief Joseph Highway.  I’m not going to try to put a lot of words around the experience.  Instead I’m going to let some of the pictures we took do the talking today.  Our 200 mile cruise was well worth the effort. The pictures are meant to “peak” your interest. (Get it – “peak” – almost 11,000 feet.)

I will relate one experience.  We have been in this area before (but we’ve never ridden the Beartooth and Chief Joseph).  By the time we were on our way back to the cabin we realized we hadn’t eaten.  I pulled into the next restaurant we saw.  It turned out that it was a place called the Silvertip.  We ate here a few years ago and I remembered the owner (Jean) because she was such an avid Denver Bronco fan.  She was a little reluctant to talk to us at all until I related all the things I remembered from our conversation years ago (her nursing career, her trying to sell the place, the automatic toilet paper dispenser, etc.).  She loosened up and we spent over an hour talking to her and enjoying her view of the world.  We are now FaceBook friends.  I promised to send her a Colts hat and she promised to find a “very special place” for it.  I’m not sure what that means exactly.  It’s a small world.

Beartooth!

Awesome!

This portion of the road just goes off into nothingness. So will you if you’re not paying attention.

The road approaching the summit of Beartooth Pass is certainly above the treeline.

Not only are we above the trees but we’re looking down on the remaining snow.

We left our mark in the snow.  No not that kind of mark. The red color is from algae.

We made it.

The road just south of the summit has some great panoramic views.

One of the many lakes we saw today.

Near the intersection of the Beartooth and the Chief Joseph we struck gold (well copper – a penny smasher).

When they post that the Chief Joseph Highway is open range they are not kidding.

A post card picture that we took at about 60 MPH.

Keeping the Chief in good shape. It appeared to be damage from a rock slide. We were through it pretty quickly.

At this point we’re running a little over the posted speed limit which is 75. I’m trying to decide whether to speed up to beat that rain cloud or slow down and let it go on by. I didn’t slow down.