Day 16 - Cooke City to Gillette
Everyone had a great night’s sleep after the long day in
Yellowstone yesterday. After a
home cooked French Toast breakfast at the Bed & Breakfast we were staying,
we packed up and headed for the door.
However, our departure was briefly delayed since the lodge we stayed in
also served as the home to about 25 horses. Everyone took some moments to say hello to the horses before the
mosquitoes became a little too unbearable and forced us into the bug-free sanctuary inside our car.
The first stop of the day was the Beartooth Highway, an 80
or so mile stretch of road that zigged and zagged through the mountains of
northern Wyoming/southern Montana that has been described as one of the most
scenic drives throughout America.
We covered about 10 miles from Cooke City before we realized that we
might not have enough gas in the tank to make it to the next city, Red Lodge,
Montana. Although our gas gauge
said we had 95 miles left, knowing that we’d be going up and down through
mountains, we knew that our mileage would suffer and we weren’t very excited
about the prospect of hiking the last 5-10 miles of the journey. After backtracking the 10 miles we had
already covered to fill up the tank, we set out again to take the pass relieved that we could enjoy
the trip instead of comparing the “miles to go” versus the “miles left in the
tank” every 10 seconds.
The Beartooth Parkway was incredibly scenic, as
advertised. We didn’t quite expect
the amount we were climbing, as we rose in altitude about 4,000 feet in the
first 30 minutes of the drive. The scenery was beyond picturesque, and we
definitely agreed that it was among the most scenic drives we had ever
been. The one challenge that we
didn’t quite expect was the significant altitude and the effect it was having
on a few of the passengers. The
highway reached 10,947 feet (over two miles), and the air was noticeably
thinner than what we were used to. The stop at the “Top of the World” store was
cut short since Aimee was getting a little lightheaded. We also decided that the store was incorrectly
named, as the road continued to ascend at least another 1000 feet after we had
passed it. However, despite the
challenges with altitude, it was a very fun trip, with views from the tops of
mountains that stretched for hundreds of miles, not to mention the hairpin
turns with the noticeable lack of guardrails.
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| Top of the World Store on the Beartooth Parkway |
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| All four of us enjoying the day at 10,947 feet. |
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| GPS's overlay of the hairpin turns and switchbacks of the Beartooth Parkway |
The trip back down the mountain was just as quick as the
trip up, as when we pulled into Red Lodge, we noticed that the elevation was
under 6,000 feet. After a brief
stop for pizza and a very short stop at the Red Lodge Ales Brewery, we were
back on the road again.
The mid-point of the drive today was the National Park at
Little Big Horn, notably, the site of Lt. Gen. Custer’s Last Stand. The mercury was hitting 98 degrees, as
we pulled into the Visitor Center at about 2 in the afternoon…and spending a
great deal of time at a predominately outdoor activity didn’t generate a lot of
excitement within the car. Greg
did bring Ashleigh up the hill at the site of the “Last Stand” and take
pictures of the obelisk that commemorated the defeat of Custer and the rest of
the 7th Calvary.
However, after about 5 minutes, the heat took its toll and they both
retreated down to the cooler climes of the visitor center. After a few more minutes, it was back
into the car for the final stretch.
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| Approximate location of where Gen. Custer met his fate at Little Big Horn. (He's buried at West Point) |
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| Tombstones mark locations where members of the US Army 7th Cavalry fell at the hands of the natives. |
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| Memorial marking burial ground for US Army members killed at Little Big Horn |
Today was a day we didn’t have a pre-selected
destination. We knew that Mount
Rushmore was tomorrow, so we decided to leave it open so we would just go as
far as we could physically handle staying in the car before calling it
quits. We made a brief stop in
Buffalo, Wyoming to check out the hotels.
But, with the kids completely engrossed in a Harry Potter movie, we
decided to press onto Gillette…a somewhat larger town about an hour east. We figured with the kids happy, shaving
an hour off the trip tomorrow was a good decision. With the Harry Potter movie ending about 5 minutes before we
pulled into the hotel, it turned out to be a good decision.
The icing on the cake was the Fairfield Marriott we stayed
had an amazing waterpark attached; two waterslides, lazy river, pool
basketball, and a Jacuzzi. Aimee
went across the street to resupply our food while Greg encouraged Ash &
Alex to expend all the energy they’d been saving in the car all day long.
Next stop: Keystone
Wildlife sightings:
None
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