The Beartooth and Chief Joseph Highways

This is a longer post than usual because it covers a long, long ride we took a week ago. We drove through the park over Dunraven Pass and through Lamar Valley to Cooke City. From here we went up Beartooth Highway which reaches almost 11,000 feet. Most of it is in the Shoshone National Forest and follows along the Beartooth Mountain Range. We retraced our steps back to meet up with the Chief Joseph Highway all the way to Cody, Wyoming where it was 85 degrees. From here we turned west back through Yellowstone and back home arriving 12 hours after we departed. We had not entered the park from Cody in 23 years, when we made our first visit here. It was a tiring day but well worth it. We saw moose, grizzly bear, elk, black bear, coyote, deer and various birds but this post contains mostly pictures of the majestic scenery.

Here you can see part of the road on the Beartooth zig zagging on a narrow strip of land.

The ski lifts were still in operation. Here you can see the bottom of one and the top of another.

The winter sports enthusiast were enjoying the 34 degree temps on this day late in June.

We saw one brave, (or maybe crazy), skier start at the top of the hill on the right and work their way through between the cliffs and down out of sight. It's hard to see in the photo, but it's almost straight down. The ride was over in a flash.

The road had only been open for a few days. It was amazing how tall the walls of snow were on both sides.

The Bear Tooth.

At the bottom of the bowl shaped valley we could see a creek.

It's definitely still winter here.

At the beginning of the Chief Joseph Highway.

These three pictures were taken from Dead Indian Pass on the Chief Joseph. What looks like many roads is just the route winding up through the valley and then up the mountain.

The Nez Perce Trail crosses the road here.

Awesome colors further along the Chief Joseph.

Back in Yellowstone. Recent wildfire damage in shades of gray.

Our last rest stop along the Yellowstone River.

Two different ways of looking at the same scene. Beautiful either way.

Yellowstone - North to Lamar Valley

Last weekend we planned to drive the north loop in Yellowstone, but due to the weather one of the roads was not open. We decided to drive north to Mammoth Hot Springs and then east to the Lamar Valley and retrace our route back home. It's looking more like spring and we saw many animals.

Here we saw some female elk in the water.

Interestingly enough we saw this grizzly bear near Grizzly Lake. There were so many cars parked at this location we could not safely get off the road, so we just snapped a few pictures as we drove by.

Further along, south of the Golden Gate area, we saw a mother grizzly and what we figure must have been a pair of last year's cubs. Here is the mom looking towards us.

A short distance from the mother grizzly these two young ones were evidently feeding on a carcass. Fortunately the grass was high enough we could not see what they were eating.

While we are watching the grizzly family, this adult bison wanders by.

Then as he gets closer to where the grizzlies are he starts kicking up dirt.

The mother comes closer and places herself between her babies and the bison.

Then they all watch the bison walk away.

Many people stop to watch the grizzlies. We are all a safe distance away.

After watching the bears we drive to Mammoth and then head east. Here we take a short walk to the overlook for Tower Falls. The trail to the base of the falls is not open, so we'll hike that next time.

Another view from the falls overlook. What a beautiful day.

These pronghorn and bison were in the Lamar Valley. Notice the two bison calves laying down to the right side of the picture.

There were many bison in the Lamar Valley.

First Yellowstone National Park Visit This Year

On May 13 we took the day off from work and visited the park. We saw more snow in the park than we had seen in prior years. Since this is our fifth season here, we spent some time at different places than we had before. We walked around the buildings and walkways in the Old Faithful area, which gets really busy later in the season. Today we drove around the southern loop.

Bison calves and moms at the Madison River.

We had lunch at the Old Faithful Lodge. This is a view of the famous geyser through one of the windows there.

The new Visitor Center at Old Faithful.

This entrance was not being used yet because of the danger from snow sliding off the roof.

One of the many boiling hot springs.

We were amazed at the beautiful blue water in this hot spring.

We saw many bison in the thermal areas. They frequent them this time of year as so much of the park is still covered in snow.

Having some fun chasing one of the babies.

Old Faithful erupts again as we take a walk on the boardwalks enjoying the variety of thermal features.

The Old Faithful Inn. If you look close you can see one of the old yellow buses they still use for tours parked out front.

A look at the interior of the Inn with it's very interesting woodwork.

As we continued our drive around the southern loop, we encountered a tremendous amount of snow. This section of road was just opened today. This brave cyclist is getting plenty of exercise and hopefully enjoying the day as much as we are.

The lakes are still frozen over. Doesn't really look like spring.

Yellowstone Lake. The only open water is where there are hot springs near the edge. We saw ducks, Canada Geese and various other birds here.

We believe this is an Audubon's Warbler.

This coyote walked past our truck while we where we stopped to take pictures of the lake.

Hayden Valley. This is a popular area for the bison and elk to spend the summer. We didn't see any here yet.

This pair of sandhill cranes were by the Yellowstone River in Hayden Valley.

The Lower Falls of the Yellowstone is one of the highest in the park at 308 feet.

There was a tremendous amount of water coming over the falls and as you can see there is still quite a bit more snow and ice to melt.

On our way home we saw this group of elk grazing on what fresh grass they can find along the river.

More bison heading for their summer home.